Agile + DevOps Virtual 2020 - General Management
Customize your Agile + DevOps West 2020 experience with sessions covering general project management.
Monday, June 8
Lean/Agile Metrics for the Rest of Us
For many agile practitioners, software metrics beyond a burndown chart are little understood or, perhaps, very scary because poor metrics can be worse than no metrics. In this enlightening session, Larry Maccherone explores how you and your organization can use metrics to bring management and lean/agile teams closer rather than becoming a wedge that drives them into conflict. Larry covers the entire lifecycle of the metrics process—from metric selection to reporting data—in compelling ways. You’ll gain an understanding of a wide range of concepts including common (101-level) metrics,...
Learning How to Lead High-Performing Agile Teams
Currently much of agile adoption—coaching, advice, techniques, training, and even the empathy—revolves around the agile teams. Leaders are typically ignored, marginalized at best, and in the worst cases even vilified. But Bob Galen and Mary Thorn contend that there is a central and important role for managers and leaders within agile environments. Join Bob and Mary as they explore the patterns of mature agile managers and leaders. Examine why those who understand servant leadership know how to effectively support, grow, coach, and empower their agile teams in ways that increase the team's...
An Agile Coaching Practicum in 360-degrees
Let’s face it, agile coaching isn’t for the timid or faint of heart. In most companies, it’s an incredibly challenging and nuanced role. And an important part of it is having the ability to coach in 360 degrees: downward—across your teams, outward – across managers and peers, and upward—towards those pesky leaders. Oh, and did we say that virtually EVERYONE is an agile coach? In this workshop, join Mary Thorn and Bob Galen as they share tools and experiences coaching in all directions. They will review three different coaching models from the X-Wing, to Powerful Questions, to 9-Stances, to...
Tuesday, June 9
What's Your Leadership IQ?
PreviewHave you ever needed a way to measure your testing leadership IQ? Or been in a performance review where the majority of time was spent discussing your need to improve as a leader? If you have ever wondered what your core leadership competencies are and how to build on and improve them, Jennifer Bonine and Jeremias Rößler as they share a toolkit to help you do just that. This toolkit includes a personal assessment of your leadership competencies and the evolution of testing and testing leadership. They will explore a set of eight dimensions of successful leaders, provides suggestions...
Creating a High-Performance Agile Team
Many teams have a relatively easy time adopting the tactical aspects of agile methodologies. Usually a few classes, some tools’ introduction, and a bit of practice lead teams toward fairly efficient execution. However, these teams are quite often simply going through the motions—neither maximizing their agile performance nor delivering as much value as they could. Borrowing from their experience and lean software development methods, Bob Galen and Mary Thorn explore high-performance team patterns, which are the thinking models of mature agile teams, including large-scale emergent...
Agile Project Failures: Root Causes and Corrective Actions
Agile initiatives always begin with high expectations—accelerate delivery, meet customer needs, and improve software quality. The truth is that many agile projects do not deliver on some or all of these expectations. If you want help to ensure the success of your agile project or to get an agile project back on track, this tutorial is for you. Jeffery Payne discusses the most common causes of agile project failure and how you can avoid these issues or mitigate their damaging effects. Poor project management, ineffective requirements development, failed communications, software development...
Seven Rules of Virtual Engagement
Struggling to keep participants engaged in your remote meetings/training? Wish you could connect better with people hidden behind their muted black screens? Join Dana Pylayeva to experience a different level of collaboration in the virtual space and learn her seven practical tips for bringing aliveness, participation and engagement to your online event. Tapping into her extensive experience working with global distributed teams, Dana offers a powerful fusion of brain-based learning principles and a field-tested pattern library of effective methods for collaboration in groups. If you want...
Thursday, June 11
The How and Why of Full-Service Ownership
High-performing software development teams are focused on customers and taking greater ownership of their production stack. The tricky part is teaching these teams how to tackle the operational challenges that come with full-service ownership. Julie Gunderson will discuss how to implement a model where development teams are both empowered to own their full-stack production deployments and equipped to manage common software lifecycle operational issues like reducing alert fatigue and learning from failures.
Agile Fireside Chat
You've got agile and lean questions, and Mary and Tom Poppendieck want to answer them for you. They won't really be sitting by the fire, but they will be on hand to talk about all things lean and agile. Mary has been a programmer, IT manager, and product champion and is well known for the Lean Software Development books that she wrote with her husband, Tom. Tom has been in computing for 25 years, working with health care, logistics, mortgage banking, and travel services, and he holds a Ph.D. in physics. Bring your questions and be ready for a lively, interactive discussion.
From Project to Product: Focusing on Creating Value
Agile and DevOps transformations have been key for speeding up software development via projects. But development is still often segregated from the business, and work is frequently prioritized based on making the project successful, not on what can bring the most value to the business and end-users. Agile and DevOps are not enough; a new approach is needed. Wendy Flowers will discuss why the gap between modern technical practices and the business is causing organizations to fail, and suggest a different way to think about what you're developing. Learn how managing work via the product,...
Coaching Is the Product: Build and Measure Your Product Context
When we talk about products in agile, we typically think of software. But any product or service can benefit from agile. If you are struggling to make that mental shift from software products to delivering a customer-focused service, this is the session for you. Tricia Bailey and John Eisenschmidt will show how to use agile to establish a coaching office and lead your transformation by "sipping your own agile champagne." Learn how to use product definition tools and practices, sprinkle agile principles throughout, and cultivate healthy, self-organizing teams.
Speed Dating in the Test Tool Pool
You’re starting at a new company. You’re beginning a greenfield project. Your agile transformation is calling for a tech revolution. You’re part of a testing center of excellence. Or your needs just aren’t being met anymore. Whatever the reason, you’re in the market for new testing tools, you have all the freedom in the world ... and you have no idea what you’re doing. Shopping for new tools is not unlike dating. You need to ask yourself the same questions: “What am I looking for?” “Do they fit in with the picture I have for my future?” “Will they get along with my friends and colleagues...