WEBINAR – Agile Requirements: Not an Oxymoron (10/13)
October 13, 2010 (12 – 1pm PDT)
Misconceptions abound about how agile projects analyze and develop requirements. In practice, requirements are the basis for planning, developing and delivering agile projects.
Agile requirements are congruent– they combine to form a sound and sensible union that drives successful delivery of business value.
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YOU WILL LEARN:
- The agile method of developing requirements and how ‘traditional’ requirements practices are adapted on agile projects
- The value of requirements analysis on agile projects
- Ways in which requirement form the basis for planning on agile projects
- How effective agile teams collaborate around requirements
PDU: 1
COST: Free
SPEAKER: Ellen Gottesdiener, Principal Consultant and Founder of EBG Consulting, Inc., helps business and technical teams collaborate to define and deliver products customers value and needs. Ellen is an internationally recognized facilitator, coach, trainer, author, speaker, and expert on requirements development, product chartering, retrospectives, agile requirements, and collaborative workshops.
She is the author of two acclaimed books (Requirements by Collaboration and The Software Requirements Memory Jogger), Ellen speaks at industry conferences; writes articles, blogs, and tweets; and is an IIBA (BABOK®) expert reviewer and contributor to the (in progress) agile-BABOK addendum. Her free eNewsletter Success with Requirements offers practical guidance and news, her blog ponders topical ideas and experiences, and EBG’s Web site provides a variety of useful practitioner resources.
*** ALL who register will get a link to the recording ***
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A Success Story – Mixing Scrum and Waterfall
Hear about a real life Very Large, Complex, Multi-year and Distributed project at a leading corporation where using Agile practices were introduced in a very Waterfall traditional environment.
A seasoned PM Consultant, Donnla Nic Gearailt, shares her experience as the Project Manager of a team with responsibilities for the development of NEW software for businesses globally, ranging from tactical bug fixes, to complete system rewrites and re-engineering, to adding new modules to existing systems.
She shares with us in a 30 minute interview:
- How Waterfall and Scrum fit into her project lifecycle
- What happened before Scrum Sprints started
- How Estimating was done with the team and ultimately got management approval
- What the Team looked like and roles on the team (ie. Project Manager, Product Owner, Stakeholders Business Users, Development, Testing and Release)
- How her mixed project was integrated with the other waterfall-only projects
- How dependencies between projects were handled
- How the Backlog was managed and what was in the backlog
- What the Scrum Sprints looked like – duration – activities – stand-ups
- What documentation was used ?
- How Collaboration was encouraged and achieved with such a distributed team.
- LOOKING BACK – Donnla also shares what made the project a great success, and key factors any company should consider in mixing Agile & Waterfall when starting to use Agile in their Waterfall world.
SPEAKER: Donnala Nic Gearailt is a Project Management Consultant with CROM Consulting Ltd. She has been leading and participating in Agile teams for over 4 years and over 8 years in Financial Projects. She has also played the role of Portfolio Manager, Business Analyst and Developer — and now is the Project Manager of teams. She has extensive experience in managing projects with many dependencies on other teams and in dealing with the associated issues, such as getting her projects on to the relevant prioritization lists and executed.
To listen to the recording, just fill out the small form below. You will then be taken to the recording immediately to listen to at your leisure!
As an added benefit we will also add you to the 1000′s of subscribers that receive our Agilista PM Newsletter email that goes out every few weeks. You can unsubscribe at any time.
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NEW VIDEO – David Anderson talks Kanban, Agile and Lean
David Anderson discusses using the Kanban concept to make software development more efficient, the use of Kanban in both a large enterprise organization and as a consultant, how Kanban (in association with related systems such as CONWIP and Drum-Buffer-Rope) is catching on in the industry and helping developers improve predictability of their software, and the Lean Software and Systems Consortium.
SPEAKER: David Anderson is the author of “Kanban” and “Agile Management for Software Engineering”. He is a signatory of the PM Declaration of Interdependence and a founder of the APLN, an original member of the “Singapore Project” where Feature Driven Development emerged, and vice president of the Lean Software and Systems Consortium.
To listen to the recording, just fill out the small form below. You will then be taken to the recording immediately to listen to at your leisure!
As an added benefit we will also add you to the 1000′s of subscribers that receive our Agilista PM Newsletter email that goes out every few weeks. You can unsubscribe at any time.
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NEW VIDEO – Product Discovery using Lean Thinking (with Jeff Patton)
Think of a product you love, one you’d recommend to a friend. What makes the product valuable? While I’m not a mind reader, I’m confident you weren’t thinking: “lack of bugs” or “time to market.” The most difficult part isn’t delivery, but the discovery of products that are truly valuable to the people that use them. Jeff Patton explores applying Lean thinking to product discovery.
Find out how “Discovery finds problems to solve and the shape of solutions”
SPEAKER: Jeff Patton has focused on Agile approaches since working on an early XP team in 2000. In particular Jeff has specialized in the application of user centered design techniques to improve Agile requirements, planning, and products. Jeff is a winner of the Agile Alliance’s 2007 Gordon Pask Award.
To listen to the recording, just fill out the small form below. You will then be taken to the recording immediately to listen to at your leisure!
As an added benefit we will also add you to the 1000′s of subscribers that receive our Agilista PM Newsletter email that goes out every few weeks. You can unsubscribe at any time.
NEW VIDEO – Mary and Tom Poppendieck on Lean Software
Mary and Tom discuss the history of Lean, and what they feel are the most important things for software teams and organizations to thrive.Results are not the point, the point is growing your people, converting them into effective problem solvers who are relentlessly improving. If everybody in the organization is a problem solver, you’ll get steadily better and better.
SPEAKERS: Mary and Tom Poppendieck, teach and consult worldwide on Lean principles for software. Their practical, customer-focused approach to software development identifies real business value and enables product teams to realize that value. Mary has managed solutions for both operations and new product development. Tom is an enterprise analyst, architect, and agile mentor.
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Differences between Waterfall, Iterative Waterfall, Scrum and Lean Software Development (In Pictures!)
This simple overview of the different Agile-Lean methods found was too great to not share. Sometimes it is best to keep it simple to build a foundational understanding….then build on that. Pictures speak a thousand words.
- Waterfall Development,
- Iterative Waterfall Development
- Scrum/Agile Development
- Lean
Thanks goes out to author Tara Lee Whitaker, a digital program director of a leading consumer magazine publisher in the UK. She has over 10 years of experience in the areas of product, project and program management. – The Agilista PM
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WEBINAR – Cargo Cult Agile (10/13)
October 13, 2010 — 9-10am PDT
Agile software development is no longer a domain occupied solely by trend setting, trail blazing software shops, it has made the jump to the mainstream where it is being practiced in nearly ever industry and by every size of organization. But with its wider adoption, the underlying principles of Agile are often lost by teams, resulting in what we call ‘Cargo Cult Agile Teams’. These Cargo Cult Agile teams seem to do all of the right things, using all the right terms, but do not experience the amazing resulting benefits that other Agile teams do.
This one hour presentation will explore how teams can successfully implement an Agile approach without unwittingly becoming one of the Agile transition victims we call Cargo Cult Agile teams. Has your team been attempting to implement an Agile approach with less than consistently successful results? Spend an hour to discover how you can begin to turn the ship around and head in the right direction.
PDU: 1
COST: Free
SPEAKER: Bill Gaiennie, from ASPE, has more than 16 years of working in the software development field as a developer, project manager, ScrumMaster, and a training coach. Bill has coached and managed teams on both the national and international levels, having worked with an extensive range of client types and industries from small start-ups for Fortune 50 companies. Bill is an accomplished, experienced Agile trainer, effectively leading product and project teams in a wide array of Agile management and methodology based initiatives. With over five years of Agile Implementation, Coaching, and Training experience, Bill has coached and trained over 3,000 individuals at 100 different companies in their effort to implement Agile software development strategies. He is currently an accredited member of the Project Management Institute (PMI) and is active in the Agile Alliance and Scrum Alliance communities.
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WEBINAR – Test Driven Development (9/16)
September 16, 2010 — 9-10am PDT
As teams constantly develop small incremental features by adding, modifying, refactoring, and re-designing existing software, many challenges emerges with each and every iteration. Among these challenges is ensuring previously delivered functionality is still correct and newly created functionality works as expected within a single iteration. Test Driven Development (TDD) can help address these issues with greater safety and confidence while supporting the team to create better quality software and simpler designs. TDD is built on a set of values that testing and quality are paramount, change is expected and both are constantly embraced.
In this web seminar, we will discuss these benefits, the TDD Cycle, how to get started and challenges facing teams adopting TDD.
PDU: 1
COST: Free
SPEAKER: Bill Gaiennie, from ASPE, has more than 16 years of working in the software development field as a developer, project manager, ScrumMaster, and a training coach. Bill has coached and managed teams on both the national and international levels, having worked with an extensive range of client types and industries from small start-ups for Fortune 50 companies. Bill is an accomplished, experienced Agile trainer, effectively leading product and project teams in a wide array of Agile management and methodology based initiatives. With over five years of Agile Implementation, Coaching, and Training experience, Bill has coached and trained over 3,000 individuals at 100 different companies in their effort to implement Agile software development strategies. He is currently an accredited member of the Project Management Institute (PMI) and is active in the Agile Alliance and Scrum Alliance communities.
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WEBINAR – Why Agile? (9/14)
September 14, 2010 — 9-10am PDT
Agile Methods have taken software development by storm. Professionals are hoping to gain the efficiencies and quality that experts profess Agile methods provide. They are also looking for a higher quality working environment, including increased empowerment that Agile preaches. To have a chance of success in Agile, you must learn what Agile really is and not what the evangelist, consulting firms, and tool vendors want you to know.
PDU: 1
COST: Free
SPEAKER: Bill Gaiennie, from ASPE, has more than 16 years of working in the software development field as a developer, project manager, ScrumMaster, and a training coach. Bill has coached and managed teams on both the national and international levels, having worked with an extensive range of client types and industries from small start-ups for Fortune 50 companies. Bill is an accomplished, experienced Agile trainer, effectively leading product and project teams in a wide array of Agile management and methodology based initiatives. With over five years of Agile Implementation, Coaching, and Training experience, Bill has coached and trained over 3,000 individuals at 100 different companies in their effort to implement Agile software development strategies. He is currently an accredited member of the Project Management Institute (PMI) and is active in the Agile Alliance and Scrum Alliance communities.
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Intelligent Disobedience makes Great PMs ?
“Intelligent disobedience requires taking risks, creativity, flexibility and perseverance. We need to engage in conversations with stakeholders that are often difficult – conversations that often cause us to lose sleep at night.”
It is something that Warren Buffet admits he didn’t do in the beginning, and should have. So you are not alone if you don’t do this yet.
Agile and Lean practices can help make this easier – since you are talking with the stakeholders and customers much more often. Keeping that line of communication open. It is what allows PMs or ScrumMasters to speak up when danger is seen. Do you speak up?
Great PM’s don’t just “follow the rules”….they put the value of the customer first ! Lets take a look at a great article by Bob McGannon, PMP – that shares how great PM’s do “intelligent disobedience”. – The Agilista PM
My Speaking Engagements …..
-June 2: WEBINAR - Becoming Agile -June 15: PMI California Inland Empire -Sep 9: So Calif Quality Assurance Assoc Let’s Connect!
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