Agile New England

Organizational Design and Value Stream Mapping

Shashi Kiran Pilli — Thu, 12 Dec 2024 03:40:06 +0000

In this session, we’ll explore three distinct organizational design patterns and dive into the practice of Value Stream Mapping for each. We’ll also examine the key differences between operational and development value streams, and how we can approach value streams as interconnected networks to optimize flow and value.

About the Speaker:
Miljan Bajic is a coach, trainer, and organizational change leader with over 20 years experience. With a career spanning technology and business, he focuses on collaboration to help organizations work smarter and achieve their goals. Miljan is dedicated to making a positive difference in people’s lives.

Agile New England’s Monthly Keynote Speaker is Virtual!

Please note our January, 2025, keynote will be fully virtual with no in-person meeting. The new timeline follows:

5:30 – 6:30 pm ET – Agile 101 breakout with Garry Miller (or network in main Zoom session)

6:30 – 8:00 pm ET – Keynote Speaker, followed by announcements and free-form networking

Crimes Against Agility

Shashi Kiran Pilli — Wed, 20 Nov 2024 00:08:49 +0000

Agile is DEAD! Or is it? We will expose a horrific series of crimes that have been committed against the agile principles, that may (or may not) have ultimately led to their demise. As members of the jury, you will explore the charges and the evidence to arrive at a verdict and sentencing to ensure the perpetrators do not strike again. The intent is to explore the anti-patterns to agility that prevent individuals, teams, and organizations from achieving desired results.

About the Speaker:
Kim Poremski is founder and president of Agile Prowess. As a Scrum Alliance Certified Scrum Trainer (CST®) and SAFe 6.0 Practice Consultant (SPC), Kim draws upon 30+ years of IT and product management experience, coupled with 16+ years in the agile arena. She coaches individuals, teams, and leaders and facilitates interactive workshops in person and online. Kim is a frequent speaker at regional and national Agile events and served as the conference emcee for 2023 Global Scrum Gatherings in Portland, Oregon and Amsterdam.

Agile New England’s Monthly Keynote Speaker is Virtual!

Please note our December, 2024, keynote will be fully virtual with no in-person meeting. The new timeline follows:

5:30 – 6:30 pm ET – Agile 101 breakout with Garry Miller (or network in main Zoom session)

6:30 – 8:00 pm ET – Keynote Speaker, followed by announcements and free-form networking

Agile Change – Engagement Is Not Rocket Science, It’s Neuroscience

Shashi Kiran Pilli — Thu, 26 Sep 2024 01:53:58 +0000

Most change management approaches are check-the-box exercises that don’t change anyone’s behavior. Few agile transitions get past wagile (hybrid waterfall-agile). To avoid these outcomes, Alex Yates has designed for people who lead agile delivery efforts a sticky and simple framework that is less art and more science. Prepare for a fun, interactive session that will shift how you see Change and show you how to produce true people-first results.

About the Speaker:
Alex Yates is currently Assistant Vice President of Change Management at Genpact. He’s worked in senior change transformation and communication roles with companies in the media, healthcare, and consumer goods industries, and in Major League Baseball. Alex loves learning about AI, neuroscience, and human-centered design, as well as travelling and cliff jumping.

Will Artificial Intelligence Kill Agile Coaching?

Shashi Kiran Pilli — Thu, 05 Sep 2024 16:09:07 +0000

As Artificial Intelligence (AI) continues to revolutionize industries, its impact on Agile coaching is inevitable. This session explores the evolving relationship between AI and Agile methodologies, questioning whether AI can replace the human touch in coaching or enhance it. We will examine how AI tools are already being integrated into Agile practices, their benefits, limitations, and the role of human intuition and empathy in coaching. Join us for a thought-provoking discussion on the future of Agile coaching in an AI-driven world and discover how to thrive in this changing landscape.

About the Speakers:

Justin Chapman

Justin Chapman is an experienced Product Operations/Management professional, known for his proficiency in applying an Agile mindset against dogma and his skill in talent management and design thinking.

Steve Jaccaud

Steve Jaccaud is a seasoned Enterprise Agile coach and consultant, noted for his expertise in transformation and change management, organizational design and development, and leadership effectiveness coaching.

Together these two practitioners will host an interactive session exploring whether or not AI could kill Agile Coaching.

Productivity versus Effectiveness

Shashi Kiran Pilli — Tue, 20 Aug 2024 16:58:03 +0000

The success of product teams shouldn’t be measured by how much they produce, but rather by the outcomes their products drive. What if product teams could achieve more by doing less? What would happen if they focused not on sheer output, but on delivering high-impact outcomes that truly resonate with customers? To realize this potential, teams must rethink their approach and shift from a focus on output and relentless productivity to one of outcome-driven effectiveness. Join us as we explore how changing the way organizations think about Agile can empower teams to drive high impact outcomes that deliver results.

About the Speaker:
Dan Gallagher is driven by the notion that life is too short to build products people won’t use. He has logged 30 years as a product designer, product manager, product owner, agile team member, product executive, product consultant, and even scrum master. Dan has battled on the ground, led from the trenches, fought through the middle, and surveilled from above. He has combined this experience with extensive product research, wisdom from pundits (applied and validated), and life observations to evolve the Product Agility methodology into a powerful force for change in product development.

The Antidote for Agile Negativity

Shashi Kiran Pilli — Wed, 10 Jul 2024 21:19:12 +0000

There is a growing concern with the results of agile adoption across various industries. The latest reports have surfaced negative trends throughout the industry. Articles on social networks such as LinkedIn talk about “fake agile” or “dying agile.” Why are we getting such mixed messages, and what should we do about them?

About the Speaker:
Natalie Vinitsky is a Senior Director of the Agile and Innovation Center at Citi within the Risk function. She oversees the Portfolio of Operational Risk Management and Global Risk Review book of work using Agile as a delivery method. She is a certified Agile and Design Thinking Coach and an expert in executive coaching, digital transformation, and lean portfolio management. She has over 25 years experience helping executives and their organizations achieve higher delivery value, sustain growth, and continuously improve by focusing on human-centric design.

Nobody Is Smarter Than Everybody: Why Self-Managed Teams Make Better Decisions and Deliver Extraordinary Results

Shashi Kiran Pilli — Tue, 11 Jun 2024 17:55:47 +0000

The centralized top-down hierarchy is an idea whose time has passed. In our new Digital Age, the world is changing much faster than any single person or any elite group of like-minded individuals can absorb.

This session will describe why conventional management models are ill-equipped to meet the unprecedented challenges of a radically different business world. It will acquaint participants with a new organizational paradigm — the self-managed peer-to-peer network — where leadership and decision-making are exercised by teams rather than individuals, and will spotlight organizations using collective intelligence and shared power to navigate business environments transformed by increasing change and escalating complexity.

Nobody Is Smarter Than Everybody is for leaders who are open to learning about the extraordinary advantages that self-managed networks provide through better and faster problem solving, more effective and efficient work processes, and consistent customer satisfaction and profitability.

About the Speaker:
Rod Collins is an author, keynote speaker, and leadership coach. He is a leading expert and thought leader on the future of business transformation. Rod’s books, blogs, and speeches inspire through their use of storytelling and leading-edge ideas. During his tenure as Chief Operating Executive, the Blue Cross Blue Shield Federal Employee Program experienced its greatest five-year growth period in the company’s 60-year history. An award-winning author, Rod’s books include Wiki Management, which highlights the innovative tools and practices of a revolutionary new management model, and Leadership in a Wiki World, which illustrates how leaders can leverage the power of collective intelligence to sustain extraordinary performance in rapidly changing markets. His latest book, Nobody Is Smarter Than Everybody spotlights three companies who grew from starts-ups to market leaders by building organizations where no one is a boss and everyone is a leader.

Create a Culture of Innovation by Strengthening Trust, EQ, and Psychological Safety

Shashi Kiran Pilli — Thu, 25 Apr 2024 16:56:05 +0000

Organizations striving to adopt the Agile mindset do so understanding that innovation is critical to performance, survival, and business growth. The Aristotle Project has demonstrated that organizations with high EQ (emotional intelligence) innovate at faster rates than those organizations where risk-taking is associated with negative consequences. However, leaders rarely emphasize creating the trust levels that enable conditions for high EQ and psychological safety.

In this talk, we’ll explore concepts such as trust-building and psychological safety and how they intertwine in the Virtuous Trust Cycle to provide a supportive context for individuals to practice and improve EQ. We will describe how measurements of psychological safety can accurately predict whether your Agile transformation will be effective or challenged. In addition, we’ll practice an exercise on how to enable and measure conditions for psychological safety.

Come join us at ANE to explore how the Trust Virtuous Cycle framework can help leaders and team members increase trust levels that create conditions for psychological safety for shaping a culture of innovation.

About the Speaker:

Pepe Lopez is a longtime business coach and Agile strategist who specializes in building the trust-based relationships critical for development teams and projects that require high levels of collaboration. He’s the author of the Trust Virtuous Cycle, a light framework to build trust and measure psychological safety. Pepe has 20 plus years of experience in roles such as People Leader, PM, Portfolio Manager, and Change Manager. In these roles he’s developed expertise in relationship building, quality frameworks, product development, roadmap execution, and training and development. Most importantly, he’s gained hands-on experience helping organizational cultures in transition.

Inclusive Design: Creating Accessible and User-Centric Experiences

Shashi Kiran Pilli — Tue, 26 Mar 2024 15:50:55 +0000

Join us for an enlightening session on inclusive design, where we’ll explore how to create user-centric experiences that cater to diverse needs and preferences. We’ll present several scenarios to equip you and your team with practical insights and strategies for fostering inclusivity in your design practices.

Are you interested in UI design practices to make your interfaces more accessible? We’ll review topics like screen reader compatibility (ensuring that elements are properly labeled so screen readers provide accurate information to blind users), high contrast modes (to accommodate users with low vision or color blindness), and keyboard navigation (keyboard shortcuts and navigational aids for users who cannot rely on a mouse or touch input).

Are you involved in defining and prioritizing product features? We’ll help you navigate the complexities of requirements for diverse user populations, examining subjects such as multilingual support (language options to cater to users from diverse linguistic backgrounds), customizable interfaces (enabling users to personalize their experience based on individual preferences), and gesture-based interaction (gesture-based controls, voice commands, and other interaction methods for users with physical disabilities).

Whether you’re a UI designer, product owner, software engineer, application architect, or simply someone interested in enhancing accessibility and usability in design, this talk will offer valuable perspectives and actionable takeaways.

About the Speaker:

Weslyn Rawlins is a seasoned people and culture leader, adept at driving transformative initiatives and fostering inclusive workplaces. With a background in program and project management, she’s honed skills in strategic communication, operations management, and cross-functional team leadership. During her tenure at a top fortune 500 company, she orchestrated multimillion-dollar business transformations and enhanced sales enablement. She has trained tech enthusiasts with Black Girls Code. As a DEI advocate and leader, Weslyn has overseen programs, expanded membership, and influenced enterprise-wide strategies to foster diversity, equity, and inclusion.

Software Teaming Online Conference Speakers

Nancy Van Schooenderwoert — Fri, 23 Feb 2024 15:06:14 +0000

Featured Presenters

Keynote: Emily Bache

Emily Bache is an independent consultant, YouTuber and Technical Coach. She works with developers, training and coaching effective agile practices like Refactoring and Test-Driven Development. Emily has worked with software development for 25 years, written two books and teaches courses on platforms including Pluralsight and O’Reilly. A frequent conference speaker, Emily has been invited to keynote at prestigious developer events including EuroPython, Craft and ACCU. Emily founded the Samman Technical Coaching Society in order to promote technical excellence and support coaches everywhere.

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/emilybache/
Mastodon: https://sw-development-is.social/web/@emilybache

Github: https://github.com/emilybache
Website: http://bacheconsulting.com/
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@EmilyBache-tech-coach

Chuck Bates

Chuck Bates is a physicist turned software developer with a wide range of experiences. He currently is a Principal Software Engineer at SamCart, but has previously worked at small start ups, large DoD contractors, and everywhere in between. His experiences have included solo work, pairing, and mobbing with the implementation of those practices changing significantly across different organizations. These variations in common practices led Chuck to first consider more frequent smaller retrospectives focused on the practices themselves in 2018 while leading a team of engineers at Pluralsight.

Since then he has successfully implemented frequent mob focused retros at several companies and enjoys seeing the benefit of frequent focused experimentation leading to rapidly evolving software teams. When Chuck isn’t coding you can find him fiddling with his 3D printer, engaging in amateur astronomy, or spending time with his wife and six children. You can find out more about Chuck on his Linkedin at https://www.linkedin.com/in/chuck-bates/

David Batten

Hi, I’m David, a Software Architect at Packsize International. I’m just a social computer geek that decided to work with what I love. I’ve always enjoyed collaborative work environments with quick and regular feedback. Turns out, agile is something that just always felt right, so I’ve been practicing it for about 20 years.

I’ve been Software Teaming as a primary way of developing software solutions since 2014 and use it whenever possible. I have used it to write and maintain code in various languages on software teams and to write and maintain Infrastructure as Code for large cloud installations, leveraging Software Teaming strengths to create mostly bug-free, continuously delivered solutions.

Jay Bazuzi

Jay Bazuzi is a software developer that loves working in legacy code while dreaming about what could be possible. He believes that software is written by people for people.

Find out more at https://github.com/JayBazuzi/Talks/blob/main/JayBazuzi.md

Mike Clement

Mike Clement is a husband, father of four, and currently a Distinguished Software Engineer at Hunter Industries. Mike believes we work best when we are working together which led him to Mob Programming in 2014. At the time he was practicing promiscuous pair programming, but after a visit to Woody Zuill, Chris Lucian, and the others at Hunter Industries at the time, he introduced Mob Programming at Pluralsight. Next he founded Greater Sum, an apprenticeship program that took software developers with little to no professional experience and accelerated their learning using Mob Programming. Mike later worked in engineering management positions, helping teams to adopt and improve their practice of Mob Programming.

Some other leading practices Mike is passionate about are Test Driven Development, Pair Programming, User Story Mapping, Domain Driven Design and Open Space Technology. Passionate about raising the bar of technical excellence in the software development community, Mike is a founder and organizer of Software Crafters Atlanta, the Software Crafters Unconference, and the Lean+Agile Atlanta Unconference. Find out more about Mike on his blog (http://blog.softwareontheside.com/) and on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/mclement/.

Lisa Crispin

Lisa Crispin has had the good fortune to work on several teams that embraced software teaming. Her most recent team, fully remote, came up with effective hacks to succeed with their daily teaming. Her organizations have also used teaming, often with practitioners from different teams, for sessions devoted to exploratory and acceptance testing activities. Lisa is the co-author, with Janet Gregory, of Holistic Testing: Weave Quality Into Your Product; and their three volume Agile Testing book series. She and Janet co-founded the Agile Testing Fellowship, which offers live training courses both remotely and in-person, based on their Holistic Testing model – and encouraging teaming practices. Lisa helps teams assess and improve their quality and testing practices, to succeed with continuous delivery.

Please visit www.lisacrispin.com, www.agiletestingfellow.com, and www.agiletester.ca for more. Contact Lisa on Twitter as @lisacrispin, and LinkedIn, https://www.linkedin.com/in/lisa-crispin-88420a/

Lisi Hocke

Lisi found tech as her place to be in 2009 and has grown as a specialized generalist ever since. She’s passionate about the whole-team approach to holistic testing and quality and enjoys experimenting and learning continuously. Building great products that deliver value together with great people motivates her and lets her thrive. Having received a lot from communities, she’s paying it forward by sharing her stories and learning in public. She posts on Mastodon as @lisihocke@mastodon.social and blogs at www.lisihocke.com. In her free time, she plays indoor volleyball or delves into computer games and stories of all kinds.

Lennart Friden

For more than a decade I’ve been introducing teams and organizations to the concept of Mob Programming (also known as Software Teaming or Ensemble). In doing so, I’ve grown a particular fondness for its power to transform a scattered collection of individuals into a tight-knit team, working, learning, and sharing. I’ve come to realize that I greatly enjoy developing developers rather than simply developing software. Make no mistake; building something that others use is a fantastic feeling, but also building your colleagues’ confidence, skills, and sound principles in the process makes it so much more rewarding.

Blog: https://codecoupled.org
GitHub: https://github.com/DevL
Mastadon: https://hachyderm.io/@devl
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennartfriden

Llewellyn Falco

Agile Technical Coach. [Approval Tests](http://github.com/approvals) Inventor. [Teaching Kids Programming](http://www.teachingkidsprogramming.org) Cofounder. [Mob Programming Guidebook](https://leanpub.com/mobprogrammingguidebook) CoAuthor. Discoverer of [Strong Style Pairing](http://llewellynfalco.blogspot.fi/2014/06/llewellyns-strong-style-pairing.html) and Legacy code geek.

Chris Lucian

Advocating for mob programming to leadership and throughout the organization.

Chris Lucian, the director of software development at Hunter Industries and a founder of mob programming. I am passionate about the advancement of software craftsmanship and machine learning. I seek the continuous improvement of myself, my family, my company, and my community. I believe that we can explore the unexplored potential in all things when looking at our processes with automation and creativity in mind. Growing up I learned a lot about both the importance of Psychological Safety and what it can look like when it does not exist. I was fortunate enough to go to a project based middle school where I learned the importance of public speaking, research, technology and delivering my work quickly and frequently. I worked full time when going to university for both my masters and bachelors and in doing so I learned the importance of time management and deliberate deep work. In my career I have found that all of these skills are important to be effective. When I have a moment of free time, I spend it gaming or reading sci-fi and fantasy.

I wrote my masters thesis on Computer Vision, Evolutionary Algorithms, and Machine Learning.

Janina Nemec

Janina is currently working as a Software Developer and Ambassador for Agile Technical Learning at REWE Digital in Cologne. She is passionate about learning and the quality of the products she works on. She and her team develop new features and automated tests together as an ensemble.

Chris Pipito

Chris Pipito is an independent consultant, musician, organizer and coach. He has been coaching people, teams, and organizations across industries including Automotive, Financial, Insurance, Retail, Health Care and Telecom since 2012. Chris recently has been coaching for learning with teams in Dojo’s, helping teams improve their current capabilities or learning new ones while delivering their products. He is also the organizer for the DDD Philly group, part of the DDD United States community, helping people learn more about Domain-Driven Design and how to apply that learning to their work.
Dojo: https://www.dojoandco.com/
Domain-Driven Design: https://www.meetup.com/ddd-philly/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christopher-p-213aa635/

Quinton Quartel

Quinton’s passion is to make the world a better place through the win-win of helping businesses be more effective, adaptable, innovative, and profitable – while co-creating healthy workplaces as growth environments for humans to flourish. Quinton’s background is in software, and his career has followed different roles always related to software and agility. Those roles exposed him to many flavours of agile. Finally frustrated with the predominance of “dark agile”, Quinton began experimenting with better ways of working and has had some major breakthroughs. He is now a consultant, facilitator, trainer, and keynote speaker at worldwide public and private events, sharing his findings and helping progressive organizations reach the next level.

Rickard Westman

I’m the journalist turned product guy turned manager.
I enjoy helping teams and individuals collaborate and communicate better.
Agilist. Previous head of six Mob Programming teams responsible for building and maintaining SVT’s online news offering.

Woody Zuill

Woody Zuill is an Agile and Lean Software Development guide who has been programming computers for 40+ years. He is an originator and pioneer of the Software Teaming (Mob Programming) approach to teamwork in software development, and provides workshops, coaching, and training on team software development. He is also a founder of the “Beyond Estimates” discussion, and a frequent speaker at conferences and developer meet-ups all over the world.