"Real World Agile: Going All-in with Agile at Performance Health Technology

Speaker: Chad Casady

Abstract: In 2009, PH Tech went "all-in" and began the adoption of agile methodologies throughout the software development process. In this session, you'll take a multi-year journey with a growing small business and experience the transition from the blissful ignorance of cowboy-coding through the misery and despair of a sinking, dysfunctional organization, and on to the satisfaction and exhilaration that comes with a high-functioning agile team. This session describes both the pain and the fulfillment that comes with developing software in a small business, before, during, and after agile.

Bio: Chad Casady is the Director of Information Technology at Performance Health Technology, aka PH Tech. His responsibilities include all aspects of technological infrastructure and software development, including three technology departments; Information Systems, Business Intelligence, and Software Engineering. When he’s not talking about healthcare or technology, he’s expounding the life-giving qualities of bacon and BBQ. Buy him a beer and he’ll give you the recipe for the greatest chicken wing rub he’s ever stolen.

At Tech Ed 2012, the biggest change over the previous years had to do with ALM and agile development – it seemed like one out of every four classes dealt with Agile in one way or another. What is all the fuss about – and how can our team use the best tools to keep developers and BA’s humming and business owners happy?

In this talk Dave will explore his team's two-year long experience with Agile development at Columbia Sportswear Company, including experiences with TFS and other tools.

Along the way we’ll cover:

• The Software Development Hierarchy of Needs (from a great post by Scott Hanselman)

• Our experiences with MVC, TDD, and Azure

• Why the Spanish Armada didn’t work and Apollo 13 did – the Cone of Death

• The dirty little secret behind scrum – hint, it’s not a magic bullet

• Jealousy as a proactive emotion

• Save the poker for Vegas

• Managing priorities across software development teams in one list

Speaker: Dave Harrison is the Development Manager and .Net Lead Developer at Columbia Sportswear. He has 7 years of Windows and Internet/Web applications development experience. Dave is a certified Scrum Master and agile enthusiast (www.rogueagile.com)

Application Delivery at PGE currently uses both waterfall and iterative work management methodologies. PGE’s IT uses these to support six internal lines of business with their project and production support needs. PGE started the agile journey in 2009 in aid of a large scale multi-project initiative to roll-out network read meters for our customers. Over the subsequent three and half years, that experience was extended into where PGE’s IT delivery is today. Scaling to the enterprise required the synthesis of many different viewpoints, overcoming the deficiencies of agile training as applied in larger circumstances, and fabricating new processes and tools to enhance and manage the value of delivery. During this talk Mark will share highlights of what was valuable, what was a struggle, what he would do the same if starting over, and what he would do differently.

Bio: Mark Menger is a passionate leader in the adoption of Scrum at Portland General Electric, believing strongly in the underpinning concepts of servant leadership and self-organization. He led four Scrum teams and the enterprise architecture function of PGE’s multi-million dollar Automated Metering Infrastructure initiative. As the supervisor of Application Delivery Services, he is currently scaling PGE’s adoption of Agile software delivery to 14 teams across six business client functions. This effort includes business client relationship development, and improvements in quality assurance and engineering practices. When he’s not rooting for the Timbers, the remainder of his attention is focused on Sailflow reports for the Columbia and Willamette rivers.

Diana Larsen (co-author of "Agile Retrospectives" "Liftoff" and"Virtuosity") will lead participants in a personal retrospective by helping each person ask the question, "How am I doing? Exploring my personal best," and find answers in a hands-on, highly interactive session. Everyone will reflect on how they developed their craft in 2012, then set aspirations for the coming year. Join us to develop an individualized plan for your professional development in 2013.

This month we will have an open discussion about Agile at Nike as well as across the "Westside" of Portland, and gather future topics for discussion and presentation during 2013. We look forward to your feedback in helping shape the community for 2013.

Agile Architecture and doing "just enough" while maintaining a forward looking view within an Agile Delivery Model.

Format: Panel discussion and Q&A

Agile Portfolio Management – From Vision to Backlog

The enterprise is going to invest in a new product or service: it’s on the strategic plan, senior management is energized and the funding has been promised…

But what happens next? How do you get from vision to value? How do you drill down from a high level mission statement or market opportunity to the right user stories and how do you manage resource allocation with competing projects?

The goal of this session is to explore this critical transition and it’s implication for portfolio management.

We are pleased to welcome three panelists to help us answer these questions.

Panel Members:

Jamie Swails, Manager Network Data Operations, Portland General Electric

Pat Pesetti, Sr. Director Engineering, Tripwire

Adam Light, Management Consultant, SoTech Advisors

Meeting will start at 7:45 AM until 8:55

To join the online meeting (Now from mobile devices!)

1. Go to https://nike.webex.com/nike/j.php?ED=226516297&UID=1600919732&RT=MiM0
2. Enter your name and email address.
3. Enter the meeting password: (This meeting does not require a password.)
4. Click "Join Now".

To view in other time zones or languages, please click the link: https://nike.webex.com/nike/j.php?ED=226516297&UID=1600919732&ORT=MiM0

To join the teleconference only

Call-in toll-free number: 1-877.874.1777 (US) Call-in number: 1-720.239.5053 (US) Show global numbers: https://www.tcconline.com/offSite/OffSiteController.jpf?cc=5035328650 Conference Code: 503 532 8650

Agile Portfolio Management – From the Lean Startup Perspective

We will discuss, in an open forum, ways of identifying critical information such as product vision, possible risks, technology solutions, and key project metrics, in a way that utilizes the minimum amount of time in the predevelopment period of the project.

A focus will be placed on practical group exercises and research techniques for gaining the critical information needed to start a project and build the initial backlog.

This month will be an open discussion with fellow practitioners from within Nike and across the West Side of Portland. During the session we will also discuss topics for the upcoming quarter and identify folks within the community that are willing to "own" the topics as part of the community. All are welcome to attend and we look forward to the discussion.

Teleconference information

Call-in toll-free number: 1-877.874.1777 (US) Call-in number: 1-720.239.5053 (US) Show global numbers: https://www.tcconline.com/offSite/OffSiteController.jpf?cc=5035328650 Conference Code: 503 532 8650

This is your chance to influence upcoming topics and speaker selection.

Product Owners as catalyst for Agile Teams

Topic: Coaching and Empowering Product Owners Format: Facilitated discussion by Chet Amborn Location: Nolan Ryan 1 Air Huarache Date: 6/11/13 Time: 7:45am to 9:00am

Overview:
The performance and empowerment of the product owner is often the most important factor in a successful Agile project. Chet Amborn, Agile Coach, has identified 5 key areas where Product Owners need help from their ScrumMaster in making decisions that will make or break a project. Too often, ScrumMasters overly focused on low level issues with the development/implementation team while the truly significant issues involving Product Owner decisions are ignored.

Teleconference information: Call-in toll-free number: 1-877.874.1777 (US) Call-in number: 1-720.239.5053 (US) Show global numbers: https://www.tcconline.com/offSite/OffSiteController.jpf?cc=5035328650 Conference Code: 503 532 8650

Test-First Mentality (BDD and TDD) , Testing Automation and Continuous Integration

The art of tailoring/integrating Agile into an Organization - Dave Harrison will be joining us to demonstrate how you can adopt Agile techniques in a way that fit in YOUR company's structure!

Instilling good habits isn't easy: Just ask anyone trying to give up a bad one. It's more challenging trying to change the habits of 100,000. Matt will discuss efforts at Intel to accelerate adoption of better technical capabilities, and the impediments faced by teams in adopting new skills under pressure.

Bio:

Matt Plavcan is a Technical Practices Coach with the Intel's Emergent Systems and Coaching team. He has worked at Intel for sixteen years, and has been writing code for three decades. His previous jobs include hardware validation for the Pentium 4 and Core microprocessors and teaching Intel architecture at the University of Illinois. Matt is the founder of the Code Dojo and Retreat program at Intel, which uses dedicated practice to hone professional programming skills.

This coming Tuesday the west side Agile PDX group will be holding a round-table on the PMI Agile Certified Practitioner certification recently emerged from the Project Management Institute—the famous purveyors of the PMP certification.

Topics include: What’s the upside and downside of the creation of this new certification? Did we need one? How does it differ from the famous Scrum series (CSM, CSPO, CSP, CSD, CSC, and CST) of which the Certified Scrum Master (CSM) has become a market differentiator for many organizations and individuals in the Portland metro area—and around the world? Will it be an improvement over PMI’s Project Management Professional (PMP) certification? What kind of content does it actually cover? Do we want one for our very own—or not?

Topic:

Scrum Must Die: Many teams over the last decade have moved to Agile Scrum development, but many have missed the key point of doing the adoption-Scrum and it's rituals are merely training-wheels for building a lasting Agile culture. In this topic, Ray Arell talks about how long-term dependency on Scrum can hinder the potential creativity and profitability of teams. Then he will look at successful patterns of how to use the framework to develop core skills and methods that, once the time-box is removed, will enable teams to deliver value daily. Finally, he will contrast the key challenges for teams stuck in the transition as well as key methods for moving forward.

Bio:

Ray Arell is Director of Intel Emergent Systems and Coaching. He is currently a transformative leader in the adoption of agile, Lean, and complex system methods inside Intel, and his group is currently coaching a community of practice of over ten thousand people that are moving to a continuous value delivery culture. Prior to this role, he spent several decades as both an engineer and engineering manager of teams focused on CPU, chipset, graphics, wireless, and software development. He is the coauthor of Change-Based Test Management: Improving the Software Validation Process and is a popular speaker at events worldwide.

Announcing the re-launch of AgilePDX Westside! It’s a new year... what do you want to accomplish? Bring your Agile New Years Resolutions for the coming year to the January session, and we will determine what topics to target for the coming year.

We are starting the new year in a NEW LOCATION. Intel has generously offered meeting space for this year…please note the new location at Intel - Hawthorne Farms. We will be in the Building 3 Auditorium.

Are you ready for a new fast-paced format idea? We are bringing in 5 speakers with fantastic stories around the use of Agile in non-traditional projects. Each speaker will offer a fast-paced 5 minute presentation, with another 3-5 minutes allocated for questions.

Please join us for a rousing round of lightning talks on the following topics:

Agile stories from the underground (sewers, that is) - Mark Liebe
Process Design using the 'Agile Periodic Table' Approach – Megan Miller
Applying Agile Mgt Concepts to a Complex, Multi-year, High Stakes Scientific Research Project – Alicia Lanier
Family Activity Planning Wall - Sarah Francaviglia
The Agile Attorney – John Grant III

We'll begin at 7:45 with "The Buzz". Bring your recent links, books, or other tibits to share and txt them to the facilitator. We will present them on screen and collect to send to the AgilePDX mailer.

Agile Terms from A to Z

What do Yaks, Rubber Duckies and Bike Sheds have to do with Agile?

Come update your Agile Terminology with an interactive conversation around the language we use every day in our Agile travels.

For those starting out, this is a great opportunity to learn both the common and less-than-common terms. Agile experts, this is a chance to contribute your best ideas and refine the common vocabulary.

Scaled Agile - Too Big to Fail?

Join us for a format introduced last month at the Intel Agile & Lean Conference: Lean Coffee++

Participants will actively brainstorm and prioritize the agenda and become part of the conversation. Up-votes will continue the discussion, while down-votes mean move on to the next sub-topic.

To guide the conversation we'll seed the topic, and also seed the audience with expert contributors. This is the ++ portion of our take on the LeanCoffee(tm) format.

Seed Topic: Scaled Agile - Too Big to Fail?

Seed questions: Why do large organizations embrace SAFe? Is it possible to 'get off' the release train? How to scale the human factor.

How Agile is Agile Enough?

Join us for a format introduced at the Intel Agile & Lean Conference: Lean Coffee++

Participants will actively brainstorm and prioritize the agenda and become part of the conversation. Up-votes will continue the discussion, while down-votes mean move on to the next sub-topic.

To guide the conversation we'll seed the topic, and also seed the audience with expert contributors. This is the ++ portion of our take on the LeanCoffee(tm) format.

Seed Topic: How Agile is Agile Enough?

Seed questions: Do large organizations need to accept the same definition of agility as small ones? Is it possible to accept some known impediments and still be considered 'agile'? How do we measure when we have become 'agile enough'?