Lean methods in software development have progressed from conceptual understanding to practical techniques that people are using to solve problems and ship software today. The Lean toolkit augments or enhances the practices that are available to today's Agile practitioner. Lean expands the organizational scope of Agile and provides a rich and robust set of methods for process improvement.

Corey Ladas is a Lean Software Development consultant and practitioner who focuses on evolving local development processes through systematic self-organization and continuous improvement. He will discuss and demonstrate some of the techniques from his new book, Scrumban: Essays on Kanban Systems for Lean Software Development.

Pizza at 6:30pm, talk at 7pm, beer after. Pizza is sponsored by YesMail. As ever, we will follow the meeting with a chat and hang out at a local pub.

The presentation starts at 6:30.

Abstract:

What is your company’s culture? What is your org’s culture? What is your team’s culture? The three may be completely different, or have strong themes, but the point is that a culture exists with or without you. You don’t force a culture, you either invite or incite it to take on certain characteristics that are valued. For example, aspects such as learning, communication, and collaboration are three activities that may be rewarded on your team, but are they valued enough for the team to do it on their own? Culture is what an anthropologist sees if they observed you in action. Is it forced by another or is it organic? In this talk, Jon will share his thoughts and experiences about the cultures he has seen over the years and what you might take away to incite (and invite) in your culture when you get back to your desk.

Jon Bach from eBay

With almost 20 years of experience in software testing, Jon Bach has held technical and managerial positions at Hewlett-Packard, Microsoft, and eBay. His role as Director of Live Site Quality at eBay involves being on a team dedicated to building “end-to-end” tests (activity flows) to discover bugs on eBay’s sites that threaten its core business. Jon is most notable for being the brother of renowned testing expert James Bach, with whom he created Session-Based Test Management. He can usually be found wearing a ball cap, hanging out in conference hallways, talking about testing techniques and philosophy.

A Special Treat from PNSQC

Plan on coming early! In collaboration with the Pacific Northwest Software Quality Conference (PNSQC) the SPIN meeting will complimentary hors d’oeuvres and beverages beginning at 5:30 pm. This is a great opportunity for networking and knowledge exchange with other practitioners on the current state of software development.

PNSQC is the Pacific Northwest Software Quality Conference, a group of volunteers interested in Software Quality. The Mission of the PNSQC is to enable knowledge exchange to produce higher quality software. As a non-profit, it seeks to promote software quality by providing education and opportunities for information exchange within the software community.

How to Register

This is a FREE lecture sponsored by the Rose City SPIN. But you can help us plan by registering at: http://october-2014-spin-pnsqc.eventbrite.com

Rose City SPIN

The Rose City Software Process Improvement Network (SPIN) is a monthly forum for networking, mutual support, and promotion of effective software practices. We exchange practical experiences, ideas, knowledge, wisdom, and war stories about the technical, business, and human facets of software process improvement. The Rose City SPIN serves the software development community of the Portland/Vancouver metro area. Whether you work for a large company or a small one, corporate or self-employed, industrial or academic setting, you are welcome at the Rose City SPIN.