For July’s meeting, Diana Larsen will run a retrospective for us. We’re going to cover the last year of XPDX activities.

This will be a good chance to see a well-run end of project retrospective. It’ll also be a chance to come weigh in and change what we do for next year.

Beer afterward will be at the Lucky Lab a few blocks from the meeting place (given our discoordination last month, we decided to figure the most important parts out ahead of time).

I hope to see several of you there.

Rose City Software Process Improvement Network (SPIN) Seminar

Dates/Times: Thursday, May 27th, 2010; Networking @ 6:00 PM with Pizza; Seminar 7:00-8:00 PM This event is free and open to the public.

Abstract

Retrospectives can be one of the most effective tools in process improvement. They allow projects and organizations to identify the key issues and improvements for success and provide a platform to create buy in and clear steps to implement positive change. Come join Debra Lavell from Intel Corp. as she shares a case study taken from a real project from Intel, where a project manager has been asked to gather and share key learnings from a very important software program. The twist – this team has zero travel budget, complex cross-organizational cultural differences, and a high level of resistance to change. Debra will discuss how a retrospective is different from other review practices such as post mortems, after action reviews, etc. She will explain the four phases of a retrospective process with emphasis on the role of the facilitator so when you leave, you can design and deliver an effective retrospective when you get back to your organizations.

Speaker Bio

Debra Lavell is the Organizational Learning & Retrospective Program Manager in the Corporate Platform Office at Intel Corporation. With over 10 years of experience, Debra has delivered over 300 Project and Milestone Retrospectives for Intel world-wide. Prior to her work in quality, Debra spent over 5 years managing an IT department responsible for a 500+-node network for ADC Telecommunications. Debra is a member of the Rose City Software Process Improvement Network (SPIN) Steering Committee. She currently is the President of the Pacific Northwest Software Quality Conference, Portland, Oregon. She holds a Bachelor's of Arts degree in Management with an emphasis on Industrial Relations

A Special Treat from PNSQC

Plan on coming early! In collaboration with the Pacific Northwest Software Quality Conference (PNSQC) the SPIN meeting will have pizza and soda provided by PNSQC beginning at 6:00 pm.

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.

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.

Every community needs to reflect occasionally to consider where it is now and where it wants to be in the future regarding size, shape, and services. AgilePDX hasn't had a community retrospective in too long! Now's your chance to update our collective understanding of who we are and who we want to be as a community. Our host, New Relic, is graciously providing a large event space with beautiful views. We are planning a 2 1/2 hour World Cafe event with opening remarks from the current Coordinating Committee which will provide you with some background about our current governance and breadth of services. Please help us get the word out! This event is not just for our usual attendees. We are hoping to reach out to people who have never attended AgilePDX events, people who are new in town, as well as people who have been with us every month for many years.

Please RSVP at meetup: https://www.meetup.com/AgilePDX-User-Group-Portland-Metro/events/251971253/

AGENDA 5:30 -- Food, drink, and networking 6:00 -- Coordinating Committee Remarks 6:15 -- World Cafe 8:00 -- Summary, Closing, and Actions