Networking from 6-7, Seminar from 7-8:00 PM Event is open to anyone - this is a free talk. Come in early for free pizza provided by the Pacific Northwest Software Quality Conference!

Abstract: Estimates are required multiple times in a project. Project members need to make estimates for a variety of reasons, these include: • The amount of time for a task; • The cost for resources; • The cost of software, hardware and other materials; • The time required to finish a task. However, there are many problems with estimates. This presentation focuses on the sociological and psychological aspects of doing estimates. It teaches attendees the environmental issues that affect estimates and how to deal with their impact. Through class interaction, it shows both the psychological and sociological factors that affect how estimates are given and provides leaders with tools to help avoid the common pitfalls. By avoiding these situations, estimates become more representative of the project and more variation more predictable. Controlling both of these, help the Project Manager avert trouble. This a very interactive and fun presentation. It has a short exercise and throughout the presentation, attendees are asked to make estimates on doing the exercise again under a number of situations to help better learn from their own behavior.

Speaker Bio: Todd Williams has thirty years experience as a Project Manager, Architect, entrepreneur and businessperson. He has spent twenty of those years recovering red projects. From this experience, he has developed a process to make the recoveries more efficient. His experience also provides a plethora of invaluable knowledge on avoiding project failure. He has worked in manufacturing and service industries for products used internally and externally to the companies developing them. The projects include large-scale system integration of manufacturing systems, equipment integration, web-based collaboration tools, thick clients with automated update via the internet and large-scale business systems integration. The projects have been in Taiwan, Singapore, Canada, the United States and Israel. The teams have been dispersed in as many as five countries, three continents and countless time zones. Some of these projects were captive in-house time and materials projects while others were outsourced fixed-priced projects.

Mr. Williams is the President of eCameron, Inc., located in the Portland, Oregon metropolitan area, and specializes in recovering red projects. He is a published author and regularly publishes a Project Management Technique eZine.

Directions: Room 86-01 is located between the Engineering Building and the Fourth Avenue Building on the PSU campus. Enter through the Engineering Building at 1930 SW Fourth Avenue, go down the stairs and through the hall directly ahead. Street parking is available.

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.

Questions? Contact Rhea Stadick at [email protected]

Agile Open Northwest, a non-profit alliance of agile practitioners in the US Pacific Northwest region, presents our seventh annual conference, now expanded to a third day! This conference contains over 90 sessions bringing novices, journeymen, and experts together for face-to-face conversations exploring the most important topics in Agile software development today.

What: An Open Space conference about Agile practices and techniques. Where: Ambridge Event Center, Portland, Oregon When: February 6 to 8, 2013 - Now three days long! Who: YOU and other experienced, collaborative, committed agile practitioners. Registration is limited to 150 participants. Cost: $200 for the three-day event, including continental breakfast and lunch each day, and dinner on the first night.

Agile Open Northwest 2013 offers an opportunity to strengthen our community of practice and co-create the future for Agile development in our region. For three days, we build on conversation after conversation as we engage important questions like:

What is Agile really? What are the most important practices in making Agile approaches really successful on my team? Who practices Agile philosophies, methods, principles or practices in the Northwest, and what's the impact? What is the difference between Lean, Scrum, XP, and other Agile approaches? What new technical challenges face Agile? What are the latest cutting edge developments in the Agile software development world? How do Agile frameworks and methods co-exist with project management, process control and other governance structures? How do we adapt Agile practices to our organizations without diluting them? Can Agile methods work in big, risky projects? How? When distributed teams use Agile approaches, what changes? If we adopt an Agile mindset, what might the transition look like in my organization?