Agile DotNet 2012 - Columbus, OH

Note: Agile Cincinnati members receive 30% off! Register using discount code: FriendsFromCincinnati

Attendees can expect informative presentations based on real-world experience from some of the industry’s leading Developers, Project Managers, and Executives who have embraced Agile principles within .NET development environments.

Come see how both the experts and the beginners apply Agile concepts using the Microsoft .NET framework, Visual Studio, and Visual Studio Team Foundation Server.

All attendees will receive a FREE Subscription to CODE Magazine and are entered to win a trip to Vegas at the end of the day!

When: August 1, 2012  8:00am - 5:00pm
Where: The Ohio Union at Ohio State University,  1739 N. High Street, Columbus, OH 43210
Price: $95.00

PMP's: This event will count for seven (7) PDU's

See the conference website for more information

May Meeting: Driving Innovation thru Business Agility

Aaron Kopel, Managing Partner at Project Brilliant, will discuss how companies are Driving Innovation through Business Agility by adopting an entrepreneurial culture that promotes continuous innovation and enables sustainable competitive advantage.  By weaving together concepts from thought leaders on the topics of business agility, lean startup, Agile product development, customer engagement, and Innovation Games, Aaron makes the case for organizations to take a big picture view of their ability to react to change and seize opportunities through the application of Agile principles across the entire enterprise.  Come for the thought provoking discussion on taking Agile beyond software, the criticality of customer engagement in the product development process, viewing IT as a strategic asset, how to kill corporate innovation through offshoring, and ways that internal corporate entrepreneurship competitions can save the day.

Aaron Kopel is a Managing Partner at Project Brilliant.  As a speaker, mentor, and consultant he is focused on enabling clients to become more responsive to change through the use of Innovation Games, and the implementation of Agile Business principles and Lean-Startup methods across their organizations. Prior to joining Project Brilliant Aaron led two tech-startups, winning several awards for innovation and entrepreneurship, and spent 10 years in IT and Business consulting.  His entrepreneurial background and wide range of consulting experience across large and mid-size organizations ranging from 50- 85,000 people has given him a unique perspective on how organizations innovate and adapt.

Mr. Kopel holds an MBA from the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University, a BA (double major – Business and Computer Information Systems) from Wartburg College, is a Certified ScrumMaster (CSM), Certified Scrum Professional (CSP), Professional Scrum Master (PSM), Project Management Professional (PMP), and Agile Certified Practitioner (PMI-ACP).

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Update on Sunday, June 3, 2012 at 3:53PM by Agile Cincinnati

Thanks to Aaron Kopel for coming to Cincinnati from Indianapolis in may to talk to our group!

Aaron talked about business agility as a method for innovation and change within organizations.  He highlighted that efficiency is different then business agility.  Business agility allows organizations to take advantage of opportunities to grow, while efficiency is more about standardization and cost control.

 

Aaron discussed the three feedback loops that Michael Hugos emphasizes as important driving business agility. "Responsiveness is a blend of balance and agilitity with the awareness to know when to do which" 

Games play an important part in driving innovation by allowing team members to exercise both parts of their brains (the creative and logical sides) and allowing them to interact with each other in a non threatening environment while doing real work.  It's also fun!

Finally Aaron summarized his key points on driving innovation through business agility.

1. IT is a strategic asset
2. Have short feedback loops
3. Automate and deal with outliers
4. Engage your customers
5. Create a culture of continuous innovation
6. React on the 80%

We ended the night by drawing for a book sponsored Pearson and a Tshirt sponsored by Atlassian. Congrats to Don Miller and Tim Sullivan!

Pearson book winner Don Miller

Atlassian t-shirt winner Tim Sullivan

April Meeting: Building Effective Agile Teams

Building effective agile development teams is a process that is larger than simply buying some fancy tables and co-locating a group of developers.

While building teams is not a “one-size-fits-all” process, this presentation will review core principles from motivational theory, psychology, and group dynamics that can be applied to forming, building, and scaling agile teams within your organization. Brian Watson will share his “from the field” experience as an Agile coach in building highly productive and efficient agile teams. Topics covered include: training, coaching, balancing business vs. technical needs, navigating the middle- management conundrum, and pairing.

Brian Watson is an Agile coach for VersionOne. He has over 16 years of experience providing Project Management, Business Analysis, and Agile coaching on small to enterprise level projects within a diverse set of industries.  Since 2005, Brian has led Agile transformations blending concepts of Scrum, XP and feature driven development (FDD) within consulting software development factories, utilities, workers compensation, and government agencies

When: April 12, 2012  (Second Thursday).
Networking: 5:30-6pm.
Program: 6-7:30pm.
Where: Max Training. 4900 Parkway Drive Suite 160 , Mason (Cincinnati), OH 45040

PMP's: This event counts for 1 (one) PDU

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Update on Tuesday, April 17, 2012 at 5:41PM by Agile Cincinnati

Meeting Epilogue

In April Brian Watson shared his experience on Building Effective Agile Teams with our community.

He drew a model to build agile teams in organizations; The pairing/transition process takes usually 3-5 sprints, once they grow their skills they are ready to code solo. Mistakes in this transition are part of the learning process.

It's important to keep the at least 10% of the team positive, knowledgeable and evangelizing the Agile concepts.

 

Management Support is key to the success of team. Mistakes will happen and part of the learning process.

Team spaces should be functional, doesn't have to be fancy. Elbow room for pairing and collaboration, dual monitors; remove walls, create a central locationg for card wall and stand-ups. Don't break the banks.

The team should be able to say "no" Encourage the team to take risks.

Continuity; only a small part of overall team success is "Agile". Team forms a bond and must be kept together.

Embrace the new culture. Work to convert pessimists; remove lack of understanding; think local and act global.

In our usual monthly drawing Amit Valsangkar is the lucky winner for the book from Pearson and Dan Rice got the tshirt from Atlassian. Thanks again to Versionone for sponsoring our food tonight.

Pearson book winner Amit Valsangkar

Atlassian T-shirt winner Dan Rice

Columbus, OH: COHAA Path to Agility Conference

The Path to Agility conference was developed to further COHAA’s (http://www.cohaa.org/) mission to promote the use of Agile practices and principles. COHAA has engaged a number of national and regional Agile thought leaders to provide session content focused on a mix of business, technical, and/or management topics. Whether you are well along the path or just starting out, this conference will help guide you in the right direction.

Dates: May 23 & 24, 2012

More information at: http://www.thepathtoagility.com/