May Meeting: Real-World Agile Transformation - A One Year Case Study

A consistent challenge companies face are finding real-world ways to implement Agile practices in a large, possibly waterfall, environment.  People with day-to-day business problems are often confronted with theories and textbook approaches that may not seem practical in their complex enterprise structure.

In this session, you will be given real examples and immediately applicable techniques you can apply to either start your Agile journey or enhance your current progress.  For several years, Paycor had “pockets of Agility”.  But in early 2014, Paycor kicked off a focus, determined Agile Transformation.  We will review the steps taken over the last year to dramatically increase the company’s agility and reflect on areas of difficulty most organizations face.

Areas of discussions will include:
1.    Identifying Practical Techniques to Get Started
2.    Developing Agility at the Team Level
3.    Expanding Agility to the Enterprise

Shawn Brock is a Director of Product Development at Paycor where he leads Paycor’s cloud-based Platform Services scrum teams.  With a background as a software developer, project manager, and entrepreneur, he is also a contributing member of Paycor’s “Enterprise Transformation Council”. 

Amy Owens and David Granger are Program Managers at Paycor who oversee all company infrastructure and product development projects.  They have been, and continue to be,  primary contributors to the ground-up Agile Transformation of Paycor. 

Zachary Werden is a software developer at Paycor who helped lead the launch of Paycor’s cloud-based Time Solution.  He is a founding member of the Wisdom Cube, and a pioneer of Paycor’s Agile transformation with grassroots efforts such as “The Agile Trail”.

PMP's: This event counts for 1 PDU
Networking: 5:30 - 6:00 pm
Program: 6:30 - 7:30 pm

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February Meeting: 5 Lessons from the World’s Largest Enterprise-wide Agile Transformation

Many lessons were learned along the way during the largest all-in enterprise-wide agile transformation.  Aaron Kopel, who led a group of more than 40 agile coaches that guided the Agile transformation effort at all levels of the organization for nearly 2 years, will relay his experiences and some key learnings that emerged from his time as an external Agile Coach advising the company on its Agile journey.  If your company is considering an agile transformation, or are already in the thick of it, this is a must attend opportunity!

Aaron Kopel is the Founder of Project Brilliant LLC, which is focused on advising companies through their Agile Transformation journey toward Business Agility. He discovered Agile by accident many years ago after founding his first tech startup company in the early 2000’s and has been involved in Agile initiatives ever since.  Over the last 2 years he led a group of more than 40 experienced agile coaches who guided the worlds largest enterprise-wide Agile transformation. Mr. Kopel has worked with countless companies, ranging from 2 person tech startups to Fortune 100s, across the country to challenge them to understand and apply agile practices across their entire organizations.   Having coached individuals, teams, leaders, and executives on their agile journeys has afforded him deep insight into how a company’s vision, values, and culture can align to enable true Agility.

When: February 13, 2014 (Second Thursday)
Networking: 5:30 - 6pm
Program: 6 - 7:30pm.
Where: Max Train, 4900 Parkway Drive, Suite 160, Mason, 45040

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

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February Meeting: Agile Transformations

Ever wonder what it takes to start an Agile transformation?  If so, then join us in February as Gerald talks about the ups and downs, challenges, and successes of such an effort.  He will discuss the steps he took to start one successfully.

Gerald Smith is currently a Senior Manager at Sogeti USA. He has 5 years of agile project management experience and over eighteen years of experience in all aspects of project management.

Gerald earned a Master’s in Business Administration from the University of Phoenix; as well as, a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science from Miami University, Ohio.

He’s looking forward to working and learning with you, the members, during this presentation.

When: February 14, 2013  (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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Gerald presented the Agile Transformation that he was responsible for at Kroger Company. The subject matter was engaging and the Agile Cincinnati Group learned quite a bit about the "hot topic" of Agile Transformations!

          

Our apologies on the photos this month, we were having a little technical difficulty with the lighting in the room. 

June Meeting: Keeping the Dream Alive - Keys to Agile Sustainability

Note: This interactive workshop will use the full 90 minutes, so please arrive by 6pm.  We will cut the networking time to accomodate the extra time.

Much has been written and discussed about the transition phase of Agile adoptions – forming new teams, learning to work in iterations, scaling to the enterprise level. During the transition there is a focus on learning, engaging experts, and asking “are we doing Agile right?”

But how do we influence what happens after the transition phase is over and Agile becomes the new normal? How do we keep historical patterns of organizational behavior that may be the antithesis of Agile from creeping back in? There are a number of steps we can take during the transition and beyond to improve the odds of remaining Agile over the long term. This workshop explores those considerations.

Don’t let “we are agile” become “we were agile.” You will leave this session with specific actions you can take to help ensure that your dream of Agility does not become a nightmare of backsliding.

Dan Neumann is an independent Agile coach, who holds a CSM and CSP. He is experienced in leading transitions from waterfall to Agile in both small companies and large corporations. His professional experience includes software development and project management experience in a large CPA and consulting firm. Dan has presented on Agile topics at several regional conferences and user communities, and volunteer on the Agile Leadership Network’s national Board of Directors.

 Susan DiFabio is an Agile coach seeking to learn, collaborate, and enable software teams to build great software. She has been part of software development teams for many years, holding many different roles from developer to designer to project manager. She was born with the Agile mindset. After years of feeling like a round peg in a square hole trying to fulfill the role of traditional project manager, Susan was thrilled to discover like-minded people in the Agile community.

When: June 14, 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 Sunday, June 24, 2012 at 12:55AM by Agile Cincinnati

In this interactive meeting we explored our own organizations with Susan and Dan's help.

Dan introduced Schneider Culture Model and specific attributes in each culture type.

 

Then Susan presented pillars of team.

We tried to answer the following questions about our organizations and management.

• Reflect on your organization's management
• How are teams setup for success?
• What are you or your managers doing?
• What could you or they consider doing?

Last Susan discussed various parameters around metrics such as;

• Information vs. Evaluation
• People know they are being monitored
• Process vs. outcome
• Balance
• Trends vs. Targets
• Who is the right audience?

Then we searched for the answers related to metrics in our environment

• Consider a metric to use
• What is its intendend behaviour?
• What potential unintended behaviours could it foster?
• Consider ways to mitigate the unintended behaviours.

 

We had a very participative presentation and good time. Great collaboration. Many thanks to Susan and Dan for sharing their experience with us.

Here's our winners for Atlassian t-shirt and a book from Pearson. Thanks for supporting our community.

Claire Revalee	Pam Mitchell	Eric Landwehr