Agile2019

Abstract:
For seven years, and running fifteen editions, in Brazil, we have been evolving a not-for-profit immersive and educational program through a university-corporate partnership, that has achieved consistent impact on job opportunities for its candidates, promoting the development of 21st-century skills, gender equality, increasing social inclusion and contributing to the local community.
As for today, the program helps 24 students each semester. We receive more than 17 candidates per opening. Our recruiting process is capable of selecting teams where the number of women is greater than the number of men. We are also managing to identify and increase the number of openings reserved to young people coming from socially unfavorable contexts. Each semester, we receive around ten project proposals from real customers, most of them with a firm purpose behind. The program escapes from a lecture-based and prescriptive approach to learning. Through the development of a safe space for making mistakes, participants learn through practice, not only about agile methods, business analysis, lean startup, programming, and testing, to a level that they are ready to pursue professional opportunities in the market, but also about each other, their differences and the importance of respecting those differences.
Interactively, this talk will bring awareness about the obstacles minorities face in the technology sector, and explain the evolution, current stage, and outcomes of the Inclusive Agile Accelerator. In the end, we expect to provide some useful recommendations for aspiring educators and change agents looking for practical advice on how to grow more inclusive environments.

Learning Outcomes:

• Carry out recruiting ideas and practices to improve gender diversity and social inclusion in general.
• Provide practical recommendations and guidelines when implementing similar educational programs.
• Determine the relevance of the results obtained and the feasibility of the educational approach to different contexts.
• Summarize the main challenges and obstacles faced to advance the program further.

Attachments:

• OFFICIAL - The Inclusive Agile Accelerator_ How to Improve Learning and Inclusion in the IT Industry.pdf

Abstract:
The research is compelling—our brains work best when focused on one task at a time. Switching between tasks results in a host of negative consequences—including dramatic losses of productivity, lower quality work, and increased burnout. At the agile team level, scrum masters, product owners, and coaches teach the principles of prioritization, focus, and getting to done.
But what happens when multitasking is built into the culture of an organization? Organizational multitasking happens when the efforts of the organization are divided across multiple work streams. It shows up in the form of competing priorities, high numbers of projects in progress, spreading people too thin, and employee turnover. The cost of organizational multitasking is expensive and devastating.
You know this already? Great! This session is for you. The workshop is focused on how to shift the mindset and culture that leads to organizational multitasking. We will explore the cost of organizational multitasking through science, games, simple illustrations. Participants will walk away with tools to influence change from a portfolio management culture of getting more started to a culture of getting more of the right things done.

Learning Outcomes:

• Translate the science to support the case for more focus, less multitasking at the highest level of the organization.
• Practice creating simple illustrations to explain the cost of multitasking for individuals and organizations.
• Play games! Also, develop skills to play similar games with a leadership team, managers, and team members to shift the organizational mindset that perpetuates multitasking.

Attachments:

• Start Less-Finish More_Agile2019_PDF.pdf
• The Real Costs of Organizational Multitasking_Research_Public.pdf
• Humans are Indivisible Game (Org Multitasking) (1).pdf
• All The Important Things Game (Org Multitasking) (1).pdf

Abstract:
Do you see colleagues getting tunnel vision and fixating on resolving problems or releasing features?
Do you understand the value add to the user (or business) for every item in every release?
Do you have a great quality product but unhappy users?
"If the answer is "yes", then don't wait another minute. Pick up the phone and call..."
You're not alone
Sometimes we need a stimulus or trigger to break us out of the day-to-day and get us looking at a feature or task in a new light. This workshop will share some tools for doing exactly that. These tools are not complex or technical, but fun exercises and games to demonstrate how we can take inspiration from popular culture to breath new life into our work and our teams. For Agile 2019 the inspiration will be:

• Ghost Busters
• Dungeons & Dragons
• David Bowie

Learning Outcomes:

• Techniques for forcing yourself to look at a scenario through a different lens (David Bowie)
• Understanding that 'tunnel vision' is a human condition and not a failing (Ghost Busters)
• Bringing feature requirements to life by having fun with them (Dungeons & Dragons)
• Takeaway instructions for attendees to run these games with their own teams

Abstract:
In this dynamic workshop we will explore the world of value delivery and quality. If done means potentially shippable, valuable, operable, usable and secure we need to do more than just test the code.
All too often I have seen systems developed with great automated testing on the widgets that make up our "Product". I use the quotes around product because I believe we need to look more holistically about how we deliver value in organizations. This is not a new idea, testers have striven to take this approach and when a holistic approach is taken to all aspects of quality our business outcomes are better.
We deliver what we thought was needed in the "Product" but...

• It does not deliver the value we thought because we did not test the value proposition before building.
• It is not optimally usable because we did not test the user experience.
• It has operational issues because we did not test infrastructure, load, performance or other critical operational issues.
• It has documentation but that documentation is not used because we did not test the, need, value, format or accuracy of it.
• It gets delayed or is stopped from production because we did not test our assumptions about, security, governance and risk.

"Your system is perfectly designed to get the results you are getting."
-W Edwards Deming"
We must change the system of product delivery to get the results we want.
This world cafe style will start with an introduction to the topic of value, appropriate quality and testing both value and quality. I will discuss example methods for:

• Testing Value
• Testing Usability and User Experience
• Testing Operations
• Testing the Documentation
• Testing Security, Risk, Audit and Governance

We will then break out into groups around the 5 topics and brainstorm how to ensure quality as early as possible and how we might test even before we build. Participants will rotate through the topics and add greater and greater detail to them as they drill down on the topics.
A readout will follow
For more information on the World Cafe workshop format you can check it out here (http://www.theworldcafe.com/key-concepts-resources/world-cafe-method/).

Learning Outcomes:

• - Testing everything
• - Testing early
• - Testing more than just the code

Attachments:

• Agile2019_Test_Everything.pdf

Abstract:
How can we get better as software designers? By becoming more aware of our design heuristics and continuing to cultivate and refine them. Heuristics aid in design, guide our use of other heuristics, and even determine our attitude and behavior. For example, as agile software developers we value frequent feedback and decomposing larger design problems into smaller, more manageable chunks that we design and test as we go. We each have our own set of heuristics that we have acquired through reading, practice, and experience.
This session introduces simple ways to record design heuristics and how to share them with others. You can grow as a designer by examining and reflecting on the decisions you make and their impacts, becoming more aware of seemingly minor decisions that were more important than you thought, and putting your own spin on the advice of experts. While we may read others’ design advice—be it patterns or stack overflow replies, the heuristics we’ve personally discovered on our own design journey may be even more important.
Come to this hands-on session to try out practical techniques for distilling your design heuristics (so you can explore and explain them to others); learn ways to identify competing heuristics; evaluate shiny new heuristics you may read or hear about; and grow your ability to explain your heuristics to others.

Learning Outcomes:

• Understand 3 different types of design heuristics: heuristics that aid in design, determine our attitude, and guide use of other heuristics
• Learn simple techniques for recording heuristics on the fly (Question-Heuristic-Example Cards, Heuristic Gists)
• Recognize competing heuristics and how to integrate new heuristics into your existing heuristic toolkit

Attachments:

• GrowingYourPersonalDesignHeuristics.pdf

Abstract:
Business Agility has become a buzzword, but what does it really mean and why does it matter? Evan and Shane explore the why, what and some of the how behind the move to take the ideas from the agile manifesto and agile product development and apply them in broader organisational contexts. What does it mean to be agile in Finance or HR, for instance; what is the impact on leadership when everyone in the organisation is empowered and self-organizing (and should they be)?

Learning Outcomes:

• What it means to be agile in Finance or HR
• The impact on leadership

Abstract:
Why today’s agile mindset doesn’t match the agile manifesto. We’ve already evolved, iterated, and improved on it, even though we’ve been afraid to explicitly change it. Let's talk about the new implicit manifesto.

Learning Outcomes:

• The implicit Agile Manifesto

Abstract:
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Learning Outcomes:

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Abstract:
Let's explore how Product Management is essential to an Agile organization in helping to escape the build trap. We'll talk about Melissa's core strategies in her new book, Escaping the Build Trap, that go over how to scale product teams, align strategies, and build an organization that repeatedly delivers value.

Learning Outcomes:

• How to scale product teams, align strategies, and build an organization that repeatedly delivers value.

Abstract:
I am honored to again take a slot on the Stalwarts stage. It's always heart-warming and astounding to me to see this session unfold. I am so gratified when participants share their struggles and thoughts with me in such a public forum. I walk away inspired and younger :-)! I look forward to the experience.

Learning Outcomes:

• I hope that everyone takes away at least one significant item for an experiment.

Abstract:

As the agile movement closes in on two decades, we have much to celebrate: team based agile is the software development norm across the world, adoption of scaled agile methods is growing as well, and business agility is now a thing. In this Age of Agile where we seek to apply agile principles and practices to entire enterprises, can our past be prologue for an amazing future Agile Management revolution?
If so, how can we extend agile from IT teams across business units end-to-end? How can these end-to-end teams operate as platforms for creativity and innovation? How can we unfreeze the middle management layer in our bureaucracies to unleash a post-bureaucratic management revolution? How can executives set organizational clarity and build professional capability to lead us with confidence into an uncertain future? How can these innovations help us raise employee engagement from abysmal depths to soaring heights not just on agile IT teams but across the board? Come join this conversation based session on Agile Management to explore answers to these questions and more. I'm excited to share my thoughts and learn from others as well in our shared agile journey.

Sanjiv is the Founder and CEO of LitheSpeed, LLC and the Agile Leadership Academy. Sanjiv is an entrepreneur, industry-leading agile and lean expert, author, speaker, management consultant, and trainer. As a practicing executive, he has evolved LitheSpeed over the past 12 years with self-management techniques modeled after Morning Star and other leaders in the Teal space. With nearly 30 years in the industry, Sanjiv has served as a trusted advisor to executives and management at leading firms including Capital One, The Capital Group, CNBC, Comcast, Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae, General Dynamics, HCA Healthcare, Huntington Bank, The Motley Fool, National Geographic, Nationwide Insurance, Royal Bank of Canada, Samsung and Walmart.

Learning Outcomes:

•  Based on the questions asked

Abstract:
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Learning Outcomes:

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Abstract:
Tricia Broderick is no stranger to sharing the good, bad and even the ugly when it comes to leading amazing teams. As a member of the Agile Alliance community since 2007, she has been able to apply many of the conference learnings – sometimes wildly successfully and sometimes, well let’s just say with train wreck results. This means this session is a judgement free zone of the highs and lows to leadership. No question is off limits – what skills you need, what habits you have to change, how to deal with existing expectations (status reports!) and processes, what the potential rewards are, biggest challenges, biggest wins…
You ask, we’ll talk.

Learning Outcomes:

• Stalwarts session - Q/A of speaker

Abstract:
We are constantly challenged by the need to change in order to remain competitive. Individuals must shift their habits, teams have to adjust their behaviors, and organizations must update their mindsets. As our access to knowledge becomes easier, it is also getting obsolete at a faster pace. It becomes apparent that in order to learn something new, we need to first get rid of - or, unlearn - something old; and the best way to make shifts is through interactive learning.

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