NEW RECORDING – What They Forgot to Tell You About Agile
Do Agile without sprints? Stop using Story Points? Create a Microsoft project plan for my sprint?
This webinar covers numerous uncommon ways of being Agile, without conforming to the most common Agile practices. You will learn what seasoned Agile teams know – that Agile principles can be supported in numerous ways, not strictly by the practices we usually associate with Agile.
DURATION: 1 hour
Earn PDU’s: 1
SPEAKER: Greg Smith is a seasoned Agile coach and the founder of GS Solutions Group. He is a Certified Scrum Master, Certified Agile Project Manager, and a PMI Agile Certified Practitioner. Read more
Business & Agile Webinar Series Starting (4/17)
As Agile has matured, it also has diverged. That is, there are not only more and more methods, there are more and more mindsets. Some believe a team-centric approach is best, others believe one must start with an enterprise view. Some believe you are best starting with those writing the code, others believe you should start with those deciding what products/features need to be built. Some believe explicit workflows are a slippery slope back to waterfall while others have seen them result in faster than expected learning. Other issues revolve around design, portfolio management, culture, transition methods and more. How can one get to where the trure value of Agile is? How does one adopt Agile in a way that makes sense for their organization? Read more
Pay it Forward: “SCRUM – Values, Foundations, and Practices” in Irvine, CA – 8 PDUs (4/5)
| When: | April 5 , 2013 9:00 AM – 5:00 PM |
| Where: | 2082 Business Center Drive #250 Irvine, CA 92612 |
| Instructor: | Lisa Montaño |
This 1-day course teaches the principles and practices that make Scrum effective at managing projects.The course itself uses the principles of Scrum, where the learning outcome is driven by the needs of the participants through a combination of expert instruction and self-directed learning. Opportunities to reflect and adapt the direction of the course are offered at regular intervals.At the end of the training the participants will have the confidence and understanding to begin to socialize Scrum at their own organization and support teams in improving their processes.
Regular Price – $195
Pay it Forward (Limited to 5 per training) = $95
Click Here for Details and To Register
SAFe Program Consultant Certification – Washington, DC (4/16-19)
On April 16-19, there is a 4-day Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) Program Consultant (SPC) Certification course in Washington, DC. Taught by Colin O’Neill and Alex Yakyma, the course consists of: Leading SAFe, Implementing SAFe, and an optional SPC certification exam.
The course provides the knowledge to lead an enterprise agile transformation by leveraging SAFe and its underlying principles of lean thinking and product development flow. You will understand how the principles and practices of the framework support Agile Teams, Agile Programs, Agile Program Portfolio Management and Agile Architecture.
- Apply lean, agile & product development flow principles to improve productivity, employee engagement, time to market & quality
- Apply SAFe based on lecture, real-world examples & expert insights
- Gain insight into the leadership skill most effective in unlocking the intrinsic motivation of software development knowledge workers & begin applying them in your context
- Implement continuous program improvement
- Introduce the organization to the principles of program portfolio management & agile architecture
- Grow the leadership skills necessary to support the transformation
WHEN: Tuesday, April 16 to Friday, April, 19 from 8:00 am to 5:00 pm
LOCATION: Donovan House, a KIMPTON Hotel, 1155 14th Street NW, Washington, DC 20005, (202) 737-1200
** SAVE $100 & register to win an iPad mini using code: BMC100_ONLY_SPC_DC_APR13_1
** Presented by Scaled Agile Academy, Blue Mercury Consulting & Genesis Consulting
NEW RECORDING – Case Study into Leveraging Scaled Agile Framework™ in Mixed Waterfall and Agile Environments
While the adoption of Agile practices has become more and more prevalent in the industry, it’s clear that many large organizations are often unable to go “all in.” Even as we attempt to isolate initial use of Lean and Agile methods in a “pilot” environment, external forces often exist that prevent a “pure” implementation. Waterfall and Agile/Lean can co-exist.
This Agilista PM webinar will dive into 3 real life situations with mixed Agile/Waterfall environments to show you:
- How Agile projects can align their plans to a Waterfall project when they are not in sync?
- How Waterfall projects can operate within a fixed cadence?
- How to deal with potential issues that may arise in these mixed environments?
- How to know when things are not working and when to make some changes?
33% off Agile Certification Courses (…thru June 15)
Do you want to be an Agile genius? Learn from some experts – CollabNet. CollabNet has more Certified Scrum trainers onstaff than anyone, so you know you’ll be on the path to success. This summer is the perfect time to learn how to use Scrum and Agile and be a leader for your team!
Their Certified training courses (CSM, CSPO, ACP) are perfect for your entire group– ScrumMasters, Product Owners, project managers, developers, testers, and architects will all benefit from the practical, hands-on exercises and small group discussions. You will leave with a thorough understanding of Agile and a clear plan to put it to work to optimize your team’s performance!
For a full listing of courses, go here. This is a great opportunity to get your Scrum certificate and agile training, so don’t miss out! This offer is good through June 15, Click here or visit http://visit.collab.net/swcq212-33off.html to register and take advantage of this offer.
Here are just a few course coming up…
RECORDING – Scaled Agile Framework – Q&A RoundTable with Dean Leffingwell
Listen to a great Q&A Session on the Scaled Agile Framework™ answered by the Scaled Agile Partner team of Dean Leffingwell, Drew Jemilo and Colin O’Neill who are the founders of SAFe. They have been using the framework to scale Agile at clients like BMC, John Deer -while leveraging Scrum, Kanban and XP practices. They explain how you too can leverage SAFe at your organizatino as well.
Questions discussed include:
- Provide an example of how Agile was successfully scaled, size of org, and keys to your success
- Pricing models prevalent in the industry of large Agile transformations
- How to use estimations to build up roadmaps
- Delivering on time without imposing due dates on teams
- Managing teams that are not co-located or even in the same timezone (offshore resources)
- How SAFe enhances quality
- How can scaled Agile be used effectiely with limited resources
- What is the role of PMO and Project Manager in the Scaled Agile Framework?
- and much more….
SPEAKERS: Dean Leffingwell – entrepreneur, executive, author and consulting methodologist who provides agile transformation consulting services to large software enterprises. Dean was the chief methodologist to Rally Software where he focused on the application of agile development methods to large scale software development. Dean also served as Sr. Vice President to Rational Software (now IBM’s Rational Division), where his responsibilities included development and commercialization of the Rational Unified Process (RUP), ClearQuest, RequisitePro and the company’s methodology and product training courses. Dean is the author of several books, Agile Requirements: Lean Requirements Practices for Teams, Programs, and the Enterprise ; Scaling Software Agility: Best Practices for Large Enterprises , and Managing Software Requirements: First and Second Editions.
Drew Jemilo has over 20 years of experience using Agile, Lean, and traditional methodologies in companies ranging from lean startups to global corporations. He has worked in the US and Europe applying technical and leadership experience in Agile program and portfolio management, change management, organizational design, coaching, and training. He has worked with Dean Leffingwell on a large global client to synchronize distributed teams in the US, India and Eastern and Western Europe, with a significant number of mostly independent, yet necessarily cooperative, Agile Release Trains.
Colin O’Neill has been a successful IT consultant for 26 years. He has led and coached numerous organizations in enterprise Agile and Unified Process (UP) systems development and integration efforts, business process re-engineering and improvement, requirements definition, data modeling, object modeling, enterprise architecture, risk management, quality assurance, testing, change & configuration management, system deployment, training, and mentoring. Colin has worked hands-on in every lifecycle phase and discipline. He is known for quickly increasing technical organization efficiency and speeding product delivery.
PDU: 1 *** PDU info is provided in recording ***
COST: Free
NEW RECORDING – Scaling Agile Requirements: User Stories to Agile Portfolio Management
In Dean Leffingwell’s recent webinar on scaling Lean|Agile development, he introduced the Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) <click here for Dean’s recording>. SAFe is a public-facing set of practices which have been used to successfully scale Lean|Agile development to hundreds — and even thousands — of practitioners at companies like BMC Corporation and John Deere.
In this webinar, Drew Jemilo takes you further into the SAFe Enterprise Backlog Model. With more projects starting under Agile than Waterfall, you’ll be managing requirements to quickly and efficiently align strategic business objectives and customer needs with software delivery.
You will gain these valuable insights as we cover the following topics…
- What are best practices for writing team-based User Stories and non-functional Agile requirements?
- How do these scale to the program and portfolio levels?
- How can you work more strategically with upper management to achieve the highest business value for your company and customers?
SPEAKER: Drew Jemilo has over 20 years of experience using Agile, Lean, and traditional methodologies in companies ranging from lean startups to global corporations. He has worked in the US and Europe applying technical and leadership experience in Agile program and portfolio management, change management, organizational design, coaching, and training. He has worked with Dean Leffingwell on a large global client to synchronize distributed teams in the US, India and Eastern and Western Europe, with a significant number of mostly independent, yet necessarily cooperative, Agile Release Trains.
PDU: 1
COST: Free… *** PDU info is provided in the recording ***
** DOWNLOAD SLIDES here
NEW RECORDING – Scaling Lean|Agile Development: Common Myths and Ideologies
Meet the Scaled Agile Framework™
by Dean Leffingwell
Are you tired of the myth that Scrum, XP and Kanban do not scale to the needs of the larger software enterprise? Are you tired of the ideologies that prevent your enterprise from even trying to apply them? If the answer to either of the above is yes, this presentation is for you.
In this presentation, Dean Leffingwell will finally dispel these myths and ideologies by describing the Scaled Agile Framework™, a public-facing set of practices which have been used to successfully scale Lean|Agile development to hundreds—and even thousands—of practitioners at companies like BMC Corporation, John Deere and others.
He’ll describe five key scaling mechanisms:
• SCALING VALUE: Not everything is a User Story
• SCALING DESIGN: Complex systems require intentional architecture.
• SCALING TEAM AND TIMEBOX: Aligning teams to a common mission with the Agile Release Train
• SCALING PORTFOLIO MANAGEMENT: Addressing legacy mindsets
• SCALING LEADERSHIP: Your enterprise can be no leaner than your executives thinking.
However, since simply making Agile things bigger does not necessarily keep a system lean, Leffingwell will describe how the framework…
a) keeps work in process visible and limited,
b) keeps backlogs and queues short,
c) uses cadence and synchronization to manage variability and align teams to a common mission, and
d) applies system-level continuous integration to facilitate fast customer feedback.
SPEAKER: Dean Leffingwell is an entrepreneur, executive, author and consulting methodologist who provides agile transformation consulting services to large software enterprises. Dean was the chief methodologist to Rally Software where he focused on the application of agile development methods to large scale software development. Dean also served as Sr. Vice President to Rational Software (now IBM’s Rational Division), where his responsibilities included development and commercialization of the Rational Unified Process (RUP), ClearQuest, RequisitePro and the company’s methodology and product training courses. Dean is the author of several books, Agile Requirements: Lean Requirements Practices for Teams, Programs, and the Enterprise ; Scaling Software Agility: Best Practices for Large Enterprises , and Managing Software Requirements: First and Second Editions.
PDU: 1 *** PDU info is provided in the recording ***
COST: Free
To play recording Click Here
NEW BOOK – The Scrum Field Guide “Practical Advice for Your First Year”
The Scrum Field Guide (by Mitch Lacey) is meant to help you fine-tune your own implementation, navigate some of the unfamiliar terrain, and more easily scale the hurdles we all encounter along the way.
Who Should Read This Book
If you are thinking about getting starting with Scrum or agile, are at the beginning of your journey, or if you have been at it a year or so but feel like you’ve gotten lost along the way, this book is for you. I’m officially targeting companies that are within six months of starting a project to those that are a year into their implementation, an 18-month window.
This is a book for people who are pragmatic. If you want theory and esoteric discussions, grab another of the many excellent books on Scrum and agile. If, on the other hand, you want practical advice and real data based on my experience running projects both at Microsoft and while coaching teams and consulting at large Fortune 100 companies, this book fits the bill.
Read more
Let’s Connect!
My Speaking Engagements …..
-Feb 28: PMI Agile CoP: Agile Estimation 102
-Apr 18: TOYOTA HQ: Start Using Agile|Lean in your Projects Today
-Nov 10: HOW TO PLAN, MANAGE, and TRACK ITERATIONS (ProjectTimes)
-Dec 16: DEALING WITH THE TOP 10 ISSUES DURING & AFTER AN ITERATION (ProjectTimes)
-Jan 13: AGILE REQUIREMENT GATHERING & DOCUMENTATION - BEYOND USER STORIES (ProjectTimes)
-Feb 10: DEALING WITH THE TOP 10 ISSUES IN AGILE ADOPTION (ProjectTimes)
Some Agile User-Groups and Links…
