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[South Meeting] Thursday May 17th – Introduction to Agile Visual Modeling

Where:
Infusionsoft    (Google Map)
2065 W. Obispo Ave.
Gilbert, AZ 85233

Agenda:
6:00 -  Registration (Infusionsoft providing Food and Drink)
6:20 -  Announcements and topic selection
6:30 -  Begin the “Introduction to Agile Visual Modeling”
8:00 -  Announcements

PLEASE REGISTER – If you are already a member of the Phoenix Scrum User’s Group, you have already received an email about this event, just select the “Registration Link” in that email.  If you’ve not received that email, please sign-up (on the right), and we’ll get it out to you!!

Topic Overview:

The intent behind this topic is to raise the level of awareness when it comes to the importance of visual modeling to agile product (system-software) development. I believe visual modeling has become a lost art and is in need of resurgence in order to help folks get the most out of applying the Scrum framework, four agile values and 12 principles, and iterative/incremental system-software development.
The main objectives of this topic are:

  1. Gain a common high-level understanding of the facets of visual modeling, its value to agile product (system-software) development, and what’s in it for you;
  2. Develop skill creating visual models with hands-on exercises;
  3. Identify your interest level in moving forward with learning more and developing skill.

Speaker Bio:

Russell Pannone is the founder of We Be Agile, the Agile Lean Phoenix User Group, and the Agile Lean Enterprise Adoption Lead and Coach at US Airways. With over thirty years of system-software development and delivery experience, Russell’s focus is working side-by-side with folks on real projects to help them deliver valuable system-software to production early and often.  He gives those with whom he collaborates the best opportunity to beat the competition to market, realize revenue, and discover insights that can foster improvement.

Slide Deck

Introduction to Agile Visual Modeling

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By Perry Reinert – May 11, 2012

[NORTH METING] Tuesday, May 1st – Retrospectives: Best Practices, Common Problems and New Ideas

NOTE:  This is a North Meeting held at UTI (NOT Infusionsoft).

Where: UTI (Google Map)

16220 N Scottsdale Rd., Ste, 100
Scottsdale, AZ 85254

Agenda:
6:00 – Registration
6:20 – Announcements
6:30 – Begin “Retrospectives: Best Practices, Common Problems and New Ideas”
8:00 – Closing Remarks

PLEASE REGISTER - If you are already a member of the Phoenix Scrum User’s Group, you have already received an email about this event, just select the “Registration Link” in that email. If you’ve not received that email, please sign-up (on the right), and we’ll get it out to you!!

Topic:  Retrospectives:  Best Practices, Common Problems, and New Ideas

Retrospectives: Best Practices, Common Problems and New Ideas
Learn how to get the most out of your retrospectives using best practices, avoiding common problems and adopting new techniques.
Learn how to get the most out of your retrospectives using best practices, avoiding common problems and adopting new techniques.
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Speaker Bio:  Clayton Lengel-Zigich

Clayton is an Agile Practitioner with Integrum Technologies in Chandler, Arizona. He helps teams unlock innovation, enhance creativity, self-organize and become high-performing. A Certified Scrum Master, Certified Scrum Product Owner and Certified Scrum Practitioner, he also enjoys learning, exploring and improving agile techniques and practices.

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By Perry Reinert – April 24, 2012

[South Meeting] Thursday April 19th – Park Bench Chat…The Hard Questions

Where:
Infusionsoft    (Google Map)
2065 W. Obispo Ave.
Gilbert, AZ 85233

Agenda:
6:00 -  Registration (Infusionsoft providing Food and Drink)
6:20 -  Announcements and topic selection
6:30 -  Begin the “Park Bench Chat…”
8:00 -  Announcements

PLEASE REGISTER - If you are already a member of the Phoenix Scrum User’s Group, you have already received an email about this event, just select the “Registration Link” in that email.  If you’ve not received that email, please sign-up (on the right), and we’ll get it out to you!!

Topic Overview:

The Agile Manifesto contains a set of values and principles.  It doesn’t tell you specifically what to do, just what your doing should provide.  Scrum is a framework with important things to do but not very many.  So when doing your work does not seem to fit Scrum or provide the Agile benefits, hard questions come up.  It’s the hard questions that bring the big benefits.  So, this meeting, we will confront the hard questions that you bring to see if great answers can be found.  Bring your hard questions to the meeting.  We’ll discuss various solutions, and audience members will also get a chance to “sit on the bench” and provide their input as well.  Here are a few questions to help get you started thinking of your own questions:

“When we have defects from previous Sprints we just write them as stories and put them on the backlog.  But we are not working on these defects.  What should we do with them so that they are handled?”
“Our one team maintains 14 products along with the work to develop 4 new products.  Requests come from all sides.  How do we get some focus and produce value for all of this stuff?”
“Our department has 10 teams using Scrum.  We do our Product Backlog estimates in Story Points and that seems to work, mostly.  But now we want to estimate the total amount of work our entire department can do.  And one team’s “3″ points might equal another team’s “8″ points.  How do we do this total department estimating?  Do we need a big 50+ person meeting?”
  • “We have only one UI designer for three Scrum teams.  How do we integrate her work with multiple teams?”
  • “When we have defects from previous Sprints we just write them as stories and put them on the backlog.  But we are not working on these defects.  What should we do with them so that they are handled?”
  • “Our one team maintains 14 products along with the work to develop 4 new products.  Requests come from all sides.  How do we get some focus and produce value for all of this stuff?”
  • “Our department has 10 teams using Scrum.  We do our Product Backlog estimates in Story Points and that seems to work, mostly.  But now we want to estimate the total amount of work our entire department can do.  And one team’s “3″ points might equal another team’s “8″ points.  How do we do this total department estimating?  Do we need a big 50+ person meeting?”

The following three people will start off “on the bench”, and as audience members want to contribute, they’ll be able to come up and “take a a seat”.

Speaker Bio:  Derek Neighbors

Derek Neighbors is a serial entrepreneur who helps people bring ideas to reality. Derek co-founded Gangplank, a collaborative workspace, in 2008 to help encourage local creatives to explore innovative ideas and create what they are passionate about.  He is a partner at Integrum Technologies, a consulting services firm, that helps companies build high performing teams to compete in the new economy.

Speaker Bio:  Clayton Lengel-Zigich

Clayton Lengel-Zigich is an Agile Practitioner with Integrum Technologies in Chandler, Arizona. He helps teams unlock innovation, enhance creativity, self-organize and become high-performing. A Certified Scrum Master, Certified Scrum Product Owner and Certified Scrum Practitioner, he also enjoys learning, exploring and improving agile techniques and practices.

Speaker Bio:  Perry Reinert

Perry Reinert is currently the Director of Development at Infusionsoft. His responsibilities include creating technical excellence in software development using agile practices (including Scrum). Previously, Perry has taught classes at ASU, worked at Orbital Sciences Corporation, and worked with Cisco Systems on large-scale e-learning projects. Perry has done extensive consulting and has had engagements with companies such as General Dynamics, Burr-Brown, Double-Tree Hotels, and Texas Instruments. Perry helped co-found the Phoenix Scrum User’s Group.

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By Perry Reinert – April 11, 2012

[North Meeting] Tuesday, April 3 – Release Planning Overview – Challenges and Nuggets

NOTE:  This is a North Meeting held at UTI (NOT Infusionsoft).

Where: UTI (Google Map)
16220 N Scottsdale Rd., Ste, 100
Scottsdale, AZ 85254

Agenda:
6:00 – Registration
6:20 – Announcements
6:30 – Begin “Release Planning Overview – Challenges and Nuggets”
8:00 – Closing Remarks

PLEASE REGISTER - If you are already a member of the Phoenix Scrum User’s Group, you have already received an email about this event, just select the “Registration Link” in that email. If you’ve not received that email, please sign-up (on the right), and we’ll get it out to you!!

Topic:  Release Planning Overview – Challenges and Nuggets

The first part of this session will provide a general overview of agile release planning. During this part of the session, we will 1) quickly bring newcomers up to speed, and also 2) provide a common base of knowledge for the group. Once this is done, we’ll switch to a more interactive mode – we’ll discuss specific “Challenges” with release planning, and we’ll then in-turn discuss some “Nuggets”. I’ll also bring a few specific challenges and nuggets that I’ve uncovered.
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Speaker Bio:  Perry Reinert

Perry Reinert is currently the Director of Development at Infusionsoft. His responsibilities include creating technical excellence in software development using agile practices (including Scrum). Previously, Perry has taught classes at ASU, worked at Orbital Sciences Corporation, and worked with Cisco Systems on large-scale e-learning projects. Perry has done extensive consulting and has had engagements with companies such as General Dynamics, Burr-Brown, Double-Tree Hotels, and Texas Instruments. Perry helped co-found the Phoenix Scrum User’s Group.

Posted in Meeting Announcements, North Meeting.

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By Alan Dayley – March 22, 2012

Thursday, March 15th – Hands-on Agile Workshop

Where:
Infusionsoft    (Google Map)
2065 W. Obispo Ave.
Gilbert, AZ 85233

Agenda:
6:00 -  Registration (Infusionsoft providing Food and Drink)
6:20 -  Announcements and topic selection
6:30 -  Begin “Hands-on Agile Workshop”
8:00 -  Announcements

PLEASE REGISTER - If you are already a member of the Phoenix Scrum User’s Group, you have already received an email about this event, just select the “Registration Link” in that email.  If you’ve not received that email, please sign-up (on the right), and we’ll get it out to you!!

Topic Overview:

Agile teams (many times) are formed well after the “project initiation” phase.  This hands-on meeting we’ll explore creating a new smart phone application from the beginning (market snapshot) through to the creation of initial User Stories.  I can guarantee two things:

  1. We will have fun.
  2. There will be more than a few ideas that we will want to carry forward and develop.

Speaker Bio:  Catherine Louis

Catherine’s focus is on helping organizations transition from traditional (waterfall) project-driven governance to adopting Agile/Scrum in a Lean, continuous flow framework. Her focus is not just on the R&D development teams, rather it is on the end-to-end flow from the “idea” phase at the front-end of development, through to full support of large, multi-customer based established products involving Channel Partners, Supply Management, Operations and Offshore partners.    Catherine has over 20 years of software development experience in complex product development in large telecommunication firms. Her focus is on Agile methods, Agile R&D, and managing organizational Agile transitions: Enabling change to build speed and flexibility in business.  She can be reached at: cll at cll-group dot com.

Speaker Bio:  Mike Vizdos

Mike is an experienced agile coach, Certified ScrumTrainer, speaker, and author. In addition to working with clients converting to more iterative and incremental methodologies (including one of the largest enterprise agile rollouts to date), he is the creator of the website www.implementingscrum.com. He conducts international agile coaching and training sessions along with speaking at many users groups and conferences about real-world agile experiences. His preference is to work with clients on a short-term basis, no matter where they are in the adoption change-curve.

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By Perry Reinert – March 2, 2012

Scrumtisch #3 – Tuesday, February 21st

Where:
Havana Cafe
6245 East Bell Road
Scottsdale, AZ 85245 (Google Maps)

Agenda: 6:00 – 8:00 Talk about whatever comes up.   For more information on the format of a Scrumtisch (from “Stammtisch”), click here.

PLEASE REGISTER - If you are already a member of the Phoenix Scrum User’s Group, you have already received an email about this event, just select the “Registration Link” in that email. If you’ve not received that email, please sign-up (on the right), and we’ll get it out to you!!

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By Perry Reinert – February 16, 2012

Thursday, February 16th – Topic Tables

When: Thursday - February 16, 2012 (6:00pm – 8:00pm)

Where:
Infusionsoft    (Google Map)
2065 W. Obispo Ave.
Gilbert, AZ 85233

Agenda:
6:00 -  Registration (Infusionsoft providing Food and Drink)
6:20 -  Announcements and topic selection
6:30 -  Begin “Topic Tables”
8:00 -  Announcements

PLEASE REGISTER - If you are already a member of the Phoenix Scrum User’s Group, you have already received an email about this event, just select the “Registration Link” in that email.  If you’ve not received that email, please sign-up (on the right), and we’ll get it out to you!!

Topic Overview:

We’ve done this twice before, and it worked so well, that we’re doing it again.  We’ll begin the meeting by brainstorming on some Agile/Scrum topics.  We’ll all vote and select between 3-5 discussion topics.   Then, we’ll assign each discussion topic to a table – hence the name “table topics” :-) .  The group will split up, and people will sit at whichever topic table interests them.  Everyone at the table will talk about the specified topic for a fixed period of time (e.g., 25 min).  After the time limit, people shift to another topic.  That’s it – simple, fun, friendly, and informative!  The topics will be whatever we decide at the meeting, so bring your favorite troublesome topic or question.   Depending on the number or people participating, we’ll probably end up around 3-5 “Topic Tables”, and 20-30 minutes per topic.  That will give everyone a chance to rotate through several discussions.

Special Note: Are you new to agile/scrum?  Well, do NOT skip this meeting thinking “I don’t know enough”.  This meeting format is a particularly great way to meet experienced people and capitalize on their experience.  Topic Tables are good for newcomers as well as experienced “agilists”.  Everyone gets exposed to multiple topics, many viewpoints, and tons of experience all in a single night.

Speaker Bio:

No dedicated “speaker” – just members talking about all the hot topics!!!

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By Alan Dayley – February 10, 2012

Meeting Slides – Measuring Agility

Click the link below to download the .pdf of the slides es from the Measuring Agility meeting:

020712_Larry

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By Perry Reinert – February 10, 2012

Tuesday, Feb 7th – Measuring Agility

NOTE:  This meeting will be held at UTI (NOT Infusionsoft).

Where: UTI (Google Map)
16220 N Scottsdale Rd., Ste, 100
Scottsdale, AZ 85254

Agenda:
6:00 – Registration
6:20 – Announcements
6:30 – Begin “Measuring Agility”
8:00 – Closing Remarks

PLEASE REGISTER - If you are already a member of the Phoenix Scrum User’s Group, you have already received an email about this event, just select the “Registration Link” in that email. If you’ve not received that email, please sign-up (on the right), and we’ll get it out to you!!

Topic:  Measuring Agility

How do you measure your agility?  How can you show progress as you progress from new to higher performing team?  How does your scrum team stack up with others?  How do you find out what things you need to improve?

Easy and powerful, two different methods of assessment will be discussed along with real-world examples.

Speaker Bio:  Larry Apke

Larry is a Certified Scrum Master at Early Warning Services.  He has over 5 year’s real-world experience as a scrum master and software development manager and over 15 years of IT experience with his own company and other companies.

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By Perry Reinert – January 29, 2012

Two Meetings this Month!!!

Just to be clear, we are having TWO meetings this month.  Notice the next two posts:

  • Scrumtisch #2, casual meeting about anything at Bar (Carlos Obrien’s):  January 24th
  • Scrum and Kanban, monthly general meeting at Infusionsoft:  January 19th (third Thursday)

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By Perry Reinert – January 18, 2012