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Upcoming Agile Events

05/16 :  Emergent Design for Agile development – 6pm @ Infusionsoft [South Meeting]
05/23 : Agile Lean Coffee 7am @ Paradise Bakery 101/Ray
06/04 : TBD – 6pm @Axosoft [North Meeting]
06/17 : CSM Certification by MikeVizdos and Catherine Lewis (2 days - click HERE for $200 discount!)
06/19 : CSPO Certification by Catherine Lewis and Mike Vizdos (2 days – click HERE for $200 discount!)
10/25 : QA Southwest Conference 2013 All Day @ University of Advancing Technology [Paid Event]

Recurring PHXSUG Events: 
1st Tuesday of the month – North Meeting
3rd Thursday of the month – South Meeting
4th Thursday of the month – Agile Lean Coffee

Posted in Meeting Announcements.


[South Meeting] 05/16/13 – Emergent Design for Agile Development

Where:
Infusionsoft    (Google Map)
1260 S. Spectrum Blvd.
Chandler, AZ 85286

Agenda:

6:00 -  Registration (Infusionsoft providing Food and Drink)
6:20 -  Announcements and topic selection
6:30 -  Begin “Emergent Design for Agile development”
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:  Emergent Design for Agile development

Emergent design enables efficient development of Product Increments without compromising quality. Teams that continue to use old design methods, follow Scrum rituals but fail to be really Agile. This presentation discusses different techniques of iterative development where the design “Emerges” as the development proceeds. We will exchange ideas on how to be really “Agile”, vs. just being iterative; how to start development without a extensive design phase.

Speaker Bio:  Anurag Prakash

Anurag started as a programmer with Intel Corp. in Chandler in 1999. Over the years he worked in various development, validation and tech marketing roles. He has been interested in Agile since 2008 and has been involved with Scrum teams in various capacities; as a team member, Scrum Master & Scrum Coach. Currently Anurag is a Scrum Coach at American express helping the transition to Agile.

Posted in Meeting Announcements.


Agile Lean Coffee Recap – 4/24/2013

We had two groups today.

Group One

Should each sprint have a goal other than completing all the work?
When a team commits to getting all the work done is that enough? What if the work doesn’t really matter? Should they be setting a bigger goal. This may allow the team to negotiate success during the sprint or better prioritize the work or the approach. Additionally, goals from retrospectives are good for improvement of the team.

Teams out of balance
What do you do when you have a team that doesn’t have the right skill set, personality makeup or knowledge set to be effective. Lots of discussion about how team was formed. Additionally, tuckman model on letting teams go through the process. If teams self selected and are storming best to get the team to deal with issues directly instead of saving them which generally just shifts the problem.

Co-creation
How do you operate if you aren’t doing a bunch of upfront design and are doing everything during planning? Discussion about going to lower fidelity design, using design frameworks/standards, involving developers as part of the design process. Good product ownership necessary as well as healthy planning meetings.

Product owner vs Product manager
Who is in charge of what and what happens when they are not in sync? Talked a lot about there needs to be a single voice of direction to the team. That the product manager really should be setting the course for the product and product owner, but should be fairly hands off after that.

Mortgage driven development “mindsets”
How do you deal with some team members resenting other members for not being passionate. Really discussed that more often than not this is a lack of bigger vision the product existing. Also that people have different mindsets fixed vs growth and talked about Carol book Mindset.

The incremental rewrite / The big rewrite
Technical debt often leads to the big rewrite. Despite all the bad press, the most concerning thing is thinking those that haven’t learned how to pay down debt would actually not create significant new debt just by starting over. The converse being that the incremental rewrite often leads to very little innovation as it doesn’t deal with feature parity bias at all.

Track performance metrics at the individual level / Decisions based on data
Should we be tracking individual performance on teams. Codermetrics by Jonathan Alexander discussed.

Topics not discussed.
Scaling agile WTF
Remote teams does it work
Communities of practice
Best way to curate Kanban backlog
How do we determine the team/process is getting better
Backlog grooming

Group Two

1. Inspiring team who aren’t interested in improvement
How are you measuring improvement? How do you celebrate the teams accomplishments?

2. Ceceding from the union
1 and 2 where posed as separate discussion points but the group agreed that they both deal with the same core issue of team identity and unity. This discussion focused on shared team values as a way to encourage the team to have a shared value system.

Exploratory/R&D and agile
This team is moving from a product focused charter to one of exploratory or R&D charter. The group discussed using Lean Canvas as a framework for organizing and that having clear business problems that the team should solve to provide focus.

Space constraint pair programming environments
Are you conference room constrained? If not, make it a project room to facilitate pair programming. In the end, the space, and equipment, that the team utilizes needs to match the pairing goal.

Talking to real users
Talking to real users can happen at any time. This means that you may need to reach out to your contacts for input, chance meetings with the public may lead to learning opportunities. Strong product management will lead the effort to interface with your users to learn their likes/needs/areas of improvement. The group discussed the value of usability studies as a means for understanding users. One participant suggested setting up a teaching seminar where users and developers work side by side. The developers act as experts/trainers to the customers. In the interchange, devs learn what areas of the app users have problems.

Good Interview Questions for Agile
Agile in itself is a pretty broad topic. Are we hiring for agile or the characteristics that demonstrate a contributor that is a constant learner. The following where two questions that could be used to illustrate to candidates learning profile:

  • Tell me how you helped someone else complete a task/project?
  • Tell the candidate that they have 5 minutes to teach a topic/subject they are passionate about. The timer starts when the candidate starts to speak.

Help my people deal w/feeling vulnerable due to influx of new talent
Lots of conversation regarding pairing the new talent with the existing staff to illustrate the new hires willingness to teach. Question asked about the existing staff fears: is a loss of recognition, status? The group discussed open vs. closed learners (those with fixed skills – don’t want to change, those willing – open to learn).

Rewriting to compete
Is it possible to rewrite an application not for feature parity but to compete head-to-head? There are some inherent risks with this approach, namely, maintaining two different versions of an application. The team discussed lifting an existing application to provide immediate benefits to users. In short, interesting concept but no one had any practical ideas on how this would work.

Cross team collaboration best methods:
In a world of distributed teams, how do we foster collaboration? One of the most fascinating solutions was creating an always active electronic connection/”window” between distributed teams. A group member shared a story where distributed teams had a work area with a window that featured a continuously open video conference type setup. Team members could use the window to hold impromptu discussions.

Is using a Kanban board at home for the family healthy?
The group explored the pros/cons of using a Kanban or Scrum in a family environment. Stories were shared where an Agile approach becomes the butt of family jokes (b/c we are bringing work home in a very literal sense) or can helps foster communication within the family.

Topics not discussed.
Exploratory testing
How to wean a VP off a fixation on specific metrics
Reason why agile fails
Best electronic communcation tool for cross site teams

Posted in Meeting Reviews.


[North Meeting] 05/07/13 – Ecosystem for Enterprise Agility – A Coaching Tool

UPDATE: The diagrams used by Skip in this presentation are available in this 12.5MB Zip archive.

 

Where:  *** IMPORTANT:  LOCATION CHANGE ***
Axosoft    (Google Map)
13835 North Northsight Boulevard #205
Scottsdale, AZ 85260

Agenda:
6:00 pm -  Registration ( providing Food and Drink)
6:20 pm -  Announcements and topic selection
6:30 pm -  Begin the “Ecosystem for Enterprise Agility – A Coaching Tool”
8:00 pm –  Wrap-up

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:  Ecosystem for Enterprise Agility – A Coaching Tool 

Scrum and Kanban has been widely used for product development. However, as frameworks they only touch the surface on what it takes to achieve agility in an organization. After several years of helping larger organizations achieve greater levels of agility as an Agile coach, patterns have emerged in where to focus at the team, product and organizational levels. These patterns form an ecosystem in which a coach can use as a guide to determine where to help the organization gain the capacity and capabilities needed for change. As a coach, I am using the model to better understand what the system of “organizational agility” is like.  Current models or thoughts around agile transformation haven’t provided me as a coach the ability to learn, make hypothesis and evolve the model based on learning.  It also doesn’t provide a vision of what an agile organization may look like based on our current knowledge. We need this to better help client organizations understand the gap of where they are and where they could be. It is my hope in sharing this model is that other coaches find ways to take the model and extend their understanding of what we can do to truly transform the companies they are working with. 

Presenter Bio:    Skip Angel

Skip Angle photoSkip Angel is a Principal Agile Coach and Certified Scrum Coach for BigVisible Solutions, a coaching and enablement consultancy. Skip has 25 years of experience in software development in a variety of roles including Chief Technology Officer. He provides thought leadership, training, and coaching to new and experienced teams interested in agile practices including Lean, Scrum, and Extreme Programming (XP). As an external coach and trainer, Skip has provided public and private courses to all sizes of product development and IT organizations. He has also been an embedded coach for pilot teams and enterprise transformation efforts across multiple local and distributed teams across US and India.

Posted in Meeting Announcements, North Meeting.

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[South Meeting] 4/18/2013 – Gamification – Bring Fun and Engagement to Work

Where:  (New Location)
Infusionsoft    (Google Map)
1260 S. Spectrum Blvd.
Chandler, AZ 85286

IMPORTANT NOTEInfusionsoft has moved. This meeting is at Infusionsoft’s new location and new building! Be sure to checkout the new address above.

Agenda:
6:00 -  Registration (Infusionsoft providing Food and Drink)
6:20 -  Announcements and topic selection
6:30 -  Begin the “Gamification – Bring Fun and Engagement to work”
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:  Gamification – Bring Fun and Engagement to work

Games are fun, engaging and addictive. Playing games can be a ticket to Nirvanaland. Games have elements that motivate you, keep you engaged for consistently long hours and immerse you in fun. If you’ve played World of Warcraft, Farmville or Angry Birds – you know that very well. It isn’t by coincidence, game designers know the secrets to repeatedly deliver this experience.

On the other hand if you look at the corporate world, most corporates are struggling to fully engage their employees. Most work if not all, can be monotonous, boring and taxing. The customer loyalty is fleeting as well and the product designers need a new strategy to engage the customers.

Can organizations benefit from what game designers know? In this session, Kamlesh Ravlani will introduce us to Gamification – the application of game elements and game design in non-game context. He’ll discuss recent industry trends, some real world applications of Gamification, draw the connection with games and take us through the considerations to gamify a system.

Let’s collectively explore, what does it take to bring fun and engagement to work?

Speaker Bio:  Kamlesh Ravlani (www.twitter.com/k_ravlani)

Kamlesh is a Scrum practitioner and an Agile coach. He collaborates with Agile coaches worldwide to advance the Agile adoption and practices. In recent years, he has been learning and experimenting creative and sustainable ways to improve Agility of large size teams.

Posted in Meeting Announcements.


[North Meeting] 04/02/13 – Watering Agile for Executive Communication

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

Agenda:
6:00 -  Registration (UTI providing Food and Drink)
6:20 -  Announcements
6:30 -  Begin the “Watering Agile for Executive Communication”
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:  Watering Agile for Executive Communication

Agile Project Management has quickly emerged as a very popular methodology in the software development arena.  While widely accepted by team members and project managers, executives are generally reluctant to accept this methodology due to myths and lack of understanding.  This presentation will arm Agile Project Managers with the rationalization and artifacts necessary to turn any executive into an Agile advocate.

Attendees will learn how Agile and Waterfall methodologies differ, and in many ways how they are alike.  This will include waterfall and PMI strategies that have been inaccurately implemented over the years leading to the Agile Revolution.  The culmination of the presentation will include topics and education that any Agile practitioner can use to communicate the Agile value to any executive that bleeds Waterfall through and through.

Speaker Bio:  Mike Ulichny

Mike Ulichny has been a Program Manager in the software development arena for over a decade.  He has lead Agile/Scrum Programs with over $14 million in effort costs and has over 75 Agile/Scrum projects in his portfolio of successful projects.  He is one of 600 PMI Certified Agile Practitioners in the world and specializes in managing Programs with Agile and Waterfall projects.  Michael is an Agile/Scrum advocate and Waterfall apologists that uses his experience in both methodologies to ensure solutions are delivered on time and on budget.

Posted in Meeting Announcements.


[South Meeting] 3/21/13 – Strategic Play and other Facilitation Fun

Where:  (New Location)
Infusionsoft    (Google Map)
1260 S. Spectrum Blvd.
Chandler, AZ 85286

IMPORTANT NOTE: Infusionsoft has moved. This meeting is at Infusionsoft’s new location and new building! Be sure to checkout the new address above.

Agenda:
6:00 -  Registration (Infusionsoft providing Food and Drink)
6:20 -  Announcements and topic selection
6:30 -  Begin the “Strategic Play and other Facilitation Fun”
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: Strategic Play and other Facilitation Fun

This will be an experiential introduction to a variety of facilitation tools and activities. We will play and experiment with some tools, share experiences and discuss when and how they might be applied throughout the agile process. You will leave with ideas and activities that you can immediately utilize.

Speaker Bio:  Tamara Christensen

Tamara Christensen, founder of Idea Farm, is committed to cultivating creativity, harvesting ideas, and unearthing innovation through training, facilitation and research. Combining an immersive understanding of design research, pedagogy and the practical realities of 21st century business, Tamara demonstrates collaborative leadership across multiple disciplines and fosters fruitful cross-functional relationships. In a recent survey of those in the know, Tamara was described as a hotpot, a glass of prosecco, an Energizer bunny, a sharpie, and a whirling dervish. She is particularly fond of bold gestures, sticky notes, belly laughs, inventing acronyms, and singtalking.

 

Posted in Meeting Announcements.


Agile Lean Coffee – Monthly Morning Meetup

User Groups are a great way to meet new people and learn new things about topics you enjoy.  Phoenix Scrum User Group (PHXSUG) has been expanding, offering a North meeting (Scottsdale) in addition to its South meeting (Chandler).  Along with the great evening offerings, there will now be a morning event in a different format.  We will use the Lean Coffee format that encourages discussion of many topics in a rapid-fire and focused way.

Do you want to be better at what you do? Are you using Agile or Lean and hungry for deeper conversation? Need your questions answered or just want to talk about how you can get better or change your organization for the better? Join us for Agile Lean Coffee. We will be using a Lean Coffee format to collect ideas and have rapid fire discussion.

When: Thursday April 25th @ 7:00am
Where: Paradise Bakery (101 and Ray Road)

Posted in Meeting Announcements.


[North Meeting] 03/05/13 – Agile Open Northwest Recap

Where:  *** IMPORTANT:  LOCATION CHANGE ***
Axosoft    (Google Map)
13835 North Northsight Boulevard #205
Scottsdale, AZ 85260

Agenda:
6:00 pm -  Registration ( providing Food and Drink)
6:20 pm -  Announcements and topic selection
6:30 pm -  Begin the “Agile Open Northwest Recap”
8:00 pm –  Wrap-up

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:  Agile Open Northwest Recap 

I’ll share what I learned, heard, witnessed and experienced at the recent Agile Open conference in Portland, Oregon. We’ll also take some time to learn about the Lean Coffee meeting format and use Lean Coffee to discuss a list of topics generated by the group.

Presenter 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.

Posted in Meeting Announcements.


[South Meeting] 2/21/13 – Team Interactions and the Five Dysfunctions of a Team

Where:  (New Location)
Infusionsoft    (Google Map)
1260 S. Spectrum Blvd.
Chandler, AZ 85286

IMPORTANT NOTE: Infusionsoft has moved. This meeting is the first meeting from Infusionsoft’s new location and new building! Be sure to checkout the new address above.  For this first meeting, we have a great speaker on very applicable and relevant topic. We’ll be giving away multiple books, and of course we’ll have food and “refreshments”. Come check out our new building and hear a great talk about what makes teams great!

Agenda:
6:00 -  Registration (Infusionsoft providing Food and Drink)
6:20 -  Announcements
6:30 -  Begin the talk
8:00 -  Wrap up

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 have not received that email, please sign-up (on the right), and we’ll get it out to you!!

Topic:  Team Interactions and the Five Dysfunctions of a Team – Michael Lorsch Presenting

Michael Lorsch, a Principal Consultant at The Table Group, the firm of best-selling author Patrick Lencioni, will make the point that real teamwork remains the ultimate competitive  advantage, both because it is so powerful and so rare.  Based on Lencioni’s perennial best-seller, The Five Dysfunctions of a Team (2002), Michael’s vast experience with teams from all areas of business provides rich conversations that  uncover the common dysfunctions that cause serious problems for teams and leads to unhealthy organizations. Audience members will leave the session excited about the five dysfunctions model, and will have absorbed practical tools designed to overcome the dysfunctions and transform their teams into functional, high performing units. This will be a fun, fast-paced, and interactive program that motivates audience members to begin dealing head-on with the five dysfunctions to gain greater advantage against competitors.

Posted in Meeting Announcements, South Meeting.