The presentation is a case study of how Agile (Scrum/Kanban) can be applied to business development (BD).

Business Development is about managing increasing amounts of investment or determining where to invest. Agile business development is about learning, failing and succeeding quickly in this process. This talk presents a case study from the presenter's personal experience in coaching, training and mentoring 6 BD teams how to apply Agile to their work. 

The case study will cover how the following challenges of applying Agile to BD activities were addressed:

• How do you define a Release?
• How to do release planning?
• How to define Sprint goals?
• Do we write User Stories? 
• Do we size the stories?
• Do we calculate velocity?
• How do you do Sprint planning?
• Do we need a Scrum Master? Who should play this role?
• What is the right duration of a Sprint?

Agile scaling models tend to be based on scenarios where 5 - 10 agile teams are working on the same project/program/product/value stream.   The scaling models provide some good ways of organizing the work that needs to be done to plan, synchronize and demonstrate the outputs of the teams.  This case study describes the path of a development group that has 10-12 teams working on about 50 different software "products and services" within a reasonably narrow-focused energy company.  The case study describes how they went about paring down the SAFe model to meet their needs and then prioritizing the scaled-back scaling transformation using group inputs to a weighted shortest job first exercise.

Situation A: Your team is great. You’ve met all your sprint goals and your Product Owner is pleased with the results to date. Yeah!

Situation B: Your team sucked. Zero story points completed last sprint. Team members are complaining and blaming each other for the failures.

These two situations demand two very different retrospectives. The right retrospective can make a good team great and turn a bad situation into a learning opportunity. A bad retrospective can set a team back and create a non-safe working environment.

In this session, attendees will explorer retrospectives techniques and examine the pros and cons of the techniques. The workshop will then explore scenarios and examine how to effectively run retrospectives across a variety of scenarios.

Coming out of this sessions, attendees will have an understanding of applying the right retrospectives based on the state and needs of the team and projects.

You probably started your Agile journey with Scrum, which helped. But regression testing still takes forever. New feature tests aren't what they could be and are hard to complete within the Sprint.

If you have active product owners, the POs helped to improve your product, but there is still a disconnect, between the user story and the tests.  And how do you test "as a, I want, so that"?

Now you hear you need Agile technical practices to keep improving and you find you need to automate. What are you going to do with your testers?  They really, really know your business, but they don't code.

If you are a manager, a tester or a product owner, come hear Camille as she shares her experience successfully teaching manual testers Automated Test Driven Development and showing product owners how to write great Acceptance Criteria that are easy to automate.

In this session you will learn:

• How to get your product owners, testers and developers to understand each other
• How to make your business scenarios unambiguous and testable
• How to avoid brittle tests that need frequent rewriting
• Which tools and languages are better for testers to learn and why
• Strategies and techniques for testers to learn test automation
• Where to find inexpensive and free resources to get started

Are you struggling to implement Agile at your company?  What could be better than to learn from someone who has done it wrong over and over! We want to share our experiences pioneering Agile at a FinTech company.  After multiple attempts and through sheer stubbornness, we were we able to get it right and improve our release pace by 650% annually.  We will walk through where we went wrong, what we did right, and why we now understand that Agile cannot be successful without profound collaboration, Continuous Delivery, a DevOps culture and a desire to continuously improve.

Your Agile Stand-up Meeting Sucks!

Most Agile and Scrum stand-up meetings I see are boring, lifeless, status meetings that don't provide any real value.

In this session you'll learn:

The REAL purpose of the daily stand-up

The most common bad habits and how to correct them

The habits good stand-up meetings have

How you can use Improv to invigorate your daily stand-up

A whole bunch of Improv exercises you can start using with your team right now!

As we see Agile evolving through the years, particularly into the government space, a lot of terminology is used that seems foreign to many who first used agile with their individual teams.  "Hybrid Scrum"..."Delegate Product Owner"...even "Scaled Agile".  Are these simply extensions of the agile values and principles in the manifesto to fit a different and more complex environment, or do they represent a diluting of those same values and principles?  Explore in a facilitated workshop with your peers whether such terms are appropriate (maybe even necessary) to adopt agile in the complicated enterprise, or whether they represent (oxy)moronic agile and a step backward.

Do you want to be able to “trust the wisdom of the group” but find it difficult? Do you ever feel like you’re having the same conversation over and over again with no real progress? Do you ever feel like you are stuck in a disagreement and not sure how to move forward?

If any of these issues are standing in the way of your work with groups and teams ‐ ‘how’ you are having (or not having) the conversation is likely contributing to your challenges. Research consistently demonstrates that team effectiveness is highly dependent upon the quality of the communication between team members. Yet it’s easy to get into the flow of daily work and be really focused on the ‘what’ in our conversations without much attention to the quality of ‘how’ we’re communicating.

As an agile coach one of the most important ways you can serve your team is to help them unlock the wisdom that exists within the team itself and have the conversations they need to have. We’ll explore a framework for learning to ‘read the room’ using four elements for all face-to-face communication. We’ll do some live practice to apply the framework to a conversation and then identify some typical patterns of “stuck” communications that can lead to “breakdowns” in teams.

This will be an interactive session with people actively engaged in both large group and small group discussions.

What do the commercial world and Federal government share in common? Agile success! Yes, it is true that agile grew from the commercial world and has been a shining story of success there, but the Federal government has been adopting agile’s brilliant ways more recently and has success stories of its own to share.

In getting to the point of successful agile delivery, especially at the organizational level, the Federal government has had to clear many hurdles and transform the way it works. This hasn’t been an easy task and is still in its infancy. The commercial world has cleared its share as well and has many war stories along with their success stories.

This session will be delivered as a moderated panel discussion. Two panelists from progressive Federal programs join two shining examples of agility from the commercial space – and entertaining fellows to boot.  Panelists will discuss topics that provide insight into their organizations and the work they did to implement agile successfully on their teams, across their programs, and throughout their organizations.

• Alastair Thomson is the Chief Information Officer for NIH’s National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute
• Joshua Seckel is the Applied Technology Division Chief at the USCIS Office of Information Technology
• Nate McMahon is a Vice President of People and Technology at The Motley Fool
• Bob Payne is the Vice President of Enterprise Agile Consulting at LitheSpeed

Ever wonder if a major Federal program has been able to achieve Continuous Delivery or implement a Zero Defects strategy? How have the commercial companies been able to increase their output so well while decreasing risk at the same time? What can Federal organizations learn from the commercial world about agile contracting and procurements? How did commercial companies have to change to enable self-forming teams and could our Federal government, with its myriad contractors and its layers of separation, benefit from the same? What can the commercial world learn from Federal agile success? Do successful agile approaches differ between products and services? What do the Feds see as their next agile conquest on the horizon? What is hot for commercial companies to tackle now?

You will leave this session understanding some of what the commercial world has done to achieve great success with agile. You will also hear about agile success in the Federal government, bureaucracy busting moves, and what the government had to do in order to achieve those feats. Both sides will share their stories, describing the impediments they faced, the benefits they have seen, and even the areas they have not been able to conquer just yet, attempting to drive agile throughout their organizations and into every aspect of their delivery. Panelists will also discuss topics and answer questions the session participants have for them to ensure everyone has an opportunity to take back valuable and pertinent knowledge afforded by these experienced agilists.

The Zombie Retrospective - presented by Tommie Adams 

So they say the retrospective is one of the strongest and most powerful tools in the agile scrum methodology tool kit, and is often overlooked or skipped. So how does a scrum master find ways to creatively explain and express the importance of this agile scrum ceremony, or even the basics of agile scrum in general. How does the scrum master explain the importance of banding together as a team in this brave new agile scrum world.  In many organizations, nowadays, the teams are even made up of outside vendors as well as in house associates. So how do you even start to pique the interest and the importance of team collaboration to a bunch of folks who are strangers to one another on a agile scrum team?  Even more specifically, how do you explain how the retrospective ceremony will help improve the way they work with one another over time?

My answer: ZOMBIES!!!  Everyone loves zombies, right?  So come, take a bite!

Tommie works for Marriott International in Bethesda MD. His background is in theater and communication which he studied at Grinnell College in Iowa. He has worked for Marriott International for 26 years with jobs ranging from reservation sales associate, to group sales manager, to functional IT tester to his current position as scrum master for the Marriott Rewards Agile Scrum Team. A native of Omaha, Nebraska, his hobbies include photography, cello and learning the ukulele, (you know, in case you were curious.) 

“Running a football team is no different than running any other kind of organization…” -- Vince Lombardi

Large enterprise scale software development is a team sport. In order to win in this game your software needs to be of the highest quality, which is almost impossible to achieve with testers on the sidelines. To build a winning a team you need the right players, but great teams don't always need the best players. Great teams win because they find ways to let the individuals on their team be great. 

The wave of DevOps in the industry is in a broader sense an effort to let developers and system engineers do what they do best by eliminating or simplifying tasks that forced individuals into activities beyond their expertise. Pre-DevOps roles were like trying to ask Payton Manning to play both quarterback and running back at the same time. DevOps is the manifestation of empathy between two distinct sets of skills allowing the other to focus on what their best at. What about testers? How can the team expand their empathy to their role? What can the developers, program managers, and others do to let testers be great? Please join me if your curious to hear about the practices, tools, and culture that can make your software a winner with quality.

Delivery teams know from experience the importance of maintenance such as applying patches, upgrading, and conforming to the latest security and accessibility regulations. Product Owners, other value team members, and system stakeholders are focused on functionality and end user satisfaction. Maintenance isn’t sexy and can sink in priority until it fails to be included in releases.

The Security community has been using Dark/Abuser/Evil Stories using the persona of a Black Hat Hacker to uncover vulnerabilities. In this workshop participants will assume the role of Delivery Team members and use the power of personas to write “Dark Stories” that bring to life the full impact of failing to perform necessary maintenance.  The intent is to give Product Owners a complete understanding of the importance of maintenance so they can appropriately prioritize maintenance and keep their systems strong.

This unique journey will transport you deep inside the world of the General Services Administration (GSA) Integrated Award Environment (IAE).  You will see how user-centered Agile is transforming the way software applications are engineered, how users' voices have been integrated with large-scale Agile development, and what issues we encountered along the way.

When Eric Schmidt, former CEO of Google, predicted, "Everything in the future online is going to look like a multiplayer game," perhaps he was envisioning a user community such as ours.  The IAE family of software applications have more than a million users representing federal, state, local, and tribal government organizations; congressional staff; large and small businesses; universities, schools, and hospitals; non-profit organizations; foreign entities; private citizens and others.  Our greatest challenge is the diversity of our user base, resembling a massive multiplayer game in many ways. 

This case study looks inside a major reengineering effort to migrate 10 legacy applications into an integrated environment while at the same time transitioning from Waterfall to Agile development.  It tells the story of how IAE users have shaped our transformation thus far.  

Teal is a natural extension of the Agile mindset, but who would have thought flattening the hierarchy could be this difficult! If Agile removes impediments and empowers teams to deliver more frequently and more valuable offerings, teal removes organizational impediments (hierarchy built on lack of trust ) and fosters empowerment by localizing decision making, re-centering activities around an evolutionary purpose, and aligning the personal with the organizational (wholeness). But what actually happens when you put rubber to road and empower teams to recruit, hire, fire, and determine each other’s bonuses? Well, things get a little messy. If you’re patient, set aside short-term outcomes, and look to long-term gain, it can prove deeply rewarding. I’ll take you on our own evolutionary journey from green to teal and share with you lessons learned along the way.

If you’re curious about alternative management styles or interested in the next extension of Agile, then come sit, chat, and reflect.

"Language does not just describe reality. Language creates the reality it describes." - Desmond Tutu

The agile community has evolved into a group of highly enthusiastic proponents who bring a high level of excitement to everything they say and do. Agilists speak a strange sort of insider jargon in which plain English words have very unusual, and often counterintuitive meanings.

They may describe your multi-billion-dollar enterprise as "dysfunctional" and on the verge of "failure." They may suggest your teams "sprint" to get work done, and yet do so at a "sustainable pace." They may tell your management that agile helps teams "go faster" while assuring your teams that agile isn't about "going faster." They may insist that agile is more about culture and mindset than about practices, and then measure your progress in terms of how faithfully you follow a prescribed set of practices.

There are many more examples of this odd insider jargon, starting with the seminal buzzword itself, "agile." Over the years, the way agilists speak has confused and turned off many who might otherwise have benefited from applying agile values and principles. The presenter will share several stories of the unintended effects of agile-speak, and will invite you to share your own tales of woe and amusement.

When we have our most successful coaching moments, they often come from a deep groove: where we seem to anticipate the team's needs; know when the breakthroughs are coming; know how to dance between mentoring the team and letting them innovate (or struggle) on their own. But, it rarely starts that way. Coaching new teams can be awkward -- and especially so if you're new to coaching. I will show you some ways of approaching these coaching engagements that can break down the awkwardness, reveal things about the team, and get on a track of improvement and discovery.

I will share some attitudes I think can benefit coaches who find these situations awkward, as well as practical tools and tips you can exercise tomorrow to get teams talking and making progress. We will also engage as small groups, for further practice on these tools and to create space for coaching one-another.

We've all see Project Charters.  Project Charters usually state the vision, mission, roadmaps, and is hand top down to the teams.  However, how many of us have Team Charters in place.  Team Charters are one of the most powerful tools a team has when it comes to being able to work effectively together.

This workshop explores the dynamics of creating a team charter, the definition of ready, and the definition of done and how all this works together to create software that is ready for review, to potentially shippable, to released into production.

Sprint Planning is a frequent, important part of the rhythm of many agile teams. And yet, we find that many coaches and Scrum Masters struggle to make the meeting relevant, valuable, and creative. We will work through a simple, relatable simulation that we use to teach effective planning to teams and facilitators that brings energy, creativity, and problem-solving to the Sprint Planning experience.