Retrospectives are sometimes viewed as stressful and about complaining. Retrospectives should be rewarding and fun! We'll introduce four "games" in a somewhat narrative romantic story (break up, self worth, honeymoon planning, fixing a home). These four games cover internal and external concerns as well as individual and collective (it, I, we, its). We will explain the value of picking a retrospective that fits a team's need. Finally - we will have a funeral for the old ways of doing retrospectives.

Communication chaos under looming deadlines - sound familiar? We'll level up our teamwork, practice rapid learning, and identify ways to calm the chaos and focus on getting to done, all using Spaceteam, a chaotic and collaborative card game.

You'll work with your teammates to repair a failing spaceship before it falls into a black hole. in order to escape, you'll communicate problems, request help, assist colleagues and respond to constant change -- all in five minutes!

You'll learn from your failures, improve as a team, and gain insights into what helps organizations and teams collaborate effectively and achieve flow.

Our Agile transformations can feel like Sisyphean efforts – but do not abandon hope! In this talk we will discuss nine circles of Agile Hell. Each hell is an example of a common problem programs encounter.

We'll ask the audience to prioritize their pain points, and focus on the six Agile hells closest to their experience. We will discuss real examples for “escaping” out of each Agile Hell - from Agile Coaches that the Dave(s) know.

By attending this event, Agilists will expand their toolbox of techniques to help their organizations.

Specific organizational patterns are the villains of agile adoption, setting unreasonable expectations and sabotaging progress. We’ll explore these villains, and give real examples how federal organizations overcame them.

Participants will see the power of metaphor first embraced by Extreme Programming: a system metaphor or (for transformations) a cultural metaphor to name and avoid common anti-patterns in Agile adoptions.

Leaders in government programs or large organizations will recognize common challenges patterns: setting schedules by fiat, limiting the availability of product owners, balancing responding to emergencies with focusing on consistent prioritizes, just to name a few. Coaches and champions supporting Agile adoptions will be equipped with counter-examples to avoid these challenges.

TSA Agile Services (TAS) began on January 4th, 2017 after extensive collaboration with contracting officials, various bids, and the Agile community. Come hear the aspects that have enabled successful delivery within a government agency. TAS encompasses over 65 applications supported by a team of 80+ people. Also - because transparency is a large key to our success - we will cover the failures we have experienced and the struggles we are still working on. Lastly - it is important for contractors and government to work closely together - this presentation will be co-presented by two Agile Coaches: one is a federal employee and the other a contractor.

Yoda said: “Ready are you? What know you of ready?”

Yoda also said: “You must unlearn what you have learned. “

Product Owners want everything – NOW! As process ninjas, coaches, and general Agilists, we help product owners appreciate the value of prioritizing. With Agile, the PO will iteratively and incrementally get a great product. Sometimes, we Agilists want our teams to have ALL the best practices – NOW! Maybe we could work iteratively and incrementally get a great team – but how to prioritize?

In this talk we will discuss (A) the problem in terms of the Satir Change Process Model; (B) the Shu Ha Ri method of prioritizing change; (C) Mike Cottemeyer’s “Three Things” to prioritize change; and (D) a mini-workshop in which we take a look at several teams and what might be the “process” for them to achieve good process! Also, we may have accidental fun.