Many organizations struggle with failure and turn to Agile as a game-changer. But how do the dynamics of government magnify the challenge of Agile adoption?  Through this 45-minute case study of the "SBA Certify" program, the start of the US Small Business Administration's Agile journey, we'll

• Describe what triggered SBA's transition to Agile from waterfall software development
• Explain how key players from the SBA, USDS and 8(a) contractors Telesis & Enquizit led the transition to Agile
• Review the combination of tools, technologies and practices that led to the successful launch of certify.sba.gov in just seven months
• Cover how the SBA has built upon the success of certify.SBA.gov to become a leader in Agile adoption among small government agencies

In addition, co-presenters Mary O'Toole (US DHS, formerly SBA), Phil Jones (Telesis) and Donald Patti (Cedar Point Consulting) will propose a framework for understanding government inaction, helping others to make radical, transformative change in government possible.

(And, of course, we'll also explain Button Bear).

As more of us go the route of Agile, it's becoming increasingly common to deal with vendors and external teams who still follow phase-based approaches to delivering work, like Waterfall. Or, they follow a bastardized version of Agile that looks a lot like the old SDLC.  In this session, I'll describe some common and not-so-common approaches that have been applied to dealing with Vendorfall, explain which are more successful; and then hand control over to attendees as they grapple with their own Vendorfall scenario.

Sprint retrospecives are a key part of Agile, but are you getting enough out of your retrospectives? Are they taking too long?

In this session, you will learn how to

1. Gather input from "the quiet types" who may be hesitant to speak out in groups;
2. Separate the positive feedback from he negative feedback easily;
3. Quickly determine the level of support for each feedback item;
4. Increase the amount of team input as much as five-fold; and,
5. Synthesize and organize the input you receive so that you can act.

In doing so, you will increase team satisfaction with retrospectives and improve team productivity.

About the Speaker

Donald Patti is a Director of Applications for the AAMC, a non-profit organization that serves medical schools and students by providing services that enable members to improve the health of all. He also teaches courses in software development, web design, e-business and project management for the University of Phoenix. Prior speaking engagements have included presentations on risk management to PMI Washington DC, on Agile to PMI Washington DC, on release planning to Global Scrum Gathering and Agile 2014; and, on Lean Principles, Tools and Techniques to AAMC constituents.