The bulk of the widely-published information about Agile is focused on team-level efforts. As Agile and Scrum adoption rates at mid to large-scale companies expand, they become increasingly main-stream. Experience is showing that Agile methods have much to offer the large program. There is no "one-size-fits-all" approach to organizing and initiating an Agile program. Projects and programs vary depending on the nature of the business objectives, the project, the stakeholders and the envisioned product. The session provides a framework for effectively initiating Agile projects and establishing scalable program models that support sustainable, value-focused teams. Giora is a Principal Agile Coach and co-founder of BigVisible Solutions. He specializes in rapidly ramping up new Agile and Scrum teams through practical training coupled with hands-on mentoring and coaching. He has been highly successful in helping organizations scale their Scrum initiatives both in size and distributed location.

Giora is a Certified Scrum Trainer and has created a number of highly effective Agile and Scrum training programs that focus on practical techniques and practices and has extensive experience consulting in large, Fortune-class companies, including: Merrill Lynch, Fidelity, John Hancock, SSGA, Cessna Aircraft, Bell Helicopter, McKesson and GE Healthcare (Formally IDX).

Healthy, successful Agile teams rely on a robust Continuous Integration implementation as the hub of their Agile infrastructure. Many of the Agile practices depend on Continuous Integration (CI) in order to provide their full value. For instance, unit tests are the most valuable when all unit tests are run automatically on a frequent basis. Scaling Agile to large and/or distributed teams also depends on CI. Conversely, CI can be used as a leading indicator of the health of your Agile teams. This session will cover best practices for transitioning to Continuous Integration as well as show the strong link between CI and one-piece-flow, unit tests, short iterations, whole teams, refactoring, user stories, shared code ownership, distributed Agile, and large scale Agile.

Damon Poole, founder and CTO of AccuRev, a leading provider of Agile Development tools. Damon has over 18 years of software development methodology and process improvement experience spanning the gamut from small collocated teams all the way up to 10,000-person shops doing global development. He writes frequently on the topic of Agile development and works closely with AccuRev customers developing and implementing state of the art Agile techniques which scale smoothly to large distributed teams. Read Damon’s Agile Development blog.

Personas have that stickiness that sticks. With a pragmatic focus, this session covers simple and powerful techniques for crafting personas and using them to drive value into your development stream. The session will start with an overview of what personas are and how they provide value. We will create personas and discuss possible sources of information and potential authors. Once we have created a few personas, we will explore how they can be used to craft stories, create acceptance tests and help keep the user’s experience in the minds of the development community.

David teaches and coaches the adoption and improvement of agility as a delivery tool. His work includes helping companies of all sizes all over the world. Sometimes he is pairing with developers and testers, while other times he is helping to invent, evolve and plan the delivery of all types of products and projects. Along with teaching and coaching, David participates in conferences around the world. He has continuously publishes and has contributed to several books and many publications. He has helped create agile curriculum for The University of Minnesota and Capella University.

As mentors and practitioners, DevJam focuses on agility as a tool to help people and companies improve their software production skills. DevJam provides seasoned leaders that strive to pragmatically match technology, people, and processes to create better and cooler products in competitive cycles. For more information, check out the DevJam website www.devjam.com.

The Product Backlog drives the work of Scrum teams, but keeping the backlog fresh and useful is often a continuing challenge.  Is your product backlog healthy, and what are some ways to keep it that way that you can use right away?

In this seminar, you’ll learn how to solve common backlog challenges:

• Handling emerging Product Backlog items
• Reducing risk as you develop your product
• Avoiding the backlog mistakes everyone makes
• Using the Product Backlog to manage bugs and defects
• Running a successful Product Backlog grooming session

Dhaval Panchal is a Certified Scrum Trainer (CST) and Agile Coach with SolutionsIQ. Dhaval has consulted with organizations ranging from mid-sized product companies to the Fortune 100. His background includes experience in software development, business and functional analysis, lean office implementations, organizational change, system architecture, business intelligence and project management. He writes about software development and coaching on his blog, http://dhavalpanchal.gettingagile.com/.

Agile adoptions can only be successful if corporate values match the values outlined in the Agile Manifesto and in agile frameworks such as XP and Scrum. In this presentation, Michele Sliger discusses the importance of values and the role they play in driving behavior. You'll understand the real meaning behind the often heard "agile is value-driven, not plan-driven" phrase. You’ll find out how to determine what your company values, and how to compare that to agile values and what to do if they are different. Most importantly, learn how to apply what you’ve learned in your own situation. See how to define values at the team level, a must in order to ensure effective working relationships and that the right actions are taken by everyone to achieve iteration goals. You’ll learn visioning exercises that you can conduct with your team, and on your own - so you can better understand what you personally value and what you plan to do about it.

Michele Sliger is the co-author of The Software Project Manager’s Bridge to Agility. She has extensive experience in agile software development, having transitioned to Scrum and XP practices in 2000 after starting her career following the traditional waterfall approach. A self-described “bridge builder,” her passion lies in helping those in traditional software development environments cross the bridge to agility. Michele is the owner of Sliger Consulting Inc., where she consults with businesses ranging from small start-ups to Fortune 500 companies, helping teams with their agile adoption, and helping organizations prepare for the changes that agile adoption brings. She is a certified Project Management Professional (PMP®) and a Certified Scrum Trainer (CST). She has an undergraduate MIS degree and an MBA. You can download her articles by visiting her website at www.sligerconsulting.com or contact her directly at michele@sligerconsulting.com.

This presentation will talk through the life of a user story from idea inception through delivery back to the Product Owner. Using Scrum principles, we will explore different processes of creating, maintaining and developing a story.

Learn more about:

• Best practices for documentation, process flow and acceptance criteria
• Removing complexities and simplifying the process
• How VersionOne supports the complete user story lifecycle

Katia Sullivan is a Product Specialist at VersionOne. Katia has experience in transitioning from waterfall through RUP and then into Agile practices. She spent over two years managing requirements and performing as a Scrum Master on NASA’s Integrated Enterprise Management Project.  Prior to that position, Katia worked in various other Government contractor roles from Operations Support through Technical Writing. Katia’s professional background began with leadership training in the United States Marine Corps. From there, she went on to work her way up from an Accounting Clerk to Accounting Manager. Her entrepreneurial spirit is demonstrated by the two businesses that Katia planned, opened, and operated.