Calgary APLN / Site Updates

Technical Debt: Should I care?? (and its impacts in project management)

rachelk — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 13:23:20 -0700

Guest Speaker	Hugo Corbucci
Date	Wednesday, February 8th, 2012
Time	12:00pm - 1:00pm
Special Notes	Registration opens at 11:30am, event runs from 12-1pm
Location	5th Avenue Conference Room, Calgary 202, 420 - 2nd St. SW Calgary
Description	Software development projects are all about trade offs. One of the most common is between quality and cost. As all trade offs, the tendency of the answer varies as time goes. The start of a project usually allows for less quality to reduce the cost of evaluating the idea's potential resulting in a poor code base. However, having such code base has a big impact in the software's ability to evolve and be maintained. This is what is called Technical Debt.
About the Speaker	Hugo Corbucci has a CS master degree in Agile Methods from the Univeristy of São Paulo (Brazil). He has been involved in the Brazilian Agile community since 2006 giving courses, presenting at conferences and organizing them. He founded his own consulting company (Agilbits) in Brazil in 2008 to provide high quality software development allied with agile consultancy having worked both with web as well as desktop solutions. Since the end of 2011, he is working at ThoughtWorks helping organizations be more successful through agile practices such as continuous delivery and experience design.
Event sponsored by

Please login or create a new account to sign up for this event.

But I thought you were flying the plane!

rachelk — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 13:59:21 -0700

Guest Speaker	Steve Adolph
Date	Wednesday, March 28th, 2012
Time	12:00pm - 1:00pm
Special Notes	Registration opens at 11:30am, event runs from 12-1pm
Location	Fifth Avenue Place (Conference Room) 202, 420 - 2nd St. SW Calgary Map to Fifth Avenue Place Conference Room
Description	But I thought you were flying the plane! During the mid 60s the frequent crashes of perfectly good working aircraft alarmed world airlines. What was missing from their pilot training programs? After extensive research, the airlines discovered nothing lacking in the pilot’s “stick and rudder” skills, rather these accidents where the result of the flight crew to work as a team. In response the airlines instituted the Crew Resource Management program teaching pilots, flight attendants, dispatchers how to work together as a team.
About the Speaker	Steve is an Agile Coach and a preferred partner of Rally Software where he pursues his passion for helping organizations get the job done. Steve has been creating and managing software development projects long enough to remember Fortran and OS/MVT JCL. His professional career ranges over many exciting and critical projects including designing call processing software for digital telephone exchanges, design and development of leading edge network management systems, railway signaling, and telecom billing. He has diverse experience over many different job roles from developer to chief engineer, to CTO, across many different industries, from telecom, to graphic arts. With Rally Software Steve coaches large industrial enterprises through their agile transformation. Academically, Steve holds an MSc in Computing Science from BCʼs beautiful Simon Fraser University, and 20 years later got a crazy idea to pursue a doctorate in Electrical and Computer Engineer at the University of British Columbia. Steve is active in the agile software development community and is the co founder of Agile Vancouver, has served as a stage producer and program chair for various agile conferences including last yearʼs Agile 2011. He has spoken at a variety of conferences and has authored numerous articles on the topic of software development. In his downtime, Steve enjoys the usual Canadian west coast lifestyle of skiing, cycling, kayaking, hiking, and cheering on the Canucks. He occasionally tries to practice karate and is passionate about aviation. There are rumors he also has a secret passion for opera.
Event sponsored by

Please login or create a new account to sign up for this event.

Agile Coffee Break

rachelk — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 08:08:26 -0700

Guest Speaker	Agile Coffee Break
Date	Wednesday, December 7th, 2011
Description	Do you want to connect with other like minded leaders but don’t have the time to network? Do you have an interesting challenge and not sure what to do? Join us for an Agile Coffee Break at Sunterra. Take a break and drop by for a coffee and some stimulating conversation. Eagle Professional Resources is sponsoring the event by providing coffee and other beverages.

An Agile PMO?

rachelk — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 09:07:12 -0600

Guest Speaker	Mike Griffiths
Date	Wednesday, November 16th, 2011
Description	An Agile PMO? Does your PMO Produce Multiple Obstacles for your agile projects or Promote Many Opportunities for success? A Project Management Office (PMO) can act as an obstacle to agile projects. This can take the form of asking for inappropriate planning detail by not recognizing the likelihood of changes; or asking for conformance to templates that are not even used on an agile project. For these reasons PMOs often get a bad reputation on agile teams, but it need not be that way, they can also add tremendous support and be a great help.
About the Speaker	Mike Griffiths is a project manager and trainer for the PMI in agile project management. He is helping write the new PMBOK v5 Guide, the Software extension to the PMBOK guide and the PMI-ACP certification. Mike was a co-creator of DSDM in 1994 and has been using agile methods for the last 17 years. He maintains the blog www.LeadingAnswers.com.
Presentation Slides	The Agile PMO.pdf

Season Opener – Networking Social

rachelk — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 11:45:26 -0600

Guest Speaker	Networking Event
Date	Wednesday, October 5th, 2011
Description	To help build a vibrant Agile Leadership community in Calgary, we would like to invite you to a networking event. Come out and meet other leaders, swap stories and share some laughs. Agile Recruiting has graciously sponsored the event by providing appetizers. Cash bar will be available.

Calgary APLN

rachelk — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 13:22:26 -0600

Regular meetings will run from 12:00 – 1:00pm and will be located at Fifth Avenue Place Conference Room Suite 202, 420 2nd Street SW. We are currently looking for sponsors to help bring these events to you free of charge. If you are able to sponsor an event please contact:
Mike Griffiths – Mike@LeadingAnswers.com or
Janice Aston – Janice@agileperspective.ca
Mike Haden – mike.haden@stridepm.com

Notes from APLN Planning Session – June 27, 2011

rachelk — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 09:04:27 -0600

Here are the results from our planning session.

Click here to download the Calgary APLN planning notes.

APLN Planning Session

rachelk — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 09:44:22 -0600

Guest Speaker	Facilitated planning session using Innovation Games®
Date	Monday, June 27th, 2011
Description	Help shape the Calgary APLN to better serve you. Let’s create a shared understanding of the role that the CAPLN plays in the leadership community and how best to fulfill that role. In doing so you will participate in a creative and fun agile planning session using Innovation Games®. If you have never been exposed to “serious” games you are in for a surprise. Come see how these techniques might be utilized within your organization to drive innovation.
About the Speaker	Janice Aston, an Innovation Games® trained facilitator, will be facilitating the planning session. Janice is an Agile Project Leader and Coach who is passionate about building high performing teams focused on delivering business value. She has successfully embraced a combination of traditional and agile methods to deliver on project commitments. She has a heart for leadership; creating a shared vision, building a collaborative work environment, and mentoring and coaching team members.

“Keystone Commercial Systems Project: We broke all the rules*, because we had to. What would you do?”

rachelk — Fri, 29 Apr 2011 13:12:04 -0600

Guest Speaker	Interactive Discussion
Date	Wednesday, May 11th, 2011
Description	“Keystone Commercial Systems Project: We broke all the rules, because we had to. What would you do?” (at least all the conventional project management “rules”.) We had a challenge ahead of us; TransCanada was entering the oil pipeline business with the Keystone Pipeline, and IS needed to implement a customer commercial application suite in just over a year. In recent times, it had taken us at least 3 years just to replace existing pipeline commercial applications. It was a daunting task, but we ended up successful.
About the Speaker	Raj Chander Principal, Agile Minds Ltd. As a highly qualified and accomplished professional with over 20 years of Information Technology experience, Raj is a driven leader focusing on implementing change and increasing organization effectiveness through project leadership and the delivery of complex, mission critical technology solutions. Raj possesses extensive hands-on organizational development and project management experience focusing on delivering business value to global organizations across a wide range of industries — driving process improvement, cost savings, and revenue growth. He is adept at leading complex, multimillion-dollar software development projects; improving productivity and quality; and exceeding expectations. Raj possesses strong technical, problem solving, and communication skills in addition to being well versed in a variety of software delivery methodologies. Frank Letniowski Portfolio Manager, TransCanada PipeLines Limited Frank has spent over 20 years in projects in the oil and gas industry in Calgary. Currently, he manages a portfolio of software development projects averaging about $10 MM annually, and up to 50 staff and contractors at any one time. The projects themselves encompass applications that support corporate financial, legal and HR systems, the customer commercial suite for batched oil pipelines, and energy and risk. Frank has expertise in a variety of project delivery approaches, notably large, agile software application development projects.
Presentation Slides	5th_Ave_Place_Conference_Room.pdf APLN_KCS_Presentation.pdf

When "Agile Doesn't Work"

karenb — Thu, 03 Feb 2011 11:17:42 -0700

Guest Speaker	Raymond Ho
Date	Wednesday, February 16th, 2011
Description	Many companies have adopted Agile in software development. Although some companies have great success using Agile, some companies have no luck using Agile and are faced with various difficulties and challenges. When their Agile projects fail, they claim "Agile doesn't work!". In the presentation, I will discuss the common pitfalls of these companies using Agile, exploring the reasons why they say "Agile doesn't work!". Do they really understand Agile? Do they have adequate training and support from management?
Presentation Slides	5th_Ave_Place_Conference_Room.pdf

Agile Mythbusters (without blowing things up)

karenb — Fri, 14 Jan 2011 11:23:48 -0700

Guest Speaker	Interactive Discussion
Date	Wednesday, January 26th, 2011
Description	Do you want to help blow (or not) some popular Agile Myths out of the water? Come prepared to join this explosive discussion. Myths to be busted or find plausible might include: Agile projects are cheaper Agile methods promote scope creep Agile scales naturally Agile teams are happier Agile is quicker/faster Agile methods avoid accountability You cannot accurately estimate agile projects Come join in this event it should be a blast!
Presentation Slides	5th_Ave_Place_Conference_Room.pdf

The surprising science behind agile leadership - why we do what we do

karenb — Wed, 13 Oct 2010 09:15:55 -0600

Guest Speaker	Jonathan Rasmusson
Date	Wednesday, November 3rd, 2010
Description	Not everyone is a fan of the self directed self organizing team. It flies in the face of traditional project management, and often conflicts with the traditional organization model. The benefits of self directed teams however are too big to ignore and now we have scientific proof as to why. In this new talk on agile leadership, Jonathan explains how and why agile leadership works, the science behind why so many choose to work this way, and the impact it’s going to have on you and your organization.
About the Speaker	Jonathan Rasmusson is the author of The Agile Samurai. As an experienced entrepreneur and former agile coach for ThoughtWorks, Jonathan has consulted internationally, helping others find better ways to work and play together. When not coaching his sons’ hockey teams or cycling to work in the throes of a Canadian winter, Jonathan can be found sharing his experiences with agile delivery methods at his blog, The Agile Warrior.
Presentation Slides

Season Opener - Networking Social

karenb — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 12:15:19 -0600

Guest Speaker	Networking Event
Date	Wednesday, October 6th, 2010
Description	To help build a vibrant Agile community in Calgary, we would like to invite you to a networking event. Come out and meet other Agile Leaders within Calgary, swap stories and share some laughs. Agile Recruiting has graciously sponsored the event by providing appetizers. Cash bar will be available.
Presentation Slides

Leadership Think-tank

karenb — Thu, 13 May 2010 08:34:29 -0600

Guest Speaker	Facilitated Discussion
Date	Wednesday, May 26th, 2010
Description	For the season windup, join us for this special meeting when we try something new! – An interactive discussion in which we explore a number of project leadership challenges and difficulties. Possible topics include the following, amongst a long list: "I have challenges completing agile projects with dependencies on non-agile (i.e. waterfall) projects." "My team is totally dysfunctional? Where do I start? How do you build trust within a team?" "Sponsorship, what sponsorship, is anyone really there? How to address the problem of an absent sponsor."
Presentation Slides	5th_Ave_Place_Conference_Room.pdf

Using Persona to Move Your Project Forward

karenb — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 09:26:15 -0600

Guest Speaker	Mike Haden, Application Development, Project / Product Management, and Global Product Development, Stride Project Management Inc.
Date	Wednesday, April 28th, 2010
Description	The use of personas has received scant attention in project management literature. First utilized in the late '90s as a tool of business analysis, a persona is a detailed description of a fictional end-user including how they use and perceive the product you're delivering. However, personas can have a strong impact on projects by providing a project team with a human face to enhance otherwise abstract data about customers.
About the Speaker	Mike Haden is an independent consultant with over 20-year's experience in Application Development, Project / Product Management, and Global Product Development. Throughout his career, he has delivered complex data analysis tools to the demanding Canadian oil and gas industry. Mike has experience in bridging the business and technical domains, balancing the communication needs of multiple stake-holders, and aligning project teams to the end-user. While working in commercial software firms leading development teams that utilize agile project methods, Mike gained valuable experience in delivering application development projects ranging from true R&D through new commercial developments to replacements of “industry-flagship” applications. His current role at EnergyIQ is focused on a new data analysis product for the US oil and gas industry, developing business processes and technology to support distributed product development. Mike is a Project Management Professional, a Certified ScrumMaster, and a Six Sigma Green Belt. He is presently the VP Communications for the Southern Alberta Chapter of PMI. He dreams of eventually finishing the rejuvenation of a 100-year-old house and having more time for his outdoor pursuits in the mountains near Calgary.
Presentation Slides	5th_Ave_Place_Conference_Room.pdf CAPLN April 2010 - Using Personas Move Project Forward.ppt

Creating and Sustaining an Agile Culture

karenb — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 16:18:53 -0700

Guest Speaker	Janet Gregory, Agile Coach, Process Consultant
Date	Wednesday, March 24th, 2010
Description	Some organizations have done successful agile pilots and rolled it out to the rest of the organization and failed. If it works for one team, it should work for all, shouldn’t it? There are also early adopters that have had many successful projects using agile, but are becoming complacent or have lost the thrill of being on the leading edge of change.
About the Speaker	The co-author of Agile Testing: A Practical Guide for Agile Testers and Teams, Janet Gregory is a consultant who specializes in helping teams build quality systems using agile methods. Based in Calgary, Janet’s greatest passion is promoting agile quality processes. As tester or coach she has helped introduce agile development practices into companies and has successfully transitioned several traditional test teams into the agile world. Her focus is working with business users and testers to understand their roles in agile projects. Janet teaches courses on agile testing and is a frequent speaker at agile and testing software conferences around the world.
Presentation Slides	5th_Ave_Place_Conference_Room.pdf

Project Vital Signs

karenb — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 11:40:16 -0700

Guest Speaker	Stelios Pantazopoulos, Lead Consultant, ThoughtWorks
Date	Wednesday, February 17th, 2010
Description	In order to foster trust and credibility between a project team and its stakeholders, the team has the responsibility to clearly communicate the health of the project. As the leaders of a project, we can apply the metaphor of medical care and their use of “vital signs” to help form a holistic view of the state of the project. Come learn the five “Project Vital Signs”, their associated quantitative metrics and how to enable a team to effectively use them as a tool to diagnose and treat project health problems.
About the Speaker	Stelios is a Lead Consultant with ThoughtWorks. He has 13 years of IT professional services experience on 17 different projects. His project roles have included Project Manager, Iteration Manager, Quality Management Lead and Developer. As a project manager he has a reputation for bringing order to chaotic situations. He has delivered an experience report on automated functional testing to the Agile 2008 conference, a talk on "Project Vital Signs" to the Agile Tour Toronto 2009 conference and has been published in a book titled ThoughtWorks Anthology.
Presentation Slides	5th_Ave_Place_Conference_Room.pdf

Agile At Your Software Startup

karenb — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 10:39:22 -0700

Guest Speaker	Kris Read, Chief Technology Officer, Curve Dental
Date	Wednesday, January 20th, 2010
Description	Want to be the next Twitter or Facebook?
About the Speaker	Kris Read is Chief Technology Officer at Curve Dental, a Calgary-area startup offering web-based solutions to the dental industry. Curve Dental was a finalist for a 2009 Codie Award and has appeared on the cover of Dental Product Report Magazine. Kris has a Master's degree in Software Engineering from the University of Calgary, has a background in software development, and has been published both online and in print (including IEEE Internet Computing). In the past Kris has helped implement and improve agile methods at two previous Calgary-area startups, and he is a former moderator of the Calgary Agile Methods User Group.
Presentation Slides	5th_Ave_Place_Conference_Room.pdf

The Challenge of Adopting Agile Outside Software Projects

karenb — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 08:49:01 -0700

Guest Speaker	Neil Johnson, Principal Consultant, XtremeEDA
Date	Wednesday, November 25th, 2009
Description	Agile has become commonplace in software development. But beyond software development, the commonsense approach that many agile methods advocate for addressing problems in traditional process has lead to them being adapted and applied to a number of areas that include manufacturing, project management and others.
About the Speaker	Neil Johnson has been working in the field of IC design and verification for 10 years and has authored several papers on functional verification methods and testbench architecture. Recently, his focus has been more on project management and analyzing how agile methods may be adapted for use in the IC development domain. Neil is a certified scrum master and currently works as a principal consultant with XtremeEDA, a professional services company based in Ottawa. He also acts as co-moderator for www.agilesoc.com advocating agile methods in IC development.
Presentation Slides	XtremeEDA Slide Presentation.PDF

Hiring for an Agile Team

karenb — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 10:22:34 -0600

Guest Speaker	Dustin Aleksiuk (Developer) Dustin is a Calgary independent software developer and consultant. He has been using agile methods in various roles for the last 9 years. Jennitta Andrea (Tester) Jennitta has been actively engaged on a variety of different agile projects in Calgary as a hands-on practitioner (analyst, tester), consultant (retrospectives, assessments), and instructor. Her writing and conference presentations have brought international recognition as a thought leader in the area of agile requirements and test driven development. Janice Aston (Project Manager) Janice is an Agile project manager and coach currently working as an independent consultant. She is passionate about building high performing teams and delivering business value. John Johnston (Business Analyst) John is a BA and Agile coach at ThoughtWorks. He is particularly interested in finding ways to make agile and user centered design work together. Right now he wants to know more about Lean and Kanban systems. Gerard Meszaros (Solution Architect) Gerard is an independent consultant specializing in coaching agile teams. He is the author of the Jolt Productivity Award winning book xUnit Test Patterns - Refactoring Test Code and frequently speaks at agile conferences.
Date	Wednesday, October 28th, 2009
Description	Panel Discussion Have you ever wondered what you should be looking for when hiring for an agile team? Is just having “agile experience” enough? What are some characteristics unique to agile teams? How can you possibly assess those characteristics? Come out and hear from a panel of experts on things that you might want consider. There will be an opportunity to ask questions and share your experiences. Presentation Notes
Presentation Slides	5th_Ave_Place_Conference_Room.pdf Hiring for an Agile Team.pdf