Agile Cincinnati

Abstract

So I got my wish.  I proposed doing the organization’s first agile project and management said yes.  Now what?  I read the books, attended webinars, but have never led an agile project.  The organization is very waterfall centric, documentation happy, and ingrained in their ways.  Did I really think this through?

Please join me as we review a real-life case study of how I introduced agile into a waterfall world.  Learn from our mad, sad, & glad steps (and missteps) of introducing agile at the tactical level of those who are needed to deliver it — the developers, QA, PM, Operations, product owners, related mgmt, environment support teams, and more.

Not to spoil the ending but there is a happy ending.  After two years, we continue down the agile path, continuing to mature our processes, continues to mature our understanding, continuing to deliver value.

Quick Bio

Presenter – Troy Bitter

http://www.linkedin.com/in/troybitterky

Troy has been in IT for over 16 years.  He calls it a “career of evolution.”  He started in deployments (building servers and configuring software).  He showed good analysis skills and moved into QA testing.  Continuing to succeed, he become lead QA tester, systems analyst, and project manager.  The last 2 years have been focused in the agile space.

Across 10 years in project mgmt, Troy has been focused in sectors of manufacturing & distribution, document imaging, and check processing.  He has a thirst for learning, sharing, and continual improvement for himself, organization, process, and others. It’s a good fit for agile.

He holds accreditations of CSTE (Certified Software Test Engineer), Toastmaster ATM-B, MBA, PMP, and Six Sigma green belt.  He has taught project mgmt at the graduate level and is a trainer for the 2010 PMI accreditation season (PMP, CAPM, PgMP).  He lives in northern Ky with his wife Kelly, son Micah, and Baby B due 10/1.

Favorite business book: “What Got You Here, Won’t Get You There” by Marshall Goldsmith.  Some of the behaviors that enable people to become successful can inhibit their ultimate rise to the top.

Partner Technology has been retained on an exclusive basis to recruit for several Agile Project Managers.

Agile Project Manager Job Description:

Will lead software application development projects for this medium sized corporation founded and headquartered in Cincinnati. The application development team uses Agile/Scrum Methodology for their development efforts and the software environment is .Net, SQL Server and third party package for the core application engine.

Will create project plans and drive project. Will be responsible for application development project deliverable. Will interface with business, application developers and IT Technical staff to ensure project timelines are being hit. Will need to coordinate and drive projects to be on time, within budget and meeting deliverables.

Agile Project Manager Required Skills:

• Must have 3-5 years of IT Project Management experience and over 7 years of overall IT experience
• Must have several years of leading application development efforts. Strongly prefer custom application development efforts
• Must have experience leading an application development effort that was led using Agile or Scrum Methodology.
• Must be a ‘driver’ and not a project administrator. Want someone who will proactively drive project and hold multiple parties accountable for hitting their deliverables and keeping the project on the critical path
• Must have excellent communication skills. Will interact with business users and managers, developers, IT Technical staff and IT Managers.

Agile Project Manager Preferred Skills:

• Experience leading web based .Net application development projects
• Scrum or Agile Certifications such as CSM (Certified Scrum Master)
• Project Management Methodology (PMP)

*US citizens and Green Card Holders and those authorized to work in the US are encouraged to apply. We are unwilling to sponsor H-1B candidates at this time

** Location: Cincinnati, Ohio

To register click the following link: https://www.themetscenter.com/center/default.aspx?page=register&type=event&id=154

The above image can be downloaded as a PDF at the following URL: http://imiweb.nku.edu/images/stories/eventFiles/AgileflyerOpt.pdf

I would like to post these positions. thank you.
iLuxottica is the worlds largest sunglass and eyeglass manufacturer and distributor in the world. Fashion and technology forward and hiring in the IT depart. I am currently hiring for the following positions, Business Analysts, a strong and visible liaison between our business leaders and IT, Agile, POS experience a plus!
Oracle DBA w SQL server a plus,
Systems Integrator/Applications Analyst,SQL and Perl scripting in a UNIX environment. WebLogic Oracle RPAS a plus.
Interested candidates please contact me directly at mcastell@luxotticaretail.com.
To preview careers http://www.luxottica.com/en/careers/opportunities

You’re sold.  You’ve seen the presentations, you’ve read the books, and you’re convinced.  Agile could be the solution to many of your organization’s problems.

So now what?  How do you begin?  Your organization has hundreds (or thousands) of people, in a dozen different locations, on three continents.   You’re faced with project funding, compliance, and regulatory processes that are beyond of your direct control.  Your systems architecture is a labyrinth of legacy code no one fully understands.  And perhaps most daunting, you’re facing 150 years of command-and-control culture and built-up bureaucracy.  How can Agile work in your environment?  And how do you transform a complex environment like yours without throwing the entire organization into chaos?

Please join Isaac Montgomery, Agile Coach with Rally Software, as he discusses his experiences guiding large, complex organizations through their journey toward Agile success; and the process and framework those organizations have used. 

Isaac Montgomery is an Agile Coach and Consultant with Rally Software. His experience includes over 15 years of project leadership, management and consulting for software development organizations in the military, energy, financial services and medical solutions industries. Isaac’s passion is focused on guiding IT organizations through their transformation from a rigid, bureaucratic cost center to a nimble, high performing value delivery engine by harnessing the power and simplicity of empowered Agile teams, and incorporating Lean principles in the organization’s management systems.

Presentation starts at 6 pm on Thursday August 12 at the same location – Max Training , 4900 Parkway Drive, Mason, OH 45040 . As always dinner’s on us.

To RSVP, just leave a reply below.

Position: Agile Software Developer Needed starting August
Company: Corps of Enabled Veterans (Service Disabled Veteran Owned Small Business)
Contact: Robert Urbanski (Program and Operations Officer)
Term: Short-Term Contract (2 Months) – Strong Potential for Long-Term after 60 days
Experience: 3-5 Years (or more) Web-Based Development using ASP.NET & VB.NET Experience Required
US Citizen Required
Onsite in Lexington 4-5 days/week through September
Please email resume to rurbanski@coev.us

Check out our Community page for exciting news and events related to Agile, happening in and around our neighborhood.

We had another great meeting on July 8th. The weather was beautiful which made it even more exciting to see 20+ people at the meeting.

Alec Finn from Centric Consulting presented on Agile Metrics. Alec is an agile veteran who has spent the last six years developing custom Agile practices for Fortune 500 organizations such as: Cintas, Fidelity, Nationwide and Great American Insurance. These practices have enabled these larger, more constrained, organizations to leverage the value of Agile and it’s 12 core principles within parameters such as distributed teams, bundled releases and established PMOs.

I would highly recommend Alec as a presenter to anybody. Not only he teaches real life things that he personally has implemented in agile teams, but he delivers the presentation at the agile management/PMO level which is exactly what larger organizations need.

Here are his slides:

On July 23rd our friends from PMI, Southwest Ohio Chapter are putting together an Agile Development Day. Here is some information about the event:
Session Leaders

Rob Keefer is Principal Consultant and Director of the Agile Development Center with Strategic Data Systems. He has been leading Agile development efforts since 2003, and has over 16 years of experience as a software engineer and technical consultant. Rob has mastered skills in all phases of the software development life cycle with strengths in object-oriented analysis, design, and implementation. He has led the development of complex, interactive systems with Raytheon, Thompson Learning, Major League Baseball (mlb.com), FedEx-Kinkos, Standard Register and more. He is Scrum-certified and holds a Bachelors degree in Math and Computer Science, along with a Masters in Computer Science. Rob is currently pursuing a Masters in Human Factors Engineering and a PhD in Computer Science. He’s authored various articles, white papers, and presentations on a broad range of technology topics, including Agile Development.

Paul Spencer is Senior Consultant at Strategic Data Systems, and a founding team member of its Agile Development Center. Paul has 12 years of experience in software development, focusing on Agile methodologies and object oriented design. Certified in Scrum, he has provided a wide range of Agile consulting over the past few years, from remote projects with skilled Agile teams to individually mentoring Agile processes within large corporations and start-up settings. Paul has worked with leading organizations, including P&G, Citi Bank, Exxon Mobile, Comair, Ethicon Endo Surgery, Eli Lilly, and more. He holds a Bachelors in Systems Analysis with a minor in Physics, and is currently pursuing a Masters in Human Factors Engineering. Paul has spoken on Agile and Refactoring to a variety of audiences.

Click here to register

At this meeting we had the largest number of attendees so far. There were 28 people total. Here are some pictures from this event:

We asked for a show of hands about the topics. Here are the numbers:

• Requirements – 3
• Coaching – 6
• Tools – 15
• Agile portfolio management – 8
• Distributed teams 13
• Change management —-
• Agile contracting – 4
• Assessment – bump to 1 hour
• Engineering Practices – 12

Alex asked attendees to leave a few comments about the meeting. Here are some dominant topics:

• Room too small, we need bigger room. (We are honored and fortunate to have this problem. We will work with Max Training to make sure we have more space next time)
• More interaction and facilitation during discussion. A few people dominated the discussion. We need to do a better job engaging everybody
• Case studies/examples after each presentation
• Do a better job introducing ourselves for new members. Let new members introduce themselves and meet other people.

If you attended this meeting, please leave comments on this post.