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by Alan Bustamante

February Meeting: The Evolving Role of the Agile BA

January 22, 2012 in Events, Monthly Meetings

Alston will lead us in a discussion of the evolving role of the business analyst and how it has changed with the introduction of Agile.  He will share how different clients have utilized them successfully (and not so successfully) in the past few years, and what the future possibly holds for this important role. We will review highlights from the recent Agile extension to the BA Body of Knowledge Guide, scheduled to be published later this year.

AlstonAlston is the enterprise Agile Coach for Humana in Louisville, KY.  He is a Certified Scrum Professional (CSP) with over 10 years of Agile experience as a Scrum Coach, ScrumMaster, Product Owner and Agile Project Manager.  During his career Alston has worked with over 20 companies at varying levels of Agile maturity.  He enjoys sharing stories of success and challenges in implementing Agile techniques and approaches.

 

When: February 9, 2012  (Second Thursday).
Networking and dinner: 5:30-6pm.
Program: 6-7:30pm.
Where: Max Training. 4900 Parkway Drive Suite 160 , Mason (Cincinnati), OH 45040

Register through Eventbrite: http://agilecincinnati20120209.eventbrite.com

 Gold Sponsors:

MaxTrain

Silver Sponsor:

Cohesion

Bronze Sponsors:

Strategic Data SystemsInfoTrust

Door Prize Sponsors:

Pearson

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by Levent Gorur

January meeting epilogue: Planning an Agile Project

January 17, 2012 in Event Summary, Monthly Meetings

We started our gathering and networking with pizza provided by Cohesion.

 Networking in January 2012  Networking3_January2012

We had Troy Bitter presented us “How to plan Agile Projects”.

Troy started his presentation by comparing the values derived by traditional and iterative approaches. As we all know agile methodologies can provide incremental benefits at the end of each sprint while waterfall techniques may only deliver at the end of the project.

 TroyBitter_Jan2012

Providing timely information is necessary to support accelerating the project approval process.

Troy suggested to plan with a simple spreadsheet to organize sprints and estimations around iterations and releases. He provided examples of estimations using T-shirt sizes and explained why it is preferred over points.
  • T-shirt Sizing
    • Uses actual hours, people think in hours
    • Definite, not relative
    • Pro: easy to understand, easy translation to $.
    • Con: Backlog grooming might require adjusting estimates
    • XS: 16 hours – sub week
    • S: 24 hours – one week
    • M: 48 hours – two weeks
    • L: 72 hours – four weeks
  • Points
    • Abstract.  Does not necessarily match to hours
    • Pro: Relative, granular
    • Con: Hard to translate to $.
    • 1 – Less than 4 hours
    • 2 – More than half day but less than a day
    • 4 – About a day
    • 8 – More than a day but less than 2
    • 16 – About half of a week
    • 32 – About a week

Troy finalized his presentation with Key Takeaways about planning and reporting;

  • Just Enough
    • Be as precise as necessary – likely talk in days, not hours
    • More precision requires time and cost trade off
  • Time-box
    • Provides sense of urgency
    • Promotes prioritization
  • Communicate with audience in mind
    • Bring the right people together
    • Datasheets are useful to collect and analyze data.  They are not necessarily the right medium to share information with Management
 

Katie Watson and Keith Callis were the winners of our raffle and they got the prizes provided by Pearson and Atlassian

   

 

This month we have added a new sponsor; Cohesion became our Silver Sponsor. Thanks for your contributions.

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by Alan Bustamante

January Meeting: Planning an Agile Project

December 12, 2011 in Events, Monthly Meetings

Most agile approaches focus on collecting requirements in a backlog then delivering iteratively.  Yet, how do you get that point?  The traditional path to turn a vision into an approved project is usually a ‘not so agile process.’  Agile challenges the status quo.  This session will look at applying an agile approach to the inception phase (before iteration 0) where you take a vision/roadmap and turn it into an agile project.

Our speaker, Troy Bitter, is the Director of Agile Services at Cohesion.  Over the last four years, he has focused on agile with training, coaching, delivering, and attaining the successes that agile has to offer.  He is also involved with the local PMI chapter as a trainer and the Director of the new PMI Agile certification (ACP) training.

When: January 12  (Second Thursday).
Networking and dinner: 5:30-6pm.
Program: 6-7:30pm.
Where: Max Training. 4900 Parkway Drive Suite 160 , Mason (Cincinnati), OH 45040

 Gold Sponsors:

MaxTrainSeapine Software

Silver Sponsor:

Want to sponsor AC? Put your name here!

Bronze Sponsors: InfoTrust

Door Prize Sponsors:

Pearson

 

 

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by Alan Bustamante

December Holiday Mixer

November 14, 2011 in Events, Monthly Meetings

Two Great Organizations, One Great Event!

Come join the Agile Cincinnati and Agile Roundtable leadership for an evening of food, fun, and comradarie as we ring in the holiday season!

Agile Cincinnati

Agile RoundtableFood and drinks are not covered for this event, so each attendee is responsible for purchasing their own meals and beverages. If you belong to an organization that would like to sponsor this event, please contact the Agile Cincinnati leadership at info@agilecincinnati.org

When: Tuesday, December 6

Time: 6:30-8:30pm.

Where: Bucca di Beppo (Rookwood), 2635 Edmondson Road, Norwood, OH 45209

 Gold Sponsors:

MaxTrain

Silver Sponsor:

Want to sponsor AC? Put your name here!

Bronze Sponsors:

InfoTrust

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by Levent Gorur

November Epilogue: Understanding the PMI-ACP exam

November 12, 2011 in Event Summary, Monthly Meetings

We’re gathered on Thursday night (November 10, 2011) to review and understand the PMI’s new certification PMI Agile Certified Practitioner (PMI-ACP) with Sean Heuer and Alan Bustamante’s helps.

Sean Heuer Alan Bustamante at Agile Cincinnati 2011 November

We started interviewing each other to understand the impact of Agile on us and our interest in PMI-ACP. While we found that the interest in PMI-ACP was low, our willingness to practice Agile was high in our group.

Later with Sean’s leadership, we reviewed the books in PMI’s reading list for ACP exam. Each group came up with 3 top books from the list. Agile Retrospectives from  Derby, Larsen and Schwaber is the only book which is a common selection across all of the groups.

Sean and Alan provided feedback about contents of each book in the PMI’s list.

Sean explained the requirements for individuals to be able to enter to the ACP exam.

To apply for the PMI-ACP, register and log in to get started.

A printable PMI-ACP printable application form is available.

For more information see the detailed requirements in the PMI-ACP Handbook.

If you’re ready to take the exam, the PMI-ACP exam preparation can get you started.

PMI Agile Certification Eligibility Requirements
Requirement
Description
General Project Management Experience 2,000 hours working on project teams. These hours must be earned within the last 5 years.Note: for those holding a PMP® credential, PMI has already verified that the candidate has exceeded these requirements. Thus, a PMP will be accepted to fulfill these requirements.
Agile Project Management Experience 1,500 hours working on agile project teams. These hours are in addition to the 2,000 hours required in general project management experience. These hours must be earned within the last 2 years.
Agile Project Management Training 21 contact hours; hours must be earned in agile project management topics
Examination Tests knowledge of agile fundamentals

After the Q&A session we ended our meeting.

November’s food sponsor is Atlassian… Our sponsor for door prizes  is Pearson Education and Atlassian. Our November door prize winners are Robert Urbanski and Chris Boylan.

Robert Urbanski Chris Boylan

Thanks for all your support.

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by juthika

*UPDATE – NEW TOPIC* November Meeting: Understanding the PMI-ACP exam

October 26, 2011 in Events, Monthly Meetings

Note: We apologize for the late update. Unfortunately, Brian will not be able to be with us due to his business needs next week. If you pre-registered for Brian’s topic and will not be able to make the meeting please let us know by emailing us at info@agilecincinnati.com.

Abstract:

Last year the Project Management Institute (PMI) created a buzz among Agilists everywhere when it announced it was releasing an Agile certification.  Since then, PMI has released more details about what it is calling the Agile Certified Practitioner or PMI-ACP exam, including reference materials and a road map for successfully passing the exam.  In October of this year, a pilot group was given the exam with the intent of further refining the exam and issuing the first certifications in December 2011.

So, what are the pre-requisites for the exam? What exactly does the exam cover?  How is it different from other certifications on the market?  What value does having the certification provide? Does it replace the PMP (project management professional) certification or is it a complement to the PMP?   Come prepared with these questions and more!  Sean Heuer has sat for the PMI-ACP exam as part of the original pilot group.  Alan Bustamante was on the exam writing team that generated the questions for the exam and is part of the standards committee which will determine the passing points for the exam.

We plan to have around 30 minutes of lecture and use the remaing time for Q&A, where Sean and Alan will take questions from the audience.

Bios:

Sean HeuerSean Heuer, CSM, CSP is currently a Senior Consultant with Sogeti.  Previously he was an Agile Coach/Evangelist for the Kroger Co., at its technical center in Blue Ash, Ohio where he helped lead the company’s Agile adoption and community of Agile practitioners.

 

 

Alan Bustamante

Alan Bustamante, PMP, CSP, leads Seapine Software’s Agile Services practice. Alan has worked with software development teams for more than 11 years in tester, software engineer, business analyst, and project manager roles. He has worked on projects in the Americas, Asia, and Europe, and in multiple industries, including energy, insurance, IT, manufacturing, non-profit, and telecom. Alan has spent the last four years leading Agile teams, and is passionate about promoting Agile values through his involvement in the Agile community.

 

When: November 10 (Second Thursday).

Networking: 5:30-6pm.

Program: 6-7:30pm.

Where: Max Training. 4900 Parkway Drive Suite 160 , Mason (Cincinnati), OH 45040

 Gold Sponsors:

MaxTrain

Silver Sponsor:

Want to sponsor AC? Put your name here!

Bronze Sponsors:

 InfoTrust

Food and Door Prize Sponsors:

 

Pearson

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by Levent Gorur

October Epilogue: Influencing Agile teams through psychology

October 16, 2011 in Event Summary, Monthly Meetings

In October, we have record number of 36 attendees sailed with Dr. Suscheck into the waters of psychology.

Dr. Suscheck started his interactive presentation as follows;

“I am going to talk about how to sell your ideas using psychology when you really don’t have the authority. As a scrum master you don’t have a direct control; you can’t say you’re going to do “x, y, z”. You have to figure out a way to move your team, especially if you’re a coach.”

Why retrospectives are good? The groups came up with following items with Dr. Suscheck’s lead.

  • what’s right & wrong
  • learn from mistakes
  • forum for visibility
  • group voice/collaboration

Then, we tried to distinguish the differences between “influence” and “manipulation” and came up with the following list;

Influence

Manipulation
  • For good of target
  • Always there’s an out
  • Not selfish
  • Selfish
  • You don’t know that’s happening
    (no way out)

Dr. Suscheck provided a text  about retrospectives meetings; it’s important to read this text/announcement before and after reviewing the following enactments so you can distinguish the differences between influence and manipulation within the text.

Here’s Dr. Suscheck’s list of enactments to sell your idea;

  • Reciprocation
    People are more willing to comply with requests from those who have provided such things first.
  • Liking
    People prefer to say yes to those they know and like. Even being associated with groups or others that they like has an effect.
  • Commitment Consistency
    People are more willing to be moved in a particular direction if they see it as consistent with an existing or recent commitment.
  • Authority
    People are more willing to follow the directions or recommendations of a communicator to whom they attribute relevant authority or expertise.
  • Scarcity
    People find objects and opportunities more attractive to the degree that they are scarce, rare, or dwindling in availability. Even information that is scarce more effective.
  • Social Proof
    People are more willing to take a recommended action if they see evudebce that many others, especially similar others, are taking it.
   

 

He also gave us a suggested reading list on this subject as follows

Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion

by Robert B. Cialdini

Thinking from A to Z

by Nigel Warburton

How To Win Friends and Influence People

by Dale Carnegie

Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard

by Chip Heath and Dan Heath

Complete Works of Aristotle

by Aristotle

October’s food sponsor is Atlassian… Our sponsor for door prizes  is Pearson Education. Our October door prize winner is Kevin Zamora.

This month we have added a new sponsor; Seapine Software became our Gold Sponsor.

Thanks for all your support.

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by Alan Bustamante

October Meeting: Influencing Agile teams through psychology

September 17, 2011 in Events

Abstract: Agile development teams are self directed, but you still need to influence the teams. This talk is targeted toward using psychology to influence teams. Coaches, scrum masters, thought leaders, and others will benefit from these six psychological tools that you can use to influence people on your team.

Bio:

Chuck SuscheckDr. Charles Suscheck is a nationally recognized agile thought leader who specializes in agile software development adoption at the enterprise level. With over 25 years of professional experience, Dr. Suscheck has held positions of Process Architect, Director of Research, Principle Consultant, Professor, and Professional Trainer at some of the most recognized companies in America. He has spoken at national and international conferences and has over 30 publications to his credit. Dr. Suscheck is also one of the organizers of the Agile Coach Camp.

When: October 13 (Second Thursday).
Networking and dinner: 5:30-6pm.
Program: 6-7:30pm.
Where: Max Training. 4900 Parkway Drive Suite 160 , Mason (Cincinnati), OH 45040

 

Food and Door Prize Sponsors: Pearson

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by Levent Gorur

September Meeting Epilogue: Cincinnati Children’s Agile Journey

September 10, 2011 in Event Summary, Monthly Meetings

This month, our guests were Marjorie Miller and Robin Felty from Cincinnati Children’s Hospital. They presented their journey to implementing Agile practices in their organization… We again filled the biggest room completely, Max Training kindly provided for our meeting.

They have used Scrum and Kanban

  • Scrum for project work that has a definitive start and end date
  • Kanban for work that has a continuous queue such as production support

Here’s a list of benefits they realized

  • Transparency – we knew immediately when obstacles were getting in the way.
  • Communication improvements within the teams because of the daily stand ups.
  • Able to identify those stories (tasks) that could be worked simultaneously.
  • Visibility by all team members of upcoming tasks allowed each team member to feel actively involved in all aspects of the project.
  • Having the work prioritized helped us ensure we delivered the components that were most important to our customers
  • Open communication with our customers was greatly improved as everyone was going in the same direction.
  • Using Agile allowed our customers to be able to have visibility early in the project with our ability to complete the work.
  • Our product owners were able to identify areas they should back on scope based on feedback they received in the sprint review meetings.

Marjorie and Robin finalized their presentation with Keys for Successful Agile Implementation followed by a Q&A session.

  • Management Support and a Great Coach
  • Product Owner involvement to prioritize and review completed work.
  • Daily stand up meetings – to inspect and adapt quickly changing situations
  • Focus and commitment to the prioritized work
  • Team retrospectives for process improvement
  • Team is self sufficient & self managing
  • Discipline to keep the process going

This month our food sponsor was Atlassian. Thanks again for their support to our community.

Manish Gupta and Pat Newberry were the winners of our raffle and they got the prizes provided by Pearson and Atlassian

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by juthika

September Meeting – Retrospective: Cincinnati Children’s Agile Journey

September 8, 2011 in Events, Monthly Meetings

Abstract:

We had been facing challenges using the traditional waterfall method and needed to improve project outcomes. After attending several Agile presentations we decided to give the Agile process a try. Join us as we share our experiences over the last two years of using the Agile framework.  We’ll discuss how we introduced it, what type of projects we have implemented using this process and how we keep spreading the word and moving forward.  We’ll be talking about what went well; the positive impacts we have made delivering projects at CCHMC and, of course, what can be improved!

Bio:

MarjorieMarjorie is a member of the Project Management Office at CCHMC. She has over 25 years of IT experience in a number of verticals including insurance, manufacturing and telecommunications.  Various roles have been programmer, resource manager, project manager and Agile evangelist.

 

RobinRobin manages the PeopleSoft HCM/ELM and Kronos development teams at CCHMC. She has over 25 years of IT experience in a number of verticals supporting human resources information systems.  Her roles have included: programmer, resource manager, project manager and Agile advocate.

 

When: September 08 (Second Thursday).  Networking and dinner: 5:30-6pm. Program: 6-7:30pm.

Where: Max Training. 4900 Parkway Drive Suite 160 , Mason (Cincinnati), OH 45040

Food sponsor: TBD

This event qualifies for 1 PDU. Attendees must pre-register through Eventbrite and sign in at the door to qualify.

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