program selection system

Without a doubt, agile processes rely on effective collaborative teams. But we can’t just throw a group of individuals together and expect an agile team to just happen. It takes knowledge of team strategies, skillful team building and ongoing coaching to build and maintain high-performing agile teams.

Many meeting and training sessions rely on exercises in which the group generates data, which is then reviewed to create an understanding of the possible answers to a posed question. Variations on this theme can be found in reviews of business proposals and prioritizing requirements. Thiagi (full name Sivasailam Thiagarajan) has created so called ‘frame games’ that allow an adaption to the specific needs of a situation.

In this workshop I will provide an introduction of the frame-games to the participants. We then actually run a game, to become familiar with the concept and to select the framework which we will use in the workshop. Given a reference structure which I will provide (i.e. which kind of decision will the game which we design support) I will put the group to work (and participate) in creating the game. Once done we’ll run it, to learn if the game needs tuning.

Any successful recording artist eventually submits to releasing a “Greatest Hits” album. This is the opposite: a beat-up XP coach putting his biggest and furthest-reaching mistakes in a neat package and releasing them to the public. This talk could also be named “Ten ways to guarantee your Agile transition is a total failure”, or “Apologies of an XP coach”; however I’m sure I’ll mention more than ten mistakes and I make no apology for them.

ORIGINAL SUMMARY:

Agile is a term often (but not always) associated with ‘project chemistry,’ or the positive team climate that can contribute to high performance. This report presents findings from a qualitative study into personal experiences in development teams. The results draw from socio-psychological literature to explain not only how, but WHY agile methodologies support effective teamwork.

__Software teams confront what works and what doesn’t throughout every project. Where does their hard-earned experience go?

Achieving quality in Agile projects starts with a clear Definition of Done, listing all of the quality criteria that the team wishes to satisfy. It is not easy however, to integrate testing in such a way that the Definition of Done can also be met in later iterations. The natural progression of the required amount of testing effort is to spike sharply at the end of each iteration, and to increase overall in later iterations. This talk is about highlighting the problem areas in maintaining one’s Definition of Done, and about teamwork in testing.

What makes pairing work? How do you learn to pair effectively? When problems arise during a pairing session, how do you deal with them?

Of all the practices generally associated with Agile software development, pair programming is likely the least-used. Sometimes pairing just happens, but most times people need to approach it more mindfully.

We will explore and experience ways to pair effectively to give those unfamiliar with pairing some safe and thoughtful exposure, and to give those with difficulties some insights into how their pairing can be more effective.