program selection system

Drawing from our experience implementing Agile not only across cultural and physical boundaries with on/off shore blended teams, but within limitations that aren’t so obvious - we play an interactive game to learn about how people from diverse groups with different learning styles can gain knowledge and insight in cooperative and competitive settings. We will draw from this workshop’s experiential learning to feed a larger discussion about intercultural work groups, whether these groups are from different countries or different work disciplines.

Presentation Description

The true measure of project progress is working software - or is it? Our team thought it was, and we were wrong. This is the story of our team, a team that set out to build a new order tracking system for a worldwide vehicle manufacturer, and failed.

Cultural diversity has become the norm in the software industry. It’s not unusual to work with people from across the country or across the world.

Working with people from different cultures can be a great opportunity; it can also be challenging and puzzling.

In this session, we’ll use a simulation to explore what it’s like to work with people from a different culture.

We’ll look at the ways that culture determines how people decide, listen, and act. And we’ll learn several tools to reframe differences in order to reduce misunderstandings and improve productivity.

Modelling agile methods in the classroom also allows students to see the depth and power of agile methods as a general approach to working, and simultaneously confirms that the instructor actually walks the talk. In this workshop, attendees will explore using agile methods to deliver agile training. The first half will go through the methods used by Mishkin Berteig, an experienced agile trainer. These methods will be presented as a set of patterns. In the second half of the workshop participants will collaboratively discover and refine more patterns.

At a Glance
This session provides ideas and approaches on how to promote a culture of continuous improvement and perpetual learning among teams of software developers in a corporate setting. It provides specific examples of approaches that have been successful at large companies such as Travelers Insurance and Google, focusing not only on how to spread knowledge, but also on how to evaluate progress and measure success. It also presents some lessons learned, and looks to the audience to share their thoughts and experience on where to go from here.