program selection system

In stark contrast to the mind-numbing monologues you’d expect from other vendors, VersionOne Theatre presents the dramatic production A Day In The Lifecycle…, based on a true story*. This multi-act, action-packed feature highlights the pragmatic value a tool can offer in day-to-day product development activities – from product planning through your daily standup – illustrated within the context of the way agile teams actually work.

“One thumb, way up! A Day in the Lifecycle… was totally refreshing – entertaining and informative – a real breath of fresh air.” Ebert

Whose Project is it Anyway? Presenters: Bonnie Aumann, Rob Kinyon

From organizing the backlog of stories to choosing a branching strategy, developers and clients can find themselves wondering who’s really driving the project. These problems are only exacerbated when an outside team is brought into the client-space. In this session we will explore organizational patterns and anti-patterns, particularly focusing on conflict resolution, via improvisational role-playing.

Developing software in a medical device company imposes a number of challenges on any methodology. There is a high level of dependency on hardware systems, long validation cycles and a strict regulatory environment which requires adherence to international standard and a high level of traceability. At Cochlear Limited (the largest cochlear implant manufacturer) we have been using agile software methodologies in this environment for just over two years.

Who owns your project’s schedule? If you did not include “I do” as a part of your answer, perhaps you weren’t thinking of the layers of project planning, recognizing that everyone has ownership at some layer. Backlogs and Burndowns are effective tools for agile software teams to manage what they own. This Tutorial will explain Backlogs and Burndowns, showing how they work on real projects, helping manage real situations. This is a practical session for Developers, Testers, Team Leads, Coaches, and Project Managers who own Release and Iteration Planning.

Nobuaki Katayama, Chief Engineer of Lexus/SC and IS, talked to software engineers about process, principles, and practices of new car development in Toyota, at Developer’s Summit 2008 in Tokyo on Feb. 13, 2008. In this session, I’ll give his presentation, translated into English in place of him. It starts with CE Katayama’s introduction, explains management principles and practices of a huge car development project, and concludes with people side of the development. I add some episodes about Agile and engineering found during our pannel session of the conference.

Great software comes from getting the best ideas into the product. Jim McCarthy, who led the legendary turnaround of the Visual C++ group at Microsoft, left Microsoft in 1996 to create a team dynamics laboratory to figure out how to always create a create a high performace team. His lab has focused on this challenge, and has produced 11 protocols for making unanimous decisions, supporting quality thinking, strengthening design iterations, and incorporating feedback, emotions, nobility, and passion into products. Learn about an entirely new class of tools.

PMBOK is a 400 page book describing 44 management processes within 12 knowledge areas published by PMI as the standard for Project Management. Scrum can be depicted on one page. The Agile Manifesto including principles is documented in less than 3 pages. Seems like oil and water – or is it?

Chances are good that if you’ve worked on a project, you’ve encountered a schedule game or two (or three or four). As part of a team, you’ve seen Schedule Chicken or 90% Done. If you’re a project manager, you’ve probably pushed back against We Gotta Have it; We’re Toast Without It, the Queen of Denial, We’ll Go Faster Now, or Split Focus.