program selection system

Code71, Inc. is a Web 2.0 solution and service company. Our target market is start-ups, small-businesses and non-profit organizations. We use on-shore + off-shore model using Scrum to deliver our projects. Our off-shore office is in Dhaka, Bangladesh.

Off-shoring and distributing project teams are a business driver in most organizations. As the world becomes increasingly “flat”, organizations are seeking out operational and cost efficiencies by leveraging distributed teams. These distributed teams are a common constraint on most technology projects today. A tremendous challenge exists in scaling large programs to include geographically dispersed teams and team members. To continue wide-spread adoption, Agile projects must find ways to thrive in distributed environments.

The reality is that our teams are not always colocated and many of us have to adapt. The empirical, inspect-and-adapt, approach will help us evolve toward processes that work. This session will help you accelerate this process by learning what has, and hasn’t, worked for others. Come share your distributed agile experience and tap into the collective wisdom that will be present. We are going to compile a list of the most important ingredients for success.

Intent
The intent of this session is to expose participants to the challenges faced by distributed agile teams, to allow them to discover ways to mitigate those challenges, and to have fun.

Summary
The Distributed Agile Game is meant to be played by people who are interested in challenges experienced by members of distributed agile teams. The participants may have prior experience in distributed development, but this is not required. In fact, no software development experience is required.

It seems to be a common understanding that retrospectives are the major practice that enable agility. However, conducting virtual retrospectives is often not straight forward. One possibility is to conduct a retrospective at each site and then to swap the different findings afterwards. Another one is to facilitate a joint virtual retrospective using different virtual communication channels. In this workshop we will explore practices and facilitation techniques that have helped in different global projects. Moreover we’ll indicate supporting tools and how to prepare such a workshop.

Agility asks for face-to-face communication, trust and collaboration. Proximity can be created by travelling – at least sometimes. Virtual communication channels provide another possibility overcoming the distance. But we should take the trust threshold into account which, once hit, will break an existing relationship.

This session is an experience report from CampusSoft in the UK. The focus is on their experiences using Agile in a multi-site software development environment, in the UK, Romania and India. We will look at the motivations behind outsourcing their work to India and why the relationship with their partners in India led them to try using an Agile approach. We will then look at some of the approaches which were important for them to be Agile and the challenges that they faced, such as communication, working practices and culture.

This session is presented by a group of panelists – Esther Derby, Hubert Smits, Tamara Sulaiman, Samir Shah and Monica Yap. All of the panelists have experience working with successful distributed Agile teams, from offshore and onshore. They will share their experience and insights on how to face the common challenges arise from this environment. Topics such as how to start well, how to deal with time zones, will be discussed. During the session, the panelists will also answer specific questions from attendees.

This session is designed for agile practioners who are seeking to improve practices in large agile programs. It is targeted for experienced and inexperienced sponsors, product owners, scrum masters, project managers and people involved in business development and contract negociation.

This presentation explores the special considerations an agile project leader must account for when planning, initiating, and running a distributed agile project. Techniques, tools, and learnings from three project experiences are discussed.

Discussion will also include anecdotes, failures, and successes based on the presenter’s past experiences as both an onshore and offshore member of outsourced and co-sourced distributed teams in the US, India, and China.

This session is particularly useful for individuals new to or considering distributed agile projects.