brandonraines

Every year since 2005, Agilists  from all over the world converge on some welcoming city to collaborate, commiserate, share new ideas, and celebrate all that is Agile at its premier conference.  This year was particularly special for me as it was the culmination of a ton of hard work by the Blue Collar team to present it's first real product launch, my first time as a presenter in a conference this large, and it took place in a city that I am particularly fond of, Chicago.

Using the Retrospective technique of Mad, Sad, Glad developed by Esther Derby and Diana Larsen here are some high level thoughts on the conference.

:-)

- virtual social networking through Twitter. follow @ #agile2009

- face to face social networking

- iPhone app(props to ThoughtWorks)

- international diversity

- diversity in roles represented(developers, testers, managers, etc)

- sessions that allowed me to talk to other attendees through the use of exercises that sparked conversations

- evidence, albeit still small, of Agile going 'mainstream'. (Obama session, Cockburn keynote, number of presentations featuring government, interviews by media)

- presenting on our coaching experience in the Federal Government, see more below

- Blue Collar Objects product launch, see more below

- conference provided a concentrated opportunity to iterate on ideas with rest of Blue Collar Objects team 

- hallway discussions

:-(

- disappearance of the Questioning Agile stage and accompanying presentations

- bashing of Scrum and the Scrum master.  Seems like this was misdirected as it was truly a bashing of those that have misconstrued the practice.  

>:o

- cell service.  I reluctantly list this since it was no fault of any conference organizer or even the hotel, but it was so incredibly bad and made such an impact that I mention it in the hopes that at future conferences it can be avoided.

A Reader's Digest version of my favorite sessions

Improving Obama Campaign Software: Learning From Users by Billy Belchev

This was a departure from normal presentations as it focused on a popular and successful venture, The Obama campaign.  This presentation combined the popular appeal of the campaign, politics along with working in a highly iterative environment by getting real time user feedback and acting on it.  This was fun as it was a confluence of some of my favorite topics.

Performance Without Appraisal: What To Do About Performance Reviews by Esther Derby

Really good presentation exposing the many ways that performance reviews have gone so incredibly wrong and how there needs to be a different approach particularly in a highly collaborative environment that Agile demands.  

* feedback should be on the spot, direct and specific

* anonymous feedback engenders paranoia

* give people the information they need to change their behavior

* annual reviews engenders mistrust & bad information as it opens up the possibility that the person has been doing something wrong for a year

* don't discount the cost of bad policies(time taken by employees to 'water cooler' the bad policies)

* challenge: how to evaluate performance and provide feedback based upon team contributions

Scaling Scrum with Feature Teams by Bas Vodde

Bas Vodde is one of the big brains in Scrum and Architecture. Definitely one of my favorite sessions. 

* Large projects have collections of mediocre people

* Instead of being constrained by specialization, learn new specialization within team instead of growing.

* growing may be more expensive over time & velocity may drop by adding or growing within

* invest in learning within team

* utilize component guardians who suggest peer reviews but does not block or become a gatekeeper

* Chief Architect, Scrum Master, Lead Tester or Development Lead is not in charge of creating structure but facilitating the creation of structure amongst the team, perhaps even through constraints

* Use themes as a way to break up product backlog and divide amongst multiple scrum teams on a large project

Become a Better Agile Practitioner:Learn from Other Sources by Mike Sutton

* very much enjoyed the aspect of being able to conduct exercises where I could talk to my fellow attendees at a table for an extended period of time on relevant topics setup by the instructor.

Climbing the dreyfus ladder of agile practices by Patrick Kua

* Fantastic presentation of the Dreyfus model.  The most helpful and relevant class that could help me personally in my coaching practice.

The experience of presenting Managing Agile Transition in Government Beauracracy

* great time collaborating and presenting with Judy

* great questions and interaction with audience

Product launch of Blue Collar Objects Community including Scrum Tools

Blue Collar Objects was very proud to contribute to the Agile community by being a sponsor of Agile 2009.  We used this incredible opportunity to release our product of creating a community where users can tell us the services they want, vote on their priority and price.  The first set of services being created are for those who want to use typical services that a Scrum team would use such as managing a product backlog.  Being a sponsor gave us a chance to showcase our wares to conference attendees.  Preparing for the conference was an awesome chance to collaborate with my fellow Blue Collarites.  Collaborating and iterating on ideas is something that we all thrive on and it was done at a high pace before, during and even after the conference.  

Lingering Thoughts & Take-Aways

* Are we becoming Agile or merely doing Agile?

* Learning that the problems faced from one project, Agile or otherwise, are not always unique, but the solutions are often different.

Mad, sad or glad, Agile 2009 was a great experience.  One that will carry a special meaning for me forever.  It is still the best concentration of the leading Agile minds, famous or not yet famous.  It is somewhere that you will most likely find me every year.  So, see you in Nashville

P.S.

Want to read more about what I did outside of the conference in Chicago? Take a look here, Chicago 2009 
Here are some other Agile 2009 experience reports that I liked:

• http://www.enthiosys.com/insights-tools/a09-recap/
• http://geekyninja.blogspot.com/2009/09/agile-2009-summary.html