Agile 2011: Introspective
In conclusion, the event was worth the time invested in terms of some great panel discussions and networking. Somethings I’ll be thinking about are:
- There could be more time allocated to interaction between attendees. Maybe run the conference in Sprints and have some standups?
- There is an opportunity for ‘Translators’. People who come from the traditional business project environment who have seen the light and are able to translate and interpret the benefits of the Agile / Lean approach in non-religious/tech/dev language to the Executive teams. This can help enhance traditional thinking with agility. Maybe we should be talking Agility over Agile?
- I’m still uneasy about whether Agile is appropriate for Enterprise Level Product Deployment. The people mentioned an SAP Deployment in progress that was successfully using an Agile approach. I need to learn more.
- One of the presenters drew a hierarchy in a circle. That’s not Agile. A hierarchy in a circle is still a hierarchy. It’s about the culture change.
- It’s amazing how much you pay attention at a conference when you pay for yourself ;-)
The Thoughtworks Drinks evening was great fun. Thank you, Thoughtworks! Interesting Books recommended by various speakers:
Conference Tech: iThoughsHD, the brilliant iPad Mindmapping tool, allowed me to track the sessions and my observations. You can get a copy of the MindMap here. Social media played a bigger role for me this year to keep track of the events as they unfolded , as well as a useful daily summary of activity on twitter. I used this page to stay up to date. Some interesting activity stats (click on the image for more detail) Paper.li was useful to provide a daily snapshot of the days events
