Best of Agile 2008

August 1, 2008 by Artem Marchenko

This is the final part of a guide to Agile 2008.  Agile 2008 is the premier conference of the Agile world with about 400 sessions to choose from. In this list of the top sessions I am highlighting the sessions where I will go or would go if it was possible to be present in many places simultaneously and other sessions worth high attention. I tried reducing the list size really hard and it made me remove many really good sessions.

When reading the list bear my profile in mind. I am a product manager working in a distributed environment (and playing a Scrum Product Owner) who still remembers how to code and periodically is invited as an Agile coach or trainer (though not earning his living from the coaching side). The closer you are to this profile, the more useful this top list will be for you. Also bear in mind that I never recommend Live aid and Open jam sessions. You know better if on some time slot you'll want to devote your time to these unusual sessions.

The sessions are sorted by the time frame and every list item is presented together with the corresponding room name. I chose this format, because I am going to print the list and take it with me as a schedule to use on the conference.

 

Tuesday, Aug 5 10:45 - 12:15

I would go to:

• Scrum in a Multiproject Environment. Room: Wentworth

  • That's where I will really go, because I am the co-author of the paper. Please, come to praise and criticize my and Pekka's work.

• Clean Code Clinic: TDD Ping Pong Match!. Room: Osgoode Foyer

  • Something I'd like to use in my own practice as a trainer.

• The Myth and Magic of Self-Organizing Teams. Room: Dominion North

  • About helping your teams become self-organizing. Another short session that might be combinable with another short sessions if you can run fast between the rooms.

 

Other sessions worth high attention:

• Trying to save a Scrum implementation using Lean Principles and Artifacts. Room: Conference F
  • Inconsistent quality, because of a number of compromises needed when implementing Scrum in large organizations, are something to beware and know how to deal with. Note, that this session takes only last 30 minutes of a timeslot.
• Expanding Agile Horizons: The Five Dimensions of Systems. Room: Grand Ballroom (East)
• Mary Poppendieck is a magnificent speaker with a sharp and not very usual point of view on the software development. You got to be on her talks at least once.

• Pragmatic Personas: Connecting With Developers Via TDD . Room: Dufferin

  • Plenty of Agile coaching revolves around helping people of different specialities work together. This session explores linking developers with the UX people.

• Test-Driven Ajax. Room: Sheraton Hall B
• Very practical for the web programmers 

• Leadership Success Recipes for Agile in the 21st Century . Room: Dominion South

  • Concrete coaching recipes for concrete problems happening when you go beyond a single small colocated team working on a single project.

• See Large Scale Multi-Stage Continuous Integration in Real Time. Room: Sheraton Hall A

  • Something very relevant for the distributed teams I work with. Also doesn't take the whole time slot and might be compatible with another short sessions if you can run fast enough.

Tuesday, Aug 5 14:00 - 15:30

I would go to:

• Ten Terrific Transition Tips. Room: Grand Ballroom (West)
• Any practicing coach should find it useful. Joshua is an excellent speaker and coach with plenty of experience.
• Beer Miles! The Product Owner Simulation. Room: Conference C
  • An exercise on what a real Product Owner goes through when starting an Agile project and leading it to the completion. Note that it is a long session and it occupies next time slot as well.
• Coaching self-organizing teams. Room: Essex
• Helping the team transform from a group of people into a truly self-organizing team is something I like advancing in. Note that it is a long session and it occupies next time slot as well.

 

Other sessions worth high attention:

• The Agile Playground - Learning Games for the Agile Practitioner. Room: Conference B
  • Game creation is something for the every coach and trainer to master.
• Requirements-Driven Workshops for Large Agile Projects: Essentials for Product, Release and Iteration Planning. Room: Kent
  • A practical tutorial on the practical procedures for running the practical workshop. Note that it is a long session and it occupies next time slot as well.
• Agile Estimating and Planning. Room: Grand Ballroom (East)
  • Perfect session to get started on Agile estimating and planning. Go there is you never estimated user stories yet. Note that it is a long session and it occupies next time slot as well.
• Introduction to Lean Software Development. Room: Grand Ballroom (Center)
  • Come there if you've never been to a session on Lean Software Development.
• TDD Clinic: Ron & Chet . Room: Osgoode West
  • Ron and Chet are long time XP gurus. If you want to master TDD, seeing from these guys build a small app in front of you, could be very useful. Note that it is a long session and it occupies next time slot as well.
• Product management in an agile world . Room: Dominion North
  • A small 30 min session for those who come from product management.
• Diana and Esther’s Excellent Retrospective Adventures. Room: Huron
  • Learn how to run retrospectives from those who know how to run them well. Note that it is a long session and it occupies next time slot as well.

Tuesday, Aug 5 16:00 - 17:30

I would go to:

• Beer Miles! The Product Owner Simulation. Room: Conference C
  • An exercise on what a real Product Owner goes through when starting an Agile project and leading it to the completion. Continues from the previous time slot. 
• Coaching self-organizing teams. Room: Essex
• Helping the team transform from a group of people into a truly self-organizing team is something I like advancing in. Continues from the previous time slot.  
• Trouble with component teams and an alternative. Room: Grand Ballroom (West)
  • Should be of high interest for people working on large projects (50+, 100+ people) in a distributed organization. Bas knows this situation very well and has plenty of experience in making it work.

 

Other sessions worth high attention:

• Agile Estimating and Planning. Room: Grand Ballroom (East)
  • Perfect session to get started on Agile estimating and planning. Go there is you never estimated user stories yet. Continues from the previous time slot.
• TDD Clinic: Ron & Chet . Room: Osgoode West
  • Ron and Chet are long time XP gurus. If you want to master TDD, seeing from these guys build a small app in front of you, could be very useful. Continues from the previous time slot.
• Diana and Esther’s Excellent Retrospective Adventures. Room: Huron
• Learn how to run retrospectives from those who know how to run them well.  Continues from the previous time slot.
• Requirements-Driven Workshops for Large Agile Projects: Essentials for Product, Release and Iteration Planning. Room: Kent
  • A practical tutorial on the practical procedures for running the practical workshop. Continues from the previous time slot.
• Building High-Performance Agile Teams. Room: Dominion South
• Business Value - Soup to Nuts. Room: Civic North
  • An overview on what business value is, what it is not and what to do about it.
• Money for Nothing and Your Change for Free: Agile Contracts . Room: Civic South
  • Scrum co-author on the contracting models he uses effectively.

 

Wednesday, Aug 6 8:30 - 10:00

I would go to:

•  Resistance as a Resource. Room: Osgoode East
  • Practical advise on how to change organization, when it is naturally resistant to change.
•  Coaching Agile Teams. Room: Conference C
  • Simulation of several coaching styles included.
• Overcoming Resistance to Change. Room: Churchill
• Understand why people resist the change and know how to cope with it. Note that it is a long session and it occupies next time slot as well. 

 

Other sessions worth high attention:

• Distributed Retrospectives. Room: Conference G
  • Conducting distributed retrospectives is hard. Yet needed if you work in a highly distributed environment as I do. Better to know some tips and tricks
   
• XUnit Test Patterns and Smells; Improving Test Code and Testability Through Refactoring. Room: Conference D
  • Practical session about unit testing in the right manner. Note that it is a long session and it occupies next time slot as well.
• Value Stream Mapping - Extending Our View to the Enterprise. Room: Windsor West
  • Value stream maps are an important component of a lean toolbox. Even if you are not ready for going "beyond Agile", you will find this thinking tool useful. Note that it is a long session and it occupies next time slot as well.
• Tidal Wave: The Game Changing Transformation. Room: Kenora.
  • A short (30 mins) experience report over a long term (2 years) transformation.
• Barely Sufficient Portfolio Management. Room: Kent
  • Know how your product fits into the bigger picture

 

Wednesday, Aug 6 10:30 - 12:00

I would go to:

• Overcoming Resistance to Change. Room: Churchill
  • Understand why people resist the change and know how to cope with it. Continues from the previous time slot. 
• Crafting User Stories – Four Experts and The Audience Weigh In
• A panel on user stories

 

Other sessions worth high attention:

• Practical Considerations for Distributed Agile Projects. Room: Conference G
  • A short experience report on what to consider when starting a distributed project.
• XUnit Test Patterns and Smells; Improving Test Code and Testability Through Refactoring. Room: Conference D
  • Practical session about unit testing in the right manner. Continues from the previous time slot. 
• Value Stream Mapping - Extending Our View to the Enterprise. Room: Windsor West
  • Value stream maps are an important component of a lean toolbox. Even if you are not ready for going "beyond Agile", you will find this thinking tool useful. Continues from the previous time slot.
• 10 ways to screw up with Scrum and XP. Room: Grand Ballroom (Center)
• Legacy Code Keynote. Room: Osgoode East
  • Come to this talk if you have plenty of legacy code to support in your organization. Michael is a known subject matter expert.
• Building Great Products, Incrementally: An Agile Product Owner's Primer. Room: Civic South
  • How to balance new development, feedback, and debt management to satisfy stakeholders while building a great product.

Wednesday, Aug 6 14:00 - 15:30

I would go to:

• Coaches Are Producers. Room: Grand Ballroom (West)
  • A chance to learn a collection of of coaching ideas and practices.
• Learning Collaboration and the Planning via the Process Game , Scrum Accelerator - The Game. Room: Conference B
• Games to use on the training classes and coaching gigs.
• Becoming a fearless leader of change (to agile or any new idea) in your organization. Room: City Hall
  • On how to lead the change. Note that it is a long session and it occupies next time slot as well.
• Delivering Measurable Business Value with Scrum . Room: Civic North
  • On how to measure and present the value to those out of the team.

 

Other sessions worth high attention:

• Managing the Middle: Product Owners and the Politics of Backlog Management. Room: Kent
• Are we done yet?. Room: Conference C
  • Yet another game for teaching the basics of Agile.
• Narrative Testing: Tools for Story Test Driven Development. Room: Sheraton Hall B
  • About writing acceptance test so that they looked like a human-readable stories.
• Refactoring Strategies & Tactics. Room: Osgoode East
  • Refactoring on steroids. Note that it is a long session and it occupies next time slot as well.
• TDD Clinic: C++. Room: Osgoode West
• TDD in C++. Not the easiest thing in the world. Note that it is a long session and it occupies next time slot as well.
• User Interface Design Studio. Room: Dufferin
  • For UI people struggling to co-operate with the SW people effectively. Note that it is a long session and it occupies next time slot as well.

 

Wednesday, Aug 6 16:00 - 17:30

I would go to:

• Becoming a fearless leader of change (to agile or any new idea) in your organization. Room: City Hall
  • On how to lead the change. Continues from the previous time slot.
• GTD + Kanban + Round Robin for Product Owners. Room: Essex
  • A relatively short (45 mins) demo on helping to balance your time between the low level involvement and long term and fuzzy future issues.
• Fully Distributed Scrum: The Secret Sauce for Hyperproductive Outsourced Development Teams. Room: Conference G
  • A short (30 mins) experience report from the Scrum co-author.

 

Other sessions worth high attention:

• Refactoring Strategies & Tactics. Room: Osgoode East
• Refactoring on steroids. Continues from the previous time slot.
• TDD Clinic: C++. Room: Osgoode West
  • TDD in C++. Not the easiest thing in the world. Continues from the previous time slot.
• User Interface Design Studio. Room: Dufferin
  • For UI people struggling to co-operate with the SW people effectively. Continues from the previous time slot.
• Scaling Software Agility: Best Practices for Large Enterprises. Room: Grand Ballroom
  • Dean Leffingwell about his known book.
• Executable User Stories with RSpec and BDD. Room: Sheraton Hall B
  • Live demo of Behavior-Driven Development.
• Release Planning (The Small Card Game). Room: Kent
  • A tutorial on the important Agile practice from those who know how to run XP well.

 

Thursday, Aug 7 8:30 - 10:00

I would go to:

•  Game Design Workshop. Room: Conference B
  • For coaches willing to design good educational games. Note that it is a long session and it occupies next time slot as well.
• Meta-Agile: Using Agile Methods to Deliver Agile Training. Room: Conference C
  • How to dynamically adjust your trainings depending on what the audience really needs. Note that it is a long session and it occupies next time slot as well.
• User Story Mapping: making sense out of your user story backlog. Room: Civic North
• How not to get buried by a ton of user stories. Note that it is a long session and it occupies next time slot as well. 

 

Other sessions worth high attention:

• What Makes Pairing Work? . Room: Huron
• My First, Shortest, and, Most Recent Agile Testing Frameworks. Room: Grand Ballroom (East)
  • The father of FIT talking about the current and future testing frameworks.
• Coding Contest. Room: Osgoode East
• Fun and learning delivered simultaneously. 
• Using TDD with Concurrent Applications. Room: Conference D
  • A workshop on this particularly touch challenger. Note that it is a long session and it occupies next time slot as well.
• Mr Agile Goes To Washington: The Impact of Politics on Agile Projects. Room: Churchill
  • A workshop on identifying and sharing the tricks needed for overcoming the political issues. Note that it is a long session and it occupies next time slot as well.
• Appraisals and Compensation: The Elephant in the Room. Room: Dominion North
  • For those who can influence the rewarding schemes.

 

Thursday, Aug 7 10:30 - 12:00

I would go to:

• Game Design Workshop. Room: Conference B
  • For coaches willing to design good educational games. Continues from the previous time slot.
• Meta-Agile: Using Agile Methods to Deliver Agile Training. Room: Conference C
  • How to dynamically adjust your trainings depending on what the audience really needs. Continues from the previous time slot.
• User Story Mapping: making sense out of your user story backlog. Room: Civic North
• How not to get buried by a ton of user stories. Continues from the previous time slot.
• Oles 8 steps for Agile Mentors. Room: Dominion South
  • A concrete example of a working strategy and tactics for coaches specializing on transforming the organizations to Agile.

 

Other sessions worth high attention:

• Agile Planning in Action. Room: Civic South
  • Simulation of building a real product.
• Don't give up on mocking! .Room: Sheraton Hall C
  • If you are a Java developer not happy with how you use mock objects. Continues from the previous time slot.
• Using TDD with Concurrent Applications. Room: Conference D
  • A workshop on this particularly touch challenger. Continues from the previous time slot.
• Mr Agile Goes To Washington: The Impact of Politics on Agile Projects. Room: Churchill
  • A workshop on identifying and sharing the tricks needed for overcoming the political issues. Continues from the previous time slot.
• Domain Specific Testing Languages. Room: Sheraton Hall B
• TDD Principles for Database Development. Room: York

 

Thursday, Aug 7 14:00 - 15:30

I would go to:

• Creating Agile Streams for business and technical value. Room: City Hall.
  • For product owners with many aggressive stakeholders.
• From Concept to Product Backlog - What Happens Before Iteration 0?. Room: Civic North
• Distributed Agile Game. Room: Conference G
  • A large scale simulation of a large distributed project. Note that it is a long session and it occupies next time slot as well.

 

Other sessions worth high attention:

• JDemo - lightweight exploratory developer testing. Room: Sheraton Hall A
  • For making the exploratory testing easier. A talk for Java developers.
• FitNesse Demo. Room: Sheraton Hall B
  • A live demo of the FitNesse acceptance testing framework.
• TDD Clinic: C and Legacy Code. Room: Osgoode West
  • If legacy code makes you suffer. Note that it is a long session and it occupies next time slot as well.
• The Customer Role in Agile Projects. Room: Civic South
  • For those going to be the first time Agile customers.
• The Aikido of Agile Project Metrics. Room: Kent

 

Thursday, Aug 7 16:00 - 17:30

I would go to:

• Creating Shared Understanding with Cards. Room: Civic North
  • That's where I will really go, because I am co-presenting the session. Come here to see how simple paper cards can aid the creation of a common understanding of the project goal, intentions and even details.
• Distributed Agile Game. Room: Conference G
• A large scale simulation of a large distributed project. Continues from the previous time slot. Exploring user stories through mind mapping. Room: Kent

 

Other sessions worth high attention:

• Technical lessons learned turning the agile dials to eleven!. Room: Conference E
  • A short (30 mins) report on how Agile looks like, when done in full (or close to it).
• TDD Clinic: C and Legacy Code. Room: Osgoode West
  • If legacy code makes you suffer. Continues from the previous time slot.
• Lightning talks. Room: Osgoode East
  • A lot of small and possibly interesting micro-talks.

 

Friday, Aug 8 8:30 - 10:00 

I would go to:

• Collaboration Explained--Tools for Facilitating Real Agile Teams . Room: Sheraton Hall A
• Specific tools for an Agile coach.
• Product Innovation Debate: Who should drive innovation?. Room: Civic North
  • A panel on making design by customers a reality
• Dude, Where's Our Release Plan?. Room: Civic South
  • Succeeding in one iteration after another is a good thing, but what if it hides the fact that your long term targets are blurry and unreliable.

 

Other sessions worth high attention:

• Planning and Facilitating Release Retrospectives. Room: City Hall
• Do the Right Things: Adapting Requirements Practices for Agile Projects. Room: Grand Ballroom (West)
  • The whole spectrum of possible solutions.
• Test Driven Development for Data Management projects using FIT4Data. Room: Sheraton Hall B
• Effective Pairing: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. Room: Conference D
• Iteration Zero: Starting a new Agile project. Room: Huron
  • The project start checklist.
• Dancing with the Agile Goddess. Room: Conference G
  • A talk about own experience from those who managed to shrink their development cycle 2-3 times while delivering similar amount of content.

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