Meetings are 6:00pm to 8:00pm (Networking 6:00pm - 6:30pm)
Agile adoption at IHS - An experience report?
Implementing Agile is a never ending journey. Each IHS team is at a different level in implementing Agile within the Environmental Health Safety and Sustainability business unit. During this interactive presentation we will discuss how each team is progressing on their journey, share some of their successes and challenges, discuss how they run their Scrum meetings, Sprint Planning A and B meetings and retrospective. Whether you are a product owner, scrum master, team member or just beginning your Agile journey, there will be many opportunities to see first -hand how the IHS development teams are using Microsoft Team Foundation Server (TFS), Excel and Sharepoint in implementing Agile..
Emily McAnally is the Director of Solution Development at IHS. She leads the Operational Risk development for the Environmental Health Safety and Sustainability business unit.
She is a Certified Scrum Master and is an Agile Coach and mentor to a global development team (Ukraine, Mexico, Canada and U.S.). Emily has 30+ years planning, architecting and managing the development of international commercial software applications for HSE & Sustainability, Commodities, Energy, Healthcare, Manufacturing, Utility, Natural Gas and Telecommunication.
Emily has been recognized for delivery of quality software to the market and delivers successful products on time, regardless of customer or technical obstacles.
She is a past President and Gala Chair for the Association for Women in Computing. In 2002, she was recognized by the Association for Women in Computing with the Leadership in Technology award.
PLEASE NOTE: The City of Houston has released a revised completion date for the construction project that is widening Eldridge Parkway. The new date is Dec. 24, approximately three weeks later than the original projected date. We suggest you avoid Eldridge between I-10 and Memorial.
Please park in front of either Sysco building (1370 & 1390 Enclave Parkway). If front lots are full, park on the street along Forkland Drive and walk around to the front entrance of 1390.
SPECIAL NOTE THIS MEETING ONLY: Due to multiple events at Sysco this night, if you are preregistered you may park in the garage behind the main building at 1390 Enclave if the front lots are full. Press the intercom button at the parking garage entrance and the security desk will open the gate for you (based on preregistration list).
Meetings are now 6:00pm to 8:00pm (Networking 6:00pm - 6:30pm)
Epic User Stories – a vital role in healthy agile
Epic User Stories play a vital role in healthy agile planning and estimation, but may not be good candidates for your next Sprint planning meeting. In this session we examine some guidelines and best practices for breaking down Epic User Stories into smaller User Stories. We'll briefly review why Epics are an important tool to Product Owners, the timing of breaking down Epics, who is accountable and responsible, and finally some suggestions on how to break them down.
Gary McCants is a Principle Consultant with Improving Enterprises. He entered the craft in 1986 and has played roles from Analyst Programmer to educator to CIO. Gary's passion is centered in forming and nurturing high-performance teams, and he has found agile methods to be the perfect companion. Being an old fogey, he is witnessing the pendulum swinging back to the simpler, common-sense methods that prevailed when our industry was newer and it was fun to solve our friends' problems with shiny new technology. His appreciation for technical excellence and higher thinking formed during his time at ObjectSpace, where he met the founders of Improving. Gary is an experienced, Certified ScrumMaster and possesses strength in product, project, and requirements management. He most often fills the role of Agile Coach/Mentor, which allows him to leverage his skills in training, team development, and agile adoption.
Meetings are now 6:00pm to 8:00pm (Networking 6:00pm - 6:30pm)
The Business Case for Scrum
Agile has become a common area of discussion regarding our choices for how work gets done. Some of the skeptical questions about using agile approaches have been replaced with assumptions that we should all be moving towards greater agility. Some very good reasons for moving to agile include things like increased visibility, early learning, frequent deliver of product features, etc. But what's the cost of such a change? What are the financial arguments that would drive us towards changing the organization?
During this presentation , Peter Borsella founder of Winnow Management Corporation , will give you a formula to answer these questions, but we will explore the business case that should be considered in your particular organization when moving to agile. We'll start with the expectation of having teams deliver completed pieces of product functionality with each iteration and the cost to get us there. Then, we'll discuss the early delivery financial opportunities we hope to create.
Agile Leadership Network Houston celebrated its 3rd year, promoting and support Agile leaders in the Houston area. Since its humble beginnings in 2008, this group started with a small band of folks interested in supporting Agile values . And with the help of our many sponsors and volunteers the Agile Leadership Network community in Houston has now grown to support over 825 members. Our focus has also grown beyond supporting Agile teams to promoting Agile leadership and Agile organizations.
Long-time supporter TEKsystems kicked off our pre-meeting networking session by providing dinner which included an Anniversary Cake. We also experimented with our first ever open space event covering topics such as, Transitioning from PM to Scrum Master, Retrospectives and the Definition of Done. With many different levels of Agile adoption going on in our community we want to give our members more opportunities to learn from each other.
We continued our evening with a presentation by Barry Rogers, from Improving Enterprises, speaking on “Improving Team Dynamics on Agile Teams”. He shared with us some great information on DiSC personality profiles and how each personality style interacts as part of a team. His insights bring a lot of value to team formation and interactions between working groups, and his exercise emphasizes the need for teams to work closely.
The evening ended with some great doors prizes from our great sponsors , TEKsystems donated a Kindle, Valtech donated two course vouchers , and Barry gave away several copies of his new book titled “Individuals and Interactions, An Agile Guide”.
And there’s a lot more to come! We are continuing to support the communication through quality speaker and training events. We are also looking forward to working with our national organization to present our first ever regional Agile Leadership event in Houston. Thanks for continuing to support the Agile Leadership Network Houston and the Agile Community!
Emily McAnally is the Director of Solution Development at IHS. She leads the Operational Risk development for the Environmental Health Safety and Sustainability business unit.
