What's holding your teams back from delivering timely, quality software, in a sane work environment? Rob Myers describes the common problem as "The Agilist's Dilemma." The solution, fortunately, has been part of “Agile" all along. Rob will describe and diagram the "Core Four" technical practices (diligent refactoring, TDD/BDD, Continuous Integration, and Pair/Mob/Ensemble-Programming), and we will explore some of the dynamics amongst them. After the presentation, attendees will be able to: - discuss the benefits and costs of a particular technical practice with their team and leadership. - articulate how these particular practices support each other. - identify the root causes of software quality degradation. - identify the root causes of a slow-down in the delivery of valuable software product backlog items. Rob is at his best when responding to your concerns and skepticism, so we'll spend the last part of the session in conversation and Q&A. About Rob Myers: Rob has 35 years of professional experience in software development roles and has been mentoring teams in Agile techniques since 1998. His courses blend fun, practical, hands-on coding labs; advanced learning techniques; and relevant first-person stories from both successful and not-so-successful Agile implementations. Rob is also writing a book, Essential Test-Driven Development, for Addison-Wesley, due out (hopefully!) later this year.

Retrospectives are a chance for a team to come together to reflect on how they are working and identify small adjustments that will improve their practices. Teams grow through honest discussions to find specific solutions tailored to the needs of their work. Processes begin to evolve to fit the team and the team takes greater ownership over how they work. Making these improvements are infinitely beneficial to an individual team but they often fail to address the needs of teams working together or of the organization as a whole. Scaled retrospectives offer teams, programs, and portfolios an opportunity to come together to identify critical organizational improvements and create a viable method for delivering meaningful change. Join us for this session and learn how to gather feedback and facilitate large-scale retros that expand the scope of improvements beyond the individual team. ------------------------------------------------- About our Speaker ------------------------------------------------- Colleen is the CEO and co-founder of ScatterSpoke, a space for more effective team retrospectives, and the CEO of ProKanban.org, an inclusive Kanban learning community. As a coach, she helps organizations apply systems thinking approach to aligning agile methodologies across the enterprise. She works with clients to apply the right cultural and context-driven practices to create sustainable agility. She has served as a board member for Agile Denver, the Agile Uprising, and as chair of Mile High Agile Conferences. She is happiest in the woods, camping with her three kids and a very patient husband.