Mar 6 Monthly Meeting – System Level Thinking: Getting Back to Lean Basics

Date: 3/6/2012
Time: 6:00pm – 9:00pm
Cost: Free
Location: Pervasive Software, 12365-B Riata Trace Parkway

System Level Thinking: Getting Back to Lean Basics

When we work in the details day to day, its easy to lose sight of the big picture. And when trying to make improvements – it’s easy to end up making local optimizations that actually decrease performance of the overall system.

After a review of core Lean principles, Bob Wilson will lead a hands-on exercise that looks at local optimization in light of viewing the system as a whole. Different teams will compete to see how applying lean principles drive bottom line profitability. Then as a group, we will discuss how the learning from the simulation can be applied to the real situations we face.

Sign up here ahead of time and skip the lines

Speaker: Bob Wilson

Bob Wilson is the owner of Industrial Andons and Jidoka Consulting (www.industrialandons.com). Bob invented, patented and developed a wireless andon system used by companies across a broad range of industries to greatly improve their quality and productivity.

Bob started his lean learning working for Toyota at the plant in Georgetown Kentucky which currently builds the Camry, Avalon and Venza, as a Team Member in the Paint Department. His interest in learning what made Toyota so successful led him to becoming a Kaizen Circle Leader and then a Toyota Certified Instructor to teach others about Toyota’s methodologies.

Bob has worked on lean implementation projects ranging from the shop floor to engineering and business processes. At Ford, while head of the Tool and Die Department, die related quality and downtime issues were reduced by over 70%. As Lean Enterprise Manager and Plant Manager at E-One, through the implementation of Lean principles, six plants were consolidated down to four. At AMD, Bob has led the Lean Engineering Team, launched and led the Lean Academy and Lean Global Ops team and currently works on strategy and innovation.

Directions:
Riata Trace Parkway is between Duval and Oak Knoll off 183. From 183: exit Oak Knoll Drive, turn right at Riata Trace Parkway. 12365-B is 0.8 miles on right

Agenda:
6:00 – 6:30 PM   Sign-in, Networking
6:30 – 9:00 PM   Announcements and Presentation

Feb 7 Monthly Meeting – Coupling and Cohesion: Pillars of Software Development

Date: 2/7/2012
Time: 6:00pm – 9:00pm
Cost: Free
Location: Pervasive Software, 12365-B Riata Trace Parkway

Coupling and Cohesion: Pillars of Software Development

Coupling and cohesion stand as the often hidden pillars of software work. Either explicitly or implicitly many patterns and recommendations are built around them. At their essence coupling and cohesion not only form the basis of the work that goes into building a software system, but also have a lot to do with the humans developing that system, their knowledge, their limitations, and their teams.

Steve Teleki looks into the meaning of these concepts and provides a practical way to incorporate them into your everyday software project work. By paying attention to coupling and cohesion you’ll write easier to maintain code with fewer defects on shorter schedules.

Biography: Steven Teleki

Steven Teleki is software engineering executive, consultant, and mentor. He has over 20 years of experience in the software industry, including consumer and large enterprise products developed with distributed teams. He worked on software released to over 40 million customers worldwide. Steve is passionate about solving problems with great software on a schedule and budget that makes the project successful. He focuses on understanding, measuring, and improving individual, team, and organizational software development performance. He relentlessly works to improve cycle time while at the same time reducing post-release defects. Steve is Chairman Emeritus of the IEEE Computer Society, Austin Chapter. He can be reached at http://steven.teleki.net.

Directions:
Riata Trace Parkway is between Duval and Oak Knoll off 183. From 183: exit Oak Knoll Drive, turn right at Riata Trace Parkway. 12365-B is 0.8 miles on right

Agenda:
6:00 – 6:30 PM   Sign-in, Networking
6:30 – 9:00 PM   Announcements and Presentation

Sign-up ahead of time and get a pre-printed name tag at the door

Jan 3rd Monthly Meeting – Kanban System Design

Date: 1/3/2012
Time: 6:00pm – 9:00pm
Cost: Free
Location: BancVue Office, 4516 Seton Center Parkway Suite 300, Austin, TX 78759

Kanban System Design

Kanban, like all Lean-Agile approaches, is based on fundamental principles from which specific practices are derived. Together these provide mechanisms to foster improvement and manage the flow of work. One of the identifying characteristics of a mature Kanban team is its ability to leverage core concepts to foster the emergence of more evolved practices.

Based on real world coaching experiences, Julie will review core Kanban concepts, as well as advanced topics such as complex board patterns, WIP limits and policies. She welcomes your questions.

Speaker Bio

Julie Chickering is an Agile Coach with Rally Software in Boulder, Colorado. Her passion is coaching teams to a better, more fun work life. She has the proven ability to transfer job knowledge and skills to all levels, including distributed teams, and has a solid track record leading teams through the challenging transition from waterfall to Agile practices. Julie brings more than 20 years of experience in the software development industry and 4 plus years of coaching. Julie is a past board member of the Agile Leadership Network (ALN). Julie is a Certified Scrum Professional (CSP) and holds a PMP certification.

Agenda:
6:00 – 6:30 PM   Sign-in, Networking
6:30 – 9:00 PM   Announcements and Presentation

To pre-register, go to https://docs.google.com/a/agileaustin.org/spreadsheet/viewform?hl=en_US&formkey=dEM4Y3ZxRVdUT2EyTEpGenVXYXNVZEE6MA#gid=0

Dec 6th – Agile Austin Community Discussion

Date: 12/6/2011
Time: 6:00pm – 9:00pm
Location: Pervasive Software, 12365-B Riata Trace Parkway

How do we REALLY build better software?

Are you dying to build better software but your company seems to insist on making the same mistakes over and over again? Does it seem like it should be easy, but reality keeps throwing you curve balls?

This is your opportunity to share, compare and strategize with your peers…
How do we go from principles, practices, and enthusiasm to REAL honest-to-goodness improvement in our software?

Pick an idea you are passionate about – if you don’t care about it, nobody else will either. You can submit your idea here, more than one if you like. No need to prepare a presentation or anything, just come ready to kick off a great discussion!

Sign Up Ahead of Time
Cost: Free
Directions: Riata Trace Parkway is between Duval and Oak Knoll off 183. From 183: exit Oak Knoll Drive, turn right at Riata Trace Parkway. 12365-B is 0.8 miles on right

Agenda:
6:00 – 6:30 PM   Sign-in, Networking, and Voting
6:30 – 9:00 PM   Open Space

Proof of Attendance forms will NOT be provided

November 1st Agile Austin Meeting

Date: 11/1/2011
Time: 6:00pm – 8:30pm
Location: Pervasive Software, 12365-B Riata Trace Parkway
Speaker: Cheng Leong

Better Living Through Git

Distributed Version Control Systems (DVCS) provide several features over centralized version control that can help you deal with the complexity inherent in modern software development. In this talk, we will contrast Git, a popular DVCS, with Subversion. We will discuss Git’s object model and contrast it with Subversion’s model in a few common scenarios: sharing a version with others, resolving an incoming version conflict, applying a single change to multiple branches, and managing merges between branches. We will illustrate how developers and business stakeholders can proactively manage risks through tactical and strategic use of Git features, and give guidance for when to use each technique.

Find the slides from the presentation here

Speaker Bio

Cheng Leong has developed software for a dozen companies over the last 17 years. Last year he became a Certified Scrum Master and development manager, then spent the rest of the year converting his team from Scrum to Lean, identifying people’s strengths by day, and planning the migration of NetSpend’s Subversion repository to Git by night. This year he has returned to his own personal strength, developing software, and is now happily recovering.

Outside of work, he commutes by bicycle weekly, plays ultimate sometimes, organizes a Rice Austin happy hour monthly, and volunteers with Austin Software Mentorship to discuss professional software development with UT students.

Cost: Free
Directions: Riata Trace Parkway is between Duval and Oak Knoll off 183. From 183: exit Oak Knoll Drive, turn right at Riata Trace Parkway. 12365-B is 0.8 miles on right
More Info: www.AgileAustin.org or info@AgileAustin.org
Agenda:
Sign-in and Networking 6:00 – 6:30 PM
Announcements, Presentation 6:30 – 8:30 PM

Proof of Attendance forms will NOT be provided

October 4th Agile Austin Meeting

Pre-signup Form
Date: 10/4/2011
Time: 6:00pm – 8:30pm
Location: Pervasive Software, 12365-B Riata Trace Parkway
Speaker: Mike DuVall

Lessons Learned Implementing Kanban

Kanban is an exciting technique that is quickly growing in popularity in the software development community. The basic ideas and principles of Kanban are fairly simple, with two of the key principles being:

1. Visualize your workflow
2. Limit Work-In-Progress (WIP)

Though very simple, these mechanisms can have a dramatic effect in helping teams and organizations identify and fix problems with their current development process. At Dun and Bradstreet (D&B) in Austin, more than eight teams are currently using Kanban to track and improve their software development process. In this talk, Mike will discuss:

• The principles of Kanban
• How Kanban is being used at D&B
• Lessons learned implementing Kanban at D&B

Speaker Bio

Mike DuVall is a ScrumMaster, Technical Lead, Kanban coach, and Lean-Kanban evangelist at D&B in Austin. He is currently working to improve the speed with which D&B delivers valuable software features to customers. Some of his current specific areas of interest include TDD, ATDD, Continuous Delivery, and encouraging a culture of Continuous Improvement.

Mike taught himself to program at the age of 12 by reading books from the local library and he has been developing software ever since. Mike has over 20 years of industry experience and has served in a large number of roles over his career, including: Programmer, Technical Lead, Architect, Business Analyst, Mentor, ScrumMaster, Consultant, and Trainer. Mike has always had an interest in improving software development processes and was an early adopter of both iterative development and Scrum.

Mike lives in Austin and enjoys spending his spare time training for marathons and playing classical and electric guitar.

Cost: Free
Directions: Riata Trace Parkway is between Duval and Oak Knoll off 183. From 183: exit Oak Knoll Drive, turn right at Riata Trace Parkway. 12365-B is 0.8 miles on right
More Info: www.AgileAustin.org or info@AgileAustin.org
Agenda:
Sign-in and Networking 6:00 – 6:30 PM
Announcements, Presentation 6:30 – 8:30 PM

Sept 6th Agile Austin Retrospective and Flashstorming

Event: Agile Austin Meeting

Date: September 6th, 2011

Time: 6:00-8:30 PM

Location: Pervasive Software, 12365-B Riata Trace Parkway

Description
Agile Austin has established the following goals – to help software teams in the Austin area to be
successful with software agility, and to advance the knowledge of the software community.

As members of the Austin software community, we need your help to achieve those goals and
to help Agile Austin to be a valuable contributor to that success. Over the last year, we’ve had
both successes and mistakes. The purpose of this meeting is to both learn from the past, and to
brainstorm ideas for creating a brighter future.

Even if you haven’t been to an Agile Austin meeting before, if you’re a member of the Austin software
community we really want to hear your ideas.

Retrospective Questions
What in Agile Austin has helped the community toward these goals? What hasn’t?

What software struggles and problems are you having, that your peers in the software community
might be able to help you with?

What could we do that would have the most valuable impact? What would encourage active
participation from the community?

How can we tell if we are achieving our goals? How do we get the right feedback?

Additional Information

Cost: Free

Map & Directions:

Pervasive Software is located at 12365-B Riata Trace Parkway in building 8 between 183 and Parmer.

From 183 (northbound): exit Oak Knoll, turn right on Riata Trace Parkway. Pervasive is on your right.

From Parmer (southbound): turn right on Riata Vista Circle then right on Riata Trace Parkway. Pervasive is on
your left.

More Info: info@AgileAustin.org

Agenda: Sign-in and Networking 6:00 – 6:30 PM
Announcements, Retrospective 6:30 – 8:30 PM

There will not be PDU Proof of Attendance for this meeting.

Signup for meeting in advance and skip the line