Leadership Keynotes

The Challenge of Focus: Breakthrough Performance in an Environment of Uncertainty and Complexity

Abstract: Our greatest treasure may well be FOCUS with our hyper-busy and ever-more complex work days, this illusive elixir of breakthrough productivity evaporates faster than a hummingbird flaps it's wings. While a lot of productivity gurus ask you to empty in-boxes and keep detailed to-do lists, Lisa Haneberg will share a model for creating focus that is rooted in the social context of work. Would you like a breakthrough in how well you focus? It starts here, today.

About Lisa: Lisa Haneberg is an expert in the areas of management, leadership, and personal and organizational success. She consults in the areas of organization development, management and leadership training, and human resources. Lisa also offers integrated training solutions and individual and group coaching services. She is an enthusiastic, fun presenter and speaker available to address a variety of leadership and management topics. Lisa has written ten books, numerous articles and essays, and authors a popular blog called Management Craft. She lives in the beautiful Pacific Northwest with her husband, three big dogs, and a cat. She enjoys travel, reading, writing, and driving her motorcycle down winding roads.

Leadership During Product Transitions

Abstract: Leading technical teams in commercial environments is challenging enough in times of market certainty and continued demand for a firm's products and services. Unfortunately, few teams face certainty today with the pace of change in markets, technology, and human capital increasing at a rapid rate. Scaling a business and keeping teams together and productive during product transitions are probably the most difficult challenges for the business and technical leader. John Yuzdepski will discuss the challenges of product transitions including the need to protect revenue streams, the role of counterintuitive thinking, understanding the Calculus of Transitions, and common pitfalls in a leader's thinking and judgment.

About John Yuzdepski: John Yuzdepski is a partner at Management Concepts LLC specializing in product transitions and commercialization of new technology. He is a veteran of the mobile communications industry. After pioneering two-way messaging as head of global marketing and business development at Glenayre's Wireless Messaging Group, he has held executive positions as Vice President and General Manager of Product Development at Sprint Corporation, during Sprint PCS's fast growth phase, Vice President and General Manager of Openwave's Messaging Group, and Executive Vice President at Symmetricom. Most recently he was Chief Marketing Officer at TestQuest Inc. a Norwest Venture Partners portfolio company focused on providing test automation and test management solutions to the global OEM, wireless carrier, and mobile enterprise market. John has served as Treasurer and Member of the Board of Directors of the WAP Forum (later OMA) and the Wireless Internet Caucus of the CTIA. He holds undergraduate degrees in computing and business and an M.B.A. from the Graduate School of Business at the University of Chicago.

Collaboration Games

Abstract: Luke Hohmann will be creating an interactive experience that will demonstrate the role that collaborative games have in helping product managers and project leaders create and deliver innovative products and services. Instead of talking about collaborative games, come prepared to play both face-to-face and online games with a sense of adventure and your laptop!

About Luke: Luke is Founder and CEO of Enthiosys, the leading agile product management strategy and consulting firm. He is the author of three books and numerous articles on software product management and a frequent speaker at software and other industry events. The Inventor of Innovation Games(R), Luke is at the cutting edge of the emerging disciplines of serious play and behavioral game theory. A member of the Board of the Agile Alliance, Luke graduated magna cum laude with a B.S.E. in computer engineering and an M.S.E. in computer science and engineering from the University of Michigan. In addition to data structures and artificial intelligence, he studied cognitive psychology and organizational behavior. In his spare time, Luke likes roughhousing with his four kids and his wife's cooking. He also enjoys long runs in the Santa Cruz mountains to burn off his wife's cooking. Contact Luke at lhohmann@enthiosys.com.

About Alan: Alan Shalloway is the founder and CEO of Net Objectives. With almost 40 years of experience, Alan is an industry thought leader, trainer and coach in the areas of Lean Software Development, The Lean-Agile Connection and using Design Patterns in agile environments. Alan has developed training and coaching methods for Lean-Agile that have helped his clients achieve long-term, sustainable productivity gains using the methods. He is a popular speaker at prestigious conferences worldwide as well as a trainer/coach. He is the primary author of Design Patterns Explained: A New Perspective on Object-Oriented Design and is currently writing "Lean Anti-Patterns and What to do About Them." He is a Net Objectives Certified Scrum Master trainer and has a Masters in Computer Science from M.I.T.

Kanban

About David: Recently, David founded Modus Cooperandi, a consultancy practice focused on developing better leadership and management in the IT sector. Previously, he led Software Engineering at Corbis and he was the architect for the MSF methodology with Microsoft Corporation. In 1997, he joined the team which created the agile software development method known as Feature Driven Development in Singapore. David has held managerial positions at Motorola, Sprint PCS and earlier in his career with two startups in the UK: Rombo, a video imaging company and MDi Systems, a document imaging company. Author of “Agile Management for Software Engineering,” he speaks and writes on topics of agile leadership and development. David is a co-founder of the APLN, co-author of the Declaration of Interdependence for Agile Project Leadership, and sits on the Agile Project Leadership Network (APLN) Board of Directors.

About Corey: Corey is a recognized leader in the application of Lean theory to the software development and product management processes. He participated in a series of product develpment process defintion initiatives for Microsoft product groups, culminating in a process architect role on the Microsoft Engineering Excellence team. Corey has been a proponent of iterative and evolutionary design methods since the early 1990’s, and was an early practitioner and vocal promoter of Agile methods at Microsoft. Corey has an equal passion for rigorous engineering practices, creating hybrid agile/formal methods since the dawn of the Agile movement. Corey began collaborating with David Anderson at Microsoft in 2004, united by a common interest in the application of Lean, Theory of Constraints, and Statistical Process Control methods to software development. In 2007, Corey joined David at Corbis to implement kanban systems for the development of enterprise IT projects.

Corey’s musings on lean, kanban, and other methodology topics can be found at http://www.LeanSoftwareEngineering.com.

Scrum

About Brent: Brent Barton plays a key leadership role in implementing the strategic vision of SolutionsIQ as an Agile organization. Brent continues to drive the growth and development of our premium Agile development and consulting services, addressing such key issues as delivering greater value to customers.

Highly regarded as a Certified Scrum Trainer and Agile coach, Brent is recognized as an international leader in Agile consulting. He brings more than 15 years of technical experience as a consultant and mentor to his role as CTO. Through Agile methodologies he helps companies successfully build software better and faster.

About Lance: Lance Young spearheads the quality of SolutionsIQ premium software development services. His focus is bringing business concerns into the Agile process to help demonstrate the business value of Agile practices to traditional waterfall companies.

As an Agile consultant, development lead, and enterprise architect, Lance has 16 years of software development experience in a wide range of projects using both traditional and Agile methodologies. He began using pure Agile development practices in 1999 and has been using Scrum, XP, and combinations of Agile methodologies exclusively since then. Lance is a regular presenter at free seminars and at volunteer technical and process groups, including the Seattle XP user group, Seattle Java user group, and the Seattle chapter of the International Association of Software Architects.

Getting Started with Agile

About Mitch: Mitch Lacey is an agile practitioner and the agile practice manager with Ascentium Corporation in Bellevue, WA. Mitch has been managing projects for over ten years and has numerous plan-driven and Agile projects under his belt.Mitch honed his Agile skills at Microsoft Corporation, where he successfully released core enterprise services for Windows Live. While at Microsoft, he transitioned from Program Manager to Agile Coach, working hand-in-hand with groups throughout their transition to Agile practices. Mitch continues to grow and refine his skills on the Agile projects he runs every day.

As a Certified Scrum Trainer (CST) and a registered Project Management Professional (PMP), Mitch shares his experience in project and client management through Certified ScrumMaster courses, Agile coaching engagements, conference presentations, blogs and white papers.

He is the author of "Adventures in Promiscuous Pairing" presented and published at the Agile 2006 conference, "Transitioning to Agile: Key Lessons Learned in the Field" presented and published at the Fall 2007 PMI Global Congress in Atlanta, Georgia and ""The Impacts of Poor Estimating - and How to Fix It"" presented and published at the winter 2007 SQE Agile development conference in Orlando, Florida. Mitch is currently under contract with Addison Wesley to publish a book titled "Adopting Agile: 101 Tips for Surviving Your First Year".

About Julie: Agile Project Management Practices mentor and instructor with a solid track record of leading teams through the challenging transition from Waterfall to Agile practices. Actively coach and develop staff with proven ability to transfer job knowledge and skills to all levels including distributed teams. Strengths include mentoring, problem solving, follow through and the ability to build strong partnerships. Active in the Agile community and consistently recognized by managers and peers for passion of Agile practices. APLN Board Member.

Writing Agile Contracts

About Bruce: Bruce is an expert in applying user-centered development principles to help businesses better connect with their customers as well as their employees and partners. Bruce has significant experience working with international companies and project teams. Prior to Cyrus Innovation, he was at IconNicholson, where he worked with Rem Koolhaas and IDEO in developing the in-store CRM system that enables the high-tech, high-touch service of Prada's Epicenter Store in Manhattan He obtained a professional architectural degree at McGill University in Montreal and practiced architecture for several years before moving into interactive technology development. Bruce joined Nicholson NY, which later became IconNicholson, where he worked with companies such as WebMD, the Department of Defense, Sony, Motorola and Prada developing technology strategies and managing consulting engagements. Bruce has contributed to several articles about business and technology in BusinessWeek, RFID Journal and Executive Technology, among others. He speaks on the impact that innovative technology such as wireless and RFID can have on businesses. Recent events include the U.S. Chamber of Commerce panel discussion on Beyond Broadband: Policy and Business Strategies for Next Generation Applications and Services, the Seklemian/Newell CRM Conference, and the Frontline Solutions - RFID Summit.

Agile Program Management

About Mike: Mike Griffiths is an independent consultant specializing in effective project management. Mike was involved in the creation of DSDM in 1994 and has been using agile methods Scrum, FDD, XP, and DSDM) for the last 14 years. He is active in both the agile project management community and traditional PMI based circles. He serves on the board of the Agile Alliance and the Agile Project Leadership Network (APLN), he was a contributing reviewer to the PMBOK v3 Guide and is a trainer for the PMI SemninarWorlds program. He maintains the award winning leadership and agile project management blog at www.LeadingAnswers.com.

About Mike: Mike is a Product Consultant and Agile Expert for VersionOne. Prior to joining VersionOne, Mike was a Senior Project Manager for CheckFree Corporation where he led a portfolio of projects for their online banking and bill payment business unit. Mike has a background in traditional project management and has worked primarily with agile methodologies for the past four years.

Mike is a certified PMP project manager and a Certified ScrumMaster. Mike co-created the DSDM Agile Project Leader certification. He holds this certification at the Foundation, Practitioner, and Examiner levels and was recently named an honorary member of the DSDM consortium. Mike is on the board of APLN and the current Treasurer.

Real Option Theory

About Chris: Chris Matts is a Business Analyst with a strong background in business analysis and development. He uses real options and agile project management techniques (Lean, Theory of Constraints, Business Value) to optimise the delivery of business value whilst effectively managing project risks. Chris has coached business and project teams in Agile Management, Analysis and Investment Banking for many years. He is a noted expert and speaker on Real Options, Agile Analysis (Feature Injection) and Business Value. He has a Masters degree in Mathematical Trading and Finance and a Masters Degree in Microelectronics and Software Engineering.

Currently, Chris is a Business Analyst at Royal Bank of Scotland. Over the past 14 years, Chris has worked as on derivative risk and trading systems at JP Morgan Chase, BNP Paribas, British Petroleum, Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein, Derivative Fitch, Chase Manhatten (Pre Merger) and Robert Fleming.

Chris is also dedicated to increasing literacy and math competency for people worldwide and has spent the last five years studying adult learning. His passion for learning has led him to sponsor a school for children living with AIDS in South Africa. Chris lives in the smallest house in London with a small but lovely garden.

About Olav: Olav Maassen is Chief Engineer at QNH, the Netherlands and has nine years experience in IT doing projects mainly for financial institutions. He is co-author of "Applied Java Patterns" and an experienced speaker at conferences. His main interest is in helping teams work together more effectively. Olav strives for continuous improvement both for himself as for those he works with. Currently Chris Matts and Olav are cooperating on a book on Real Options.

Agile User Experience

About Arlen: Arlen Bankston is an established leader in the application and evolution of Agile software development processes such as Extreme Programming (XP) and Scrum. He is a Lean Six Sigma Master Black Belt and Certified ScrumMaster Trainer. He has eleven years of experience in product design and development, leveraging his background in information architecture, interaction design and usability to develop innovative products that meet customers' expressed and unspoken needs. Arlen has led Agile and Lean deployment and managed process improvement projects at clients such as Capital One, T. Rowe Price, Freddie Mac, and the Armed Forces Benefits Association. Arlen has led the integration of interaction design and usability practices into Agile methodologies, presenting and training frequently at both industry conferences and to Fortune 100 clients.

About Jeff: Jeff Patton has designed and developed software for the past 12 years on a wide variety of projects from on-line aircraft parts ordering to electronic medical records. Jeff has focused on Agile approaches since working on an early Extreme Programming team in 2000. In particular Jeff has specialized in the application of user centered design techniques to improve Agile requirements, planning, and products. Some of his recent writing on the subject can be found at www.AgileProductDesign.com and Alistair Cockburn’s Crystal Clear. His forthcoming book to be released in Addison-Wesley’s Agile Development Series gives tactical advice to those seeking to deliver useful, usable, and valuable software.

Jeff works currently as an independent consultant, is founder and list moderator of the agile-usability Yahoo discussion group, a columnist with StickyMinds.com and IEEE Software, and a winner of the Agile Alliance’s 2007 Gordon Pask Award for contributions to Agile Development.