Two of our local Agile experts - Fadi Stephan and Manoj Vadakkan - will be speaking at the Scrum Safari in South Africa in the month of September (http://www.scrum.org.za/gathering-2).  To help them gear up for this event, we will have both of them present on Sepetember 1st during our monthly meeting.

As another added bonus, the meeting for this month will be FREE!  So, please come out to the event and help support our local Agile experts get ready for their big day!

Topic:

The daily-stand-up is one of the first practices that newcomers to agile adopt. On the surface, it sounds simple and easy to implement. Conduct a brief daily meeting and answer three questions. However, the daily stand-up is one of the most important ceremonies for a successful agile adoption. Done right, it helps the team in ensuring accountability, following through on sprint commitments, identifying risks, resolving impediments, and overall team building. Discover how to spot daily stand-up anti patterns and symptoms. Understand their causes. Learn how to apply preventive measures and remedies to keep your daily stand-ups energized. Leave with new tips and insights on how to conduct effective daily stand-ups.

About the Speaker:

“The Agile Journey Man!”, Fadi Stephan is a consultant with Washington DC-based Excella Consulting with experience as a product manager, project manager, software developer, and consultant. More recently, his focus has been on agile adoption and on transitioning, coaching, and mentoring teams in agile practices. He is founder of the DC Software Craftsmanship user group, a blogger at agilejourneyman.com, and a frequent speaker at agile user groups and conferences.

Topic:

Many organizations are attracted to Scrum because of its apparent simplicity and its potential to deliver results fast. However, most do not realize that there are cultural changes which are also required in order for Scrum to be successful. Manoj postulates that Scrum as a movement will fail if we do not bring the cultural aspects to the forefront. Attendees will participate in a dynamic discussion about the importance of the cultural aspects that are required for Scrum to flourish within an organization.

About the Speaker:

Manoj Vadakkan has been working in the IT Industry for close to two decades, has been managing software development projects for over ten years and has been practicing agile/Scrum principles for over five. He is passionate about transitioning the world of work using agile/Scrum principles. A Certified Scrum Master, Scrum Professional (CSM, CSP), Project Management Professional (PMP), Manoj is also currently as an agile Coach & Trainer who helps organizations adopt the agile principles and practices.