Management and Process Track
P1: Overcoming Brook’s Law – Kealty Opelt, Menlo Innovations Inc.
Most programmers are familiar with the notion that adding new resources to a project will most likely slow down progress if not bring it to a complete stop while new team members are brought up to speed. Unfortunately, in business situations there are often important opportunities missed or dollars lost if a software development team cannot increase the rate at which they complete functionality. Surprisingly, many of the practices of Extreme Programming also help teams overcome Brooks’ Law and actually increase production by adding resources. If more software development teams successfully demonstrated this phenomenon, then many business sponsors would be interested in supporting the practices used by these teams.
P2: Raise Your Project Management Game with Getting Things Done – Bill Gathen, Arrow Strategies
David Allen’s Getting Things Done™ is one of the great personal productivity developments of the last 10 years, and the wiki is transforming how information is created and shared, both within the enterprise and out. Learn to use the collaborative power of the wiki with the organizational techniques of GTD to take your project management skills to the next level of ease and clarity. The Project Work Status page we demonstrate will help you find the bridge between Microsoft Project-based waterfall development and wild-and-woolly Extreme Programming. You’ll learn basic techniques for working productively with developers who just want to be left alone while still keeping a handle on the metrics that keep your stakeholders happy. You’ll start to consolidate and share information in a visual, reality-based system that empowers you, your stakeholders and your resources. The system described here has been used successfully on enterprise-level projects since Summer 2006.
P3: Hey! You got peanut butter on MY chocolate! – Barry Nowak, GFS Marketplace
This talk will share real world experiences related to the integration of analytical capabilities associated with traditional BI activities into operational systems and a practical discussion of different approaches one West Michigan retailer is taking to manage what is becoming an unanticipated organizational evolution.
P4: Software Improvement Dialogs – Ed Blackman and Matt Heusser, Priority Health
Software process theory tends to view technologists as ‘resources’ – simple cogs in one great machine. Yet the modern keys to improving human performance – Behavioral and Cognitive psychology, actually treat people as, well … people. How does software engineering theory stack up against modern psychology? And what should we do about it?
Ed Blackman and Matt Heusser discuss software development and related issues, borrowing from manufacturing, quality management, knowledge management, and operational research. They will cover what actually happens in software development, and how we can set up our work environment to succeed.
You won’t leave with a methodology or a new process to follow; that is something like a doctor issuing a prescription before he examines the patient! Instead, Ed and Matt will provide you with a small bag of tools & perspectives to help you understand the relationship between your software engineering goals and the primary goals of psychology; to explain, predict, and influence behavior.
P5: Convince the Executive: economic arguments for agile software development – Carl Erickson, Atomic Object
Developers tend to focus on the technical aspects and advantages of agile practices. While these are hopefully interesting to their executive and management colleagues, these people may not be able to fully appreciate what agile can do for the organization from technical arguments alone. This talk lays out the economic impact of agile software development practices in terms accessible to non-technical managers. These arguments should be directly interesting to managers attending the conference, and useful for developers and project managers who find themselves advocating for agile practice adoption.
P6: Adapt “WorkOuts” in a Global Software Environment – Nancy Poma, EDS
“WorkOuts” are a process improvement method developed by General Electric, which bring together a group of people for 2-3 days to determine the root causes and potential solutions to problems. The solutions are intended to be implemented, within 90 days of the event, to encourage quick actions and results. “WorkOuts” provide momentum for Lean Six Sigma and other more complex process improvement methods. The original “WorkOut” method is based on using a face-to-face event over a few consecutive days, but we quickly adapted it to meet the needs of our global software environment. This session will describe the basic “WorkOut” method, our changes, and some example problems and solutions in a software environment.
P7: Agile Requirements Gathering – Dave Limbaugh, Priority Health
Struggling with one of the hardest aspects of software development – gathering requirements?
Experience the difference between requirements gathering using traditional versus agile methods in a fun, participatory exercise. Attendees will take turns simulating Customers, Developers, and Messengers to deliver a new product in a short time frame under volatile market conditions.
Attendees will have time between each simulation to discuss what worked, what didn’t, and how it relates to their real-world experience.
Although this exercise is a “game”, it provides real-world lessons about the importance of communication and feedback in getting actionable requirements.
This is a great “bridging the gap” exercise.
P8: CS, IS, IT - The alphabet soup of undergraduate majors – Pat Bailey, Calvin College; Dr. Roger Ferguson, Grand Valley State University
Most understand the definition of a computer science major, but what is an information systems major? Local colleges come together in this discussion panel format to articulate their view of the distinctions for potential employers. The presentation will start with a presentation of AITP, AIS and ACM’s joint model curriculum, followed by a brief overview by each college discussing how they are preparing the undergraduates in this area. This session should provide valuable information to managers looking to hire entry level people when trying to decipher the academic credentials for job candidates.
P9: The Secrets of CMMI Appraisals for Small Companies – Jeff Dalton, Broadsword
As the CMMI gains popularity and acceptance across the globe, many agile IT and Engineering organizations feel that the CMMI is not a fit for them and that the SEI has left them out. Not only do they want to leverage a best-practices model for process improvement, but many of their customers are asking them to reach CMMI Maturity Level two or even level three!
There is a perception in the software industry that the Capability Maturity Model Integration is a heavy, burdensome process model only meant for large scale software development in the defense, aerospace, and pharmaceutical verticals. This just isn’t true! The CMMI is a valuable tool for helping small and large organization’s alike achieve a superior level of performance through greater efficiency, less rework and all-around higher quality.
Join Lead Appraiser, author, and consultant Jeff Dalton as he reveals the secrets of CMMI appraisals by taking you behind the scenes using actual appraisal data and client case studies.
