Invited Speakers

Playing Nice in the Sandbox

Janet Gregory

In the beginning of the agile discussions, developers and customers reigned over the world. Over the years, testers have raised their heads and said, “We want to be involved. We think we have a place in this agile world!” Well, testers have found a place in many agile teams, but not in the same way as the testers of old. Instead of being the “quality police,” they have become a conduit for providing feedback to the team. Collaboration is the key to a healthy working relationship. Teams that are moving from a traditional phased approach where developers and testers are separated and have a throw it over the wall mentality may struggle with the concept. Janet will share tips for collaboration between developers and testers, how they can learn from each other, and how together, they contribute to make a successful team.

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Janet Gregory is a Calgary-based consultant specializing building quality systems and her passion is promoting agile quality processes. She has helped to introduce development agile practices into companies as tester or coach, and has successfully transitioned traditional test teams into the agile world. Her focus is working the business users and testers to understand their role in agile projects.

She is currently writing a book on agile testing with Lisa Crispin due out early 2009. Janet has presented at the Agile and StarWest conference several times and is active in the Agile Testing community.

Selling Your Ideas to Management

Steve Smith

Do you wish you could break through and communicate your ideas more effectively with management? Employees do their best to sell their ideas to managers. Nevertheless, a typical outcome of these conversations is hearing the word “No”” or “Let me think about it.” Employees seldom ask and management seldom offers feedback about the elements of a conversation that worked and those that did not.

Discover three top characteristics of proposals that do work. Hear how others have used these characteristics to transform a conversation with management into a discussion. Management is busy. You may have only one shot at selling your idea. Learn how to effectively target your proposal so that it’s heard and acted on.

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Steven M. Smith is a management consultant who helps managers make effective decisions about satisfying customers, managing change, and strengthening teamwork. With more than three decades of experience as a thought leader in technical organizations, he shares his know-how through his writing, consulting, and workshops. He is a founder and host of the annual Amplifying Your Effectiveness (AYE) Conference, at which he leads experiential workshops.

It’s Not Just an Update: Using Status Reporting to Expand Collaboration

Mike Kelly

As a tester, you have undoubtedly encountered the question, “How’s your testing coming along?” If you are anything like I use to be, that question sometimes brings out some interesting mumbles, shrugs, and excuses for meetings “I’m late for.”

A couple years ago, I developed a heuristic to help me deal with questions of status, and now I answer status questions with confidence. In this talk, we will cover the key elements of increasing team collaboration using status reports. We will also look at some collaborative techniques for practicing status reporting, to better develop the skill over time.

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Mike Kelly is currently a Software Development Manager for Liberty Mutual, a Fortune 100 company. Mike also writes and speaks about topics in software testing. He is currently the President for the Association for Software Testing and is a co-founder of the Indianapolis Workshops on Software Testing, a series of ongoing meetings on topics in software testing, and a co-host of the Workshop on Open Certification for Software Testers. You can find most of his articles and blog on his website www.MichaelDKelly.com.

Expanding Trust and Collaboration with Earned Value Tracking

Tamara Sulaiman

AgileEVM was successfully migrated from the traditional project management environment to the agile space (Sulaiman, Barton & Blackburn – Agile2006) and is finding its way into the practices of those who lead larger projects, and those who have to report into an organization that is used to (and doesn’t want to let go of) Earned Value Management practices. AgileEVM provides a cost perspective that provides product owners (customers) with cost data that supports decision-making.

The presenters will explore the AgileEVM tool with the audience, guiding the audience through patterns when observing the AgileEVM metrics, and discussing what the results mean to their project.

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Tamara Sulaiman is Managing Consultant at AppliedScrum where she is focused on coaching teams and organizations transitioning to Agile software development. Tamara brings over 20 years of experience in management across a spectrum of industries including: information technology, construction, international development, and education to her consulting expertise. She is a Certified Scrum Trainer (CST) and Project Management Professional (PMP). Since 2003, Tamara has assisted teams in transitioning to agile methods both as a hands-on ScrumMaster and as an Agile Coach and Scrum trainer. As an educator and coach, she brings her wide ranging professional expertise to training and mentoring teams new to Agile and the Scrum framework. As a Managing Consultant, Trainer, Coach, ScrumMaster, and Project Manager, she focuses on coaching teams to effectively provide value to key stakeholders and customers through the frequent delivery of software.