GOTO Night: Agile & Continuous Improvement

Host: Katherine Kirk & Olav Maassen

When: 19. May 2014 at 18:00 - 22:00

Where: Trifork, Rijnsburgstraat 9-11, 1059 AT Amsterdam

Abstract

Venue/Host Trifork
Costs Free of charge
Speaker Olav Maassen & Katherine Kirk
Pizza & refreshments included

"Five Ingredients for a Successful Enterprise Agile Initiative" by Olav Maassen

Abstract
Agile has made the jump and is now popular within larger organizations. They want to get the same benefits from Agile as those smaller organizations and teams.
This proves trickier than expected. The same rules that help small teams do not work the same way when applied to a larger organization. The values and principles stay true to Agile, the practices and rules are different.

This talk investigates five characteristics we see in organizations that make Agile practical and working at the enterprise level.

Bio
Olav Maassen is a veteran Agile consultant, award-winning author, frequent speaker in the Agile software development community and a fellow with the Lean Systems Society. He is now working for VersionOne as Enterprise Agile coach and Director of Sales. Previously he worked as Xebia as Principal Consultant and has been an Agile consultant and software developer with many prominent companies.

Olav is an active participant in the agile community. He was one of the founders of Agile Holland, a foundation for promoting the use of agile methods in the Netherlands. He was also actively involved in organizing international conferences such as Agile2009 and LSSC2011. Olav is often invited as a speaker and presenter at international conferences. His presentations are perceived as both engaging and fun. The recurring theme is how transparency and trust can influence an organization.

Twitter: @OlavMaassen

Download Slides [PDF]

"Continuous Improvement: Hell on Earth?" by Katherine Kirk

Abstract
We all seem to love the term 'continuous improvement' - which is an honourable intention. But in reality 'continuous improvement' can be hell on earth - e.g. to always be 'not good enough'.

In fact, some corporations, managers and teams have been known to use this phrase as an excuse for behaving badly. So, how can an honourable intention like continuous improvement create a negative impact, ie. apathy? If so - how do we avoid it? What are other ways of handling this need to consistently overcome challenges in an ever-changing industry? And does 'continuous improvement' have a limit or is it an endless source of success?

Using case study examples this talk reflects on what continuous improvement really feels like on the ground and explores how we might want to approach 'getting better' by looking at and drawing from other industries, research, ideas and real-life experiences.

Bio
Now an independent consultant and researcher, Katherine has solid experience contracting and freelancing in a variety of roles within the IT and Media industries: from blue chip investment banking to media conglomerates. Most recently she spent time as an Agile Coach at Rally after a period consulting as Delivery Improvement Specialist, Project Manager and Agile Coach at the BBC in the Future Media division in London. Katherine often finds herself specifically tasked with working with really "troubled" projects, where simplistic solutions don't quite cut it.

She is an active participant of a community of Lean and Agile practitioners in Europe who explore and challenge the status quo through experimenting and collaborating and is particularly interested in contextually driven edge-cases and the cultural interaction between hierarchical management and Agile teams. She supports this interest by studying an MSc in Software Engineering at University of Oxford, specializing in Process Improvement, Managing Quality and Risk, and Software Systems Security. Katherine also holds a first class BSc (Hons) Multimedia Computing.

Download Slides [PDF]

If you have questions or must cancel your registration, please don't hesitate to contact Andy Knobel at ank@trifork.com.

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