Agile Development Blog

This week both Jean and I delivered talks on the Agile organization at Agile 2010 in Orlando. Whether you were able to attend one, both or neither, this post shares the handouts and materials that we used in the talks.

If you attended, please provide comments on what you liked, were puzzled by and might change in the future.

Jean’s work was a three-hour tutorial on learning models for managing the Agile organization.   She ran three exercises and provided a bibliography of books/resources that we have used here at Rally:

Jean in action at Agile 2010

• True North Example

• True North Exercise

• Strategy A3 Template

• ORID Exercise

• Personal and Corporate Visioning Exercise

• Sample Quarterly Agenda

• Bibliography

In addition to Jean’s talk, I presented an experience report on our use of Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA) at Rally.  This report tells a story of our evolution of strategy execution from Gazelles/Scrum to Lean/Agile.

We hope these resources provide you with ideas for scaling your own Agile efforts beyond their current levels.  Again, please comment on the blog with what you got from the materials or the talks.  We want to hear from you on this topic.

Ryan Martens is a tomato grower, founding board member of the Entrepreneurs Foundation of Colorado, and CTO at Rally Software Development.

There are other conferences that cover Agile software development, but the Agile 20xx show reigns supreme. At nearly 2000 attendees from around the world, this year’s show is happening at Walt Disney World in Orlando.  (It was moved there after the flood in Nashville.) For the first time, three of the major analyst firms (and as a result 5 of  the key analysts who cover Agile and ALM) are attending the conference – Forrester, Gartner and IDC.

Rally coaches, sales and marketing folk at booth setup

As a result of the show’s success, it has become the most significant market rhythm in our industry.  So this week, we announced a few things:

• Rally Software Extends Agile ALM Platform to Meet the Unique Needs of Global Organizations – New customization options, full traceability with build and source code, and sharing with corporate dashboards create a single source of record for progress and quality
• Rally Software Extends Visualization of AgileZen Kanban Board – New non-profit program offers a 50% discount on leading visual project collaboration tool
• Innovation Games Company Announces Integration with Rally Software – The leader in serious games for business brings customers improved collaboration and prioritization capabilities
• Tasktop Introduces Agile Planner for Eclipse – New product enables Agile planning from the IDE and integrates multi-vendor Agile ALM solutions

I am speaking tomorrow on PDCA: Moving Beyond Simple Inspect and Adapt. (Thurs 9:00 a.m. in A-1). Other Rally speakers remaining this week are:

Get your Rally cap

• Former Rally developer turned Rally technical account manager turned Rally coach Chris Browne speaks Wednesday on The Art of the Hackathon (Weds 15:30 – 17:00 in Asia 3).
• Rally coaches Alan Atlas and John Martin speak Thursday on “Your Team, Your Freedom, Your Responsibility” (Thurs 15:30-17:00 in Asia 3).

Follow the news from the show on Twitter at #Agile2010. Come see us at the booth and get a Rally and Deliver ballcap. Or let us know if you’re not at the show and want us to send you one (send name and address to kcaraway@rallydev.com).

Ryan Martens is an organic farmer, founding board member of the Entrepreneurs Foundation of Colorado, and CTO at Rally Software Development.