Lean Agile Edinburgh meet-up ...

1.  Great news!  Stephen McAinsh is organising a Lean Agile Edinburgh meet-up: 

"Following the success of the Lean Agile Glasgow agenda-less meetings, we're starting one in Edinburgh. This is an informal and social monthly meeting using http://leancoffee.org format to discuss and share all things agile, lean, kanban, scrum, etc. All welcome. Meetings details are here - http://groupspaces.com/LeanAgileEdinburgh."   @LeanAgileEdi

2.  And now that I'm working back in a city again, I'm restarting AgileScotland meetings.  The next will be in Edinburgh on Thurs 20th June.  I'll send out more details nearer the time, but it should be good.  It's from Seb Rose, it's called "Growing software from examples" 

Don't Miss: Johanna Rothman, 2 courses, LONDON, May

I wouldn't normally mention a London event but this is a rare chance to meet up with one of my heroes, Johanna Rothman.

If you read the url below you will see that Johanna is running 2 workshops in London this May 16 and 17.  

http://www.jrothman.com/2013/04/join-me-in-london-may-16-17-2013-for-project-management-and-coaching-workshops/

What you'll discover - when you click - is that the first is on Starting or Restarting your Agile Project Right and the second is on Coaching for Technical Leaders.

They're a good, fair price.

---

I am hoping to go (although I'm meant to be in Moscow the day after … so … I'll see how things pan out).

[AgileScotland] Hubert Smits - Scrum Training Course Edinburgh, May 2nd and 3rd.

Hi Everyone,

Jens Ostergaard and Hubert Smits are running a 2 day scrumMaster course in Edinburgh on May 2nd and 3rd.

You can find out more details: http://scrumfoundation.com/classes/show/1143

Both Jens and Hubert (and many others on this list) took one of the earliest CSM courses, way back in 2004 (I think).  Since then both have gone on to become certified Scrum Trainers.  You can learn more by following the link, but these guys really know their stuff.

And, while we are at it, this is a good time to announce that I've pulled out the starter cables and I'm about to restart AgileScotland on a more regular basis.  I'm expecting our first session will be a meet-up with Jens and Hubert.  I'm now working in Edinburgh City Centre again (yay!) and I have access to a great venue.

Clarke

Free AgileScotland training -

Here's a link to BOOK  a spot on the free AgileScotland event: http://agilescotland-estw.eventbrite.com

It's on Wednesday December 19th, in Edinburgh

Thanks to ScotlandIS.com and Neo.com and techcu.be for their kind sponsorship fo this event.

ScotlandIs - Scotland's ITC trade-body.
Neo.com - Scotland's Lean Startup specialists
Techcu.be - Worldclass startup space in Edinburgh

Clarke

Free Agile Course - Late December, Edinburgh

Free 1 Day Agile Course in Edinburgh - Late December

"How to make money using Lean & Agile - 1 day public course."

FREE FREE FREE.

Provided I get a sponsor for a venue, I will run this course for FREE in Edinburgh during the last week before Xmas. The course will cover Scrum, Kanban, TDD, BDD ... and (some) Lean Startup principles. At the end of the day you'll understand how to use these Agile tools and techniques to make your business more money. And to make your jobs more enjoyable.

Questions:

1. Why Free?
Why not? This is my personal version of volunteering. I don't like cutting down trees in the rain or running marathons at midnight in the rain, but I love doing this stuff, inside, out of the rain.

And, if I can make your working lives easier ... and your businesses more profitable ... then that makes me genuinely very, very happy. I've done a four of these in the past and I've met a lot of very nice people, so, I get loads out of this.

2. Is it REALLY Free?
I have a sponsor in mind. They'll cover the costs of the venue. It'd be cool if you took 5 minutes to hear about them, and what they do, during the course.

I will ask that, if you can afford it, you make a small personal donation to a local charity. But only if you can afford it.

You'll have to pay for your own lunch.

3. Why the week before December?
I end my current job tomorrow. I fly to New Zealand for a month. I start a new job on January 2nd. So, this is the only gap I've had where I'm not employed and I can do this without all sorts of hassle. I know it's not the best week in the world but it's the best I can do.

4. Is this definitely happening?
No, not yet. I need to get a venue sorted out (if you happen to have a largish auditorium available for free then ...) and I need to confirm a sponsor.

5. Is this like the Certified Scrum Master course?
No. If those courses is "how to run a busy restaurant kitchen", this is "how to manage a restaurant business". Very different. You might want to do a scrumMaster course after doing this.

6. Can anyone join?
No - not everyone. You might be a manager, a customer, a tester, a developer, an analyst - I don't mind - but you need to be involved in creating software and/or new products. You might work for a big company, or a small company. You might be a start up. You might be an established business. I don't know many people will be interested ... I don't know how many people our venue will take ... I may have to say no to some people.

Next Steps:
1. Send an email to me at: Agile.Scotland@gmail.com
2. Cross your fingers that we can get the venue and sponsorship sorted out.

Fwd: Lean Agile Scotland - Schedule

Hi everyone,

Chris has sent on the finalised list of speakers for this September's Lean Agile Scotland Conference.

It's a great line up - something for newbies, something for experts - including speakers from Scotland and all around the world.  You can find more details here: www.leanagilescotland.com

Take a quick browse below and - please - be suitably impressed :)

Clarke 

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Chris @ Lean Agile Scotland <chris@leanagilescotland.com>
Date: Thu, Aug 16, 2012 at 9:44 PM
Subject: Re: Lean Agile Scotland - Schedule
To: Clarke Ching <clarke.ching@gmail.com>


Hi Clarke,

Here is the list of speakers and links to their profiles.

David Anderson (Keynote)
http://www.leanagilescotland.com/speakers#davidandersonkeynote
Liz Keogh (Keynote)     Respect for People
http://www.leanagilescotland.com/speakers#lizkeoghkeynote
Mike Burrows    Kanban the hard way
http://www.leanagilescotland.com/speakers#mikeburrows
Ian Carroll     Rightshifting in action, using Kanban for
organisational change
http://www.leanagilescotland.com/speakers#iancarroll
Matt Wynne      Why agile fails
http://www.leanagilescotland.com/speakers#mattwynne
Bob Marshall    Organisational Effectiveness - Rightshifting & The
Marshall Model
http://www.leanagilescotland.com/speakers#bobmarshall
Clarke Ching    Cash-Flow Driven Development
http://www.leanagilescotland.com/speakers#clarkeching
Seb Rose        Common Objections to TDD
http://www.leanagilescotland.com/speakers#sebrose
Sandro Mancuso  Software Craftsmanship
http://www.leanagilescotland.com/speakers#sandromancuso
Kevin McCabe    Mikado Method - Making Code Changes Less of an Impact
 http://www.leanagilescotland.com/speakers#kevinmccabe
Joe Wright      Continuous Delivery - A Better Software Deployment
Strategy     http://www.leanagilescotland.com/speakers#joewright
Brian Swan      TDD Pitfalls
http://www.leanagilescotland.com/speakers#brianswan
Torbjorn Gyllebring     Faith, Science & Rightshifting - a
conversation about reciprocity
http://www.leanagilescotland.com/speakers#torbjorngyllebring
Henrik Berglund Real Teams
http://www.leanagilescotland.com/speakers#henrikberglund
Wesley Gorman   Lean Into Your Learning
http://www.leanagilescotland.com/speakers#wesleygorman
Martin Burns    IBM: Evolving Lean in Enterprise Delivery
http://www.leanagilescotland.com/speakers#martinburns
Karl Scotland   Understanding Kanban Thinking
http://www.leanagilescotland.com/speakers#karlscotland
Zsolt Fabok     Measure and Manage Flow in Practice
http://www.leanagilescotland.com/speakers#zsoltfabok
Jasper Sonnevelt        Top down or viral spread. What works in your
context?   http://www.leanagilescotland.com/speakers#jaspersonnevelt
Gillian Julius  Crafting An Agile Supplier Contract
http://www.leanagilescotland.com/speakers#gillianjulius
Florian Eisenberg       Leadership on all levels. Why? And how?
http://www.leanagilescotland.com/speakers#florianeisenberg
John Peebles    People: Your Most Agile Ingredient
http://www.leanagilescotland.com/speakers#johnpeebles
Piotr Burdylo   Managing gang of chaotic software developers is
complex http://www.leanagilescotland.com/speakers#piotrburdylo
T.J. Sheehy     Chaplin's Craft
http://www.leanagilescotland.com/speakers#tjsheehy
Gojko Adzic     BDD: Busting the myths
http://www.leanagilescotland.com/speakers#gojkoadzic
Joe O'Brien     People Patterns
http://www.leanagilescotland.com/speakers#joeobrien

I have to say I'm really proud of this line up. 4 published authors,
thought leaders, a Gordon Pask award winner and this years keynote at
the Scrum Gathering :-)

Chris

-----------------------------------------
Chris McDermott
www.leanagilescotland.com
chris@leanagilescotland.com
@leanagilescot
07967 838 969

Fwd: [AgileScotland] Lean Agile Scotland Conference

---------- Forwarded message ----------

From: Chris <chris.v.mcdermott@gmail.com>


Hi Folks,

Thought I'd update you all on the progress with the conference.

Since last posting there have been some changes. After ALE announced their annual bash which clashed with the dates we had previously announced we decided to change the dates from late August to September. This meant we ended up have to change venue and with that city.

The conference will now be on September 21st & 22nd in Edinburgh at Dynamic Earth in Holyrood.

We are delighted to have number of great speakers already confirmed. Along with David Anderson and Liz Keogh (keynotes) we are excited to have Mike Burrows, Matt Wynne and Agile Scotland's very own Clarke Ching speaking.

If you would like to speak, our CFP is open and will run until the 30th of June. Sign up at http://www.leanagilescotland.com/call_for_proposals to post your submissions.

Early bird tickets are on sale now for the bargain price of £175!! We have released a limited number and the sale will run until the June. Get tickets at http://www.leanagilescotland.com/tickets

Before the conference, on the 19th & 20th of September, Mike Burrows will be giving a two day Lean-Kanban University (LKU) Accredited Kanban Training course, 'Successful Evolutionary Change with Kanban'. When you purchase a conference ticket you will receive a discount code which will entitle you to £100 off of the price of a training ticket.

For more information our website is at http://www.leanagilescotland.com/. You can follow us on twitter @LeanAgileScot (#lascot12), track the conference on Lanyrd at http://lanyrd.com/2012/lean-agile-scotland/ or join our google group http://groups.google.com/group/lean-agile-scotland?hl=en

Hope you can join us.

Chris

------
Chris McDermott
@chrisvmcd

Edinburgh User Stories course - Feb 24 2012

Great news!  Agile expert, Brian Swan, is running a User Stories course here in Edinburgh in late February.  

Title:           Mastering User Stories

Location:     Edinburgh

Date:           24 February.

http://www.agilewebtraining.com/

If it helps you make a decision, I know and work with a lot of Agile coaches and trainers from around the world and Brian is one of the very best.  He not only knows his stuff but he's exceptionally good at explaining things. I am one of his happy customers, so I speak from experience.

This Friday - Aberdeen - conference

Hi everyone,

All things being equal, I'll be at the Northern Lights Conference in Aberdeen this Friday.  Theirs an Agile theme and a dinner (with Whiskey tasting) the night before.

You should find details here: http://northern-lights.heroku.com/ 

Clarke

[AgileScotland] Liz Keogh - BDD expert, Nov 2, Edinburgh

[AgileScotland] Liz Keogh - BDD expert, Nov 2, Edinburgh

http://www.edinburgh.bcs.org/events/2011-12/111102.htm

Liz is a brilliant speaker & a BDD expert.

Don't miss this.

Clarke

Agile Startups - moved to the 18th

We've had to move our AgileStartups talk to make room for Michael Feather's talk on the 11th: http://www.edinburgh.bcs.org/events/2010-11/110411.htm.

It'll now take place at the same time one week later.

Clarke

[AgileScotland] Lean Startups ...

We're Back! Our next AgileScotland event takes place on the [18th April 2011 <- new date] in Edinburgh at 19:30. The subject: Lean Startups.

Lean Startups are the hot new kids on the block - and like all the new hot things it is a ball of hype wrapped round a steely core of good practice.

Gordon Guthrie (CEO/CTO at Hypernumbers, formerly Chief Technical Architect at if.com, currently Convenor of the Scottish Lean Circle) will provide some perspective.

Lean Startups are a combination of influences:
* Japanese quality management like the Toyota Production Systems
* software development methodologies like Agile, Scrum and XP
* theories of company building like 4 Steps To The Epiphany
* practical experience

These have been synthesized to address a very specific problem: "I have an idea for a product - how to I get to having a sustainable repeatable business based on that without running out of money"

The evening is organized by Paul Wilson and generously sponsored by his company EdgeCase - providers of rapid sustainable development here in Edinburgh.

If you are interested in joining us then please email me at clarke.ching@gmail.com. I'll book you a spot and send you location details.

Cheers,
Clarke Ching

Update: Postponed for one week to avoid clashing with Michael Feathers.

Embedded Agile course - UK, Dec 15-16

This is a fantastic opportunity, if you're in Europe, to learn about state-of-the-art Agile in Embedded Systems.

From: Nancy Van Schooenderwoert

Hi friends -

I will be teaching a 2-day workshop hosted by the University of York next month. It's intended for people completely new to Agile who are building embedded systems based products. The focus is on software and firmware, but there will be discussion of how to interleave that work with hardware development. It's for many job roles, not just programming.

This is the first public course ever to go into this much depth on the techniques that really work for using Agile principles for embedded work. It's based on ideas that I used with my own project team ten years ago, and what I have learned since, while coaching dozens more teams in how they can adapt those practices.

What: "Agile for Embedded Systems Development Workshop"
Date: Dec 15-16, 2010
Location: University of York, UK

More details, and registration info:

http://www.cs.york.ac.uk/cpd/agile/

.........................................
Nancy Van Schooenderwoert, Lean-Agile Partners Inc.

781 301 1822 US mobile
nancyv@leanagilepartners.com

http://www.leanagilepartners.com

Specialties: Agile coaching for Embedded Systems, for Data Migrations, and for leadership of Lean-Agile change organization wide

[AgileScotland] Ruby on Rails session - Glasgow 1st of September

But wait ... there's more from http://www.glasgowtechnet.com/calendar/14220029/i/gh_new_rsvp_tl

 

 

Glasgow Technology Network - Ruby on Rails Presentation - 01-Sep-2010 5:30 PM

 

Dear all, 

Do you use Twitter? BaseCamp? HighRise? 

Twitter is world's leading Microblogging website. 

BaseCamp is a leading website for web based project management. 

HighRise is a web based Customer Relationship Management website. 

But what is common to all these high performance websites is the technology behind them - Ruby on Rails. 

At Glasgow Technology Network, Paul Wilson of EdgeCase - a guru of Ruby on Rails - is giving a presentation on this technology. 

Venue: 

TouchBase - Sense Scotland 
43 Middlesex Street 
Main entrance on Milnpark Street 
Glasgow G41 1EE 
0141 429 0294 

Seats: Only 30 out of 50 seats left 

If you want to find out how you can leverage this technology for your business, why not come along? 

To join Glasgow Technology Network and RSVP, visit: http://www.glasgowtechnet.com/calendar/14220029/ 

Who knows, you could end up developing the next Twitter, BaseCamp or HighRise!!! 

I look forward to seeing you there. 

Best Regards, 

Ashish.

[AgileScotland] Work4Bletchley - Proposed Charity Training / Seminar in Edinburgh on September 16th

Hi Everyone,

 

Checkout a very generous - and worthy - offer from Matt Wynne, below.  Matt has recently moved to Scotland and has a very good reputation in the UK agile community.

 

Clarke

From: Matt Wynne <>

Date: 18 August 2010 10:45:25 GMT+01:00

To: techmeetup-discussions@googlegroups.com

Subject: [techmeetup-discuss] Work4Bletchley - Proposed Charity Training / Seminar in Edinburgh on September 16th

Reply-To: techmeetup-discussions@googlegroups.com

Hey all,

A while ago, I joined a group of people who are pledging their day's earnings on September 16th to help save Bletchley Park.

The thing is, as I now work as a freelance consultant, I may not actually be earning anything at all on the 16th. So I had another idea: run a day's coaching or training for free, and get everyone who comes to make a donation to the fund. The most excellent Paul Wilson of Edgecase / Scottish Ruby Conference / ScotRUG fame has offered to collaborate with me on the day.

At the moment, I'm thinking we can run the day on the theme of 'Unleashing Your Agility'. We'd have a broad look over the techniques from XP / Scrum / Kanban etc. that you can use to make better software faster, with lots of workshop-style sessions to keep it interesting and relevant to you and to give you some opportunities to network. I'm interested in hearing feedback as to whether that theme sounds relevant and useful to you.

I'm thinking we could suggest donations at £50 / head. Would you be interested in coming along?

Rather than cluttering up this list, please give us feedback on the idea with this very quick questionnaire: http://bit.ly/9akysS

cheers,
Matt

http://blog.mattwynne.net

+44(0)7974 430184

[AgileScotland] Virtual Tour of a Lean-Agile Team - June 16, 2010 at Glasgow Caledonian University, evening.

Hi everyone,

 

Here's your chance to get your agile fingers dirty vicariously with Nancy V's: "Virtual Tour of a Lean-Agile Team"

 

The details are below.  I've known Nancy for a long time now and she's not only a good speakier but she knows her stuff. 

 

Clarke

 

 
> > ------------------------------------
> >
> > Presentation by Nancy Van Schooenderwoert
> > June 16, 2010 at Glasgow University
> > (further details will be on http://www.leanagilepartners.com/events.html)
> >
> > Cost: Free
> > Location: Glasgow Caledonian University
> >
> >
> > Abstract:
> > Using examples from a real team building a safety-critical embedded product,
> > this presentation introduces the concept of Lean Thinking for development,
> > as distinct from manufacturing.
> >
> > Lean development addresses whole products – hardware and software; all the
> > engineering disciplines. But the real key is the way lean principles unite
> > the business and technical sides of the organization. Lean development opens
> > up better ways to engage with your customers, and for that reason it is not
> > something to be ring-fenced to just the technical departments. In fact the
> > companies where senior managers led the lean-agile program achieved
> > significantly better results than those where it was limited to the IT
> > group.

[AgileScotland] Agile for Businesses which need more money ... and Agile Robots!

It's short notice (thanks to an unexpected hospital visit), but we've got 2 great free Agile Scotland events happening this coming  Thursday (13 May) @ Glasgow Caledonian University. 

• The first is a day session for business folk & managers concerned about using Agile&Lean to make more money.
• The second is an evening session for good coders who like robots and a bit of competition.

Please read below then email me on clarke.ching@gmail.com to sign up.

Many thanks to the School of Engineering and Computing, Glasgow Caledonian University, for providing the venue and supporting AgileScotland once again.

Clarke

1.  Agile/Lean boot-camp: for businesses which need to make more money, now

     by Clarke Ching - 10am - 3:30pm [Free - but with 3 restrictions]

This is a follow on from the very popular free training sessions we ran last year.  This time the course is aimed at businesses which need to make money but are struggling because their software projects are fraught with problems.  A lot of businesses miss out on the financial benefits of working in a lean/agile way because they mistakenly think it's only for techies.  This is a course for managers, sales folk, relationship managers, solutions architects, CFO, business owners and anyone concerned with the financial aspects of software projects.  It is NOT a course for developers, analysts, designers, testers.  It's NOT a course for start-ups, agile consultants, or for ftse-100 businesses.

We will cover: 

a) How to make promises/offers to your customers which not only delight them and which - most importantly - you can keep, profitably.

b) How to sell agile projects to external and internal customers at high margins.

d) How to use Agile & Lean to rebuild trust with your existing customers.

c) How to use Agile & Lean & Theory-of-Constrains to speed up your multi-project environment and deliver many more projects each year.

d) How to turn (a-c) into happier staff, happier customers and more cash.

The three restrictions: 

* Your business must have an established software development team with between 5 and 50 developers.

* You must have permission to discuss (with the group) the way your software development teams currently work and the ways they don't work.

* No more then 2 people per business can attend - and we only have room for about 12 more people.

[Please note that this is not a sales pitch.  I've been doing free stuff for AgileScotland for a half-dozen years now and I just happen to have a fortnight free to do this kind of stuff.]

2.  Agile Robot's - Matt Wynne - 6-8:30pm. [Free]

Now for the fun bit: a coding competition, with Robots! 

Small teams of programmers will create robots and send them into battle over a series of tournaments. Which team's strategy and skill will win?

First, read more details here.  

Second, check if you've got the necessary skills:  

Competence in a programming language that will run on a linux system (e.g. python, perl, ruby, haskell, java, clojure, erlang, possibly C# (under mono) - if we figure out how to support it!  You'll need to bring a laptop.

Third, acknowledge that this is a dry run of the SPA session Matt is running later this month so there may be a few teething problems.  
Fourth, remember that this is a competition, but it'll be more fun if you don't just code in java or COBOL.
Fifth, email me for to book.

Finally, you've probably already signed up for Mary Poppendieck's free evening event the following Wednesday but the conference room is huge so if you or a friend would like a spot then please email me at Clarke.Ching@gmail.com.  There are still just a few seats available for the Poppendick's training course the following day - email me and I'll connect you with Adrian and they other folk organising it.

---
Clarke Ching -  
* Over 14,000 people have read "Rocks Into Gold" ... my  biztech parable about Agile ... that never mentions Agile.  Read it for free at tinyurl.com/RocksIntoGold or buy it from amazon. --- www.clarkeching.com Phone: 079 2011 4893

[AgileScotland] Agile Robot Tournament - Glasgow, May.

Hi Everyone,

 

And now for a little agile fun ....

 

Matt Wynne is running an Agile Robot Touranment session at the SPA (agile) conference in late May where:

 

Small teams of programmers will create robots and send them into battle over a series of tournaments. Which team's strategy and skill will win?

 

This hands-on session will test how well you can meet that goal by challenging you to code a simple robot that will have to compete in a series of battles. You can continue to refine and upgrade your robot though the tournament. The earlier you release your robot, the sooner you will win some battles and start accruing points.

This is a great chance to have some fun showing off your coding skills as well as your project management strategies!

 

Matt's kindly offered to run the session locally sometime during the next few weeks.  It takes about 2.5 hours and it's very hands on.

 

Trouble is, before we run the session, ... we need a room.  Can you help?  It'd ideally be somewhere in Glasgow (although Edinburgh would be okay) and be able to fit 12-20 agile developers and equipment for 2-3 hours during an evening or weekend.  You can see the full details here: http://www.spaconference.org/spa2010/sessions/session275.html. 

 

If you can help please email me at clarke.ching@gmail.com.  It would be very disappointing to miss this.

 

Clarke

[AgileScotland] StartupLessonsLearned conferece - free live simulcast in Edinburgh, this Friday.

This is one for those with an entrepeneurial bent ....

 

The conference programme is here: http://www.sllconf.com/.  [Kent Beck is one of the speakers].

The simulcast is being kindly hosted by Winterwell in the Grassmarket,
who most of you will know/recognise from Techmeetup. Hypernumbers will
provide a snack...

The sign-up page is:
http://www.eventbrite.com/event/652392323

 

Hope to meet some of you there.

 

Clarke

[AgileScotland] Free Poppendiecks evening session, Glasgow 19th of May.

Hi everyone,

 

Excellent news.  On the evening prior to Mary and Tom Poppendieck's "Leading Lean Software Development" course in Glasgow next month, they'll be giving a free public presentation for AgileScots.  Mary and Tom are worldclass speakers - always interesting, always relevant - so you won't want to miss this.

 

A Brief History of Software Development - sponsored by Lean Data Solutions.

Throughout the short history of software development, there have been some major advances in approaches and techniques, but there have also been many fads that have come and gone. The question is – how do you tell the difference? This talk will take a walk through the history of software development, looking at the facts, the fads, and the fallacies. It will distinguish sustainable improvements in software development from shiny new approaches that will eventually go out of style.

 

Where:  A hotel in Glasgow's West End

When: 19th of May, around 7pm.

Sponsored by: Adrian Mowet and Lean Data Solutions.

 

We only have 50 spaces and I expect them to fill quickly.  Please email me to book a place: clarke.ching@gmail.com. 

 

Clarke Ching

07920114893

 

BTW: Adrian, who is hosting the training and sponsoring this free evening event, says there are still spaces left on the course.  The early bird price expires on the 20th of this month.