Brian Swan, Exoftware - Edinburgh, BCS, Wednesday 28th February

Sorry for the delay in posting this out.

Brian Swan of Dublin based Exoftware is one of Scotland’s most experienced Agile coaches and trainers.  He will be giving a talk at the Edinburgh BCS this coming Wednesday evening called “Agile washes whiter”.

Synopsis

"Agile" is quickly becoming the hot buzz-phrase in many organisations but Agile is simply an umberella term for a number of specific development methods including; eXtreme Programming (XP), SCRUM, Feature Driven Development, DSDM and Crystal. What does it mean to "Be Agile"?

This talk will compare a number of the Agile methods and identify some common strategies and pitfalls when adopting an Agile method.

More details and booking instructions here: http://www.edinburgh.bcs.org/events/070228.htm

March 8th, Glasgow, An Afternoon of Agility with ScotlandIS

Hi Everyone,

Last January we co-hosted a very successful "Introduction to Agile" day with ScotlandIS, the trade body for the Scottish information and communications technologies industry.  During the last few months I've been working with Polly and Rosemary at ScotlandIS to put together a follow-up event in about 3 weeks in Glasgow .  This year we're focusing on not just how agile works, but how to make agile work in the real world. 

Lean & Mean - Getting Real Value From Agile Development Methods

How to deliver real value through "agile" - a great opportunity to hear from expert practitioners. Aimed at software developers and team leaders, the programme includes presentations from experienced agile developers, and a panel session to discuss your questions and issues.

• A day in the life of an Agile team

Andy Birkett, Senior Engineer at Amazon.com, tells what it's really like to work on a high performance agile team.  He discusses how agile helps working in world-scale reliable distributed systems and how they have adopted and adapted standard extreme programming (XP) practices to suit their environment

• How not to do Agile badly

Agile is conceptually simple, it does work, but its also hard work.  Clarke Ching, Chair of Agile Scotland and an independant Agile consultant will explore  the most common mistakes agile teams make and how to avoid them.

• Transitioning to Agile

Gerry Lowe, Senior Consultant at Real Time Engineering, will share anecdotes and lessons-learned from his experiences of transitioning teams from using traditional development methods to using Agile techniques.

• Panel discussion

Q&A and discussion with Andy Birkett, Gerry Lowe and Clarke Ching.

Date: 8th March
Venue: St Mungo Museum, 2, Castle St, Glasgow
Time: 13.30pm - 17.30pm (Refreshments included)
Cost: ScotlandIS Members £35 (incl vat) Non-members £50 (incl vat)        

For more details or to book please contact Rosemary Brown on 01506 472200 or email rosemary.brown@scotlandis.com

You can find a full list of ScotlandIS events here: http://www.scotlandis.com/index.cfm/page/84 including a link to BarCampScotland.

 

I look forward to seeing you there ...

Clarke
www.ClarkeChing.com

Feb 19 - Directions to Resistance as a Resource Workshop

(Directions from Craig Murphy.)

Here is a map covering the route from Haymarket to AgileScotland's new meeting venue:

160 Dundee Street, Edinburgh, EH11 1DQ

It's a "seven minute" walk .

From Haymarket, head up the Dalry Road heading out of town.

Just before Somerfield and certainly before Maplin (both on the right), you need to turn to the left - there is a sign above the shops on the left indicating Pedestrian Route To Dundee Street or similar. Follow that sign, going under the Western Approach road (there is an underpass). We are on the right hand side in the 3 story-building with a reddish-brown roof.

SKM are located on the 2nd floor - there is a bell.

Parking should be available, but I will have to confirm this.

See you all on the 19th! 1930 start, aim to arrive a little before then please!

Rgs
--Craig

Feb 19 - Resistance as a Resource Workshop

The next Agile Scotland Meeting is at 19:30 on Monday February 19th at SKM, 160 Dundee Street, Edinburgh, EH11 1DQ):

You're the Agile Kid. You want to make things better, and you know how. You burst into the meeting room with a stack of index cards and a gleam in your eye.

Someone says "but we've tried that before - it didn't work." Someone pipes up "I can see how that would work for most teams, but we're different." Another person tells you "that's no different from what we do now."

You're meeting resistance. What now? In this workshop we will explore an approach that works. Bring your problems, your curiosity, and your empathy.

---

Update: directions posted here.