Agile Scotland

Edinburgh User Stories course - Feb 24 2012

2012-01-23T11:42:00.001Z

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

2011-11-27T18:45:00.001Z

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

2011-10-07T16:27:00.001+01:00

[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

2011-03-29T14:33:00.000+01:00

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 ...

2011-03-24T21:50:00.003Z

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

2010-11-24T11:22:00.000Z

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

2010-08-22T18:15:00.000+01:00

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

2010-08-22T18:12:00.001+01:00

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.

2010-06-12T19:17:00.001+01:00

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!

2010-05-09T17:29:00.001+01:00

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.

2010-04-26T12:08:00.000+01:00

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.

2010-04-19T17:44:00.000+01:00

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.

2010-04-15T09:10:00.001+01:00

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.

Can you help two AgileScots?

2010-04-13T17:08:00.001+01:00

Can help out two friends/colleagues of mine? They're both on this list. They both lost their jobs when their employers stumbled due to the recession. They're both good at what they do.

I can't name them here, but I'll call them Tim and John. They're both in their extremely early 40s.

John is an outstanding and innovative Agile development manager. He's also a gifted developer who still actively codes. He has set-up and managed several successful Agile development teams and, until the recession devastated his former employer, he lead a team of little over 50 staff, globally. He's worked in big corporates and small start ups. I say, without reservation, that John is one of the most inspiring and trustworthy managers I've ever met. He also has a habit of getting things done.

Where as John is a polished professional, Tim is a diamond in the rough.

Tim left school when he was 16 to work in a factory. In his early thirties he started an Open University Computer Science degree and discovered that he not only loved programming but he was also good at it. He scored 90+ for virtually every assignment and after graduating he got a good junior-programmer job with a local consulting firm. He's now had 4 years solid development experience, working in one of the local banks. His development background is classic ASP and .net, with an emphasis on the database side of things. He worked for me a few years ago and he's the sort of guy you can throw a meaty, messy problem at and he'll do better than most at untangling it. You'd happily have a few beers with Tim after work but you wouldn't throw him into a sales meeting. Tim and I are currently working together on a small not-for-profit cloud-based app.

Just for the record: I don't do recruitment and I'm not looking for a commission. It's just a shame that these two guys aren't working in jobs they'd love.

If you know someone who might NEED a Tim or a John then contact me at Clarke.Ching@gmail.com.

Thanks.

Clarke

07920114893.

Top-notch Ruby on Rails training - extremely low price - Edinburgh, March 25th.

2010-03-20T11:51:00.001Z

The Scottish Ruby conference is long sold-out but there are still a few spots for locals to get some world-class Ruby on Rails training ... really cheap.

My recommendation: even if you can't get your boss to pay for this, take holidays and pay the £75 from your own pocket. If you are inquisitive and into coding then you'd be made to miss this.

Clarke

Paul@ScotlandOnRails.com writes:

>The pre-conference Scottish Ruby Conference charity tutorials, held in Edinburgh on Thursday 25 March, are a great chance to acquire or augment your skills while also supporting a well-deserving charity.

Being both rapid and test-driven, Ruby on Rails is very much an Agile framework in an Agile language. Popular with start-ups and gaining traction in The Enterprise, demand for Rails programmers is growing. The Scottish Ruby Conference charity tutorial is a great and affordable opportunity to bootstrap your Ruby skills: for a full day's Ruby tuition all that is asked is a £75 donation to the Children's Hospice Association Scotland.

The introductory course is being run by experienced Rubyist, Keavy McMinn for those new to Ruby and/or Rails. This covers the getting an application up and running, as well as going beyond the basics into adding more advanced features like Ajax.

For those who are currently familiar with Rails, Joe O'Brien will be running a refactoring workshop. Taking a poorly written code-base, participants will learn to identify various code smells, and how to transform ugly code into beautiful code by applying standard refactorings.

Places are limited. Sign up using the link below

http://scottishrubyconference.eventwax.com/src2010-charity-tutorials

Make your donation to CHAS here:

http://www.justgiving.com/src2010

Free Agile & Lean Training ...

2010-03-04T21:32:00.000Z

Hi everyone,

Last summer Rob Lally and I ran a few very well received "Intro to
Lean and Agile software development" training days. They were free for
any victims of the recession and about £30 each for people in work. We
had some excellent feedback and we made some good friends. We promised
to run more ... but then work commitments, the weather, and such, got
in the way.

Now that the winter is (nearly) behind us, I'm thinking of doing the
same again but this time instead of daytime sessions we'll run them in
the evening so that they suit people (like us) with day jobs. That'll
mean we have 3 or 4, 2 hour sessions spread over 2 or 3 months. Once
again we will keep the price down low enough to cover expenses of the
venue.

If you are interested in attending [or contributing to] something like
this then send me an email (Clarke.Ching@gmail.com) and I will see
what I can do. Please feel free to forward this note on to your
friends and colleagues.

thanks,
Clarke Ching, www.clarkeching.com, 07920114893
Linlithgow.
----------------
Author of Rocks Into Gold - An Agile Parable and - coming soon -
Rolling Rocks Downhill - An Agile & Theory of Constraints Business
Novel.

TDD with Rails - pragmatic studio course - Edinburgh

2010-02-28T18:40:00.001Z

Edinburgh, March 22-24, http://pragmaticstudio.com/tdd-with-rails

If you are interested in rails ... and you live in Scotland then ... this is a fantastic and rare chance.

Fwd: Survey Study in Agile Success Factors: The Human Perspective

2010-02-24T19:53:00.000Z

Hi everyone,

If you can spare 5 minutes ... could you please fill out the following survey for Alan Hall, a student at Caledonian University.

Here is the link:
http://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?formkey=dGVmSzJ3M3ZKdUdYcGF4Qk1YT3kyT1E6MA

I just completed the survey and it took me about 3 minutes.

Thanks!

Clarke

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Alan Hall <alanhall.uk@googlemail.com>
Date: Tue, Feb 23, 2010 at 2:48 PM
Subject: Re: Survey Study in Agile Success Factors: The Human Perspective
To: Agile.Scotland@gmail.com

Hi Clarke,

I hope all is well. As agreed I am forwarding on my questionnaire to
yourself for participation and hopefully you will be able to forward
it on to other possible participants. I have kept the questionnaire
very short, it should approximately take 3-5 minutes of your time.

Here is the link:
http://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?formkey=dGVmSzJ3M3ZKdUdYcGF4Qk1YT3kyT1E6MA

I am working with Eddie Gray for my research into agile and we would
both like to thank you very much, you participation is greatly
appreciated.

Thanks, Alan

On Sun, Dec 20, 2009 at 7:01 AM, Clarke Ching - Agile Scotland
<agile.scotland@gmail.com> wrote:
> glad to help you out next year Andy. Email me and I'll forward
> your questionnaire on too. Just be warned: don't expect (based on my
> expereinces) too many responses ... most people don't answer them. You'll
> get a better response if you ask very, very few questions.
> ---
> Clarke Ching -
> * Check out "Rocks Into Gold" ... a biztech parable about Agile ... that
> never mentions Agile. Read it for free or buy it from amazon.
> www.RocksIntoGold.com
> ---
> www.clarkeching.com
> Phone: 079 2011 4893
>
>
> On Tue, Dec 15, 2009 at 8:47 PM, Alan <alanhall.uk@googlemail.com> wrote:
>>

>> Hi Clarke, Paul,
>>
>>
>>
>> I am a student at Caledonian University and for my dissertation I am
>> studying the success factors of an agile group with concern to the human
>> perspective (customer involvement, communication, competency, etc..). Would
>> you possibly be interested in taking part of a questionnaire which will be
>> conducted between February-March? The questionnaire should last between
>> 5-10 minutes approx and will benefit my study vastly.
>>
>>
>>
>> Clarke – I seen your presentation of "Thinking Agile" at Strathclyde
>> University, Glasgow in September. Thanks, as it was a great starting point
>> for me to change my way of conventional thinking. It was especially great
>> how you used various examples of different industries.
>>
>>
>>
>> If you are not available to participant could you please pass the
>> questionnaire within your blog or contacts you may know. Any help would be
>> greatly appreciated.
>>
>>
>>
>> Thank you, Alan
>

Poppendieck Lean/Agile course - Glasgow, May 2010

2010-02-13T17:32:00.002Z

Great news! Adrian Mowat, a long-term AgileScotlander, has been in contact with Mary and Tom Poppendieck, co-authors of the Lean Software Development books. Between them they've arranged a two day course "Leading Lean Software Development", to be held in Glasgow, this May.

This is a great opportunity. Mary and Tom are two of the best AgileThinkers and trainers in the world. They presented one of their first courses here in Scotland way back in 2004 or 2005. I cannot recommend them highly enough.

You can find more details here..

Clarke

Monday's Agile Day in Edinburgh

2009-11-17T19:05:00.001Z

Here's a better link to the rational user group Agile day: http://www.rational-ug.org/groups.php?groupid=20. You do have to register, but it's free and you won't get any spam. It takes less than a minute.

Also, just to clarify that the session is focused on Agile, in general, rather than RUP in particular.

And if you didn't notice ... Scott Ambler is speaking too.

Second event .

2009-11-11T18:06:00.001Z

Sorry, I accidently hit send too quickly

2. UK BCS - Scottish Testing link - Glasgow, November 24th

John Isgrove is talking on Agile ("Delight your customers, increase your job satisfaction, and Maximise your potential")

http://www.bcs.org/server.php?show=nav.9731

And Stephen Allott is talking on Pairwise Testing. A fascinating topic which I personal think all Agile folk should immediatley google.

I can't make this event unfortunately, but it looks good. I don't know if it's free, but if you're interested the you'll find contact details on the site.

Two Agile events

2009-11-11T17:59:00.000Z

Hi everyone,

Here're details of two Agile events taking place very soon. I'm talking at the first and a friend of mine, DSDM expert, John Isgrove is speaking at the second.

1. UK Rational User Group - Edinburgh, 23rd of November. Free - but you have to join the group (for free) and register.: https://secure.rational-ug.org/check_user?type=meeting&meetid=1037

Date: Nov 23rd, 2009
Meeting time: 09:30 to 16:45
Meeting location: IBM, 21 St. Andrew Square, Edinburgh, EH2 1AY
Meeting topic: UK RUG "Achieving Agility" in Scotland
Agenda:

This agenda is subject to change, but most of the speakers have now confirmed their availability.

09:00 - Registration
09:30 - Welcome - Julian Holmes
09:45 - IBM Rational Update and summary of RSC - Anthony Kesterton
10:30 - Break
10:45 - The Agile Way: Agility as a way of thinking - Clarke Ching
11:30 - Break
11:45 - Getting Started in Agile, Part 1: The safety Net - Paul Oldfield
12:30 - Lunch
13:15 - Zero to Hero: An RTC SCM Quick Start for Agile Development - Andrew Harmel-Law
14:30 - Break
14:45 - Agility @ Scale - Scott Ambler (Live from Toronto)
15:45 - Break
16:00 - Agile "Goldfish bowl" - All presenters
16:30 - Wrap-Up - Julian Holmes
16:45 - Close

2. UK BCS - Scottish Testing link - Glasgow, November 24th

John is talking on Agile ("Delight your customers, increase your job satisfaction, and

http://www.bcs.org/server.php?show=nav.9729

I'm uncertain of

CodeRetreat Glasgow, November ...

2009-11-07T20:06:00.001Z

Hi all,

1. Good news! Two long-term AgileScots, Rob Lally and Adrian Mowet, along with Joe Wright present the UK's first CodeRetreat. It's hosted by the kind folk at Glasgow Caledonian University; it's free; it's only a couple of weeks away and ... there are only 5 spots left.

Here's the official announcement:

This November the first ever Code Retreat in the UK will be hosted in Glasgow. We are inviting developers of all skill levels to tackle Conway's Game of Life using Ruby.

BACKGROUND

A Code Retreat is a day long programming session based around a simple coding challenge. Developers of different skill levels are invited to engage in deliberate practice as equals. The goal is to learn, teach and improve with fellow software developers in a non-competitive setting.

If you are looking to improve your software development skills and network with people in your industry then please come along and embrace the challenge.

FORMAT

Pairs will attempt to solve the problem in 40 minute iterations. At the end of each iteration one person swaps with another pair and all code is deleted. The new pair then try to make a better solution based off their experiences.

We will be providing breakfast and lunch. After the event finishes we will be heading to a nearby pub.

Join up here:

http://coderetreatscotland.eventbrite.com/?ref=elink

2. I'm currently working with a strong development team in a well known computer manufacturer. We're looking for "a highly skilled, first rate designer/developer with experience of working on complex projects and an excellent understanding of object orientated design and development, UML and software architecture." If that describes you and you're looking, or, if you know someone you'd be happy to recommend the please email me and I'll pass your details on to the appropriate people.

3. I should have details of our next event out very soon. I've gotta get the logistics sorted out first.

Thanks,
Clarke

Brian Swan's slides - TDD pitfalls.

2009-10-28T21:44:00.000Z

http://www.codedexterity.com/presentations/tdd_pitfalls

Ruby on Rails training - Edinburgh, November

2009-10-19T21:48:00.001+01:00

Hi everyone,

If you are interesed in Ruby on Rails then you may be interested in this training course, taking place in November, in Edinburgh. IMHO, this is world class stuff and a very rare opportunity.

Clarke

Here are the detais, from long time AgileScotlander, Paul Wilson, who writes:

Over the past five year Ruby has moved from being a language of hobbyists to to the main stream of business application development, and a much-sought after skill. While this has been largely down to the tremendous success of the Ruby on Rails web framework, Ruby is much bigger Rails. It is finding popularity in niches in areas such as Enterprise integration, and in acceptance testing of .Net and Java applications through the Cucumber testing framework.

We're excited to announce Ruby and Rails training here in the UK (Edinburgh) from Ruby stars Jim Weirich and Joe O'Brien, assisted by Paul Wilson.

Jim Weirich is a cornerstone of the Ruby community. Amongst other things, he is responsible for Rake, the Ruby build tool, Flexmock, XML Builder, and much of RubyGems. He is also one of the keynotes for next year's Scottish Ruby Conference, along with Tim Bray.

Joe is also an experienced programmer and instructor. He has spoken recently in Edinburgh on the business case for Ruby. He also organises an Enterprise Ruby Conference in the US, and organises Columbus Ruby Brigade.

Paul is a Ruby coder, recovering Java programmer, and co-owner of EdgeCase UK. He is an active member of the local Ruby and Agile communities, and co-organiser of the Scotland on Rails conference. He has spoken on a range of topics at events including European Rails Conference, The Naked Agilist Conference, and as a guest lecturer at Glasgow Caledonian and Napier Universities

Two courses are being offered:-

9-10 November: Vital Ruby is a two day course that will bring you up to speed on the language, the environment and the tools that surround the Ruby language. This course also provides a glimpse into the culture and community that is such an important ingredient to success. Test-driven development is a natural part of what we do and will be reflected in this two day course.

11-13 November: Vital Rails is a three day course that will leave you production-ready for building web applications. We drive through the major components of Rails, while building an actual application that you will be able to take home with you and look at as you develop the next killer app. Learn how to build, test and deploy a web application and all the pieces that go along with it. Learn how to use plugins, how to use ActiveRecord as a stand alone ORM and see how to test your application in units or as a whole. This course has something for everyone.

These courses are being offered at special introductory and Early Bird rates. Booked on or before October 26 :-

- Vital Ruby: £495

- Vital Rails: £790

- Combined courses: £1120

After October 26:

- Vital Ruby: £595

- Vital Rails: £890

- Combined courses: £1220

You should book by following the link below:

http://edgecase.com/training

PS You can see Jim in action talking about "The Building Blocks of Modularity" and both Joe and Jim in "The EdgeCase Dialogue" (Day 2) at Scotland on Rails here:

http://www.engineyard.com/blog/community/scotland-on-rails/

[AgileScotland] October 26th, Glasgow: Avoiding the Pitfalls that Cripple Test Driven Development

2009-10-15T13:32:00.001+01:00

Hi everyone,

Here's a great chance to hear from one of Scotland and the UK's best Agile/XP coaches about how to do TDD in a way that makes it stick.

Brian Swan is presenting an AgileScotland session on "Avoiding the Pitfalls that cripple Test Driven Development". The talk will start at 7pm, sharp, on Monday the 26th of October, at Dell's Glasgow software development centre in the City Park, Alexandra Parade, Glasgow. Send me a note if you'd like to book a spot and get joining instructions. My thanks to Paula Heenan, from Dell, who has kindly sponsored this venue.

Here's Brian's outline and bio:

Outline

Test Driven Development is now more than 10 years old yet is still causing controversy as a development technique. Common pitfalls can reduce the value of Test Driven Development, this talk will highlight those pitfalls to help teams and individuals get the maximum benefit from this powerful technique.

Bio

Brian has been developing software professionally for nearly fourteen years and since 1999 has been applying agile practices, primarily Extreme Programming, to the projects he has been involved with.

Brian has worked in a variety of languages from COBOL and Visual Basic to Java and Ruby, with a smattering of C# and Objective-C. He has

successfully led a variety of teams transitioning to Agile, and trained both developers and managers in Agile thinking and practice.

Brian told me that anyone who is interested in agile software development will find the session useful, but the folk who'd get the most benefit are probably already doing TDD but struggling because they're not got some of the basics quite right.

Remember: if you want a spot then please send me an email: clarke.ching@spiceUpIT.com. We've only got room for 20-25 people so don't leave it until the last minute.

Clarke

p.s. We've had to delay Peter Aitken's Cucumber session for a few months due to work related travel commitments. Our November session will be a nice gentle introduction to Kanban and Flow systems from Rob Lally.

fw: Ruby, The Agile Language. Edinburgh, Thursday 8 October.

2009-10-03T11:46:00.000+01:00

This looks like an excellent session. It's nice to see Ruby taking off.

Clarke

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Paul Wilson <paul.wilson@merecomplexities.com>
To: AgileScotland@yahoogroups.com

Hi all,

It's great we've got already some talks lined up for October and
November. Here's another one for next week: top Rubyist and Agilist,
Joe O'Brien, is going to be in Scotland next week and he's agreed to
talk on "Ruby, The Agile Language" next week in Edinburgh. This
should nicely complement Pete's talk on Cucumber, as Acceptance
Testing using Cucumber is one way Ruby is making inroads into
enterprise Java and .Net development.

The talk starts around 19:30 at The Edinburgh Training Centre, 16 St
Mary's Street, EH1 1SU.

Full details are here:

http://edgecaseuk.eventwax.com:80/joe-obrien-ruby-the-agile-language

I'm afraid numbers are limited. Follow the link below to sign up (for
free). (Don't worry about filling in all he fields - just name and
email).

http://edgecaseuk.eventwax.com:80/joe-obrien-ruby-the-agile-language/register

----------------
Paul Wilson
http://merecomplexities.com

Scotland on Rails
http://scottishrubyconf.com

[AgileScotland] Agile and Lean: Crash Course - Glasgow, Wednesday 1st of July.

2009-06-24T21:08:00.000+01:00

Good news!

1. We'll be holding our next low-cost "Agile and Lean Software Development: Crash Course", next week, on Wednesday the 1st of July in Glasgow. Better still this course is absolutely FREE, but with a limit of 3 people per company, per course.

2. It's free for everyone, this time round, since some very switched-on folk at Glasgow Caledonian University (where they've been teaching Agile to their students for a half dozen years) have very kindly sponsored the venue. This is awesome and I'm very grateful! But it does mean that I don't expect to repeat the course in Edinburgh this summer (unless I find a sponsor).

3. I'll be repeating this course twice in July, both in Glasgow, but if you are able to make the 1st course then please send me an email quickly. I'll confirm the other dates soon, but we'll be in a smaller room for those sessions and you may miss out if you wait. If you can't make the 1st then send me a note and I'll see what I can do.

4. I've gotta warn you though - we've already had an aweful lot of interest ... so get in quick.

5. Let me put that another way: it's short notice, but if you can make the 1st then please send me an email. It'll be easier for me, and you're more likely to get a spot. And, if you're based in Edinburgh ... come to the course in Glasgow

Clarke

[AgileScotland] When it just has to work: Agile Development in Safety-Critical Environments

2009-06-17T18:00:00.000+01:00

Hi Everyone,

Nancy Van Schooenderwoert, a very experienced Agile coach with a very long name, is in Edinburgh next Friday afternoon, the 26th. She's presenting a one-off session, running from 3-5, about Agile in Safety-Critical Environments to the agile team at Toshiba Medical Visualizaton Systems (they're one of Scotland's agile success stories). You can see details of Nancy's talk, below.

The folk at Toshiba have very kindly set aside a few spaces for the general public. If you are interested then get back to me - clarke.ching@gmail.com and I'll let you know if you've got a spot early next week. I'm sorry, but I'm going to have to turn some of you away. If you are particularly interested in safety-critical code then let me know and I'll prioritize you.

Clarke

When it just *has* to work: Agile Development in Safety-Critical Environments

Traditional thinking holds that the more critical the application, the more tightly its development must be planned, staged, and controlled. The truth is that a flexible culture is stronger, safer, and more robust. FDA regulatory standards are designed to support a learning organization – fully compatible with Agile! This session gives you practical tips for moving your customers and auditors to a flexible agile approach to planning, team interactions, and risk management. When the culture shifts, the result is not just that teams achieve their goals sooner, but safety is greatly enhanced.
Process/Mechanics

Learning outcomes

* Get ammunition for conversations with managers, to show why incremental design is safer than up-front design
* See examples of how several medical device companies are already reaping increased ROI from using agile team discipline
* Understand how the traditional method of hazard analysis is more dangerous than the agile approach
* Be able to explain to your customers (internal and external) the benefit - to them - of working collaboratively with you
* Grasp how the regulatory requirement for separate reporting chains for development and QA need not prevent Agile collaboration

Who Should Attend
Key attendees are described here as "Personas"

Patricia - a seasoned project manager. She prefers agile development to her old attempts to force teams to conform to an overly prescriptive plan. But, her stakeholders still ask for the same predictability and schedule commitments. And the regulatory documentation needs seem to force a "big design up front" approach so she ends up with a mix of agile and waterfall practices that is only marginally better than waterfall.

Don - the product Quality Assurance representative. Don is responsible for quality concerns of the overall product, only part of which is the embedded software. In particular, Don has to make sure all the requirements of the regulatory agencies (in his world, the FDA) have been fulfilled, and wants to be sure the Agile approach will result in the kind of information he needs to provide.

Glasgow's clinic & Agile lunch ...

2009-06-06T16:12:00.001+01:00

Hi everyone,

This week's clinic is full up. Well be holding another one in Edinburgh shortly and then we'll be back in Glasgow next month.

I'm wondering though, would anyone like to meet up for lunch before the clinic? I'm thinking noon at Wagamamas. Send me a note if you're keen.

Clarke

West Coast Clinic Bios.

2009-06-03T17:55:00.000+01:00

Here're the bio's I promised.

Let's start with Rob.

Rob Lally has successfully managed and delivered over 20 Agile projects in the last ten years.

Rob blends Agile and Lean with a pragmatic, commercial focus. He's experienced Agile from many different perspectives; having worked as a developer, architect, coach, project, programme and product manager. He's built in-house applications for a Fortune 50 company, public-facing web apps and retail products, using both distributed and co-located teams.

A technologist at heart, Rob always makes time to write code, learn new languages and stay on top of emerging technologies. Rob, formerly, worked as a Vice President at JPMorgan. He now runs his own consultancy company.

And now for Pete:

Peter Aitken has spent the last decade working as an Agile coach and developer. During this time he has worked mostly in Java environments working on a diverse range of applications including DVD and Blu Ray authoring tools for Universal Studios and fund management tools for investment banks.

Peter currently works as an Agile Coach and Developer in a small team creating Ruby on Rails applications. Peter is an expert in developer-lead acceptance testing. He created Marjoree (http://marjoree.com), a ruby gem (library) used to test-drive sybase store procedures. His current favourite toy is Cucumber (http://cukes.info/ ), a BDD framework which teams use to describe in plain text how software should behave.

Peter is scheduled to present to AgileScotland on Cucumber over the summer.

I vouch for both of these guys. I've learnt plenty from both of them during the years.

And finally, me:

My name is Clarke Ching. I teach - and do - a very simple version of Agile - one that works well for people who haven't read too many books on Agile, who really don't want to be "extreme" about anything, and who, maybe, use COBOL, or Java, or .net, or maybe don't even develop software at all. I call it everydayAgile because it's designed to bring the benefits of agile - more projects finished, happier customers, happier developers, and so on - to everyday people who work in everyday businesses. It's the 80/20 version of Agile where you get 80% of the benefits, with only 20% of the effort.

If you are familiar with Goldratt's Theory of Constraints (as used by manufacturers like Intel and Ford) then EverydayAgile is TOC applied to software development. If you're not familiar with TOC then think of Lean as Toyota do it (rather than how it's described in the books) instead.

I run my own consulting business and chair the not-for-profit AgileScotland special interest group. Between engagements and in my spare time I write. Later this year the Pragmatic Programmers will publish my business novel Rolling Rocks Downhill which explains everydayAgile in detail. It's just like Goldratt's The Goal, but set in corporate software development. You can buy my first book RocksIntoGold - a business parable, like "Our Iceberg is Melting" or "The One Minute Manager", which explains why businesses should do Agile, without mentioning anything technical or even the word agile (hint: it's all about cashflow) - from amazon or you can read it at rocksintogold.com for free.

Clarke

AgileScotland clinic - Glasgow City Centre, 2pm, June 11.

2009-06-03T14:03:00.001+01:00

Hi everyone,

I am astounded at the turnout we've had at our AgileClinics and at last weeks Lean, Agile and Kanban "Crash" course. I regret not kicking these off years ago.

More Courses: Thirteen people turn up last friday - 6 paying, 7 free - and the feedback was excellent. We're definitely running another course in Glasgow sometime in June once I find a suitable venue - if you can suggest somewhere then please give me a yell; at this stage most of the positions are filled, but email me if you'd like to go on the waiting list. We're also looking to run 2 more courses in Edinburgh - one exclusively for Spring Recruitment's linked in group, in their offices, and one open to eveyone using the same venue we used last week.

The Next Clinic - Glasgow City Centre, 2pm, June 11.: Peter Aitken, Rob Lally and I are available for free consultion at next week's AgileScotland Clinic. We'll be meeting in one of the Starbucks or Costas near Borders but we'll give you more details nearer the time. If you'd like a little helping hand then you can learn a lot in an hour. So far we've helped Agile veterans and newbies; managers and techies. The conversations are 100% confidential. Email me now at clarke.ching@gmail.com.

I'll send out Pete and Rob's bio's shortly.

---
Clarke Ching -
1. Author of "Rolling Rocks Downhill" ... a business novel about software development; coming soon from the Pragmatic Bookshelf.
2. Author of "Rocks Into Gold" ... a biztech parable for developers who want to THRIVE during the recession. www.RocksIntoGold.com
www.clarkeching.com
Phone: 079 2011 4893

[AgileScotland] Edinburgh training day ... now Friday the 29th

2009-05-25T10:27:00.000+01:00

Hi everyone,

We've had very good uptake so far, which isn't surprising, I guess...

Please note: we've had to move the training day to FRIDAY the 29th, rather than Thursday.

Clarke

Full day "Introduction to Lean and Agile" training in Edinburgh & Glasgow ... FREE

2009-05-22T15:47:00.003+01:00

Do you work in Software Development? Do you want to enjoy your job more? Do you want to ship more projects?

update: date now Friday 29th May.

Today I'm delighted to announce the first of our very low-cost AgileScotland "open source" training courses.

Title: "An introduction to Lean and Agile - for Scottish Businesses"

Presented by: Clarke Ching and Rob Lally.

Where: Princess Street, Edinburgh

When: Friday 29th (was Thursday 28th May), starting 9:15 for 9:30; finishing around 4pm;

Cost: FREE if you are currently not employed; otherwise £30; we'll provide coffee & tea but you'll need to provide your own lunch.

Learn Agile and Lean from two of the UKs most experienced Agile and Lean practitioners/coaches.

After attending this course you will understand why Agile (in it's many flavours) works, why it is sometimes hard work, and what you can do to make it easier. You will know Agile well enough that you'll be able to explain it to your bosses, your staff, your colleagues. You'll know enough to sell the financial benefits of Agile to your bosses and to plan your first agile initiative.

We will cover:

* Why? The business reasons for doing Agile

* What? The technical reasons for doing Agile

* Yes, but ... why do Agile projects stuggle (hint: they execute the practices superbly, but miss the prinicples)

* A solid overview of Scrum, Kanban, and Extreme Programming

* An introduction to Test Driven Development.

* Agile / Lean for the IT department (i.e. when you run more than 1 project).

Prerequisites: You must already have at least 2 years professional experience working on (or with) Software Development teams. You must live or work in Scotland.

Restrictions: Only 2 people maximum from each company;

Book now by emailing me at clarke.ching@gmail.com giving me an idea of your employment status, job title, and why you'd like to attend, then very early next week I'll confirm your position. We expect to fill up very quickly so it's first come, first served. If you'd prefer to attend the course in Glasgow then email me too - if you don't ask, you don't get.

Please forward this on to anyone who might be interested ... We will try to repeat any popular courses.

--- Clarke Ching, Linlithgow, Scotland.

1. Author of "Rolling Rocks Downhill" ... a business novel about software development; coming soon from the Pragmatic Bookshelf.

2. Author of "Rocks Into Gold" ... a biztech parable for developers who want to THRIVE during the recession. www.RocksIntoGold.com
www.clarkeching.com
Phone: 079 2011 4893

[AgileScotland] London Lean & Kanban (Europe) 2009 Sep 27-29

2009-05-18T17:15:00.001+01:00

Hi everyone,

Some of you many be interested in the Lean / Kanban conference being put on in London later this year. See below. They're got a fantastic lineup.

Speaking of conferences with fantastic lineups ... Rob Lally and I spent the last month or so speaking with some of Scotlands most gifted Agile / Lean / Other practitioners and we now have a fantastic lineup for our as-yet-un-named mini-conference. I can't name names, nor specific dates, just yet but you're all going to be very impressed with some of the stuff that's going on out there.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: David J Anderson <netherby_uk@yahoo.co.uk>
Date: Mon, May 18, 2009 at 5:03 PM
Subject: [agilemanagement] ANN: Lean & Kanban (Europe) 2009 Sep 27-29 London
To: agilemanagement@yahoogroups.com

Rob Hathaway (and his colleague Jason Smith @ Indigo Blue) with Karl Scotland (EMC Consulting) are organizing the European version of the Lean & Kanban Conference in London this coming September.

http://ukleanconference.com/

Mary Poppendieck, Alan Shalloway, Don Reinertsen and I will be key note speaking. Other notable speakers include Kenji Hiranabe and Jeff Patton (both Gordon Pask Award winners), John Seddon, Hal Macomber and Corey Ladas.

Online registration isn't open yet but you can call the number on the web site and pre-register with Jason. The event is strictly limited to 200 people because of the venue. Quite a few folks have already pre-registered - many more than registered early for Miami. We do expect the event to sell out given the high level of interest in Kanban in London and the stellar speaker line up.

David
http://www.agilemamagement.net/

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AgileScotland clinic - Edinburgh, Thursday afternoon, 21st of May

2009-05-12T11:17:00.000+01:00

Hi everyone,

If you'd like a little free, confidential* Agile or Lean (or even Kanban or TOC) advice from a local expert then .. we're holding the next AgileScotland Clinic next Thursday, the 21st of May, in Edinburgh. Send me a note and I'll book you in with one of the experts.

Yours leanly ...

Clarke

* Don't worry, your conversations will remain 100% confidential.

[AgileScotland] Clinics ... East Coast

2009-05-05T11:37:00.002+01:00

Hi everyone,

Wow! I've been very pleasantly surprised by the overwhelmingly positive response to the Agileclinics. I was a little nervous that people might think it was a daft idea, but apparently not. Take a look here to see how Agile Austin are running their AgileExpert sessions. I've taken a slightly different direction in that rather than dropping in, I'm asking people to book. I'm not sure what's best but I was concerned about confidentiality and scheduling issues.

So here are the Bio's of our east coast based contacts. I've known all three for at least 5 years and they really know what they're talking about.

1. Alan Francis - http://cardboardsoftware.com/

With 15 years experience as a developer, I've built systems for clients that include Power Stations, Multimedia Authors, Breweries, Retail Stores and Investment Banks. I am a Rails and RubyGems contributor, spoke at RailConf, RailsConfEurope and RubyConf, and organised the wildly successful Scotland-on-Rails Ruby conference. I can do Java, but these days, I mostly do Ruby or iPhone work.

I'm also a consultant, I made an early move towards Agile Methods and attended the first XP Immersion course hosted by Kent Beck and Martin Fowler in 1999. I became an active member of the XP community, speaking and teaching at conferences such as XP200x, XPDay, XPUniverse.

I like building software, but I *love* building teams.

2. Brian Swan - http://www.codedexterity.com/

Brian is an Agile mentor with extensive experience in both the technical and the management aspects of Agile.

He has successfully led a variety of teams transitioning to Agile methods helping them to improve quality and customer satisfaction and deliver software into production with substantially reduced lead times.

Brian has over 14 years development experience and a particular interest in test automation and continuous integration. He developed EXACTOR, an open source acceptance testing framework for Java, (http://exactor.sourceforge.net) that has been successfully used by many teams to test both web and rich client applications.

3. Paul Wilson - http://merecomplexities.com

I am an Agile/Extreme Programming coach and coder who has worked with many teams to improve their
process and ʻAgilityʼ. I have been practising Test-Driven Development since 2000, and other Agile practices
since 2002. Over the past ten years, 70% of my positions have been repeat-business, or through recom-
mendation.

I am an active member of the local Ruby and Agile communities, and co-organiser of the very successful Scotland on Rails
conferences. I currently code mostly in Ruby, Java, and Objective-C but am open minded about other languages.

I'll send out the West Coast list shortly. If you'd like to volunteer to help or if you'd like a little friendly advice then send me a note.

Clarke

[AgileScotland] - Talk at Napier University - "Don't blame the Project Manager-the problem can be the status of your IT Governance"

2009-05-01T10:40:00.000+01:00

Hi everyone,

Pritam Chita from Napier University forwarded this on to me. It looks VERY interesting and I hope to go along. Maybe I'll see you there.

Clarke

****

The following talk will be given by Shirin Sherkat-Khameneh on Monday 4th May 2009 at 4pm in Room F29. Merchiston Campus, Edinburgh Napier University

Title: "Don't blame the Project Manager-the problem can be the status of your IT Governance"

Abstract: Project Management needs IT Governance to deliver the right solutions at the right time effectively and efficiently. Using examples from the Technology and Public sectors, this seminar will discuss the symptoms of ineffective IT Governance and how they impact Project Management and what Project Managers can do to help address the issues.

Brief Bio: Shirin Sherkat-Khameneh is a Management Consultant with over 25 years experience working in the Technology and Public sector. She has been involved in business process improvement for over 20 years and has championed the delivery of a number of IT Governance frameworks. Her most recent appointment was for the Scottish Parliament.

If you wish to attend, please contact me ( p.chita@napier.ac.uk ) to reserve a place

Pritam Chita

Lecturer in Software Project Management

School of Computing

Edinburgh Napier University

Tel: +44 (0)131 455 2708

Fax: +44 (0)131 455 2727

Mob: +44 (0)777 556 0717

Re: [AgileScotland] Introducing our day time "Agile clinics" - a little free, friendly help if you're struggling.

2009-04-30T15:47:00.000+01:00

Hi everyone,

Looks like we're holding the first clinic in Glasgow, Thursday the 7th
of May. It'll be in the Starbucks next to Borders book shop next.

I have 2 appointments left.

Clarke

[AgileScotland] Introducing our day time "Agile clinics" - a little free, friendly help if you're struggling.

2009-04-30T14:29:00.001+01:00

Hi everyone,

Just over two years ago I woke up one Monday morning, made my weetabix, took a bite, swallowed and doubled over in agony. By the end of the day I was in the high dependency ward at The Royal Infirmary dosed out on morphine. I had chronic pancreititis, an illness which has a surprisingly high fatality rate. I was lucky, I survived, but I'm told it was pretty scary.

So what's this got to do with Agile? Well it turns out that If I hadn't missed my last two diabetic clinics (due to work travel and complacency) then my GP would have immediately noticed my hugely elevated triglyceride levels; he would have changed my medication and scared me into going to the gym; I would've avoided a whole lot of physical pain; and I wouldn't have scared the **** out of my family and friends.

The treatment, it turns out, is incredibly simple: each day I take 3 capsules of medical strength Omega Three fish oil.

So here's the Agile connection:

Over the last few months I've been chatting with a bunch of very seasoned AgileScotlanders and we've come to the conclusion that with the addition of just a little bit of (free) expert advice many of the Agile implementations here in Scotland would be HUGELY healthier and happier.

We're sick of hearing "Agile bad news stories" that could have been easily avoided so ...

... each month, from now on, we're going to run a free day-time "Agile Clinic" in a local coffee shop. We will alternate between Glasgow and Edinburgh and (if there's demand for it) Dundee and Aberdeen. We'll be there for 2 hours or so.

If you have an Agile problem you'd like help with then send me an email - Clarke.Ching@spiceUpIT.com - quickly describing the problem and I'll book you in for a 30 - 60 minute "consult" with someone who can probably help you out. They'll "take a blood test" and because they're experts they'll usually prescribe some off-the-shelf "medication".

A few things:

we promise to keep the conversations absolutely confidential;

no one will never ask for money at these sessions;

all we ask for, in return, is that - provided you find the clinic useful - then please will you recommend us to your friends, colleagues, bosses and competitors;

we won't ever make a sales pitch to you but you are welcome to hire us or recommend that others do;

Over the next couple of days I'll send out "bios" of our current stable of "Agile GPs". You probably know of most of them: Rob Lally, Alan Francis, Paul Wilson, Brian Swan and myself. We all specialise in different areas with a bit of overlap. We all know what we're doing.

The first clinic will be NEXT WEEK in either Glasgow or EDINBRUGH.

You get to decide. If you need a little confidential Agile help, or you have a friend who does, then email me now - Clarke.Ching@spiceUpIT.com and I'll get the ball rolling.

Clarke

[p.s. Thanks to the guys in Agile Austin who run similiar sessions and inspired me to do the same.]

[AgileScotland Conference] More for Less: Using Agile to Save your Job

2009-04-21T14:16:00.001+01:00

Hi again,

Can you help? I'm in the early stages of organizing another full day Agile meetup ( think part mini-conference, part workshop) here in Scotland. It won't cost much and - all things being equal - it'll happen before the summer.

As well as having plenty of very practical managerial & technical content covering HOW TO do agile better, the conference will also focus on WHY using Agile can save your job and/or business.

The equation is simple - Agile done well produces better software, faster, delighting your customers; it needs less cash to run an agile project, you do more projects each year, each delivers sooner, but you don't need more people; that puts loads more money in your employers bank accounts and with healthier bank balances they keep paying your salary. It's a simple enough equation but a lot of people don't get it. Agile is the right thing to do. We need to start selling it better so that more of us get to do it.

So, I need your help:

- What do YOU want to learn from a meetup like this? What would your boss want you to learn?

- What areas of Agile particularly concern you?

- Do you have a success story you'd like to share? A failure you'd feel comfortable sharing so we can all learn?

- Are you interested in introductory or advanced sessions?

Here're some thoughts:

... I've already got volunteers for a session on the different ways to handle requirements - stories, use cases, features, etc.

... I've also got three volunteers who are willing to share their success and failure stories. Would you like to join them?

... I imagine there'd be a lot of interest in the leading edge agile test-first thinking.

... I'd like to run a workshop on identifying the benefits of Agile and using them to get buy in from your boss's boss.

Send me an email (Clarke.Ching@Gmail.com) if you have any thoughts or would like to volunteer to help.

Please ...

Clarke

[AgileScotland] Training - FIT for developers - Brian Swan, 21st and 22nd May 2009

2009-04-20T14:16:00.001+01:00

Hi Everyone,

Brian Swann is an excellent Agile trainer and coach who lives and works right here in Scotland. He has been a member of AgileScotland since the early days and over the years I have often sought his advice on the more technical aspects of Agile. He knows his stuff.

Next month he is presenting on of his courses (on using FIT) here in Edinburgh.

Brian writes:

Communication, collaboration and automated testing are are the heart of Agile methods. Used effectively FIT/Fitnesse can help you to improve all of these on your project. In this 2 day course you'll learn the tips and techniques to get the most out of FIT/Fitnesse on your project.

The course is for developers who are using, or thinking of using, the FIT or Fitnesse framework for automated acceptance testing.

During the 2 day course attendees with learn:

• How to use the FIT/Fitnesse framework to create executable documentation.

• How to document and test business and validation rules, queries and searches, business processes and workflows.

• Handling test data including variable elements such as dates and times.

• How to add FIT/Fitnesse to your build process, running tests and publishing the results.

• Integrating FIT/Fitnesse into your development process.

• Involving customers, testers and analysts.

• Avoiding common pitfalls when using FIT/Fitnesse.

Course details and registration http://www.codedexterity.com/courses

If your dev team is currently under pressure to do more with less, then take my advice and invest this course - FIT is an excellent prodcutivity tool when used properly; Brian is an excellent teacher; and the course will pay for itself within weeks.

Clarke

[AgileScotland] LinkedIn group

2009-04-05T14:41:00.001+01:00

Hi everyone,

If you use LinkedIn then I please follow the following link to join the AgileScotland group.

http://www.linkedin.com/groups?home=&gid=1883781&trk=anet_ug_hm&goback=%2Egin_1883781_false_im*5invite_cs*5connections

The groups feature works surprisingly well in LinkedIn and seems to be getting better all the time.

I still continue to email out to this list ...

Thanks

Clarke

AgileScotland - Uni thing and a free book ...

2009-03-30T13:19:00.001+01:00

Hi everyone,

1. A quick update: I've had several volunteers -Peter Aitken, Paul Wilson, Brian Swan, Rohan Cragg, Colin Brodie-Smith, Graeme Brown, Mark Davidson, Rob Lally, and Ian Brockbank - to help out with the university initiative; I've got two universities definitely signed up; and I've you've all passed on a number of useful contacts which I'm pursuing. So thanks! This'll start out small ... but I hope we can make it into something bigger over the years.

2. I'm attending Endava's "agile outsourcing" event this Thursday afternoon in Edinburgh. If you're going along or fancy meeting up afterwards for a quick chat (around 6:30, Edinburgh city centre) then send me a note (clarke.ching@gmail.com). I've got a couple-dozen copies galley copies of RocksIntoGold back from my pubisher and if you'd like a copy then I'll bring one along on Thursday.

If your boss (or your customers) would like a copy (free) then send me their postal address and I'll post a signed copy out to them.

Clarke

Can AgileScotland make a difference? (Includes free agile course)

2009-03-18T15:46:00.001Z

Over the years I've done a good few lectures, talks and workshops for local universities about Agile and its cousins. The older students (who have worked in, or about to work in, the "real world") have a good, healthy appetite to learn about delivering good, profitable software. What disappoints me, though, is that over the years I've been contacted by several of the students I've taught who have graduated, got real jobs but then discovered that (a) agile has a bad reputation where they work because it's been done badly there in the past, (b) agile is being done "according to the books", but it's widely regarded by "the troops" as a bit of a joke, or (c) no one's ever heard of agile. Unfortunately, there are currently less than a dozen good, solid agile initiatives running in Scotland (we lost a few good teams as a side-effect of the credit crisis), and they don't tend to employ recent grads.

I want us - AgileScotland - to do something about this.

I want to do what Apple does:

They put their products into schools so that the kids who use them pester their parents to buy them (my 3yr old claimed to know how to use my new macbook even though I couldn't, so I took it back for a refund) and, once they've got jobs, they pester their employers to buy apple products. I don't know how well it works, but you've got to admit that apple owners can be annoying.

It's a slow process, but I'd like to take the same approach with Agile: teach tomorrow's developers, analysts, testers and managers how to make agile work in the real world, so that when they start working they know just enough to make a difference.

Three steps:

1. I'm volunteering my own time to run a full-day version of my "EverydayAgile" course at any Scottish University, free to all academics, students, and recent-grads. All the university needs to do is provide a room, a digital projector, and at least 10 attendees. In order to fit my work commitments, I can only run these free sessions on Mondays, Fridays or Saturdays. It's a chance to learn the essentials of agile, how to make more money from doing it, and (in particular) the non-technical things you need to do to make it work right; there's a bit of coding involved, but nothing beyond your average manager or lecturer.

2. I'm looking for volunteers from AgileScotland who are willing to give up a little of their time to teach some of the more technical aspects of Agile (which I don't cover). Can you help? I have a couple of volunteers already, but I'd love your help if you're up for it. It'd be great, too, if we had anyone willing to take an hour or two, every so often, to publicly share their Agile success stories (especially if you are planning to recruit grads in the future).

3. (The easiest step) I'm looking for introductions to people working in local Universities whose students have a technical, managerial or business interest in software development. I'm working with one already and I'll be talking to a couple more next week. Are you still in contact with your old lecturers? Do you have friends who might be able to help?

I hope this doesn't sound too melodramatic, but ... I'm not Scottish, though my 2 daughters are; I've live here for decade now and I'd like us to at least try to make a difference. If you can't help but you know someone who might ... then please forward on this email.

[AgileScotland] One seminar & one fantastic training opportunity

2009-03-11T10:13:00.000Z

Hi everyone,

1. On April 2nd, Endava, an expereinced euroepean outsourcing company, are running an afternoon session in central Edinburgh covering their experiences doing outsourced agile development. It's aimed at "Financial Services IT Professionals".

You can read the powerpoint invite here: http://docs.google.com/Presentation?id=dfg96gcp_1dtzv7xcc

Please email Lawrence.Power@endava.com if your interested in attending.

2. The Scotland on Rails conference sold out extremely quickly this year and so did the training event. The GOOD NEWS is that they organisers have found a bigger venue for the training event so there are now more places available. It's only 75 pounds for a full day with 2 of the worlds best Ruby/Rails trainers (and the money goes to charity). It's an extremely good deal. If your boss won't pay for it then take a day off and think of it as "me time".

Paul Wilson writes:

If you went to last year's you will remember that things didn't go quite to plan.

This year we are taking a different approach: it is an entire day's course, concentrating on core Ruby, planned and given by Pragmatic Sudios Ruby and Rails instructor Chad Fowler and Rails-core alumnus (and also a Pragmatic Instructor) Marcel Molina. These guys are both expert rubyists and trainers. All we are asking is that you make a £75 (75 GBP) donation to the Children's Hospice Association Scotland at the page below

http://justgiving.com/scotlandonrails

More details on the tutorial are here:

http://scotlandonrails.com/schedule/26-march/all-day-charity-tutorial/ (ignore the SOLD OUT sign on the page).

3. They didn't ask me to write this, but I know that Paul Wilson and Alan Francis will be looking for work shortly after the conference. I know them well and I know they're two of the best agile programmers in Scotland/The World. It takes a huge amount of time, effort and personal sacrifice to deliver these community events so if you know of anyone who needs to hire two good, local developers then contact me and I'll put you in touch with Paul and Alan. (I do consulting, not recruitment, so I'm not looking for commission).

Cheers,

Clarke

[AgileScotland] Rocks into Gold - free

2009-02-11T12:27:00.001Z

Hi everyone,

I forgot to mention that my first book Rocks Into Gold is now finished. It'll be on sale with amazon shortly but you can read it for free on slideshare: www.tinyurl.com/rocksintogold. It's a short book and it's really easy to read on slideshare. Take a look at the reviews first. It's already been viewed by over 4000 people in the last month.

That said, let me tell you why I think you should block out 20 - 30 minutes in your diary to read it:

It's a book about a programmer who saves his job, his colleagues' jobs, and perhaps even his company by using just one agile principle. His project was about to be cancelled due to the recession/credit-crunch and he figured out how agile could help. That said, he'd never heard of the word agile and it doesn't involve any coding. It's all about understanding why the credit crunch is causing IT people to lose their jobs (and it's not quite what you think it is).
If you're already sold on Agile then you'll be delightfully surprised that what you already know may help save your job and business in the recession. Don't look down, but you're sitting on a gold-mine! What I suggest is that you read Rocks Into Gold, say "oh yeah - I never thought of it quite like that before", then pass it on to your boss or customer and let them read it.
A few of my favourite agile coaches have already bought copies to give to their customers.
For instance, Nancy Van Schooenderwoert, who has spoken at AgileScotland a couple of times, wrote "Clarke - You've got real skill at *saying* the simplest thing that could possibly work to get people's thinking shifted over to more fundamental ideas that can't help but inspire action. Thanks so much - I will recommend this little book!".
I've even had one very respected manufacturing consultant contact me to say that he's thinking about how he can use the idea in the book to change his own business model. Oh, and I've been told by one respected blogger that his son - a landscape gardner - has done the same. Those two surprised me...
If you're not into Agile .. then read the book and you'll discover that you can very quickly get many of the benefits of Agile without even using the word Agile.

I've put a lot of my own time into writing this book. I'm giving it away for free because it might help save jobs. Please forward it on.

thanks,
Clarke

[AgileScotland] Scotland on Rails. March 26 to 28

2009-02-01T18:41:00.001Z

From: Paul Wilson <paul.wilson@merecomplexities.com>

Conference
=========

This year's Scotland on Rails is taking place on 27-28 March (Friday,
Saturday) at Pollock Halls in Edinburgh.

Of course Ruby (and Rails) are know as "Agile" technologies, but
speakers of particular Agile interest are Mike Feathers (long-term
TDDer, XP Coach, and author of "Working Effectively with Legacy Code")
and Dave Thomas (aka Pragmatic Dave).

Of course we have many more world-class speakers, including Scott
Chacon (talking about Git), Jim Weirch, Yehuda Katz, and Marcel
Molina. You can check out the schedule at

http://scotlandonrails.com/schedule

Tickets are £150 until the end of Feb 8th, when the price rises to
£175. Though I'm pretty sure that we're actually going to sell out
way before then. A lot of people came to last year's conference
through this group, and Clarke's contacts. Sorry for not posting this
earlier.

http://scotlandonrails.com/registration

Tutorial
======

We are running the tutorial again on Thursday 26 March. If you went
to last year's you will remember that things didn't go quite to plan.
This year we have Chad Fowler, Pragmatic Studio Ruby and Rails
instructor, and Rails Core team alumnus Marcel Molina teaching "The
Secret Ingredients of Ruby", " an excellent grounding for those just
getting started, or those looking to delve a little deeper into Ruby".

We are suggesting(*) a minimum donation of £75 to CHAS (Children's
Hospice Association Scotland), which you can make at the link below

http://scotlandonrails.com/schedule/26-march/all-day-charity-tutorial/

---

[Clarke here: Paul tells me that the conference is nearly sold out so if you're keen you better act very quickly.

If you're sitting there wishing your boss would pay for this then my advice would be to pull out your credit card and pay for it yourself. It's extraordinary value, especially if you live locally and don't have to pay for transportation and accomodation. Good work Paul.]

[AgileScotland] “If you have programmers on two floors, forget it”: The challenge of distributed Agile.

2009-01-26T21:42:00.000Z

Hi everyone,

This year's first Agile Scotland session should be very interesting, especially if you've been involved in any kind of distributed development, agile or otherwise. It will be presented by Graeme Brown:

This presentation focuses on the practicalities of doing distributed Agile and will be of interest to the increasing group of people that have tried to use these methods in a non-collocated environment. Based on my dissertation research, which is a finalist in the 2009 APM 'Recognition of Student Success Awards' it provides a Scottish perspective on distributed Agile. Unlike many other works it doesn't just concentrate on the large scale globally distributed projects. The detailed conclusions about the nature of distributed Agile will be useful to anybody thinking of setting up this kind of project.

Bio
Graeme Brown, Systems Developer, Babcock Integrated Technology. After working as an archaeologist for 15 years in various different jobs I switched over to IT in 2005 with the help of an excellent MSc course at Napier University in Edinburgh. I'm very interested in Agile and Agile Management particularly when its combined with any sort of distribution and over the last while I've become more interested with Lean and the role it can play in broadening the focus of Agile. In terms of practical experience with Agile our team at Babcock uses XP. For more about my research see www.graemehbrown.com.

The session will be held on the 2nd of February at Napier University, Edinburgh, starting at 7:30.

I, unfortunately, can't make the session so please email graemehbrown@googlemail.com if you'd like to come along.

I've had several very interesting discussions with Graeme during the last few years. He has a very keen mind and I learned a lot from him while discussing his research. I hope you can come along - it'll be a good solid session.

Clarke

Re: [AgileScotland] Some light Xmas reading ...

2008-12-24T13:52:00.001Z

Oh, I forgot to add that while Rock's into Gold's secret lesson doesn't apply to every single business, it does apply to many, many businesses, even those that initially dismiss it. And ... it applies to big businesses, small businesses, tiny businesses, internet businesses, bricks-and-mortar businesses and so on. It's also a secret that many in the agile community already know, but not many of their customers or bosses know or appreciate.

In the current economic climate/crisis/recession ... it's probably THE best justification I've ever heard of for businesses to adopt agile.

I hope some of you find the little book useful.

Clarke

On Wed, Dec 24, 2008 at 1:34 PM, agile scotland <agile.scotland@gmail.com> wrote:

Hi - It's Clarke Ching here wishing you a happy, agile and merry Xmas.

I've been busy over the last few months with work (thankfully in Scotland) and "RollingRocksDownhill" writing commitments ... but I did manage to take a little time out to write my, um, first book. It's a parable - the everydayAgile version of "the one minute manager", or "who moved my cheese", or "my iceberg is melting" - about a clever programmer who is about to lose his job because the economy has gone belly up but rather than accepting his fate he decides to do something about it ...

I was going to call it "The DaVinci Coder" but my wife wouldn't let me ... so it's called "Rocks into Gold". I wrote it because I've got friends who've lost jobs recently due to the economy and, in the last month, I've been fortunate to survive two rounds of layoffs. The economy has gotten bad ... and I fear it's only going to get worse.

Rocks into Gold contains the ONE lesson I've learnt from Agile which may save more jobs - fortunately it's the simplest lesson to apply; unfortunately, many people have never heard of it. That said, this isn't a book about agile - there's nothing technical there.

You can read more here - http://www.clarkeching.com/2008/12/rocks-into-gold-a-credit-crunch-parable-for-people-who-build-software-for-a-living.html - including a link to get a free pre-copy-edit copy by emailing the books hero.

Please go grab a copy, read it (you'll easily finish it in 30-60 minutes) then please, please, please let me know, what you think. I should have the copy edited version online, for free, in very early January and a paper version available for sale shortly after that, but I'd love to hear your feedback first. If you have friends or colleagues whose work is drying up becasue of the credit crunch then you're welcome to send them a copy of the pdf - it might cheer them up for Xmas.

In the meantime, Happy Holidays! I have a few very interesting AgileScotland sessions lined up for the new year ...

Clarke

[AgileScotland] Some light Xmas reading ...

2008-12-24T13:34:00.001Z

Hi - It's Clarke Ching here wishing you a happy, agile and merry Xmas.

I've been busy over the last few months with work (thankfully in Scotland) and "RollingRocksDownhill" writing commitments ... but I did manage to take a little time out to write my, um, first book. It's a parable - the everydayAgile version of "the one minute manager", or "who moved my cheese", or "my iceberg is melting" - about a clever programmer who is about to lose his job because the economy has gone belly up but rather than accepting his fate he decides to do something about it ...

I was going to call it "The DaVinci Coder" but my wife wouldn't let me ... so it's called "Rocks into Gold". I wrote it because I've got friends who've lost jobs recently due to the economy and, in the last month, I've been fortunate to survive two rounds of layoffs. The economy has gotten bad ... and I fear it's only going to get worse.

Rocks into Gold contains the ONE lesson I've learnt from Agile which may save more jobs - fortunately it's the simplest lesson to apply; unfortunately, many people have never heard of it. That said, this isn't a book about agile - there's nothing technical there.

You can read more here - http://www.clarkeching.com/2008/12/rocks-into-gold-a-credit-crunch-parable-for-people-who-build-software-for-a-living.html - including a link to get a free pre-copy-edit copy by emailing the books hero.

Please go grab a copy, read it (you'll easily finish it in 30-60 minutes) then please, please, please let me know, what you think. I should have the copy edited version online, for free, in very early January and a paper version available for sale shortly after that, but I'd love to hear your feedback first. If you have friends or colleagues whose work is drying up becasue of the credit crunch then you're welcome to send them a copy of the pdf - it might cheer them up for Xmas.

In the meantime, Happy Holidays! I have a few very interesting AgileScotland sessions lined up for the new year ...

Clarke

AgileScotland: Edinburgh ScrumMaster Training & Two free events.

2008-11-16T11:59:00.001Z

Derek from Skillsmatter.com (a London based training company which occassionally runs courses here in Scotland) asked me to tell you all about a training course they're running in Edinburgh later year, as well as two free agile evening "events". The course and events are all presented by Martine Devos. I don't know Martine but I've just looked at skillsmatter's London based course list and she keeps very respectable company.

Here's a link to the two day scrum-master course: http://skillsmatter.com/course/agile-scrum/martine-devos-scrum-master .

It's too late for the "early bird" discount but if you look at this message from Leigh Mullen to the AgileScotland yahoo group , you'll find promo codes for a 10% discount (worth £100) or a £75 amazon voucher. Alternatively, if you email me, then I'll give you the extra-special promo code which Derek kindly gave me specifically for AgileScotland folk - it gives you a 15% discount.

Here are links to more information and free registration for the two events:

http://skillsmatter.com/event-details/home/agile-estimation-and-planning-236
http://skillsmatter.com/event-details/home/challenges-with-agile-implementation

Clarke Ching

AgileScotland: Agile from the Code face @ Napier University

2008-11-12T21:56:00.000Z

Hi everyeone, I suspect some of you will find the following talk, by Paul Wilson, interesting. Paul's a very experienced Agilist and a good speaker.

Clarke

Napier University: School of Computing Seminar - Managing Software Projects

The following talk will be given by Paul Wilson on Monday 17th November at 5pm in Room F27. Merchiston Campus, Napier University Edinburgh

Title: "Agile from the Code face"

Abstract: This seminar will discuss the current view of Agile development methods as well as common pitfalls in implementing Agile approaches.

The talk will also highlight & discuss specific agile methods such as XP and Scrum

Brief Bio: Paul is a software developer and Agile coach and has practiced Test Driven Development since 2000, and Extreme Programming since 2002. He has
introduced Agile techniques at companies ranging from small start-ups to international banks.

If you wish to attend, please contact Pritam ( p.chita@napier.ac.uk ) to reserve a place

Pritam Chita

Lecturer, School of Computing

Napier University Edinburgh

Napier University is the best modern university in Scotland* and number one in Scotland for graduate employability**
(*Guardian University Guide 2009)
(**HESA 2008)

[AgileScotland] Rachel Davies Agile QA course - Edinburgh 4/11

2008-10-24T09:58:00.001+01:00

Hi everyone,

A few years ago, Rachel Davies ran a very good "Intro to Agile" course here in Scotland. It was the first course I organised for AgileScotland and it was very well received.

Rachel is presenting another course, along with Antony Marcano, this time through skillsmatter.

It's a two day course cover all sorts of Agile QA topics.

You can read more details here: http://skillsmatter.com/course/agile-scrum/rachel-davies-agile-qa

It's in Edinburgh, on the 4th of November, and it costs £1195

I've not seen the course, but if Rachel is involved then it's bound to be excellent.

Clarke

AgileScotland - Edinburgh School for Startups

2008-10-20T17:08:00.001+01:00

I just picked up the following from the ScotlandIS website: http://www.scotlandis.com/index.cfm/page/84/event/618/

I hope to see some of you there.

Event: School for Startups

28 October 2008

Event Category: Member Events

Technology entrepreneurs Doug Richard (Micrografx/Corel Corp, Library House, BBC Dragon's Den) and Alex van Someren (Acorn, nCipher) will be holding an inspirational and highly practical one day workshop "School for Startups" in Edinburgh on 28th October, 2008.

Doug's combination of having an incredibly fast and sharp legal mind, being genuinely committed to entrepreneurship education and public policy*, and the fact that he has many high-growth-high-tech successes (a few failures) but most importantly a current startup (http://www.trutap.com), makes him unique and deeply engaging. Alex van Someren's lessons from starting and growing nCipher are equally engaging, fun and inspirational.

Doug has created the based on the New Business Road Test and other academic work of Professor John Mullins from London Business School:

http://ecorner.stanford.edu/authorMaterialInfo.html?author=73

As part of the "Informatics Ventures" initiative, we're pleased to let you know that this one day workshop is FREE and OPEN to all staff and students from all Scottish universities and all startups related or unrelated to universities (but preferably tech/software/web startups).

The wider ScotlandIS, entrepreneurship and enterprise related professional services community are welcome to participate, however there is a fee of £94 for this.

Full details at:

http://www.informatics-ventures.com/dougrichard/

And an application form is at:

http://www.informatics-ventures.com/applyfordougrichard

AgileScotland: More congrats & ScotlandOnRails: Call for proposals

2008-09-19T16:34:00.001+01:00

Hi Everyone,

First, my congratulations to AgileScotlander Graeme Brown who's thesis has been selected for the APM's "Recognition of Student Success" event later this month. Graeme's thesis looked at Agile in distributed environments and I thought it was excellent. I learned a lot from reading it and talking to Graeme, so I'm pleased that he's going to run through his work at our next meeting which will be sometime in December or January.

Second, the clever folk who organised this years very successful ScotlandOnRails conference are kicking off the 2009 event with a call for proposals. Details below.

cheers,

Clarke

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Alan Francis

Having trouble reading this newsletter? Click here to see it in your browser.
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26 - 28 March 2009
Hi.
Last year over 100 attendees and speakers from around the UK, Europe and US came together in Edinburgh for what keynote speaker and RailsCore member Michael Koziarski recently described on stage as "the best small conference" he'd attended.

Scotland on Rails is pleased to announce the Conference will be running again in 2009 and the call for proposals is now open.

The venue is the same, University of Edinburgh's Pollock Halls, but the dates are a week earlier.

Thursday 26 March will be the charity tutorial day – a whole day tutorial in Ruby and Rails taught by RailsCore alumni and iPhone programmer Marcel Molina Jnr and long-time Ruby programmer, Pragmatic author, and jazz saxophonist Chad Fowler.

Friday 27 and Saturday 28 March will be the conference proper. We have already confirmedMarcel Molina Jnr and Giles Bowkett for the keynotes, and are now soliciting session proposals.

We are hoping for a mix of new and experienced speakers, targeting both new and experienced Ruby programmers. All sessions on Ruby, Rails, or associated technologies and techniques will be considered. This includes, but is not limited to:

experience reports
scaling

security
testing techniques
alternatives to the normal Rails stack
Please send submissions as plain text attachments to submissions@scotlandonrails.com. We will be manually checking and acknowledging submissions – if you do not hear anything in 24 hours chase us up.

The closing date for submissions is December 1st 2008.
—Paul, Graeme and Alan
p.s. If you are interested in sponsoring Scotland on Rails 2009, please emailsponsorship@scotlandonrails.com.

AgileScotland - taking a breather, congratulations, and a possible course?

2008-09-08T15:05:00.001+01:00

Hi everyone,

A few things.

1. I'm very busy with work commitments during the next few months so I'm not going to have the time to organise any meetings for the rest of the year. Apologies. If anyone would like to organise something then please contact me.

2. Our congratulations must go to the somewhat gifted, but media-shy, Agile Team working in South Queensferry who produced this: http://www.soundunwound.com/.

3. Good luck to Bill Birnie from Standard Life who is presenting "Agile - Why should your business care?" I am very hopeful that Bill will tell us his story one day - I used to work with Bill and his story is remarkable; when the hero in my book looks in the mirror I see Bills face. Btw: it's unfortunate, but Bill's session is on at exactly the same time as my TDD for Managers workshop.

Well done Scotland :)

Finally, I've been approached by some folk who would like to run an Agile course here in Scotland. (They're also running the course in London.)

Here's the outline:

Practical Scrum for new Masters - Liz Sedley. Willem Van den Ende and David Hoehn.

This course is designed for recent graduates of a CSM courses containing practical advise to make the first few months of being a Scrum Master easier.

Built around your questions and the things that baffle you, now that you are a Scrum Master, this course will try to give you some patterns, exercises, coaching skills and visibility tip and tricks that are easy to understand and apply but took us some time to find.

In this practical workshop we will discuss and develop core skills needed to be a scrum master:

* Using Burndown Charts (and how to interpret them)

* Increasing Visibility (with your team and your organisation)

* Being a Scrum Master (and how to avoid old Project Manager habits)

* Retrospectives (exercises we have learned that seem to work well)

* Selforganised Teams (situational leadership and how it affects such teams)

* What do I do now? (Let us talk about your issues and find some patterns that might help you deal with it)

* Kaizen (How can you continually improve and thus shape Scrum without breaking its principles)

The outline looks very useful but I can't personally vouch for the course since I don't know the presenters particularly well,. If you are interested in attending then contact me and I'll see what I can arrange.

Clarke

James Watt wasn't the only AgileThinker in Scotland ...

2008-07-30T18:36:00.001+01:00

Hi everyone,

Some of you may know that I run a website called AgileThinkers.com where I interview Agile Thinkers from around the world. I've got some big names there already but I'm about to add a new "James Watt" category which focuses on Scottish success stories. If you're a foodie then you might think of Rick Stein's Food Heroes TV show. If you're a top gear fan then it's a tiny little bit like the Star in a reasonably priced car segment.

I have a few local folk signed up already but I don't know everyone in Scotland so if you can think of a good Scottish Agile success story, that can be talked about in public (even if the company can't be named) then can you send me a note and I'll do the rest.

thanks!
Clarke

AgileScotland - July - FIT for data - Adrian Mowat

2008-07-24T16:39:00.001+01:00

I've got a few spots left for Adrians session this coming Monday (28th). Contact me if you'd like to come along.

Clarke

The tools and techniques needed to do Test Driven Development are extremely well documented for Object Oriented languages, but how do we do TDD data management and business intelligence projects using 4th generation ETL languages like Ab Initio?

In this talk, I will show you how to do TDD when transforming data is the sole aim of the project. The talk will be divided into two parts. First, the theory of TDD in data management applications and, second, the application of the practices using FIT4Data.

FIT4Data is a testing framework for data management applications built on the Java implementation of FIT. It allows developers to write FIT-like tests using the programming language of their choice. This is essential in the ETL domain where the key technical skills are UNIX scripting and the ETL language used on the project and most developers do not know Java (or any other OO language) so they are not equipped to write fixtures in the usual fashion. Furthermore, FIT4Data provides direct support for common ETL tasks like integrating with a UNIX shell environment and maintaining reusable data sets.

FIT4Data is available to download at it's home on Google Code -http://code.google.com/p/fit4data

In the first part, I explain how to break a typical set of customer requirements an business rules down into chunks suitable for TDD and then how to define testable scenarios around them. In the second part, I will show how to use FIT4Data to build and run the tests and build the application using TDD using practical examples.

Once again Napier University have kindly provided us with a meeting room in Central Edinburgh.

AgileScotland: Aberdeen University offers Master's course in Software PM, with Agile

2008-07-06T15:15:00.000+01:00

The University of Aberdeen has recently announced their new Master of Science Degree Software Project Management. It's a part-time and distance programme "devised by software professionals and industry-oriented academics to support the needs of software professionals in the wider industry sector worldwide".

* this is an international, online course, so please pass this note on to any one you think might be interested *

I'm THRILLED to say that the course contains considerable Agile content as well as the more traditional (and often just as important) approaches. I'm delighted that Aberdeen University has the foresight to do this because (as far as I know) this is one of the few master's level course to include Agile PM. [I'm even more delighted because they're using some of my material - from my book and training - in the course.]

I asked Dr Bruce Scharlau a few questions about the course:

q: Who'll get the most out of this course? Is it only available to people in Scotland or the UK?

The course is part-time, so is aimed at those who want to do it alongside their 'day job'. The course is also entirely on-line, which means you can be anywhere with an internet connection, and do the courses on the programme. We hope to have students from around the world taking part. This will enable all of the students to gain from insights of each other and to exchange software project experiences with each other.

The students who will get the most out of the course will be those who have some work experience, which they can bring to their studies; people, who have been on software projects in the past, and can bring what they experienced and learned in those situations to the coursework. However, this does not mean that you have to have been employed directly on a project, but that you have experience as a contracted developer, or maybe as a consultant on projects. We also expect to have a few students who have just graduated and have so far only seen the technical side of software development, and want to do this alongside their first job, or while they keep hunting for their first job.

Q: Why a new course? Aren't there enough out there already? What's different about this one?

We wanted to develop a new MSc programme because we felt that this was an overlooked area in project management in general. The College of Physical Sciences has been running a successful general part-time project management programme that leads to an MSc for a number of years now, and we felt that this would be a good time to build on that experience and develop a specialist software development version, because software development does have its unique qualities. We also discovered that there do not appear to be many other programmes offering this type of material to this depth.

Our programme will be different for a number of reasons. First, we offer it as distance learning on a part-time basis. It is assumed that students will do one course per term, and do two courses in a year. This means it will take three years to get an MSc, but students could stop at any time, and receive appropriate credit towards a post-graduate certificate, or post-graduate diploma depending upon how many courses they have successfully completed.
Second, we will be covering and discussing traditional software project management approaches such as are associated with the waterfall methodology and its associated methods for estimating project size, scope and duration, as well as the agile approaches to the mangement of the project that revolve around its different methods for estimating size, scope and how many iterations there will be before the project ends. The agile approaches are still infrequently mentioned in the software development books students see, yet are being successfully deployed by companies large and small to successfully develop software for companies.

Q. What would I learn if I did this course that I couldn't get from doing, say, an MBA?

An MBA provides you with management skills, and good financial skills, however, an MBA is not generally tailored to a specific industry. It is this particular aspect: the tailoring of the programme to the software industry that we will provide, that you will not find in an MBA programme.

Q: How's it work if I don't live in Aberdeen?

The programme works the same where ever you are. Once you register with the programme, then you are given a username and password to get you into the programme website. There you will find the course materials and facilities for you to discuss coursework and chat with other students, as well as with the different course leaders. Each section and block of material for a course will have some parts that are done individually, and then the solutions discussed in online forums with other students, so this site provides the tools for that. Given that we can't all meet at once, we'll end up with a good variety of discussion forums to cope with people in different timezones and with different work routines.

It is this discussion aspect of the programme that I think will really bring out the diverse experience of the students, and let them see different ways of working, and help them to be better project managers. Most people work with a few companies during their working career, so only have that much breadth of experience. A programme like this, however, lets the students do two things. First, it provides them a wider breadth of experience based on what other companies are doing in the same way that people gain experience through stories with colleagues around the water-cooler, so that they know how different situations can be handled. Second, it will provide them with new friends, who they can use as sounding boards for ideas and possible solutions during the programme, and afterwards. I know for experience on our advanced computer science MSc that some of those students went on to found their own companies, and that others have all stayed in close touch for many years following their time together. It wouldn't surprise me if we didn't end up with similar sorts of stories for this one too, even though it is 'distance learning'.

AgileScotland July

2008-07-03T13:50:00.001+01:00

Hi everyone,

Three things. Two for you ... one for me.

1. I'm ready to take"bookings" Adrian's Mowat's Agile2008 session, on the 28th of July. It is a far more detailed and technical version of his Fit4Data session earlier this year.

The tools and techniques needed to do Test Driven Development are extremely well documented for Object Oriented languages, but how do we do TDD data management and business intelligence projects using 4th generation ETL languages like Ab Initio?

In this talk, I will show you how to do TDD when transforming data is the sole aim of the project. The talk will be divided into two parts. First, the theory of TDD in data management applications and, second, the application of the practices using FIT4Data.

FIT4Data is a testing framework for data management applications built on the Java implementation of FIT. It allows developers to write FIT-like tests using the programming language of their choice. This is essential in the ETL domain where the key technical skills are UNIX scripting and the ETL language used on the project and most developers do not know Java (or any other OO language) so they are not equipped to write fixtures in the usual fashion. Furthermore, FIT4Data provides direct support for common ETL tasks like integrating with a UNIX shell environment and maintaining reusable data sets.

FIT4Data is available to download at it's home on Google Code -http://code.google.com/p/fit4data

In the first part, I explain how to break a typical set of customer requirements an business rules down into chunks suitable for TDD and then how to define testable scenarios around them. In the second part, I will show how to use FIT4Data to build and run the tests and build the application using TDD using practical examples.

Once again Napier University have kindly provided us with a meeting room in Central Edinburgh.

If you are interested in this sessionthen please email me to book a place: Clarke.Ching@spiceUpIT.com. Adrian really knows his stuff and not a lot of folk are working in this area.

2. I'd like to do August's meeting a little differently. Rather than having 1 speaker presenting for 90 minutes or so ... I'm looking for 2, 3 or 4 speakers/presenters/volunteers who can each run a 20, 30, or 40 minute session. The session will be in late August, the topics are open ... you might do a demo, you might do an experience report, you might do how to, a why to, or a why not to... Interested? Email me.

3. I have a CV here for an experienced Agile (and more traditional) Project Manager who is looking for short-term contract work. Truth be told ... it's actually me - I'm nearly at the end of the first professional rewrite of my book (I'm currently adding the sex scenes in) and I'm nearly at the end of my savings. If you know of anyone who is looking for a competent PM (Agile or otherwise), on a short-term contract basis, in Scotland, then please get in touch. To be even more truthful ... I'm also a very versatile business/systems/data analyst too ... I'd appreciate any suggestions ...

Thanks!
Clarke

Agile basics course ... and XP boot camp?

2008-06-18T17:09:00.001+01:00

Hi everyone,

I hope your summer is off to a nice start! My parents are visiting from New Zealand and they think Scotland is just stunning. They've not once complained about the weather ...

A couple of things:

1) I have only 2 spots left on next Thursday's "Agile Basics" course. If you are interested then please contact me urgently.

2) Would you be interested in a multi-day XP-boot-camp, run by genuine XP coaching experts, right here in Scotland?

It would cost substantially less than if it were put on by a commerical training company but it won't be dirt cheap - (you'd have to think of it as an investment). At the moment I'm just trying to find out if there is enough interest to make this viable, so please send me a note if you think its worthwhile exploring further. If I get enough interest then I'll see what I can do.

Clarke

clarke.ching@spiceupIT.com

Re: AgileScotland workshop - Getting the Agile Basics Right

2008-06-04T16:52:00.001+01:00

Hi everyone,

Just to confirm: I've had now had enough "early bird" bookings to cover my minimum numbers, so I can happily confirm that the course will go ahead in Edinburgh on Thursday the 26th of June. I've had some interest in a seperate Glasgow event ... can you send me a note if that specifically interests you.

Clarke

On Fri, May 30, 2008 at 9:53 AM, agile scotland <agile.scotland@gmail.com> wrote:

Hi everyone,

I'm am running a 1-day "Get the Agile Basics Right" workshop in late June. This is Agile for everyday people - no rocket scientists need apply.

The course is designed specifically for people/organisations who:

are considering adopting Agile for the first time (or are joining an established agile team),

have recently adopted Agile but still have unanswered questions, or,

have been doing Agile for a while but are struggling.

It is a "get the basics right" course and is suitable for anyone working on or with software development projects - you'll find it valuable if you are a customer, analyst, tester, developer, designer, manager or "other". It doesn't matter what technology you work with, your seniority, or what type of organisation you work for. My only criteria is that you have to have been successfully working in - or with - software development for at least one year.

You will learn:
- Why the old ways don't work so well, no matter how hard you try, where we went wrong, and who's to blame.
- Why and how agile works.
- How to use Agile to make loads more money, deliver projects on time, "wow!" your customers, and make your workplace much happier.
- How to plan an Agile project without getting too stressed about it.
- How to execute an agile project.

We will also briefly cover more advanced topics, including,
- "Agile in the Large" which is how to apply agile thinking to multi-project environments
- Agile techniques for maintenance/support teams.
- How to get your customers involved and committed.

We will also spend some time covering the principles of Test Driven Development (TDD) but in a very effective and non-technical way.

In case you don't know much about me: My name is Clarke Ching. I've been running AgileScotland in my spare time for about 4years now. In my day job I am an Agile/TOC consultant. The "Pragmatic Programmers" are publishing my business novel "Rolling Rocks Downhill" in 2-3 months time. RRD tells the story of a senior IT manager who discovers Agile using Theory of Constraints, Lean and Quality thinking. Strangely, although he figures out how to do Agile on individual projects, how to sell it, and how to apply the same principles to multi-project environments, he never actually uses the word Agile. If you've read Goldratt's book "The Goal" then this is the same as that - it uses the same principles, even - but it is set in commercial software development, not manufacturing.

I've done variations of this course (in house) for my clients many times over the last few years and the feedback has always been very, very positive. I've helped folk who are (sensibly) cynical about agile to understand why it works (not just how) and how to use the agile principles to get better, quickly and easily. I've even had feedback from a few agile converts who have told me, after the course, that they've "finally got it".

The course only costs £300 per person (+VAT), including lunch, etc and will be based in central Edinburgh. If you prefer Glasgow, Dundee or Aberdeen then please let me know and if it's feasible then I will run local courses.

If you are interested (even if you're not ready to commit) then please send me an email - clarke.ching@spiceUpIT.com. I'll give a 20% "early bird" discount to anyone who registers interest within the next week (it makes my planning far, far easier).

Oh, and please forward this note on to any friends or colleagues who you think may be interested :)

thanks,
Clarke Ching
www.clarkeching.com
+44(0)7920114893

AgileScotland: Three Scottish Agile2008 sessions AND JUNE MEETING

2008-06-02T14:33:00.001+01:00

Good news! Adrian Mowat, Graeme Thomas and I (three AgileScotlanders) have each had sessions accepted at Agile2008 - THE premier international conference - to be held in Totonto in August this year. I've been shepherding sessions for the conference for the last 3 years and I've gotta tell you that the competition is fierce (but friendly) and many, many more sessions get rejected than accepted. So Yipee! for Scotland. First the Steam Engine ...

You can find out details of the three sessions here, here, and here.

Adrian and I are both going to preview our sessions at AgileScotland during the next few months.

1. I will do an informal run-through of my session Critical Chain AND Agile - best of friends on Monday the 16th of June.

I mentioned how I used Critical Chain in agile projects briefly during last months "Extrememly Profitable/Cobol" session im May, but in this session I'll go into much more detail of precisely how to use it along side Agile to deliver more work in each iteration, with less stress. You'll be able to use the technique when you get back to work. I'll also show how the agile software development parts of larger projects can easily fit into bigger Critical Chain plans (which, on any decent project include far more than just software development tasks). I'll also cover, briefly, how both agile and critical chain are almost always inadequate because they are single-project solutions which have to work in multi-project environments.

I normally do this session when I train managers to teach their teams how to plan iterations ... but it's also very useful for non-managers and for anyone working on a self-organising team.

2. Adrian's session, on the 28th of July, is a far more detailed and technical version of his Fit4Data session earlier this year:

The tools and techniques needed to do Test Driven Development are extremely well documented for Object Oriented languages, but how do we do TDD data management and business intelligence projects using 4th generation ETL languages like Ab Initio?

In this talk, I will show you how to do TDD when transforming data is the sole aim of the project. The talk will be divided into two parts. First, the theory of TDD in data management applications and, second, the application of the practices using FIT4Data.

FIT4Data is a testing framework for data management applications built on the Java implementation of FIT. It allows developers to write FIT-like tests using the programming language of their choice. This is essential in the ETL domain where the key technical skills are UNIX scripting and the ETL language used on the project and most developers do not know Java (or any other OO language) so they are not equipped to write fixtures in the usual fashion. Furthermore, FIT4Data provides direct support for common ETL tasks like integrating with a UNIX shell environment and maintaining reusable data sets.

FIT4Data is available to download at it's home on Google Code - http://code.google.com/p/fit4data

In the first part, I explain how to break a typical set of customer requirements an business rules down into chunks suitable for TDD and then how to define testable scenarios around them. In the second part, I will show how to use FIT4Data to build and run the tests and build the application using TDD using practical examples.

(I'll send an announcement re Adrian's session nearer the time.)

Once again Napier University have kindly provided us with a meeting room in Central Edinburgh.

If you are interestd in this months session (Critical Chain) then please email me to book a place: Clarke.Ching@spiceUpIT.com.

Clarke

AgileScotland workshop - Getting the Agile Basics Right

2008-05-30T09:53:00.001+01:00

Hi everyone,

I'm am running a 1-day "Get the Agile Basics Right" workshop in late June. This is Agile for everyday people - no rocket scientists need apply.

The course is designed specifically for people/organisations who:

are considering adopting Agile for the first time (or are joining an established agile team),
have recently adopted Agile but still have unanswered questions, or,
have been doing Agile for a while but are struggling.

It is a "get the basics right" course and is suitable for anyone working on or with software development projects - you'll find it valuable if you are a customer, analyst, tester, developer, designer, manager or "other". It doesn't matter what technology you work with, your seniority, or what type of organisation you work for. My only criteria is that you have to have been successfully working in - or with - software development for at least one year.

You will learn:
- Why the old ways don't work so well, no matter how hard you try, where we went wrong, and who's to blame.
- Why and how agile works.
- How to use Agile to make loads more money, deliver projects on time, "wow!" your customers, and make your workplace much happier.
- How to plan an Agile project without getting too stressed about it.
- How to execute an agile project.

We will also briefly cover more advanced topics, including,
- "Agile in the Large" which is how to apply agile thinking to multi-project environments
- Agile techniques for maintenance/support teams.
- How to get your customers involved and committed.

We will also spend some time covering the principles of Test Driven Development (TDD) but in a very effective and non-technical way.

In case you don't know much about me: My name is Clarke Ching. I've been running AgileScotland in my spare time for about 4years now. In my day job I am an Agile/TOC consultant. The "Pragmatic Programmers" are publishing my business novel "Rolling Rocks Downhill" in 2-3 months time. RRD tells the story of a senior IT manager who discovers Agile using Theory of Constraints, Lean and Quality thinking. Strangely, although he figures out how to do Agile on individual projects, how to sell it, and how to apply the same principles to multi-project environments, he never actually uses the word Agile. If you've read Goldratt's book "The Goal" then this is the same as that - it uses the same principles, even - but it is set in commercial software development, not manufacturing.

I've done variations of this course (in house) for my clients many times over the last few years and the feedback has always been very, very positive. I've helped folk who are (sensibly) cynical about agile to understand why it works (not just how) and how to use the agile principles to get better, quickly and easily. I've even had feedback from a few agile converts who have told me, after the course, that they've "finally got it".

The course only costs £300 per person (+VAT), including lunch, etc and will be based in central Edinburgh. If you prefer Glasgow, Dundee or Aberdeen then please let me know and if it's feasible then I will run local courses.

If you are interested (even if you're not ready to commit) then please send me an email - clarke.ching@spiceUpIT.com. I'll give a 20% "early bird" discount to anyone who registers interest within the next week (it makes my planning far, far easier).

Oh, and please forward this note on to any friends or colleagues who you think may be interested :)

thanks,
Clarke Ching
www.clarkeching.com
+44(0)7920114893

AgileScotland - update - EverydayAgile - Using agile to make LOADS more money in everyday businesses

2008-05-15T13:46:00.001+01:00

Hi everyone,

My apologies for two emails in two days.

Sorry, but I can't take any more bookings for this public workshop. I'll try to run it near the end of the year - send me an email to clarke.ching@spiceupit.com if you'd like me to keep you updated.

Thanks!

Clarke

AgileScotland: Something special for C# programmers - Jean-Paul Boodhoo's Nothin' But .NET in Scotland ?

2008-05-14T19:07:00.001+01:00

AgileScotlander ... Mark Capaldi has a brilliant idea which will interest C# programmers. Can you please forward this on to any friends and colleagues who might be interested?

Oh and while we're at it 2 other things:

1. If you have an brilliant ideas that might interest AgileScoltlander's then send me an email and I'll see how I can help ...

2. Adrian Mowat and I are both presenting sessions at Agile2008 in Toronto this August. We're planning on giving a special preview to y'all before then. I'm wondering if we could make an afternoon of it ... if you have a story to share then please contact me?

Clarke

Mark writes:

I was wondering if you could do me a favour. I am trying to reach as many C# developers in Scotland as possible to gauge interest in Jean-Paul Boodhoo's Nothin' But .NET training course being run in Scotland. Could I ask you to post this mail to the Agile Scotland blog for the attention of any C# developers?

I would describe Jean-Paul as a rockstar developer but, more than that, he is just simply an inspirational person to be around. I would recommend that anyone who cares about the quality of the C# code they produce should attend this course. I have no doubt that it will change their life as it did mine.

I was lucky enough to attend Nothin' But .NET in London last year and it completely blew me away. Completely. I didn't realize what I was missing out on. The course made me reassess my own abilities and skillset and made me realise how little I actually understood about the C# and .NET environment. I made a commitment to go back to basics, rebuild my skillset and to attend the course in 12-18 months to measure my improvement in that time span.

I've been chatting with Jean-Paul and he'd be interested in running his famous Nothin' But .NET training course in Scotland. He has asked me to try and get a feel for the level of interest.

You can find more information about the course can be found at the following links:

http://www.jpboodhoo.com/blog/NothinButNetVancouverBCJune23rd27thCoastPlazaHotelAndSuites.aspx

http://www.jpboodhoo.com/blog/WhatDoIGetFromIt.aspx

For those that don't know of JP Boodhoo his bio on the Jetbrains Acedemy site (http://www.jetbrains.com/devnet/whos/Jean_Paul_Boodhoo.html ) states:

"Jean-Paul runs the successful Nothin' But .NET set of training courses, travelling the world and helping teams realize success through the adoption and application of agile practices. He has written articles for Visual Studio magazine, DevX, CoDe, MSDN, and keeps a blog at http://www.jpboodhoo.com/blog. Jean-Paul also made a wonderful series of screencasts on DNRTv titled, Demystifying Design Patterns. Currently, he's back working in the Smart Client realm on a C# 3.5 project."

At the moment I am simply trying to get an idea of the level of interest for running this course in Scotland. Can I ask that anyone who thinks they might be interested in attending should drop me a quick email at mark.capaldi+nbdn@gmail.com ? I should point out that JP only seems to do one course in Europe per year so, if it were to run in Scotland, it probably wouldn't be until 2009. But it's worth the wait!

Please pass this on to any C# developers you know.

AgileScotland workshop: Everyday Agile - Using agile to make LOADS more money in everyday businesses

2008-05-07T15:32:00.001+01:00

Hi everyone,

Later this month I will run a 2 day "Agile" workshop in Edinburgh for the owners and managers of everyday software-development organisations.

Note: this is about the business side of agile – selling* and delivering custom-built software for profit - it is not a technical course.

If you know of anyone who might be interested in this workshop then can you please forward it on to them?

Thanks,

Clarke

* I will be running a version fo this course which has been designed specifically for IT departments later in the summer.

Everyday Agile: Using agile to make LOADS more money in everyday businesses

Course Summary: How everyday businesses, using everyday technology, employing everyday staff, can deliver LOADS more software development projects and make LOADS more money by doing just-enough agile.

This course is for anyone who currently develops software successfully using the old ways ... but want to do it LOADS better.

I've designed this course for people who are missing out on the benefits of Agile because they think it is too hard or that it won't work in their organisation. It really bothers me that as Agile keeps getting better and better, it also keeps getting bigger and bigger. This is great news if you're a practitioner, but if you're new to Agile, evaluating it, then it looks complicated, confusing and daunting. It looks like you need to employ rocket scientists but you don't.

A lot of businesses miss out because agile looks far harder than it needs to.

This course is an easy introduction to Agile where the goal of the course is to get you profiting from agile quickly. You'll soon be delivering better quality software projects, in far less time and delighting your customers too.

Selling Agile Projects:

Most importantly: the course covers not only how to do "just enough" agile, but also how to sell it to your customers. This is important because once you start doing agile you will deliver each project in between 50% and 80% of the time it used to take you, using the same number of staff. If each project takes, say, 33% less time to deliver than before (which is likely), then you've effectively gained 50% more capacity without employing any new staff. If you want to realise the full benefits of Agile then you'll need to figure out how to sell that extra capacity.

The problem is that you don't (or shouldn't) sell agile projects in the same way as you normally do. Agile is better for your customers - they'll get the software they want (not what they asked for) it'll be better quality, and they'll get it far sooner - but you'll have to sell it to them differently. Why?

First, you're producing software which is worth more to them than what you are currently delivering but … it costs you less for your to produce it (because it takes considerably less man-days per project). If you currently sell on a daily rate basis and continue to do so then you'll make less money per project. You may choose to lower your prices and risk a price war … or you may chose to sell your projects based on the improved value to your customer, not your cost. You'll discover during the course that the Agile model comes pre-built with a very effective means of avoiding most price objections. We will adapt your current offer further (using the SPIN Selling model) so you sells the benefits of your new approach at higher margins.

Second, in order for your customers to get the most value from you, you'll have to teach them to work with you COLLABORATIVELY, rather than contractually (or even adversarially). You need to create the collaborative working relationship during the sales negotiations, not after.

We will cover both of these aspects - probably the hardest, and most overlooked, parts of any agile implementation - during the workshop.

Introducing EverydayAgile:

For the last 4 years I've been developing a simplified version of Agile which works anywhere. It's the Agile I write about - but don't name - in my book. I call it EverydayAgile because it is specifically designed for everyday people who work in everyday organisations. It is entirely technology agnostic - I've used it with COBOL and with JAVA, for instance, and the principles are identical. I've taken the 20% of Agile practices which gives you 80% of the (financial and social) results, revved them up with Lean and Theory of Constraints practices and packaged them up to give a very fast, yet simple, version of Agile which works anywhere.

So, you get yourself running with EverydayAGile and then once things are running smoothly you'll be in a good position to start experimenting with some of the more technical agile practices. You'll continue to get better and more profitable.

After attending the workshop you will be ready to:

Explain both the business and the technical aspects of Agile software development to your colleagues, including why it is way more profitable for your business and for your customers and why it is more enjoyable for your development team.
Sell your first EverydayAgile project to one of your customers using the compelling offer you prepared during the course;
Deliver your first EverydayAgile project, using the approach taught in the course.

Making Agile stick: the money side

Earlier this year a colleague and I did a "therapy" session with a small software development company where the technical staff were slowly bankrupting their company in the name of technical "agile" perfection. They were following all the rules they'd read about in some agile book but they couldn't produce code that was technically pure enough for them to ship. The owner of the business was devastated because he couldn't invoice, his customers were leaving him and he didn't know how he was going to pay his staff their wages. I imagine the author of the agile book would have been horrified.

If you go down the agile road then you've got to make it a blatant financial success in order for it to stick.

Here's the example (which I've tried to make as simple, fair and representative as possible but I don't know your numbers. Why don't you try it with your own numbers? What kind of productivity improvement would you need to achieve to double your profits?)

Imagine a small software development company which pays their development staff £300,000 a year, has £75,000 in other costs, and earns £500,000. What's their profit? £125,000. Now imagine that this company found a way of preventing expensive rework – i.e. by using agile – which meant that they finish every project in two-thirds of the time they normally take. If you've seen agile in action then you'll know that this is a reasonable saving and many projects will finish sooner. How does this affect their profits?

If each project takes only two-thirds of the previous effort then that amounts to a … 50% increase in capacity. Does that surprise you? It surprised me when I first figured it out a few years ago – I still double check the numbers. This company can now do 18 months worth of projects in a year. That's not bad. Now let's say they keep their prices the same (their sales folk need a kick in the butt for not figuring out how to charge more – we'll cover this in the course) and they managed to sell half of the new found capacity. That is another £125,000 cash flowing into their bank accounts and their new annual revenue figure is £625,000.

But what's happened to their profits? Their costs haven't changed (let's assume they didn't need to hire another sales person to sell the extra capacity) so their annual profit has risen to £250,000 (£625,000 - £375, 000). That's double their previous profit of £125,000. (And they still have a lot of spare capacity left to do even better.)

They could also have doubled their profits if they finished their projects in 80% of the time and sold all of the extra 25% capacity that generated. All but the most negligently run agile projects can achieve that.

Details

The course will be held in Edinburgh City Centre on the 27th and 28th of May and it will be limited to the first 8 people who sign-up. It is specifically aimed at businesses which develop custom code for external customers*. The 2 day course costs £800+vat for the first person from each company (i.e. well less than 3 days worth of contract Java code) and £700+vat each for the second and third. If, after the first morning, you decide that it's not going to work for you then feel free to head back to the office and I will happily refund your fees in full.

Email me at clarke.ching@spiceUpIT.com if you'd like to know more.

If you know of anyone who might be interested in this workshop but isn't already making more money from "agile" then can you please forward it on to them?

Clarke Ching

079 2011 4893

* I will be running a different course for IT departments later in the summer.

Can you help a local Doctorial student?

2008-05-05T18:46:00.001+01:00

Last week I had lunch with Lisa Lui, a bright and enthusiastic doctorial student at a Glasgow university. She is about to kick off the research phase of her doctorate which concerns the effect that Agile methods have on risk management.

As part of her preparation Lisa would love to get some hands on time - days, weeks, perhaps even months - working with a Scottish based Agile team. She says she'll do it for free ... but I reckon it'd be cool if there were some way that she could earn a little money - you remember what it's like to be a student. She's versatile, but, admits that she has little industrial experience. She does teach other students how to code and how to design databases.

If you are a Scotland based Agile Manager, or work for one, can you help Lisa?
Do you know someone who might be able to help?

Email me: Clarke.Ching@gmail.com if you think you can help out - even if it is just to have a coffee with Lisa.

Thanks!

AgileScotland - “Extremely Profitable Programming with COBOL" - by Clarke Ching, Edinburgh, 12th of May, 2008.

2008-04-22T16:13:00.001+01:00

Hi everyone,

Last year I managed a very successful Agile project, despite far from ideal circumstances.

I want to share this story with you at the next Agile Scotland meeting because it shows how Agile can be used in everyday organisations, by everyday people, working on everyday technology to do better business.

On the first day of the project, I met with our project's key customer - a senior manager with one of the UK's largest companies - he said to me, "I don't know you Clarke, but we simply don't trust your client. We've had too many bad expereinces". Fortunately, my client had warned me to expect this and, in fact, my "promise" to them was specifically to "rebuild trust with their customer". Three months later, mid-way through the project, they flew some of their experts down to visit us, to find out how we'd achieved such a turnaround. A few days later we discovered – and fixed - our first defect. By the end of the project we had rebuilt trust considerably, we'd profitably delivered the project as promised, and in doing so the customer made tens-of-millions of pounds in extra profit. However, we very nearly screwed up the whole thing right near the end – I'll tell you all about that on the night.

The project was a success despite doing many things which some niave but enthusiastic agilists say cannot or should not be done in "agile" projects. For instance:

My team were working on an old legacy system made up of COBOL, ancient Oracle and rubber-bands;
Our customer consisted of around 50 people spread across five sites, based in three countries.
We promised (and then delivered) to an aggressive, fixed-scope, fixed-price, fixed-date contract.

I'll repeat it: I want to share this story with you all because it shows how Agile can be done in everyday organisations by everyday people working on everyday technology. This project finished in 6 months - it would have taken between 10 and 14 months, if done the "old" way. That delay would have cost my client the contract and it would have cost their customer tens-of-millions of pounds in profit. Agile, Theory of Constraints and good-old-fashioned project-management did that.

In this session I'll share a few of the "secrets" (things you don't read about in the currently published agile books) which saved the project, such as:

How to use fear, intimidation and genuine concern to force your customer to collaborate so that they can be successful (I am serious about this: this project would have failed if I hadn't spoken one very calculated, very sincere, sentence just at the right time);
How to build trust with your team by being lazy and getting them to do your job;
How to do TDD with COBOL;
And (as a special bonus!) I'll share with you the one rule we used to deliver more work in each iteration than anyone had ever thought possible. Seriously.

At the risk of sounding like an infomerical …

... But wait, there's more! Since I'm feeling rather pleased with myself about my "publishing deal" I would like to buy pizza and a few beers for everyone who comes along on the evening.

If you would like to learn some new stuff from this story then I only have 15 spots so please send me an email: Clarke.Ching@SpiceUpIT.com. We will meet in Edinburgh, starting at, 7:15 on the 12th of May, 2008.

Clarke Ching

07920114893
www.clarkeching.com

AgileScotland: Three announcements

2008-04-14T17:15:00.001+01:00

Hi everyone,

Three points:

1. Next week, Linda Rising will be giving one of her most entertaining and highly regarded talks from the Agile2006 conference. It's this coming Monday evening (21st of April) at the Apex Hotel in the Grassmarket, Edinburgh, starting at 7:15pm. Don't forget to bring along your copy of her book for signing. Please send me an email if you'd like to come along.

Linda Rising: Are Agilists the Bonobos of Software Development?

The chimpanzees and the bonobos are the animals whose genetic make-up is closest to that of human beings, but their "cultures" (and, yes, these animals definitely have well-defined cultures) are very different. The chimpanzees are aggressive, and operate in a strict, alpha-male-dominated hierarchy, while the bonobos are gentle and promiscuous! What sort of tie-could this have for those of us who favor agile development over plan-driven?

Bio
Linda Rising is an independent software consultant with a background in Mathematics and a Ph.D. in object-based design metrics. A proponent of patterns and their application in the workplace, Linda and Mary Lynn Manns are the authors of Fearless Change: Patterns for Introducing New Ideas, and editor of Design Patterns in Communications Software, The Pattern Almanac 2000, and The Patterns Handbook.

2. Congratulations to the organizers of the Scotland on Rails conference. It was very, very well attended and all of the feedback I heard was excellent. Well done for all the hard work lads!

3. Let me be immodest and congratulate myself! My business novel "Rolling Rocks Downhill - Lean and Agile software development for ordinary people with extra-ordinary ambitions" has just been accepted for publication by none other than The Pragmatic Programmers! I am very proud to join such highly esteemed company. I will share some of the ideas from my book in May's agileScotland meeting during a session titled "Extremely Profitable Programming with COBOL" - it's about an agile project I ran last year using where we saved one companies reputation and made another company tens of millions of pounds in extra profit.

[Blatant, but rare, commercialism: now that the book is under control ... I am, once again, available for short term consulting work. My focus, if you haven't already guessed, is helping ordinary people working in ordinary organisatons can use Agile, Lean and Theory of Constraints to make loads more money by pushing out more software projects, faster.]

In celebration of my "publishing deal", I'll buy pizza and beer for everyone too. More details to follow.

Thanks everyone,

Clarke Ching

www.clarkeching.com

079 2011 4893.

AgileScotland Announcement: Linda Rising details

2008-03-25T14:31:00.001Z

Hi everyone,

Here are the details from Linda Rising's course:

http://agilescotland.blogspot.com/2008/03/linda-rising-in-edinburgh-21st-of-april.html

This is a one-off chance to learn about the hardest part of software development: the "soft skills" of influence and retrospection. And, since it's here in Scotland and it only costs £200 it is remarkably good value. Don't miss out.

Please contact me at clarke.ching+linda@gmail.com if you're interested

Please, please, please forward on this email to any colleagues or friends who you think might benefit from knowing about this course. We've already had a large number of people sign up but I've booked a large venue to cope with even more.

Clarke

Linda Rising in Edinburgh - 21st of April

2008-03-25T14:20:00.001Z

We are truly spoiled here in Scotland.

Here's your one and only chance to learn how to do agile better from Linda Rising, one of the Agile word's original thinkers, right here in Scotland.

Linda will present a one day workshop on the 21st of April, in Edinburgh, covering two skills vital to the agile practitioner:

How to introduce new ideas, like agile, and make them stick, and,
How to get the most out of retrospectives by doing them properly.

Linda is a very experienced author, practitioner and teacher. It would be a shame to miss this opportunity.

Fearless Change: Introducing New Ideas

Those who attend conferences or read books and articles discover new ideas they want to implement in their organizations—but they often struggle when trying to implement those changes. And, unfortunately, those introducers of change are not always welcomed with open arms. Linda Rising provides you with proven change management strategies to help you become a more successful agent of change in your organization. Learn what forces in your organization drive or slow change, and how to plant the seeds of change for buy-in and participation—from start to finish. One of the best things about these approaches is that you can use them on yourself to become more effective. Bring your organizational and personal change challenges and learn how these patterns can help you. Linda will discuss these and many other lessons as documented in the pattern language in her book (with Mary Lynn Manns), Fearless Change: Patterns for Introducing New Ideas.

Join Linda to learn how to overcome adversity to change and to celebrate your improvement successes and your organization’s new found practices.

Project Retrospectives

Project Retrospectives are an important part of any software development process. For those who are pursuing Agile development, the Principles Behind the Agile Manifesto states that, “At regular intervals, the team reflects on how to become more effective, then tunes and adjusts its behaviour accordingly.” How can this be done? By taking the time to reflect and learn and proactively determine what should be done differently in the next iteration, release, or project. Linda’s presentation will introduce techniques for project retrospectives, whether they are “agile” or not. The techniques help teams discover what they’re doing well so that successful practices can continue and identify what should be done differently to improve performance. Retrospectives are not finger pointing or blaming sessions, but rather a highly effective process in which teams reflect on the past in order to become more effective in the future. Linda will share her experiences with leading retrospectives of several kinds for dozens of projects—successful and unsuccessful, small and large, in academia and industry.

Linda's lessons learned can be applied to any project to enable teams and organizations to become learning organizations.

Who is Linda?

Linda Rising has a Ph.D. from Arizona State University in the field of object-based design metrics and a background, which includes university teaching and industry work in telecommunications, avionics, and strategic weapons systems. An internationally known presenter on topics related to patterns, retrospectives, and the change process, Linda is the author of numerous articles and four books Design Patterns in Communications, The Pattern Almanac 2000, A Patterns Handbook, and Fearless Change: Patterns for Introducing New Ideas, written with Mary Lynn Manns. Find out more about Linda at www.lindarising.org

Details

The training will take place in Edinburgh City Centre on Monday the 21st of April, starting at 9:30 running to 4:30ish.

Because I'm doing all the admin etc for free and because you are paying for your own lunches, the course only costs £200 all up, payable directly to Linda on the day.

Don't forget to bring your copy of Fearless Change along with you and get it signed.

We will end the day with an evening AgileScotland session

If you want to sign up for a position, please email me clarke.ching+linda@gmail.com and I will add you to the list. (If you've already expressed interest then I will email you shortly to confirm details.)

Clarke Ching

079 2011 4893

[AgileScotland] Introducing RollingRocksDownhill ... last chance for free download.

2008-03-20T16:00:00.001Z

Hi everyone,

I guess that most of you know that for the last 3.5 years I've been working on a business novel about the use of Agile, Lean and Constraints Management in software development.

Well ... yesterday I finally sent it my manuscript off to my copy editors.

It's called "RollingRocksDownhill 1.0 - Agile and Lean software development for ordinary people with extra-ordinary ambitions". If you've read Golratt's "The Goal", well it's just like that, only without the gratuitous sex scenes. I should have it back in a month and just a few weeks after that I should have it on paper.

I've learned an awful lot during my time with AgileScotland, so as my way of saying thank you, I'd like to offer you all the chance to download - for free - a pdf copy of the book. It is still in its pre-copy-edited state which means that it's readable, it's useful, but it still has a typo's etc. Some of the content will change a little, following the edit, but not much. It also has a few swear words.

If you would like a copy then forward this email to my books hero - Steve.Abernethy@CCXCO.com - and I (not Steve, he doesn't exist) will send you a link to the pdf. You are welcome to send the book to any friends or colleagues too. I expect that this will be your last chance to get your hands on the book for free.

thanks everyone,

Clarke

--
Clarke Ching
www.clarkeching.com
+44(0)7920114893

[AgileScotland] Two things - Linda Rising Course confirmed & ScotlandOnRails

2008-03-20T15:43:00.001Z

Hi everyone,

I've been very busy lately (you'll see why in a few minutes) so I apologise for not sending this note out earlier.

Two things:

1) The training day with Linda Rising on the 21st of April is going ahead. It will cost £200, payable to Linda on the day, and will be in central Edinburgh. I'll post a fuller description out early next week. Thanks to everyone who has already signed up - it makes my life an so much easier when booking venues etc!

2) The ScotlandOnRails conference guys have had more people sign up than they ever dreamed of, but luckily they're an ambitious lot and have a decent sized venue ... so, they can handle a few more bookings. If you've still not bookend then scroll down ...

Clarke

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Paul Wilson <paul.wilson@merecomplexities.com>
Date: Sat, Mar 15, 2008 at 10:13 PM
Subject: [AgileScotland] Scotland on Rails Conference and Charity Tutorial
To: AgileScotland@yahoogroups.com

On 27 Feb 2008, at 13:37, Paul Cowan wrote:
> Where can I enrol for the beginners course?
>

In advance of the Scotland on Rails Conference, we are holding a
Charity Tutorial on the day before the conference - Thursday 3
April. This is a chance to both give people new to Ruby and/or Rails
a kick-start in the language and framework prior to the conference,
and raise some money for a very worthwhile cause - the Childrens
Hospice Association Scotland ( http://www.chas.org.uk/ ).

It's also a chance to be taught by, and get tips and tricks from,
some of top international Ruby and Rails developers. For instance,
if you've done any Rails (or Ruby) you're almost certain to have used
the Ruby build tool, Rake, and there's a good chance you've used
Flexmock too - Jim Weirich, the author of both those tools, is one
of the tutors.

While aimed at conference attendees, the tutorial is open to all.
All you need to do is donate at least £75 to CHAS at this URL

http://justgiving.com/scotlandonrails

The tutorial is being held in Edinburgh University's Pollock Halls
complex on 3 April. Details are here:

http://scotlandonrails.com/tutorial

BTW, there's still a few places left at the conference proper. If
you want to hear about the future of Ruby and Rails from some of the
thought-leaders in the community - including Rails on the Java
Virtual Machine from the core of Sun's JRuby team - now's probably
the time to get your registration in at

http://scotlandonrails.com/register

----
Paul Wilson
http://merecomplexities.com

Scotland's first Ruby on Rails Conference
4 - 5 April 2008
http://scotlandonrails.com

------------------------------------

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Agile Scotland - - Announcing the first ScotlandOnRails conference (and special discount.)

2008-02-27T13:26:00.000Z

I must confess that, these days, I struggle with recording macros in microsoft word, so I really struggled to understand what the big deal with Ruby on Rails is. A friend who is good at "explaining things so that even consultants can understand it", as he put it, told me that "you get loads more working software, for loads less typing". I took that to mean that it made developers more productive ... he said, yes... but, more important than that, developers just really like using it.

So if you're a developer and you want to enjoy your job more or if you are a manager who wants a big productivity boost then pop over to http://scotlandonrails.com/ and register for the ScotlandOnRails conference this April. It is, frankly, dirt cheap and world class. Paul Wilson, one of the organisers has forwarded on the invite below. If you scroll down to the bottom where there's a special discount code for agilescotlanders (or anyone, I guess who reads this) - but it only applies up to this monday, so be very quick.

[BTW: There is also a special beginners course for people new to Ruby on Rails. I checked on the website and you can go along for a minimum donation of £75 to The Childrens Hospice Association Scotland. If you can't attend the conference but you'd like to go to the tutorial then email me and I'll put you in touch with Paul who will put you on a "stand by" list in case they have any empty seats left. I haven't actually asked Paul about this, so I can't promise anything - but it'd be a pity to waste any empty seats.]

I apologise for the long note - I hope it hasn't put you off - but this is a really important opportunity for all of us, and I'd hate for you to miss it for the sake of less than 200 quid.

Clarke Ching

07920114893

www.clarkeching.com

ScotlandOnRails - Ruby on Rails in Scotland - April 2008

Don't miss the this rare opportunity to learn about Ruby on Rails from the thought-leaders* of the Rails community - right on your door step in Scotland and for less than £200**. This April, Scotland on Rails hosts the UK's only Rails dedicated conference right here in Edinburgh***, with top speakers from the US and Europe.

Ruby on Rails has taken off. It is gaining popularity not-only with indie web developers, but is rapidly infiltrating the Fortune 400. Here's your chance to learn from some of the best Ruby on Rails thinkers and doers in the world. Sessions range from the cutting- edge to Rails adoption experience-reports to Behaviour and Test Driven Development in Rails.

Don't get left behind. Register now at http://scotlandonrails.com/.

Special Tutorial for "newbies": If you're new to Rails or eager to learn more from top US and UK rails developers, there's a special pre-conference charity tutorial especially for you. All proceeds to the Children's Hospice Association Scotland. See http://scotlandonrails.com to register.

(*) Speakers include Michael Koziarski of The Rails Way and Ruby Core, Ruby Central founder David A Black, Jim Weirich responsible for Rake and FlexMock, and many more.

(**) The price will be held at £180 until 12 March

(***) Edinburgh is not only one of the most beautiful cities in the world but it is a quick trip from anywhere in Europe

P.S. There's a special Agile Scotland discount of £25 up to March 5. Just use the coupon code below while registering.

SD8NU

Linda Rising - plus ... The Forth Road Bridge - queues ...

2008-02-21T16:20:00.001Z

Hi,

Two quick things:

1) The Linda Rising course will be going ahead. Thanks to everyone who's responded. It makes my life so much easier. I'll send out more details soon.

2) Do you frequently use the Forth Road Bridge at peak time? If so can you please send me a quick note telling me if the journey across the bridge (including the long queuing time) has change noticeably since the tolls were removed? And, has the jorney once you get past where the toll bridge spot changed at all?

I've been looking on the google news but I can't find anything. I ask for "agile" reasons: in my workshops I explain how it only takes a few minutes to cross the bridge, but the total journey time for the COMMUTER is sometimes over an hour - because of the queuing time; the same situation applies, of course, for software projects - the total proejct duration for the CUSTOMER is made up of the queing time from when they initiate the project until it starts plus the time it takes to execute the project. In both cases, if you remove the bottleneck, or improve it's efficiency, the queuing time should drop drastically. This has huge financial implications.

I wonder if this is what has happened with the bridge now that the tolls are gone ... or have more people started using the bridge now that is free to cross. Please email me - clarke.ching@gmail.com - this is really important for me right now.

Thanks everyone,

Clarke

AgileScotland - extra special training opportunity - with Linda Rising.

2008-02-18T18:17:00.001Z

We are very lucky here in Scotland to be frequented by well known, internationally recognised, Agile Thinkers and Doers - e.g. Mary Poppendieck, Martin Fowler, Charlie Poole, David Anderson, Ken Schwaber ... and (hopefully) soon Linda Rising.

Linda is best known as co-author of (the excellent book) "Fearless Change - Patterns for Introducing New Ideas". She's going to be down south in Bath at the annual "retrospectives gathering" in late April and she is toying with the idea of doing some tourism while over here in Europe. I'm trying to persuade her to come to Scotland in April to do an evening session and a day's training for us. After all, I personally can't think of a nicer place to be a tourist in the UK than Scotland ...

So ... I'd like to I'd like to organise a course which will cover (in my words, not Linda's) a mixture of "how to do good agile retrospectives" and "how to influence change when change isn't necessarily welcome". These are two of Linda's specialitises and, as you will all know, two very important areas for agile practicioners.. I'll handle all of the admin for free so the course will cost no more than £200. It will be based in Edinburgh city centre, probably on the 21st of April. After attending the course you should be in a far strong position to "sell agile" and get buy in to agile from your colleages/bosses/customers and you will have learned how to make your retrospectives run smoothly and respectfully.

My problem: I'd love to get Linda here to speak to us, but it'd be really handy to have an idea of numbers before I can plan anything. Can you email me at clarke.ching@gmail.com if you're interested in attending Linda's course? I don't need a commitment from you, just a "Yes, I'll probably come along". It is remarkably good value and it'd be a shame to miss a rare opportunity like this.

Please also forward this note onto anyone else who you think might be interested.

Cheers all,

Clarke

Make the Requirements FIT - 28 Jan, Glasgow - Joining Instructions

2008-01-26T14:21:00.000Z

Here are the joining instructions for Brain Swan and Paul Wilson's presentation on getting the most out of automated acceptance testing with FIT.

Location: JP Morgan Offices, 45 Waterloo Street, Glasgow, G2 6HS.
Time: 19:30 to about 21:00. Monday 28 January.

On arrival tell the security guards that you're here for the Agile Scotland meeting.

If you are thinking of coming please email Clarke (clarke [[dot]]ching [[at]] gmail [[dot]] com) and he'll get your name added to the list.

The JP Morgan offices are close to Central Station, and a ten minute walk from Queen Street. The Edinburgh / Glasgow (Queen Street) trains run on the quarter hour until 19:00, then on the half hour until 23:30. The timetable is here.

View Larger Map

The JP Morgan offices are on the south side of Waterloo Street. Below is a picture taken from the direction of Central Station.

Fwd: BarCamp Scotland 2008 Invitation

2008-01-18T10:29:00.001Z

fyi - these BarCamp events have a very good reputation.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Renata Samulnik <r.samulnik@ed.ac.uk>
Date: Jan 18, 2008 10:21 AM
Subject: BarCamp Scotland 2008 Invitation
To: undisclosed-recipients

You are invited to the 2nd annual BarCamp Scotland, to be held in the
School of Informatics on February 2nd, and in ACE on February 1st. Last
year we had over 200 attendees from all over the Country. We encourage
you to come and participate by presenting either your projects,
research, interests or leading a discussion group. Sign up to do so the
ay of the event.

http://barcamp.org/BarCampScotland2008

*BarCamp is an ad-hoc gathering born from the desire for people to share
and learn in an open environment. It is an intense event with
discussions, demos, and interaction from attendees. Participants drive
the event. Its free & open to all. You can sign up to come along on this
page. *

<http://barcamp.org/barcampscotland>

BarCamp Scotland will be held on Saturday
the 2nd of February 2008 from 10.00 to 21.00 GMT in the Concourse of the
Appleton Tower at the School of Informatics at the University of
Edinburgh in Edinburgh, Scotland.

The night before on Friday, the 1st of February, BarCampScotland
will be launch with a cocktail party and presentations on "Digital Arts,
Sound Design and Media" in the Alison House in the School of
Architecture at the University of
Edinburgh in Edinburgh, Scotland. BarCamp Scotland will start at 18.00
on Friday and end at 21.00.

Friday night will be "Digital Arts and Media"; Saturday's theme will be
"Web 2.0, Social Networking (Facebook especially), The Intersection of
Arts and Informatics, The Intersection of Cleantech and Information
Technology, Mobile applications, Open Innnovation, Software as a
Service, Consumer robotics applications, Educational Software,
eLearning, Web 3.0 and Virtual Worlds and Environments".

Partly sponsored by the European Union through ERDF funding

Sincerely,

--
Renata Samulnik - Secretary
Level 8 - Room 8.16
Commercialisation Suite
School of Informatics
Appleton Tower
EH8 9LE
Phone: 0131 650 9992

--
Clarke Ching
www.clarkeching.com
+44(0)7920114893

AgileScotland - Make the requirements FIT - Glasgow - 28th of January.

2008-01-17T11:36:00.001Z

Hi everyone,

Last year I was very lucky to discover the joys of automating tests using FIT when the team I was managing used it to write and then automate hundreds of tests on an old Cobol and Oracle system. Although I was skeptical at first, I'd say that in the first month we automated 2 - 4 months worth of manual testing using FIT on this old legacy system. That was great from a productivity and cost perspective but the key benefit, for me as the project manager, was that we used the tests to communicate and collaborate with an extremely demanding customer and it helped us to rebuild trust with them very quickly. I really don't have the words to describe how the mood of the whole project changed, during a 15 minute session in my clients conference room, when we demonstrated the tests they'd helped prepare, running and passing, in real time.

I was profoundly impressed with what we achieved with FIT.

And then, a few weeks ago, I had lunch with Brian and Paul and discovered that - despite our success - we could, actually, have done things an aweful lot better than we do. Bummer!

If you'd like to hear why then Brian and Paul - who are two of Britian's foremost agile experts, even if they're too modest to admit it - will be giving a presentation in the JP Morgan offices in Glasgow at 7:30 on Monday the 28th of January. Please email me - clarke.ching@gmail.com - if you'd like to come along - I'll add you to the security list and email you "joining instructions".

Make the requirements FIT - by Brian Swan and Paul Wilson

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Communication and collaboration are are the heart of Agile methods. An existing tool can help you to improve both on your project, but most people don't use it that way.

That tool is FIT (http://fit.c2.com/ ). As part of this presentation you'll find out:

* when you should use FIT.

* how using FIT badly can destroy productivity.

* what the most common mistakes writing FIT documents are.

* How you can improve communication and collaboration by making FIT part of your development process.

Happy New Year to you all!

Clarke Ching

www.clarkeching.com

07920114893.

Scotland on Rails Conference - Edinburgh, April 2008

2008-01-05T11:12:00.001Z

Happy New Year to you!!!

It's not that long ago that AgileScotland hosted the Ruby on Rails course in Edinburgh with guru Chad Fowler. About 20 locals attended the course - and that was while Ruby on Rails was still considered bleeding edge.

Things have moved on a little and I'm thrilled to hear that my friends at ScotlandOnRails are hosting a Ruby on Rails conference in Edinburgh, in early April 2008.

http://www.scotlandonrails.com

So far they've got over 30 session proposals submitted but they're looking for a few more. The deadline is Sunday 20th January.

Go take a look. IThis is your chance to be involved in the leading edge of software development, right here in Scotland.

Clarke Ching

www.clarkeching.com

Agile guru David Anderson - this monday

2007-12-13T10:11:00.001Z

I still have room for about 5 more people in David Anderson's talk this coming monday. Contact me if you'd like a spot.

David will be talking about his recently experiences with Kanban software development.

David Anderson is Senior Director for Software Engineering with Corbis in Seattle, WA.

Prior to joining Corbis in September 2006, David was the architect for the MSF methodology with Microsoft, in Redmond, WA.

David started in the software business in 1982 as a games programmer writing titles for the Sinclair ZX81 in Z80 assembly language. In 1997, he joined the team which created the agile software development method known as Feature Driven Development in Singapore. David has held managerial positions at Motorola, Sprint PCS and earlier in his career with two startups in the UK – Rombo, a video imaging company – and MDi Systems, a document imaging company. In the 1980's he was a leading computer games developer with Ocean Software in the UK with over 20 titles published including the game of the Sylvester Stallone movie "Rambo". He has experience in computer games, video and document imaging, banking, telecoms, software tools and digital imaging and digital rights management industries.

He holds a degree in Electronics and Computer Science from the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, UK. His first book, "Agile Management for Software Engineering" was published in September 2003 by Prentice Hall Professional Technical Reference, Upper Saddle River, New York. He has six U.S. Patents and another five pending for his work in telecoms and the Internet. He lives in Seattle, Washington.

We'll be meeting at the SKM offices in the 160 Dundee Street building, Edinburgh, EH11 1DQ at 19:30 on Monday, December 17th. The offices are between Fountainbridge Leisure complex and the Victor Paris Bathroom Shop.

Contact me if you'd like to come along.

Clarke Ching

AgileNorth mini-conference Thursday 29th of November

2007-11-15T10:16:00.001Z

Hi everyone,

I've just been chatting with Kevin Rutherford who organises the
AgileNorth group and they still have a few spaces available for their
1-day agile conference. He has put together an excellent programme
with some top-notch speakers and presenters. It's only a day, it's
only 95 quid and it's only down the road in Manchester. I'd be there
apart from prior commitments.

You'll find more details here:
http://www.agilenorth.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=blogcategory&id=24&Itemid=43

Clarke

AgileScotlander Graeme Brown's dissertation on Distributed Agile.

2007-11-05T17:01:00.000Z

Graeme Brown has just finished his dissertation towards becoming a Master of Science in Information Systems at Napier University, here in Scotland. I and several of my friends at AgileScotland helped him with his research. I found my interview with him very useful, in fact, because his questions focused on team cohesiveness (in distributed teams) - something which - I realised during the interview - I had sacrificed in one of the two distributed teams I was working on at the time.

You can read his dissertation here: GBrown05007439MScDissertation-1.pdf

Well done Graeme. And, thanks to everyone who kindly volunteered their time to assist him.

AgileScotland heads up - December event - David J. Anderson on December 17th

2007-11-01T23:39:00.001Z

Hi everyone,

This note is an early warning that agile/lean guru David J Anderson,
author of Agile Managment for Software Engineering - Applying Theory
of Constraints for Business Results, will be our guest at
AgileScotland on Monday, December 17th.

I've not decided the location yet but please book it in your Diary NOW
- this is the week before Christmas. This is a rare opportunity to
hear from one of our communities thought leaders.

If you are interested in hearing David speak then please email me at
clarke.ching@gmail.com. I'll send out more details and a reminder
nearer the time.

Clarke Ching
www.clarkeching.com

p.s. this talk is sponsored by myself and Ali Law.

AgileScotland - Nov 12 - "Crossing New Frontiers in Agile Creating support for Agile testing in ETL and Data Warehousing" by Adrian Mowat

2007-10-31T13:14:00.001Z

Hi everyone,

And now for something a little different ... Our next meeting will be presented by Adrian Mowat an expert in using agile and lean in batch and ETL environements - he is also in the process of releasing FIT4Data, a testing framework for data-centric apps - as open source. You should enjoy this one! The meeting is in Edinburgh on Monday the 12th of November.

"Crossing New Frontiers in Agile Creating support for Agile testing in ETL and Data Warehousing" by Adrian Mowat

Synopsis: Even since the dawn of computing, companies have used batch processes (known as Extract Transform and Load (ETL) in modern terms) to crunch numbers and share critical data between systems. Many teams use specialist 4th generation languages designed for the ETL domain are used to improve developers productivity but because they are not object oriented and the challenges of working with raw data are quite different to those faced in 'conventional' software development much of the Agile literature appears irrelevant to the uninitiated ETL manager or developer.

So is it possible to do Agile on ETL projects? If it is, then how is it done and do we need to change the conventional approach in any way?

The answer is, of course, a resounding YES! Agile is a great fit for ETL projects. Armed with specialist knowledge, the ability to see the principles behind the practices and a bit of lateral thinking many Agile techniques can be applied with little or no modification. In this talk, I will discuss the factors that make ETL different, the surprising similarities between object oriented and ETL projects and, ultimately how to apply Agile to the ETL domain. By attending, you will discover a new perspective on an age old problem you may discover some tools that are useful in your own company.

Bio: Adrian Mowat believes coding should be interesting and fun and he is proud to call himself a professional software developer. He has over seven years experience building multi-terabyte data management and data warehousing applications for some of the biggest companies in the UK. Having worked as a consultant since 2003 he and a colleague co-founded M2Consortium last year and they are dedicated to furthering the development of Agile and building a world class consultancy holding respect for people and technical excellence at its core.

When are Where? We'll be meeting at the SKM offices in the 160 Dundee Street building, Edinburgh, EH11 1DQ at 19:30 on Monday, November 12th. The offices are between Fountainbridge Leisure complex and the Victor Paris Bathroom Shop.

All are welcome but can you please email me if you want to come along - clarke.ching@gmail.com

Clarke

AgileScotland - Nancy Van Schooenderwoert - 'Coming of Age' of an Agile Company

2007-10-07T14:51:00.001+01:00

Hi everyone,

This should be a good one ...

I've very pleased to announce that our next meeting will be in Edinburgh on THURSDAY October 18th.

Nancy Van Schooenderwoert - 'Coming of Age' of an Agile Company

What really happens when a company decides to go agile? What happens after the first pilot project when everyone's on their best behaviour? Like any relationship, there's a "first fight". There is a "coming to terms" with the things we cannot change. There is a realisation that this is bigger than just 'Agile'. It's not only about software anymore.It's not only about the agile teams. The needs of other departments must be addressed. If agile teams are self-organizing, what are managers supposed to be doing? This session presents stories from Nancy's experiences coaching many agile teams and their managers as part of one company's move to go agile.

Sometimes methodologies are confusing, but we all understand stories from the experiences of others who've faced the same issues we are facing. This session will present stories from actual agile teams, their managers, and customers over the course of an agile conversion at a large company. Agile adoption initiatives fail because there are really
four simultaneous initiatives that must all be done correctly:

Agile teams must master the technical practices of specifying software via tests and preventing defects through strong developer-level testing
practices
Empowered teams and Servant Leadership must be fostered
Managers must control the flow of work, matching it to capacity
Management must adopt a Lean discipline for project portfolio management

We will see through the experiences of real teams how the operation of these four sub-initiatives has impacted one company.

BIO:

Nancy Van Schooenderwoert does Agile Enterprise coaching – everything from launching new agile technical teams to advising executives on how to take Agile and Lean principles far beyond software development in their drive to deliver more customer value faster. Nancy pioneered agile practices for embedded software development beginning in 1998. Her background in electronics and software development for avionics, factory automation, medical, and defense systems brings a unique perspective to her coaching practice.

When are Where? We'll be meeting at the SKM offices in the 160 Dundee Street building, Edinburgh, EH11 1DQ at 19:30. The offices are between Fountainbridge Leisure complex and the Victor Paris Bathroom Shop.

Clarke

Programmers are from Mars, Customers are from Venus, but why does everyone think that Project Managers are from Uranus?

2007-09-14T12:10:00.001+01:00

Hi everyone,

Can you please email me if you are planning on coming to this session on monday the 24th, so that I can order snacks and ensure I have enough handouts? I'll forgive you if you can't make it on the day though. Modesty aside, I think you'll learn lots of useful stuff if you do - including the most useful tool I've ever used.

When you email me - at clarke.ching@gmail.com - can you also tell me:

1) Are you a manager, a non-manager or other/both?

2) Can you tell me something that annoys you about "them", in general. You can send me a few annoyances if you like, or none. A couple of sentences per annoyance should do. I'll collate them offline.

It would help if you write it in the form

- As a developer/analyst/tester/other I find it really annoying when my project manager does this ...

- As a PM I find it really annoying when my staff [doen't] do this ...

e.g. As a project manager I find it annoying when I ask my developers how long a task will take and they ask me "how long is a piece of string?.

e.g. As a developer I find it annoying when my Project Manager doesn't give me enough time to do my job properly.

e.g. As a developer I hate it when my PM prints of code I've written, reads it over the weekend, then gives me corrections - written in read ink - on Monday morning.

It'd be helpful if you tell me if this behaviour happened in an Agile environment or other.

thanks,

Clarke

AgileScotland September session: Programmers may be from Mars, Customers may be from Venus, but why does everyone think that Project Managers are from

2007-09-10T16:19:00.001+01:00

Programmers may be from Mars, Customers may be from Venus ... but why does everyone think that Project Managers are from Uranus ?

An agile workshop facilitated by Clarke Ching, September 24th, 2007.

What? I spent a good part of my career thinking that Project Managers are either well meaning idiots or bad intentioned manipulators. All that went away, of course, when I started managing projects and I discovered that most Project Managers are - just like developers - good people trying to do a hard job.

This session will explore the causes of common conflicts between the "workers" and the "managers" on software projects. We will discover that most of the conflicts are caused by "the system" rather than the "people". We will discover ways around these conflicts … and make our jobs easier and more fun.

This is a great opportunity to discover what motivates and concerns "them". You'll also learn how to use a powerful tool for uncovering and then resolving conflicts in a win-win manner. You'll also help me write my book.

[This session will also be run later this year at AgileYorkshire and (hopefully) XPDay2007.]

Who? Clarke Ching is a New Zealander who now lives in Scotland. He is a passionate advocate of agile software development and is chairman of the AgileScotland special interest group, which meets monthly in Edinburgh. Clarke has an MBA specializing in technology management and currently is writing a book ( www.rollingrocksdownhill.com), which explains why working on and managing software projects often feels like pushing rocks uphill and shows how to use lean, quality, and agile techniques to make them easier, more productive, and predictable.

When are Where? We'll be meeting at the SKM offices in the 160 Dundee Street building, Edinburgh, EH11 1DQ at 19:30 on Monday September 24th. The offices are between Fountainbridge Leisure complex and the Victor Paris Bathroom Shop.

AgileScotland: Agile Project Management course with Craig Larman (London)

2007-08-30T16:36:00.001+01:00

Hi everyone,

I've been asked to forward details of Craig Larman's training course to the group which I'd not normally do for a London based course, but I'm happy to recommend Craig based on his excellent book. Sorry for not posting this earlier, but I've been on holiday and I only had 15 minutes internet time during the entire trip.

Clarke

Craig Larman's Agile Project Management: Applying Agile and Iterative
Practices to project management
Date: 11-12th September
Location: London
Course Code : AGILE-PROJECT-01-02
Price: £1050
Duration: 2.0 days
*Course Summary*: This practical, information-packed two-day course on
the Application of Agile and Iterative Project Management practices
summarises the key research, ideas, and practices of iterative
development, for large or small projects, aimed at executive and project
leadership.
This is a high-impact guide for managers and students to agile and
iterative development methods: what they are, how they work, how to
implement them – and why you should.
Noted expert Craig Larman presents the case for iterative development,
and its application with rigour and skillful modeling.
Course Description: http://skillsmatter.com/agile-project-management-course
Trainer: Craig Larman. Craig has 20 years experience in helping
organisations adopt OO and agile principles and is regarded as the
world's leading expert on agile adoption and has led the largest
multishore agile project ever completed. He wrote the world's best
selling book on OOAD and UML and regularly delivers training & mentoring
to organisations around the world. This is a very unique opportunity as
Craig only teaches in the UK once per year and only for Skills Matter.
Biography: You can read a biography about Craig at
skillsmatter.com/craig-larman < http://www.skillsmatter.com/craig-larman>

Meeting August 27 - Coding Dojo

2007-08-22T23:29:00.000+01:00

The next Agile Scotland event will be a coding Dojo.

We'll be meeting at the SKM offices in the 160 Dundee Street building, Edinburgh, EH11 1DQ at 19:30 on Monday August 27. The offices are ,between Fountainbridge Leisure complex and the Victor Paris Bathroom Shop.

We'll decide on the implementation language, depending on the skills and preferences of whoever turns up. The problem will be revealed on the night.

Links:

The Agile Finland Coding Dojo:
http://wiki.agilefinland.com/?CodingDojo

Directions from Haymarket Station:
http://merecomplexities.com/SKM_from_Haymarket.gif

A picture of the front of the 160 Dundee Street building:

The Agile Enterprise and Independent Software Vendors

2007-08-13T14:42:00.001+01:00

http://www.scottishdevelopers.com/modules/extcal/event.php?event=45

Technologist and speaker, Gary Short roles up and unroles his list of
comparisions between strengths and weaknesses of the 'Agile' Development
in the Enterprise and the ISVs. This session was very well received at
DDD5.

Agile is all the rage at the moment, everyone wants in on the act; but
agile software engineering is not the same across the enterprise and
ISVs. In this talk we'll look at some of the different ways in which
agile software engineering principles are applied in the enterprise and
in ISVs; where it's easy, where it's hard, and how to make it just that
little bit less painful for everyone.

Gary Short is a Microsoft Certified Applications Developer, currently
employed in the role of Senior Software Developer at Charteris. He has
17 years industry experience in both desktop and web-enabled application
development. Previously, he has worked for a number of blue-chip
companies including Amex, IMS Health and Scottish & Southern Energy. His
current interests include SCRUM and TDD.

Room 16
Continuing Professional Development Centre,
Glasgow Caledonian University,
Cowcaddens Road
Glasgow
G4 0BA

Room 16 is on Level 2 of the Continuing Professional Development Centre.
The CPDC is on the left side (just past the bookshop) as you enter the
university from the pedestrian entrance on Cowcaddens Road.

AgileScotland Update

2007-08-02T10:22:00.001+01:00

Hi everyone,

Meetings

My apologies, but while I've been working away I have let things slip a little with the AgileScotland meetings. I'm on holiday for the next few weeks and then I'm only working 2 or 3 days each week down south, so I will soon get my act together! We are planning an informal summer get-together planned for late august and I have a session with a minor agile celebrity lined up for September. More details to come.

Jobs:

1) I've just heard about a new job in scotland working on a top-notch XP team. See Job One below.

2) I've also been contacted about a job working for someone I trust, but not in an agile team. "I am looking for someone who can take high level (or low level) requirements directly from clients, analyse them and design the required system he/she also needs to document these into our sttandard templates before passing it onto the dev. team/s". The team works moslty with .net.

If you are interested then email me - clarke.ching@gmail.com - and I'll put you in touch with the right people.

For the record: I don't take any payments, bribes or favours of any kind for this - it's all part of the service. If you have an Agile job on offer or are looking for an agile job then I'm only an email away.

Clarke

Job One:

Description
In response to business growth, we're looking for a Java developer to join our XP team operating inside a major Glasgow-based financial services firm. Our team is reponsible for the production of an web-based portfolio management system which won the International Credit Derivatives House of the Year award. To further extend our offering to clients, we're currently focussing on the development of real-time web-based scenario analysis and parallel pricing functionality using grid computing, Spring MVC, AJAX and Sybase.

Our team follows Extreme Programming practices to ensure quality of service and frequent delivery of the most valuable functionality to our clients. As such, the role would involve the participation in XP practices ranging from test-driven development and pair programming to iteration retrospectives and planning game exercises.

Technical Competencies:
Essential:
Test Driven Development
Java / JSP / J2EE using Spring MVC
SQL (Transact SQL)
AJAX / Javascript
UNIX scripting
Ruby and Watir framework
Desirable
Grid computing (Symphony)
Pricing models
Web design/HTML
Extreme Programming

Person Specification:
The candidate should be degree educated in a relevant discipline and have 4+ years of experience in delivering solid application solutions for business. Exceptional candidates with less experience will also be considered.
Strong communication and team-working skills are essential as is the desire to share expertise and contribute as part of an XP team. Knowledge of credit derivative products and pricing models would be an advantage.

Timescales/Start Date:
As soon as possible.

No Fluff, Just Stuff - special AgileScotland discount code

2007-07-08T13:53:00.001+01:00

Hi everyone,

Finally! The folks who organise the "no fluff just stuff" conferences are holding one in London near the end of August. The conferences have been very popular in the US during recent years. The events "cover the latest in trends, best practices, and newest developments in Enterprise Java, Java/Groovy, ESB/SOA, Ajax, Web Services, Agility, and Architecture." and promise no marketing fluff (which is interesting becaue their marketing is actually very good). I've only ever heard good things about the events.

You can find details of the program here: http://www.nofluffjuststuff.com/show_agenda.jsp?showId=93&byRoom=false

Email me at Agile.Scotland@gmail.com and I will send you a special code which will give you a special "agile scotland" code which give you a £50 discount.

A couple of other things:

Group discounts kick in if 5 or more people use this code. I already know of 2 of us who are going so if we get another 3 registration then the price drops by at least £75 .
The early bird discount runs out on July 15th ... after which the price goes up another £150.

Hope some of you find this useful.

Clarke

Meeting Thursday July 5 - Neuro-linguistic Programming

2007-06-11T22:30:00.000+01:00

We are very pleased to announce that the next Agile Scotland event, will be given by leading Neuro-linguistic Programming trainer and coach Michael Spence.

The first item of the Agile Manifesto is that we value "individuals and interactions over processes and tools"; the problem is that interactions between individuals often involves miscommunication, conflict, and power politics. Sometimes it can be too much for us poor geeks.

NLP was developed from a blend of hypnotherapy, family therapy, and psychotherapy. It models the way we experience and interact with the world. Amongst other things, NLP's models and techniques can help with

conflict resolution

selling ideas

changing behaviour

goal setting

We start at 19:30 at the Sinclair Knight Merz offices at 160 Dundee Street, Edinburgh, EH11 1DQ. Walking directions from Haymarket Station are here.

"Michael is a long established Certified NLP Trainer, Master Practitioner, Coach and Change Specialist. He provides Certified NLP Training, Open Courses, Workshops, Seminars and one - one to people and organisations from all sectors. With individual care, honesty, integrity, respect and attention, and high quality at an affordable price he inspires all to evolve and achieve the results they desire."

AgileScotland mini-virtual-conference - Monday 7:25pm - skype

2007-04-15T21:17:00.001+01:00

Hi everyone,

Here is the agenda for tomorrow evening's mini-conference. There're still a few spaces available on the skyecast - contact me if you'd like to tune in.

Clarke

Monday 16th April, 2007, 7:30pm (recorded event)

Skypecast: The Naked Agilist

Agenda:

Title	Presenter	Running Time	Abstract
"Sucked back into the waterfall"	Peter Gordon	5	What agile can learn about managing customer expectations
"But we don't do it like that"	Adrian Mowat	10	Applying Agile principles and practices to data management and data warehousing projects.
"Finishing in half the time"	Kevin Rutherford	10	How we've fooled ourselves for years
"It's easier to sell to sell aspirin to someone if they have a headache"	Clarke Ching	6	Selling Agile
"The Three Princes and the Golden Hammer"	Paul Wilson	10	A fable of too little, too much, and just-right planning.
"Test Second for Portability"	Charles Weir	5
"When tests have no value"	Kevin Rutherford	10	When unit test coverage is low, situations can arise in which those unit tests do not perform well as regression tests
"Burying the Lead"	Clarke Ching	5	What agile can learn from newspaper journalism

"I don't Trust My Alarm clock"	Clarke Ching	5	The invisible costs of mistrust

Chair: Leigh Mullin

The conference will start at 7:30pm, you can dial in a few minutes before. The groundrules for the night are:

- People to mute themselves when not asking questions
- Ask questions throughout a presentation, but try not to interupt mid-flow
- When asking a question first state your name clearly
- If it gets unruly or lots of feedback the chair will mute all

It's a full agenda so we may not get through all the presentations.

PLEASE NOTE: THIS EVENT WILL BE RECORDED AND PUBLISHED FOR PLAYBACK

Re: AgileScotland mini-conference - The naked Agilist

2007-04-01T21:59:00.001+01:00

Hi everyone,

1. I've just discovered that we can only cope with a limited number of participants on a SkypeCast for the mini-conference, so if you want to participate (lurking or participating) then I'm going to have to ask you to register with me first. I'm sorry about this, but I'll have to do it on a first-come-first-served basis. Please email me at Agile.Scotland@gmail.com to request an invite.

2. A few people have said to me that they love the idea, but they're (understandably) a little nervous of presenting or leading a brief discussion over the phone - especially with the extremely brutal "I'll stop your microphone" time-boxing. I gotta say that if you feel the same, I don't blame you. I've done a couple of long distance presenations recently and it is hard, when you can't see the whites of your audiences eyes. You have to adapt your style to suit the occassion and find different ways of communicating and seeking feedback. If your customer is in a different building / city / country or continent, then you'll find this a very useful exercise in communicating long distance. You also get to do it in the nude ...

Oh, and if you're worried about fitting in within the time-box you nominate, then never fear: Newspapers have been doing this for years. Take a look at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inverted_pyramid - many of the ideas may sound very familiar. Agilists have been doing them for years too ...

Clarke

On 3/28/07, agile scotland <agile.scotland@gmail.com> wrote:

Hi Everyone,

This month's meeting will be a little different - a mini-agile-conference or is it an agile-mini-conference.  And even better, you can attend in the nude. Read on ...

On the day - Monday the 16th of April: We will use Skype's skypecast facility to have a large scale conference call.  We'll all dial into the call at 7:25pm for 7:30pm start.  We will then have a series of "mini presentations" or discussions - each lasting from 1 minute to 15 minutes max.  We will end at 9:00pm.  Someone will chair the meeting and have the power to turn peoples mics off and on.

Before the conference:

1. Someone (Volunteers?) will setup a wiki or an online spreadsheet.  If you want to run/give a session then add a title to the wiki, and 1-4 sentences to describe the session and a duration from 1 to 15 minutes - note that on the day the chairperson will kill your microphone exactly on the time you've nominated, i.e they're time-boxed.

2. Three days before the session - Friday the 13th - we will vote for the sessions we prefer and they will be delivered in priority order. Someone will need to decide voting rules. Remember that each session has a higher "cost" in terms of your time, so vote carefully.

So, who wants to volunteer to chair the conference? And someone to help the chair? And someone will need to test the technology works SOON so that we have time to adapt?

And for no other reason than it would reduce my stress-levels can you send me a note if you are interested in joining the conference.

Thanks,

--
Clarke Ching
www.clarkeching.com
+44(0)7920114893

AgileScotland mini-conference - The naked Agilist

2007-03-28T18:37:00.001+01:00

Hi Everyone,

This month's meeting will be a little different - a mini-agile-conference or is it an agile-mini-conference. And even better, you can attend in the nude. Read on ...

On the day - Monday the 16th of April: We will use Skype's skypecast facility to have a large scale conference call. We'll all dial into the call at 7:25pm for 7:30pm start. We will then have a series of "mini presentations" or discussions - each lasting from 1 minute to 15 minutes max. We will end at 9:00pm. Someone will chair the meeting and have the power to turn peoples mics off and on.

Before the conference:

1. Someone (Volunteers?) will setup a wiki or an online spreadsheet. If you want to run/give a session then add a title to the wiki, and 1-4 sentences to describe the session and a duration from 1 to 15 minutes - note that on the day the chairperson will kill your microphone exactly on the time you've nominated, i.e they're time-boxed.

2. Three days before the session - Friday the 13th - we will vote for the sessions we prefer and they will be delivered in priority order. Someone will need to decide voting rules. Remember that each session has a higher "cost" in terms of your time, so vote carefully.

So, who wants to volunteer to chair the conference? And someone to help the chair? And someone will need to test the technology works SOON so that we have time to adapt?

And for no other reason than it would reduce my stress-levels can you send me a note if you are interested in joining the conference.

Thanks,

--
Clarke Ching
www.clarkeching.com
+44(0)7920114893

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

2007-02-26T13:54:00.001Z

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

Agile Scotland

Edinburgh User Stories course - Feb 24 2012

This Friday - Aberdeen - conference

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

Agile Startups - moved to the 18th

[AgileScotland] Lean Startups ...

Embedded Agile course - UK, Dec 15-16

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

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

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

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

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

[AgileScotland] Agile Robot Tournament - Glasgow, May.

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

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

Can you help two AgileScots?

Top-notch Ruby on Rails training - extremely low price - Edinburgh, March 25th.

Free Agile & Lean Training ...

TDD with Rails - pragmatic studio course - Edinburgh

Fwd: Survey Study in Agile Success Factors: The Human Perspective

Poppendieck Lean/Agile course - Glasgow, May 2010

Monday's Agile Day in Edinburgh

Second event .

Two Agile events

CodeRetreat Glasgow, November ...

Brian Swan's slides - TDD pitfalls.

Ruby on Rails training - Edinburgh, November

[AgileScotland] October 26th, Glasgow: Avoiding the Pitfalls that Cripple Test Driven Development

fw: Ruby, The Agile Language. Edinburgh, Thursday 8 October.

[AgileScotland] Agile and Lean: Crash Course - Glasgow, Wednesday 1st of July.

[AgileScotland] When it just *has* to work: Agile Development in Safety-Critical Environments

Glasgow's clinic & Agile lunch ...

West Coast Clinic Bios.

AgileScotland clinic - Glasgow City Centre, 2pm, June 11.

[AgileScotland] Edinburgh training day ... now Friday the 29th

Full day "Introduction to Lean and Agile" training in Edinburgh & Glasgow ... FREE

[AgileScotland] London Lean & Kanban (Europe) 2009 Sep 27-29

AgileScotland clinic - Edinburgh, Thursday afternoon, 21st of May

[AgileScotland] Clinics ... East Coast

[AgileScotland] - Talk at Napier University - "Don't blame the Project Manager-the problem can be the status of your IT Governance"

Re: [AgileScotland] Introducing our day time "Agile clinics" - a little free, friendly help if you're struggling.

[AgileScotland] Introducing our day time "Agile clinics" - a little free, friendly help if you're struggling.

[AgileScotland Conference] More for Less: Using Agile to Save your Job

[AgileScotland] Training - FIT for developers - Brian Swan, 21st and 22nd May 2009

[AgileScotland] LinkedIn group

AgileScotland - Uni thing and a free book ...

Can AgileScotland make a difference? (Includes free agile course)

[AgileScotland] One seminar & one fantastic training opportunity

[AgileScotland] Rocks into Gold - free

[AgileScotland] Scotland on Rails. March 26 to 28

[AgileScotland] “If you have programmers on two floors, forget it”: The challenge of distributed Agile.

Re: [AgileScotland] Some light Xmas reading ...

[AgileScotland] Some light Xmas reading ...

AgileScotland: Edinburgh ScrumMaster Training & Two free events.

AgileScotland: Agile from the Code face @ Napier University

[AgileScotland] Rachel Davies Agile QA course - Edinburgh 4/11

AgileScotland - Edinburgh School for Startups

AgileScotland: More congrats & ScotlandOnRails: Call for proposals

AgileScotland - taking a breather, congratulations, and a possible course?

James Watt wasn't the only AgileThinker in Scotland ...

AgileScotland - July - FIT for data - Adrian Mowat

AgileScotland: Aberdeen University offers Master's course in Software PM, with Agile

AgileScotland July

Agile basics course ... and XP boot camp?

Re: AgileScotland workshop - Getting the Agile Basics Right

AgileScotland: Three Scottish Agile2008 sessions AND JUNE MEETING

AgileScotland workshop - Getting the Agile Basics Right

AgileScotland - update - EverydayAgile - Using agile to make LOADS more money in everyday businesses

AgileScotland: Something special for C# programmers - Jean-Paul Boodhoo's Nothin' But .NET in Scotland ?

AgileScotland workshop: Everyday Agile - Using agile to make LOADS more money in everyday businesses

Can you help a local Doctorial student?

AgileScotland - “Extremely Profitable Programming with COBOL" - by Clarke Ching, Edinburgh, 12th of May, 2008.

AgileScotland: Three announcements

AgileScotland Announcement: Linda Rising details

Linda Rising in Edinburgh - 21st of April

Fearless Change: Introducing New Ideas

Project Retrospectives

Who is Linda?

Details

[AgileScotland] Introducing RollingRocksDownhill ... last chance for free download.

[AgileScotland] When it just has to work: Agile Development in Safety-Critical Environments