Does anyone have some experience using rally software? I would like ask some questions.  Thanks.

Ahsen jaffer.

I know this is short notice but we have to jump on the opportunity of having
Esther Derby and Diana Larsen in the Philadelphia area next week!

Esther Derby and Diana Larsen co-authored the classic Agile Retrospectives:
Making Good Teams Great
[http://www.pragprog.com/titles/dlret/agile-retrospectives]

The topic for this session is still in the making. Of course there will be some
retrospective content but Diana and Esther might want to cover some hot topics
(your questions?) about Agile Alliance and/or humans & software project.

Whatever the topic is, you don't want to miss out on the opportunity to see
these 2 great speakers.

The event will be tentatively hosted at Siemens in Malvern PA. I will send a
confirmation to this list as soon as I have more information (tomorrow afternoon
the latest).

Esther Derby is one of the rare breed of consultants who blends the technical
and managerial issues with the people-side issues. She is well known for her
work helping teams grow to new levels of productivity and is recognized as one
of the world's leaders in retrospective facilitation. Esther's articles have
appeared in Better Software (formerly STQE), Software Development, Cutter IT
Journal, and CrossTalk. She writes regular columns for stickyminds.com and
Computerworld.com, and publishes the quarterly newsletter, insights. Esther is
also a host and session leader at the Amplifying Your Effectiveness (AYE)
conference.

Diana Larsen partners with leaders of software development projects to improve
project performance, support and sustain change, and build collaborative
workplaces. Diana serves on the boards of the Agile Alliance and the Pacific
Northwest Software Quality Conference, participates in planning for the XP 200x
and Agile 200x conferences, and speaks at several software conferences every
year. She's written articles for Software Development, At Work, Cutter IT
Journal, and Cutter's Executive Update and e-Advisor series. Diana is a founder
of the Annual International Retrospective Facilitators Gathering.

With Norm Kerth, Esther and Diana are founders of the annual Retrospective
Facilitators Gathering. They are recognized as two of the world's leaders in
retrospective facilitation

• Members of Agile Philly can obtain a $300 discount with the code “Philly”.  
  Go to http://www.lithespeed.com/training.htm to enroll.
• If you are currently unemployed, or experiencing a hardship, you are eligible for 50% off.
  Go to www.lithespeed.com/trainingDiscount.htm to find out more.
  

The course will be taught by Arlen Bankston and upon completion you are registered to take the test to become a Certified ScrumMaster.  You receive a two-year membership in the Scrum Alliance (www.scrumalliance.org) and this course counts as 16 PDU’s for PMI members.

Location:
1150 1st Ave.
Parkview Tower
Suite 250
King of Prussia, PA 19406
Time: 9:00 AM – 5:00 PM

We are stoked to have the first code retreat in Philadelphia on Sunday November
1st!

A code retreat is a programmer centric event with the following premises:

At code retreat, we retreat from the world to advance in our craft. We sharpen
our saws, together.

We retreat from production and business value to increase our production
capacity, our quality, our velocity, our ability to produce business value.

We retreat from immersion in deep technology issues to advance in our ability to
learn and adopt to any technology well.

We retreat from our fears, and embrace new practices and patterns.

We retreat from our local ponds and swim in a larger pool. We connect with other
passionate coders who we seldom get to code with. We make new connections and
learn new lessons.

At code retreat everything is about the journey and nothing about the
destination.

For more information and RSVP:
http://coderetreat.ning.com/events/code-retreat-philadelphia-java

We are stoked to have J.B. Rainsberger over for one of the most interesting
sessions of the Agile 2009 conference: Integration tests are a scam.

The event will be hosted by Siemens Medical Solutions in Malvern, PA on Thursday
October 29th at 6pm.

For more details and RSVP:
http://www.agilephilly.com/events/integration-tests-are-a-scam-j

RSVP is strongly encouraged since I need to create visitor passes for everybody.

Cheers,
Sebastian

Sebastian & Ravindar (and others who helped make it possible),

*Nice job :-)*
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mike (Bria), looks like you were inundated with post-session questions
and conversation. Sorry I couldn't stay any later -- had to get to my
yoga class!

Good, thought-provoking presentation, Mike. Could probably make a
day-long session out of the slides and with group discussion have a
great time of it :-) There is so much nuance at times to doing things in
an agile manner.

I liked Bonnie's hands-on planning games. Should make the primary point
(business value tends to rule the day) stick in folks' minds!

jon
blog: http://technicaldebt.wetpaint.com
twitter: http://twitter.com/JonKernPA



Ravindar Gujral said the following on 9/23/09 1:10 PM:
>
>
> Members,
> A friendly reminder regarding our mini conference coming up: Agile
> Tour at Philly. Please register soon as seats are limited and are
> getting booked fast.
>
> More information on the website:
> http://www.agilephilly.com/events/agile-tour-at-philly
> <http://www.agilephilly.com/events/agile-tour-at-philly>
>
> Regards
> Ravindar
>
>

Agile Tour (http://agiletour.org/) is a series of non-profit events over several cities throughout October 2009.

We are excited about bringing you top notch speakers at no cost for you! But we sadly ran a little bit over our budget. Help us keep this type of event free in the future!

The extra money will be used to support more free events from the local Agile Philly User Group: http://agilephilly.ning.com/

Date

Location

where is the venue?

jon
blog: http://technicaldebt.wetpaint.com
twitter: http://twitter.com/JonKernPA



D. André Dhondt said the following on 9/17/09 7:42 AM:
>
>
> The upcoming Agile Philly event is a jam-packed FREE conference,
> intended to help you, your team, and even old colleagues get revved up
> about agile (at least leaving work early should get you energized)!
> We'll be hearing from a great lineup of speakers, who have presented
> in front of international audiences as well as locally.
>
> There are two tracks to this event--if you don't bring a friend with
> you to compare notes, you'll miss out.  So, don't just ask to get out
> of work early--ask your boss to come with you!  This is the equivalent
> of a 1-day course in agility, all at no cost to you (thanks,
> organizers)!
>
> Advance registration IS REQUIRED--sign up now at
> http://www.agiletour.com/en/at2009_philadelphia_registration.html
> <http://www.agiletour.com/en/at2009_philadelphia_registration.html>
>
> The current schedule, copied from
> http://www.agiletour.com/en/at2009_philadelphia.html
> <http://www.agiletour.com/en/at2009_philadelphia.html> is below:
>
> Time  Track One--Introductory  Track Two--Practitioners
> 4:00pm
> Welcome
>
> 4:15pm  Key Concepts of Agile
> Ahmed Sidky, Program Director Agile 2009, aka Doctor Agile  Planning
> without Estimates
> Bonnie Aumann, Presenter at Agile 2007-2009
> 5:00pm
> PAUSE/icebreaker
>
> 5:30pm  A Lightning-Fast Intro to Agile for Beginners
> David Bulkin, CST  Agility: Getting The Right Product
> Mike Bria, Agile Coach, Editor at InfoQ
> 6:30pm
> An Open Space for All
>
> 7:15pm
> What's next?
>
>
>
> If you read this far, please forward this note to someone else who'd
> be interested.  Thanks!
>
> --
> D. André Dhondt
> http://dhondtsayitsagile.blogspot.com/
> <http://dhondtsayitsagile.blogspot.com/>
>
> Support low-cost conferences -- http://agiletour.org/
> <http://agiletour.org/>
> If you're in the area, join Agile Philly http://www.AgilePhilly.com
> <http://www.AgilePhilly.com>
>
>

there is a related "group dynamic" phenomenon (not sure exactly what it
is called...)

but it does have a parallel in mountain climbing and in many other things...

1) Mountaineering is about continually forming opinions on the
safety/security of your activities (weather, rock fall, exposure, roping
up, crampons, etc.). When you get into larger groups (starting at TWO),
decision making can get more complicated. A group often takes on a
higher risk than any individual within it might take on their own. This
is because of a natural tendency to "keep quiet" with your own personal
reservations to speak up -- you may not want to appear to criticize
another's decision, or you may not want to appear cowardly. However,
what this really boils down to is abdicating your own responsibility for
risk management. Not a good situation. Better to become opinionated,
speak up, and to not worry about what others think of you :-)

2) My climbing buddy and I were met by his stepmother and 3 of her
friends for a nice Saturday hike in the Alps... As we were heading out
of Zermatt (where the trickiest part is finding the right jumping off
point for a given desired trail), 4 kept walking down the road (the
wrong general direction, BTW), while 2 of us consulted a map. When we
looked up, the 4 others had happily wandered along, chatting with each
other, oblivious to the fact that we were still studying the map.
"Surely they will head up those stairs" I said... Nope. They kept
walking. Soon they will turn around the bend and be completely out of
site. My map partner phoned one of the group. No answer. Just as they
were about to disappear, my climbing buddy finally turned around and
noticed us w-a-a-y back where they had left us. So, this group of four
was happily ensconced in their world of discussions, and I suppose each
were assuming the other was paying attention to direction -- when in
fact nobody was paying any attention to where they were headed.

Software is not too different (except you generally don't risk life and
limb).

jon
blog: http://technicaldebt.wetpaint.com
twitter: http://twitter.com/JonKernPA



D. André Dhondt said the following on 9/7/09 3:15 AM:
>
>
> The wisdom of crowds does have its limitations, for sure.  Take, for
> example, mob mentality, where everyone loses their conscience and just
> goes along with what others are doing.  The wisdom of crowds also
> works best in answering things that don't require specialized
> knowledge, or rather, things that can reasonably be answered by the
> average skill level of the crowd being used.  So, we go to a carnival
> and play the "how much do I weigh game", a panel of 15 people would
> normally do better than an expert at guessing stranger's weights.  But
> ask them to suggest a chemical makeup of the clothes these strangers
> are wearing, and unless they're all chemists, they'll do much worse
> than an expert.
>
> On Fri, Sep 4, 2009 at 10:43 PM, Voris, John <john.voris@...
> <mailto:john.voris@...>> wrote:
>
>
>
>
>             I saw this today - that I think is a converse corollary to
>     the wisdom of crowds . . . But it is still true.  The wisdom of
>     the brick wall.
>
>             "To understand a problem it is always helpful to discuss
>     it with someone smarter than yourself . . . your wife, children,
>     pets, and in many cases
>     <http://archive.midrange.com/rpg400-l/200909/msg00056.html>, a
>     brick wall."
>                             Attributed to Duane Christen, from the
>     listserv at midrange.com/rpg400-l <http://midrange.com/rpg400-l>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> --
> D. André Dhondt
> mobile: 001 33 671 034 984
> http://dhondtsayitsagile.blogspot.com/
> <http://dhondtsayitsagile.blogspot.com/>
>
> Support low-cost conferences -- http://agiletour.org/
> <http://agiletour.org/>
> If you're in the area, join Agile Philly http://www.AgilePhilly.com
> <http://www.AgilePhilly.com>
>
>