Presentation: TweetKEYNOTE: Accelerating Agile

Over the last three years I have re-evaluated a lot of my assumptions about software delivery, and in particular many of the agile methods I had been espousing as good practice. I have tried to capture what I was learning in the form of patterns - repeatable strategies that work in a given context - which I called Patterns of Effective Delivery and which have evolved into Accelerated Agile. Where the original agile methods of the 1990s were about reducing delivery turnaround from years to months, Accelerated Agile is about reducing that from months to weeks or even days. In many cases we don't have the same constraints - organizational, operational or technical - that we had 20 years ago so I think it's time to step back and take a fresh look.

Presentation: TweetPatterns of Effective Teams

Some teams are orders of magnitude more effective than others, turning around business solutions in days or even hours. Their secret is a combination of smart technology choices, great development habits and a powerful team dynamic. In this talk Dan describes a number of patterns of behaviour that he's identified working with some great teams, beyond the basics of co-location, stand-ups and pair rotation. You'll gain a new appreciation for old techniques like code reviews, and even working in silos won't seem so bad!

Workshop: Accelerated Agile: From Months to Minutes Tweet

Formula 1 drivers don’t just drive faster than you, they drive differently. Accelerated Agile practitioners use different rules, based on the core principles of agile but taken to another level, to deliver in hours and days what regular teams can only achieve in weeks or months.

Accelerated Agile is a course for experienced agile practitioners who are frustrated with the pseudo-science of agile planning and estimation, the social pressure to automate where it doesn’t add any value, the artificial commitment of sprints and the unwelcome surprises that still derail their projects. You will learn new techniques that both enhance and replace existing agile practices, some of which are counter-intuitive and many which are completely counter to current Agile doctrine. This is not a course for beginners!

Using a mixture of discussion, instruction and exploration you will learn new techniques for development and testing, operations, automation and team dynamics, as well as working with legacy systems and integrating with third parties. Using these techniques you and your teams will deliver business solutions faster than they thought possible. You’ll never look at TDD the same way again, not to mention copying-and-pasting code.

What you will learn

• How to challenge the received wisdom of established Agile methods
• How to design and architect for rapid and sustainable delivery
• Why understanding risk and embracing uncertainty are at the heart of faster delivery
• How to manage build, release and operations
• How systems thinking can help you plan effectively and estimate accurately
• How to identify and reduce gaps in your testing strategy
• How to engage with legacy systems and integrating with third parties
• How to manage different levels of skill and experience within a team

Praise for Accelerated Agile

• "one of the best courses I have ever attended, if not the best!"
• "really interesting with good discussions and lots of relevant information"
• "[not using slides] made the course flow in a neat and agile way"