Agile + DevOps USA 2024 - General Management

Customize your Agile + DevOps USA 2024 experience with sessions covering general project management.

Sunday, October 13

Mike_Sowers
Coveros

Agile & DevOps Leadership—ICAgile Certification

Sunday, October 13, 2024 - 8:30am to Monday, October 14, 2024 - 5:00pm
Jeff Payne
Coveros

Fundamentals of AI—ICAgile Certification (ICP-FAI)

Sunday, October 13, 2024 - 8:30am to Monday, October 14, 2024 - 5:00pm

Monday, October 14

Tricia Broderick
Ignite Insight + Innovation
MA

Facilitating Team Decisions

Monday, October 14, 2024 - 8:30am to 12:00pm

One of the agile manifesto principles is “Build projects around motivated individuals. Give them the environment and support they need, and trust them to get the job done.” Tricia Broderick wishes this principle was written to say, motivated teams. Because leaders giving the environment and support for individuals to make team decisions is anything but trivial. Achieving effective decisions goes beyond bringing people together for consensus. This approach may lead to groupthink or repeating decision meetings. Instead, leaders facilitate collaboration by building and tapping into the co-...

Arlen Bankston
Grow-Lean LLC
ME

Designing (Much) Better Agile Meetings

Monday, October 14, 2024 - 8:30am to 12:00pm

Many teams have been following the same few patterns for facilitating sessions such as daily scrums, sprint reviews, retrospectives, and backlog refinement events for decades now. However, while these well-trodden approaches can be good starting points, there are ways to make them tremendously more effective with minimal effort. You will learn to design agile meetings that account for your particular circumstances and goals while wasting as little time as possible. First, Arlen will cover: exploring the true purpose of agile meetings – Is the daily scrum more about status or planning? Is...

Tricia Broderick
Ignite Insight + Innovation
MF

Leading Change

Monday, October 14, 2024 - 1:00pm to 4:30pm

Leading change requires something other than issuing directives and using checklists to validate execution. As much as I love a checkmark, no one wants the role of "did you do it?" over and over. Leaders have significant influence on whether a change is understood, embraced and retained within the organization. In this deep dive session, discover and examine the aspects necessary for creating and building a culture of change and resilience. Expect to walk away with practical alternatives to the dreaded "trust but verify" implementation approaches.

Philip Daye
EMARKETER
MG

Leveraging Generative AI for Software Productivity

Monday, October 14, 2024 - 1:00pm to 4:30pm

Executive leaders across the globe have been asking a relatively simple yet profound question: Can we leverage generative AI to transform our business, enterprise, or industry? For software-based companies, focus has either been on differentiating their product and service offerings using this new technology. But how about leveraging generative AI to improve team productivity and efficiency? This may be possible but how do you measure its success? What are some of the key use cases within business analysis, development, and testing that software teams can use? Are there any pitfalls...

Bob Galen
Zenergy Technologies
MH

Badass Agile Coaching Skills for Everyone

Monday, October 14, 2024 - 1:00pm to 4:30pm

Some perspectives imply that Agile Coaching is for a small set of specialized agilists who serve to improve everyone else or that it’s a unique role that others, including managers and leaders, shouldn’t do or will find difficult to master. This talk intends to debunk those notions by illustrating the power and impact of Agile Coaching skills for everyone. In this workshop, Bob Galen will explore the nuance associated with Agile Coaching to demystify it. He’ll share and explore the Agile Coaching Growth Wheel as a competency model for agile coaching. We’ll do a deep dive into the critical...

Arlen Bankston
Grow-Lean LLC
MJ

The Liquid Agility Framework: Toolkit for Product Leaders

Monday, October 14, 2024 - 1:00pm to 4:30pm

Agile Methods like Scrum, Kanban, and SAFe provide strong guidance on engineering, team management, and productivity…but what about product management? Most agile methods have little to say about how exactly roles like the Product Owner should go about evaluating, ordering, or refining work and nothing about how to assess the impacts post-delivery and drive an effective feedback loop. Building the wrong thing quickly is of little value. Arlen introduces a set of robust but simple tools, some unique and others extensions of existing approaches, meant to “fill in the blanks” of most agile...

Tuesday, October 15

Mary Thorn
S&P Global Ratings
Bob Galen
Zenergy Technologies
TB

Creating a High-Performance Agile Team

Tuesday, October 15, 2024 - 8:30am to 12:00pm

Many teams have a relatively easy time adopting the tactical aspects of agile methodologies. Usually, a few classes, some tools’ introduction, and a bit of practice lead teams toward fairly efficient execution. However, these teams are quite often simply going through the motions—neither maximizing their agile performance nor delivering as much value as they could. Borrowing from their experience and lean software development methods, Bob Galen and Mary Thorn explore high-performance team patterns, which are the thinking models of mature agile teams, including large-scale emergent...

Jeff Payne
Coveros
TE

Agile Project Failures: Root Causes and Corrective Actions

Tuesday, October 15, 2024 - 8:30am to 12:00pm

Agile initiatives always begin with high expectations—accelerate delivery, meet customer needs, and improve software quality. The truth is that many agile projects do not deliver on some or all of these expectations. If you want help to ensure the success of your agile project or to get an agile project back on track, this tutorial is for you. Jeffery Payne discusses the most common causes of agile project failure and how you can avoid these issues or mitigate their damaging effects. Poor project management, ineffective requirements development, failed communications, software development...

Mary Thorn
S&P Global Ratings
Bob Galen
Zenergy Technologies
TF

The Craft of Highly Effective Agile Leadership

Tuesday, October 15, 2024 - 1:00pm to 4:30pm

Based on the learning objectives from the iCAgile, Leading with Agility workshop, this ½ day version will explore the craft of agile leadership in guiding your journey to becoming a catalyst leader. Along the way, we'll explore the why of leading with agility, how to develop and grow your personal agility, tactics for developing and deepening your organizational relationships, and approaches for leading cultural and organizational transformation. Critical topics include your responsibility in shaping a culture that is inclusive, safe, empowered, aligned, and results/impact-focused. We also...

Jeff Payne
Coveros
TG

MLOps: DevOps for Machine Learning

Tuesday, October 15, 2024 - 1:00pm to 4:30pm

Much attention is given to machine learning model training and testing in the industry. While these activities are essential for producing a production-ready machine learning model, organizations face some critical business challenges that must be addressed when building and testing machine learning models. Things like the reproducibility of results, accuracy of predictions, reusability of components, and trackability of experimentation are all vital to the success of any application.  The term MLOps has emerged as a method for applying DevOps practices and automation to the machine...

Wednesday, October 16

Nathan Hamiel
Kudelski Security
K1

Everything Old Is New Again: Using What We Already Know for a Safer Future

Wednesday, October 16, 2024 - 8:30am to 9:45am

Our world is filled with complexities and unknowns, and when these collide with emerging technologies, the resulting risk seems insurmountable. We accept this increased risk as a cost of using the new technology, assuming that previous lessons learned don’t apply and that a blank slate is required to gain the most benefit. However, this never turns out to be true. Time and time again, we realize that much of what we already know is still relevant to these emerging technologies, regardless of how advanced or paradigm-shifting they are. This is good news for reducing the risk in innovation...

Charlotte Chang
WillCo Tech
W5

Don’t F*ck Up the Culture: Operationalizing Experiences for Customers and Employees

Wednesday, October 16, 2024 - 10:30am to 11:30am

In a world full of choices, both consumers and employees are inundated with numerous options. How we allocate our spending power, time, and money reflects our thoughts and emotions, all of which are heavily influenced by our experiences. Yet, it's all too common that the experiences offered by companies for both customers and employees are disconnected from the core mission of creating successful products. The methods used by organizations to measure these experiences often fall short, with employee experience reduced to an annual, self-funded Top Workplace Survey, and customer...

Jen Krieger
GitHub
K2

AI & The Impact on How We Work

Wednesday, October 16, 2024 - 1:45pm to 2:45pm

Our industry has been transformed by new technologies, radically changing how we work. Thirty years ago, deployment cycles took 3-5 years; today, they happen in seconds. This rapid pace is largely due to our focus on investing in tools that boost developer productivity. We're still driven to create tools that simplify developers' work and make it easier for others to join the field. Many companies are heavily invested in enhancing productivity. However, the abundance of productivity tools doesn't automatically lead to increased productivity. Companies need to examine and adapt their...

Paromita Sarkar
Voya Financials
W14

Gen AI: A Co-Pilot to Better Value Sooner, Safer, and Happier in Digital Transformation

Wednesday, October 16, 2024 - 3:00pm to 4:00pm

Integrating Generative AI (Gen AI) across the Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) signifies a pivotal shift in digital product development, promising enhancements from planning to maintenance. This session explores this cutting-edge approach, revealing Gen AI's capacity to automate tasks, refine product quality, and elevate non-functional attributes like security and usability. From analyzing user feedback for feature development to auto-generating code and optimizing deployment strategies, Gen AI streamlines processes, boosts efficiency, and ensures robust, user-centric products. It...

Adam_Auerbach
EPAM Systems
Jen Krieger
GitHub
Nathan Hamiel
Kudelski Security
Charlotte Chang
WillCo Tech
Jeff Payne
Coveros
K3

Panel: How AI is Revolutionizing the Entire SDLC

Wednesday, October 16, 2024 - 4:30pm to 5:30pm

Artificial Intelligence is transforming the software development life cycle, reshaping processes, and redefining best practices across the board. This is not just a trend—it's a game-changer. Join our dynamic panel of top-tier experts representing Agile, DevOps, software testing, security, and product development as they dive into how AI is impacting everything from code to culture. What does this mean for your projects, teams, and career? Bring your questions, and together we'll explore the challenges and opportunities AI brings to software development. We’ll use Slido to collect your...

Thursday, October 17

Carlos Kidman
Qualiti
K4

MLOps for Responsible AI: Techniques for Ensuring AI Quality

Thursday, October 17, 2024 - 8:30am to 9:30am

With the rapid adoption of generative AI, more and more companies are infusing AI models and services into their products. However, many of these companies are likely to lose business and valuable revenue due to their lack of investment in MLOps. Typically, organizations developing AI systems have relied on training metrics like accuracy, precision and recall, but software quality goes beyond that. Now that the barrier to entry for AI tools is smaller, we need to set quality standards, test practices, and think about AI ethics and safety. Ensuring the quality of AI goes beyond traditional...

Desiree Lorell
United States Space Force
T1

Designing Agile Plays in a Complex Organization

Thursday, October 17, 2024 - 10:15am to 11:15am

In today's fast-paced business environment, organizations are constantly seeking ways to adapt and thrive amidst complexity. Agile methodologies offer a powerful framework for managing this complexity, but implementing agile practices in a complex organization can be challenging. This presentation explores the concept of "agile plays" as a strategic approach to implementing agile in complex organizations. Drawing on real-world examples and best practices, we will delve into the key principles and strategies for designing and implementing effective agile plays. Topics covered will include:...

Jennifer Wilhelmi
S&P Global
Natalia Kuzmina
S&P Global Ratings
T2

5 Tools for Navigating Regulatory and Risk Mitigation in Agile Processes

Thursday, October 17, 2024 - 10:15am to 11:15am

In today's highly regulated landscape, organizations encounter numerous hurdles in risk management and regulatory compliance. Regulations are constantly emerging and changing. New risks are emerging all the time and we seek to improve our risk posture with ongoing, internal control improvements. This presentation unveils S&P Global's strategies for seamlessly integrating cross-portfolio regulatory and risk mitigation work into Agile processes. Jennifer will delve into five actionable tips that leverage Agile processes to solve this challenge. The session will address the challenges of...

Trish Cappiello
Main Line Health
T5

Beyond Boundaries: Own Your Career Journey

Thursday, October 17, 2024 - 10:15am to 11:15am

Join Trish Cappiello for the 'Beyond Boundaries: Own Your Career Journey' workshop. Understand the stages of your career in technology, while tackling the challenges and embracing the opportunities. Learn to overcome self-imposed limits, prioritize continuous learning, and adapt for success. Gain practical tips to craft your personalized career plan. Redefine your journey with Trish in a psychological safe space where she encourages participation either through sharing examples or active listening.

Bryan Young
Edward Jones
T6

Collaborating Through Silence

Thursday, October 17, 2024 - 11:45am to 12:45pm

"The team doesn't speak up in meetings! They don't participate! What do I do?" I've observed leaders across organizations be frustrated by this. What to do? Just be ok with silence? Make decisions for the team? Here's the thing: silence is not consent. Whether or not people articulate their opinions, everyone has them. As a leader, your role is to help create a supportive, collaborative space where information is shared more openly. So how on earth do you do this? In this combination workshop and talk, attendees will learn two techniques to help facilitate through this challenge, as well...

Chris Knobbe
Edward Jones
T7

Top 10 Lessons I Learned for Leading Agile Teams

Preview
Thursday, October 17, 2024 - 11:45am to 12:45pm

As leaders, we need to show up differently when we lead agile teams. Anyone in the room can be a leader, including the person with the actual title, however, the skills and techniques we tap into can be very different. In this session, Chris Knobbe will share the top 10 lessons that she has learned while leading teams and how she taps into those skills to build highly effective teams and team members. Each attendee will leave with a list of experiments to try in the workplace to enable them to build trust, accountability, and be more effective in their leadership. The approach to...

Jeff Payne
Coveros
T9

Are AI Assistants the Death of Programmers?

Thursday, October 17, 2024 - 11:45am to 12:45pm

There is a lot of hype about Generative AI automatically creating software applications. Some see this as the death of the software engineering profession, while others believe AI technology will simply help increase the productivity of programmers. The reality is probably somewhere in the middle. This session explores this question and uses demonstrations of commercial and open-source AI assistants to show what is and is not possible with today's GenAI technology. A high-level discussion of how these models work will be included to give the audience some context for what they can and...

Sannette Coetzee
Acolar Inc
T11

Scaling Agile at Visa: Navigating the Highs and Lows of Transforming a Financial Giant

Preview
Thursday, October 17, 2024 - 1:45pm to 2:45pm

Dive into the heart of Visa's groundbreaking agile transformation, a monumental project that stands as possibly the largest of its kind in the financial sector over the last three years. Led by a seasoned expert at the forefront with a 21-strong team of agile coaches, "Scaling Agile at Visa: Navigating the Highs and Lows of Transforming a Financial Giant" unravels the journey of integrating a bespoke operating model, an enterprise-wide portfolio planning process, and a new toolset across a global workforce of over 10,000. This concise talk will share the pivotal challenges, triumphs...

Kendra Schmid
WillowTree, a Telus Intl Company
T12

Reluctance to Relishing—Rolling Out DORA Metrics to Skeptical Teams

Preview
Thursday, October 17, 2024 - 1:45pm to 2:45pm

Teams are rightfully skeptical when faced with a mandate to implement DORA metrics, especially when no effective rollout approach is considered. Kendra will outline the context, conflict, and climax of the story arc to ensure a smooth rollout. First the context: DORA metrics and their importance. A ‘burning platform’ of 'those who do not keep up will get left behind'. Then, the conflict: tension builds when distrust between a team and leadership when leadership mandates change without the why or how. Stories of two project teams will serve as examples. Finally, the climax which include...

Vijay Panwar
Panasonic Avionics Corporation
T13

Agile and DevOps Leadership

Thursday, October 17, 2024 - 1:45pm to 2:45pm

In the dynamic landscape of software development, agile and DevOps methodologies have emerged as cornerstones for achieving efficiency, innovation, and customer satisfaction. However, successful implementation requires adept leadership capable of navigating multifaceted challenges. During this session, Vijay will delve into common hurdles faced by leaders in agile and DevOps transformations. For instance, envision a scenario where a large enterprise embraces agile but struggles with traditional hierarchical structures. This creates tension between established protocols and agile's...