Conference Schedule

Sunday, October 13

Registration—7:30am–5:00pm
7:30 am to 5:00 pm
Breakfast—7:30am–8:30am
7:30 am to 8:30 am
Multi-day Training Classes Begin—8:30am–5:00pm
8:30 am to 5:00 pm
Agile & DevOps Leadership—ICAgile Certification
Mike Sowers
8:30 am to 5:00 pm

Designed for executives and organizational leaders, this highly-interactive, hands-on course will teach you what you need to know to successfully implement agile and DevOps in your organization.

Foundations of DevOps—ICAgile Certification
Tom Stiehm
8:30 am to 5:00 pm

DevOps combines development, testing, and operations and includes continuous integration, automated testing, continuous delivery, and rapid deployment practices. Learn to avoid the common mistakes of DevOps implementations and to leverage DevOps best practices. Upon completion attendees will be certified by the International Consortium for Agile and awarded the ICAgile Professional (ICP-FDO) designation.

Fundamentals of AI—ICAgile Certification (ICP-FAI)
Jeffery Payne
8:30 am to 5:00 pm

Unravel the complexities of machine learning and AI. Attendees will be awarded the ICAgile Professional- Foundations of AI (ICP-FAI) designation. 

Agile Fundamentals - ICAgile Certified Professional (ICP)
Jeff Pierce
8:30 am to 5:00 pm

Learn what agile is all about, why agile works, and how to effectively plan and develop software using agile principles. Successful participants will be certified by the International Consortium for Agile (ICAgile) and awarded the ICAgile Certified Professional designation (ICP).

Lunch—12:00pm–1:00pm
12:00 pm to 1:00 pm
Training Classes Continue—1:00pm–5:00pm
1:00 pm to 5:00 pm

Monday, October 14

Registration—7:00am–5:00pm
7:00 am to 5:00 pm
Breakfast—7:30am–8:30am
7:30 am to 8:30 am
Multi-day Training Classes Continue—8:30am–5:00pm
8:30 am to 5:00 pm
Full & Half-Day Tutorials—8:30am–12:00pm
8:30 am to 12:00 pm
Tutorial MA Facilitating Team Decisions
Tricia Broderick
8:30 am to 12:00 pm

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-...Read more

Tutorial MB A Quality Engineering Introduction to AI and Machine Learning
Philip Daye
8:30 am to 12:00 pm

Although there are several controversies and misunderstandings surrounding AI and machine learning, one thing is apparent — people have quality concerns about the safety, reliability, and trustworthiness of these types of systems. Not only are ML-based systems shrouded in mystery due to their largely black-box nature, they also tend to be unpredictable since they can adapt and learn new things at runtime. Validating ML systems is challenging and requires a cross-section of knowledge, skills, and experience from areas such as mathematics, data science, software engineering, cyber-security...Read more

Tutorial MC How to DevOps Your Testing Strategy – An Exercise in Value Stream Analysis
Adam Auerbach
8:30 am to 12:00 pm

The DevOps movement is here. Companies across many industries are breaking down siloed IT departments and federating them into product development teams. Testing and its practices are at the heart of these changes. Traditionally, IT organizations have been staffed with mostly manual testers and a limited number of automation and performance engineers. To keep pace with development in the new “you build it, you own it” environment, testing teams and individuals must develop new technical skills and even embrace coding to stay relevant and add greater value to the business. DevOps really...Read more

Tutorial ME Designing (Much) Better Agile Meetings
Arlen Bankston
8:30 am to 12:00 pm

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: e xploring the true purpose of agile meetings – Is the daily scrum more about status or planning? Is...Read more

Lunch—12:00pm–1:00pm
12:00 pm to 1:00 pm
Full & Half-Day Tutorials Continue—1:00pm–4:30pm
1:00 pm to 4:30 pm
Tutorial MF Leading Change
Tricia Broderick
1:00 pm to 4:30 pm

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.Read more

Tutorial MG Leveraging Generative AI for Software Productivity
Philip Daye
1:00 pm to 4:30 pm

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 that...Read more

Tutorial MH Badass Agile Coaching Skills for Everyone
Bob Galen
1:00 pm to 4:30 pm

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...Read more

Tutorial MI Essential Test-Driven Development with AI/LLM Assist: A Hands-On Workshop
Rob Myers
1:00 pm to 4:30 pm

Will AI take over developer and tester roles? Rob's investigations found that an AI/LLM bot can write effective implementations but will need very clear, descriptive specifications. Yes, we humans will need to write the tests first! Test-Driven Development (TDD) has allowed developers to do just that—to "think in tests"—for over 25 years. TDD combines engineering specification, developer testing, coding, and design in a fast feedback cycle that greatly reduces defects, debugging, and rework. Test-driven teams write a failing automated test that defines new behavior, then the "...Read more

Tutorial MJ The Liquid Agility Framework: Toolkit for Product Leaders
Arlen Bankston
1:00 pm to 4:30 pm

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...Read more

Speed Networking—5:15pm-6:00pm
5:15 pm to 6:00 pm

Tuesday, October 15

Breakfast—7:30am–8:30am
7:30 am to 8:30 am
Registration—7:30am–5:00pm
7:30 am to 5:00 pm
Full- and Half-Day Tutorials—8:30am–12:00pm
8:30 am to 12:00 pm
Tutorial TA Supercharge Your Workflow: To GitHub and Beyond
Derrick Roach
8:30 am to 4:30 pm

Whether you are new or experienced with GitHub this class is for you! Supercharging your workflow caters to anyone who wants to enhance their agile and DevOps process with the capabilities of GitHub. GitHub has long been the premier site for open-source projects and is now turning a pivotal corner into becoming the predominant platform for all aspects of the development lifecycle. Some examples of this include; protecting company code through various GitHub Products or curating marketplace actions and workflows prior to use. This tutorial will look at how to leverage GitHub Actions (CI/CD...Read more

Tutorial TB Creating a High-Performance Agile Team
Mary Thorn, Bob Galen
8:30 am to 12:00 pm

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...Read more

Tutorial TC Wrangling Your Untested Legacy Code: A Hands-On Workshop
Rob Myers
8:30 am to 12:00 pm

Although most agile developers would prefer to use Test-Driven Development (TDD) on everything, their products or systems usually contain existing untested "legacy" code which resists and stifles good TDD practices. Untested code is easily broken and can hide those defects for months. Even with TDD, a developer adding new behaviors to legacy code can quickly run into problems when that untested code must change. Characterization Testing (i.e., testing existing behaviors) is the ancillary technique that allows teams to strengthen their safety net of fast, automated tests. But adding tests...Read more

Tutorial TD Getting Started with AI and Machine Learning
Kaushal Dalvi
8:30 am to 12:00 pm

Are you a software professional who would like to learn to use AI and machine learning (ML), but don't know how to get started? One of the best ways to get into ML is by designing and completing small projects. Although you will ultimately need to understand the fundamentals of AI/ML, there's no reason why you can't learn foundational terms, concepts and principles as you put them into practice. Join Kaushal Dalvi as he introduces you to the world of applied machine learning. Kaushal will guide you through a series of ML projects end-to-end, enabling you to gain experience with creating...Read more

Tutorial TE Agile Project Failures: Root Causes and Corrective Actions
Jeffery Payne
8:30 am to 12:00 pm

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...Read more

Lunch—12:00pm–1:00pm
12:00 pm to 1:00 pm
Full- and Half-Day Tutorials Continue—1:00pm–4:30pm
1:00 pm to 4:30 pm
Tutorial TF The Craft of Highly Effective Agile Leadership
Mary Thorn, Bob Galen
1:00 pm to 4:30 pm

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...Read more

Tutorial TG MLOps: DevOps for Machine Learning
Jeffery Payne
1:00 pm to 4:30 pm

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...Read more

Tutorial TH Web Security Testing: The Basics and More
Tom Stiehm
1:00 pm to 4:30 pm

Web applications are often security critical or serve as front-ends for security critical applications, making web testing for vulnerabilities an essential part of software testing. Unfortunately, most software testers have not been taught how to identify web security issues while testing applications. Join Tom Stiehm as he shares what you need to know to security test web-based applications as part of your overall testing process. Learn about the most common web security vulnerabilities and how they are introduced into web code and exploited by hackers. Explore test techniques for...Read more

Tutorial TI An Agile-Not-Fragile Introduction to Microservices
Kaushal Dalvi
1:00 pm to 4:30 pm

The microservices architecture provides guidance for decomposing systems into small, loosely coupled, independently deployable and scalable services. Microservices align well with agile development and DevOps practices because they enable new increments of the system to be delivered earlier, more frequently, and even continuously throughout the lifecycle. However, as with all new paradigms, there are pros and cons that must be considered when transitioning onto a new landscape. Join Kaushal Dalvi as he gives you an agile-not-fragile introduction to microservices. You'll learn the...Read more

Welcome Reception—4:30pm–5:30pm
4:30 pm to 5:30 pm

Wednesday, October 16

Morning Yoga—6:45am–7:30am
6:45 am to 7:30 am
Registration—7:00am–5:00pm
7:00 am to 5:00 pm
Breakfast—7:30am–8:30am
7:30 am to 8:30 am
Networking Events—Speaker One-on-One (All Day)
7:30 am to 5:00 pm
Keynote K1 Everything Old Is New Again: Using What We Already Know for a Safer Future
Nathan Hamiel, Kudelski Security
8:30 am to 9:45 am

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...Read more

Networking Break in the Expo—9:45am–10:30am
9:45 am to 10:30 am
Visit the Expo—9:45am–2:00pm
9:45 am to 2:00 pm
Concurrent Sessions—10:30am–11:30am
10:30 am to 11:30 am
Industry Insights ITP1 AI-Driven Testing: Boosting Software Quality and Speed
Mason Henry, OpenText
10:30 am to 11:15 am

In today's fast-paced tech environment, traditional testing struggles to keep up with the complexity and speed of modern applications. This presentation explores how AI-driven testing transforms quality assurance with intelligent automation and analytics. We'll cover AI technologies like Computer Vision and GenAI, and their application in test case generation, defect root cause analysis, and automation optimization. Real-world examples will show how AI enhances test coverage, reduces time-to-market, and improves software reliability. Attendees will learn how to integrate AI into testing...Read more

Concurrent Session W1 Holistic Testing Strategies in an Agile World: Integrating Shift Left and Shift Right
Shuchi Rastogi, Electronic Arts (EA)
10:30 am to 11:30 am

In today's dynamic software development landscape, the pursuit of customer-centric, high-quality products is essential. This session delves into the art of aligning shift-left and shift-right testing strategies to ensure comprehensive and effective validation throughout the software development lifecycle. Explore real-world obstacles encountered by development team in traditional testing, prompting their transition to a modern approach. This transition led to significant improvements in software quality, cost efficiency, and led to a more dependable product delivery. Shuchi will discuss...Read more

Concurrent Session W2 Clean Your Cloud with Cloud Custodian
Gene Gotimer, Praeses, LLC
10:30 am to 11:30 am

One of the great things about using the cloud is how easy it is to spin up resources and use them. The downside is it is really easy to spin up resources and forget about them. Sprawl becomes a real problem. You waste money if you fail to shut them down when you finish with them or even overnight. And it isn’t just costs. Managing a cloud infrastructure can be a real pain. Who spun this up? What project is it for? Does it need to be shut down? When? Shouldn’t it be encrypted? Cloud Custodian is an easy-to-use framework that allows simple YAML files to specify how to gather, filter...Read more

Concurrent Session W3 AutoOps: How Generative AI and Prompt Engineering Turn Engineers into Superheroes, Not Replace Them
Jonathon Wright, Keysight
10:30 am to 11:30 am

Envision a DevOps realm infused with AI-driven superpowers, where a reliable AI companion revolutionizes the way we approach development. This companion doesn't just assist; it transforms the adventure of creating software that spanning the full spectrum of SDLC possibilities and pinpointing bugs in the most unexpected places. This is the essence of AI-augmented with human-in-the-loop, a paradigm where AI elevates engineers to maestros, orchestrating a symphony of enhanced augmented subject matter intelligence. By turbocharging the testing process to be quicker, smarter, and more efficient...Read more

Concurrent Session W4 From Vision to Velocity: Accelerating Agile Testing with Generative AI
Philip Daye, EMARKETER
10:30 am to 11:30 am

In the rapidly evolving landscape of agile and DevOps, traditional methods of testing business-facing features often struggle to keep pace with the demands for faster and more thorough testing. However, the fusion of traditional testing wisdom with cutting-edge AI presents a unique opportunity to enhance software quality and delivery speed, offering innovative solutions to longstanding challenges. Join Philip Daye and examine key test design techniques—such as equivalence partitioning, boundary value analysis, decision table testing, and state transition testing—and explore how Generative...Read more

Concurrent Session W5 Don’t F*ck Up the Culture: Operationalizing Experiences for Customers and Employees
Charlotte Chang, WillCo Tech
10:30 am to 11:30 am

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...Read more

Concurrent Sessions—11:45am–12:45pm
11:45 am to 12:45 pm
Industry Insights ITP3 Bringing Back Test Design Thinking in Agile Development
Sai Sasidhar, Muffins, Ravi Krishna, Muffins
11:45 am to 12:30 pm

Quality doesn’t happen by accident; it needs to be planned and designed thoroughly. Designing quality in today’s fast-paced agile environment is quite a challenge. Our talk will share emerging trends in the field of testing, while also demonstrating how effective test design and automation can be achieved within agile teams.Read more

Concurrent Session W6 Enhancing Agile and DevOps Practices: Leveraging Postman API Software for Enhanced Testing Efficiency in Tackling Real-World Challenges Preview
Patrick Gladney, US Army Corps of Engineers
11:45 am to 12:45 pm

In today's fast-paced software development environment, regression testing stands as a crucial yet resource-intensive endeavor. An instance illustrating the resource-intensive nature of regression testing involved Patrick Gladney's team attempting to conduct tests across 13 distinct production servers. The challenge was compounded by the uncertainty surrounding malfunctioning servers, of which they remained unaware until customer complaints surfaced, indicating an inability to perform transactions within the application. Leveraging his expertise in software testing and...Read more

Concurrent Session W7 Scale Test Environments Using Cloud Infrastructure for Continuous Testing Preview
David Dang, Zenergy Technologies
11:45 am to 12:45 pm

The challenges of managing test environments in the fast-paced world of software development are numerous, ranging from complexity and resource limitations. Traditional on-premises solutions often offer limited scalability and cause bottlenecks that hinder continuous testing. This presentation tackles these challenges head-on by proposing a shift to cloud-based test environments underpinned by Infrastructure as Code. By embracing the cloud, organizations can dynamically create and tear down test environments as needed, freeing up valuable resources. Integration with CI/CD...Read more

Concurrent Session W9 Revolutionizing Quality Assurance and DevOps: Integrating Generative AI and Machine Learning
Rahul Kumar, EPAM Systems
11:45 am to 12:45 pm

In a world where both software complexity and the need for rapid deployment are increasing, traditional testing methodologies often fall short. The challenge is maintaining high-quality software while matching the pace of agile and DevOps without overwhelming the QA team. This presentation will address this problem and demonstrate innovative solutions by integrating Generative AI and Machine Learning in this interaction. Rahul will explore how these technologies can be utilized for predictive modeling in test case management, spotting operational anomalies more efficiently, dynamic test...Read more

Concurrent Session W10 Designing Resilient Event-Driven Data Mesh Architecture
Sunil (Om) Sharma, Capital One, Bharat Nagpal, Inspira Financial
11:45 am to 12:45 pm

Most enterprises deal with large scale data. There are common challenges involved in managing data. One such challenge faced by distributed applications is effective processing, identifying transactional boundaries, and exchange of data across disparate systems, where governance, modeling, ownership, and consumption considerations are tenets. An event-driven data mesh provides capabilities to power both operational & analytical use cases, in both real time & batch. It provides the framework necessary for creating, communicating, and using data. In request-response architecture,...Read more

Lunch in the Expo—12:45pm–1:45pm
12:45 pm to 1:45 pm
Keynote K2 AI & The Impact on How We Work
Jen Krieger, GitHub
1:45 pm to 2:45 pm

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...Read more

Concurrent Sessions—3:00pm–4:00pm
3:00 pm to 4:00 pm
Concurrent Session W11 Becoming the Bottleneck - Embrace the Challenges of Testing in an Agile Environment Preview
Aaron Evans, One Shore
3:00 pm to 4:00 pm

Testing has a bad reputation for being slow & costly. Speed, price, quality—pick two, right? How can we ensure that testing does not become the bottleneck? We first have admit that we have a problem, and then look at the root causes of why testing is slow and expensive. Among these are: lack of clear requirements and priorities, unclear testing processes and delivery procedures, misaligned goals between product, development, QA, & Ops teams, unreasonable expectations (such as 100% test coverage), inefficient (or unreliable) test automation, lack of ability to parallelize...Read more

Concurrent Session W12 Continuous Integration of AWS Serverless Applications
Dion Johnson, KwaanBear
3:00 pm to 4:00 pm

The primary draw for implementation of AWS serverless applications is the supposed simplicity. Anyone that has attempted to implement testing within a CI pipeline on a serverless application, however, knows that it is anything but simple. Serverless technologies allow for the faster construction of more complex applications with more complex integrations while also providing new technologies and execution environments, all of which pose a challenge to those used to testing in a more traditional way. This presentation looks at an API-based serverless application as an example and introduces...Read more

Concurrent Session W14 Gen AI: A Co-Pilot to Better Value Sooner, Safer, and Happier in Digital Transformation
Paromita Sarkar, Voya Financials
3:00 pm to 4:00 pm

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...Read more

Concurrent Session W15 Maximizing Observability in Cloud-Native Architecture: The Role of OpenTelemetry Preview
Monalisha Singh, NetApp, Inc.
3:00 pm to 4:00 pm

Cloud-native architecture involves breaking down software components into smaller, loosely coupled applications known as microservices. While this approach can effectively address scalability issues in the cloud, it can also introduce greater complexity. Identifying the root cause of a microservice failure can be challenging if there is not enough data available. As such, a well-designed cloud-native system should incorporate logs, metrics, and traces to facilitate effective root cause analysis. OpenTelemetry offers simple and effective tools for implementing observability in a...Read more

Visit the Expo—3:30pm–6:30pm
3:30 pm to 6:30 pm
Networking Break in the Expo—4:00pm–4:30pm
4:00 pm to 4:30 pm
Keynote K3 Panel: How AI is Revolutionizing the Entire SDLC
Adam Auerbach, EPAM Systems, Jen Krieger, GitHub, Nathan Hamiel, Kudelski Security , Charlotte Chang, WillCo Tech, Jeffery Payne, Coveros
4:30 pm to 5:30 pm

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...Read more

Expo Reception & Passport Game Prize Drawings—5:30pm–6:30pm
5:30 pm to 6:30 pm

Thursday, October 17

Morning Yoga—6:45am–7:30am
6:45 am to 7:30 am
Breakfast—7:30am–8:30am
7:30 am to 8:30 am
Networking Events—Speaker One-on-One (All Day)
7:30 am to 3:00 pm
Registration—8:00am–3:00pm
8:00 am to 3:00 pm
Keynote K4 MLOps for Responsible AI: Techniques for Ensuring AI Quality
Carlos Kidman, Qualiti
8:30 am to 9:30 am

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...Read more

Visit the Expo—9:30am–2:00pm
9:30 am to 2:00 pm
Networking Break in the Expo—9:45am–10:15am
9:45 am to 10:15 am
Concurrent Sessions—10:15am–11:15am
10:15 am to 11:15 am
Concurrent Session T1 Designing Agile Plays in a Complex Organization
Desiree Lorell, United States Space Force
10:15 am to 11:15 am

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:...Read more

Concurrent Session T2 5 Tools for Navigating Regulatory and Risk Mitigation in Agile Processes
Jennifer Wilhelmi, S&P Global, Natalia Kuzmina, S&P Global Ratings
10:15 am to 11:15 am

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...Read more

Concurrent Session T3 Navigating the Path to Agile Excellence: Metrics that Matter in DevOps Transformation Preview
Cholette Voehl, Discover Financial Services
10:15 am to 11:15 am

In today's rapidly evolving tech landscape, transitioning to agile and DevOps practices is crucial for organizational growth. However, many teams struggle to gauge their progress effectively within these methodologies. In this insightful session, Cholette will explore the key metrics that drive success in agile and DevOps adoption, focusing on best practices that can be applied across various organizational settings. Delving into essential metrics drawn from industry best practices, Cholette will shed light on the critical indicators for understanding progress and fostering...Read more

Concurrent Session T4 From Concept to Code: Leveraging LLMs for Agile Excellence
Justin Beall, Artium
10:15 am to 11:15 am

Unlock the next level of agile and XP development by integrating Large Language Models (LLMs) like ChatGPT and GitHub Copilot across the software development lifecycle. This presentation unveils how leveraging LLMs from initial ideation to final deployment transforms agile practices, enriching pair programming, test-driven development, and continuous integration with innovative AI capabilities. Learn to automate and refine development tasks, enhance specification clarity, and boost testing efficiency with ChatGPT, optimizing every phase of agile workflows for superior product quality and...Read more

Concurrent Session T5 Beyond Boundaries: Own Your Career Journey
Trish Cappiello, Main Line Health
10:15 am to 11:15 am

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.Read more

Networking Break in the Expo—11:15am–11:45am
11:15 am to 11:45 am
Concurrent Sessions—11:45am–12:45pm
11:45 am to 12:45 pm
Concurrent Session T6 Collaborating Through Silence
Bryan Young, Edward Jones
11:45 am to 12:45 pm

"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...Read more

Concurrent Session T7 Top 10 Lessons I Learned for Leading Agile Teams Preview
Chris Knobbe, Edward Jones
11:45 am to 12:45 pm

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...Read more

Concurrent Session T8 Containerization and Orchestration: Transforming Healthcare Apps with DevOps Automation Preview
Sindhu Gandavarapu, Clareto
11:45 am to 12:45 pm

This session will focus on the application of containerization and orchestration technologies within healthcare and integration of HIPAA compliance and robust security measures in healthcare DevOps. These technologies not only enhance operational efficiency but also ensure adherence to critical security and regulatory standards in healthcare. Sindu will cover case studies and future strategies on evolving security and HIPAA regulations and cybersecurity threats with patient data. Attendees will walk away with: the basics of container technologies and HIPAA compliance, Microsoft...Read more

Concurrent Session T9 Are AI Assistants the Death of Programmers?
Jeffery Payne, Coveros
11:45 am to 12:45 pm

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...Read more

Concurrent Session T10 Navigating Through AI: The Test Manager's Guide to Staying Relevant
Maryna Didkovska, EPAM Systems
11:45 am to 12:45 pm

Gen AI and LLM topics are currently on heavy rotation and the IT domain is experiencing highs and lows of excitement regarding performance breakthroughs and fears that software engineers will be replaced by prompts tomorrow. Their concerns are not unreasonable—we can think of code development as language-to-language transformation, but what about the project governance and the managers who were shaping it? Where do they fit in the new AI-based IT world? As a Head of European Quality Engineering Practice in a global company with 50K+ employees, Maryna will share her experiences in dealing...Read more

Lunch in the Expo—12:45pm–1:45pm
12:45 pm to 1:45 pm
Concurrent Sessions—1:45pm–2:45pm
1:45 pm to 2:45 pm
Industry Insights ITP11 AI-Assisted Development: Using GitHub Copilot and Other Tools to Accelerate Delivery
Jeffery Payne, Coveros
1:45 pm to 2:30 pm

There is no question that Generative AI models can improve the productivity of almost every role within the software development process. Tools like GitHub Copilot, Amazon CodeWhisperer, Tabnine, and more, can be critical tools to help developers do their jobs better and faster. Join Coveros CEO Jeffery Payne to explore how Generative AI solutions help software developers generate and supplement code and even suggest improvements to what you’ve already created.Read more

Concurrent Session T11 Scaling Agile at Visa: Navigating the Highs and Lows of Transforming a Financial Giant Preview
Sannette Coetzee, Acolar Inc
1:45 pm to 2:45 pm

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,...Read more

Concurrent Session T12 Reluctance to Relishing—Rolling Out DORA Metrics to Skeptical Teams Preview
Kendra Schmid, WillowTree, a Telus Intl Company
1:45 pm to 2:45 pm

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 the...Read more

Concurrent Session T13 Agile and DevOps Leadership
Vijay Panwar, Panasonic Avionics Corporation
1:45 pm to 2:45 pm

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...Read more

Agile + DevOps Leadership Summit Reception—3:00pm–4:00pm (Summit Registration Required)
3:00 pm to 4:00 pm

Friday, October 18

Registration—7:30am–3:00pm
7:30 am to 3:00 pm
Breakfast—7:30am–8:30am
7:30 am to 8:30 am
Agile + DevOps Leadership Summit
8:30 am to 3:30 pm
Successfully Incorporating AI into Your Organization Thursday, October 17 (evening) and Friday, October 18 (all day)

As artificial intelligence (AI) continues to revolutionize industries, leaders must explore the impact AI has on their business strategies and direction. From setting strategic visions for AI adoption to fostering ethical and responsible AI practices, strong leadership is essential for successful AI adoption and implementation. But like any transformational change, some challenges and pitfalls must be overcome to make AI successful within today’s agile and DevOps software...Read more