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CA at Agile 2018 Conference - Day 3 & 4

By Caitlin Lam posted Aug 14, 2018 11:27 AM

  

On Wednesday morning, keynote speaker Troy Magennis spoke about the importance of data utilization in Agile working environments. He emphasized that "it's not good enough to just show data in a chart". People need to see and understand the importance of data they are being shown, and know how to properly act and react to that data, in order to make an impact in business and development decision making.

 

Tweet-worthy takeaways:

  • Practicing “Watermelon Status” (green on the outside, red on the inside) deludes us and makes us unable to handle risks effectively and predict reasonable outcomes.
  • "The more interdependencies your team has, the more likely the feature/deliverable will be delayed."
  • "We learn more from uncertain outcomes. That means we need to release more often to verify out hypotheses."
  • “We do forecasts and estimates not to find out that we are right. We do forecasts and estimates to find out that we are wrong."

 

View the live recording of his keynote here: What's the story about Agile Data | Agile Alliance 

 

On Wednesday afternoon, Christine Hudson (Advisor, Enterprise Agility, CA Technologies) and Eric Willeke (Principal at Eric Willeke and Associates, Inc) presented on the topic of "Leadership Agility - The Executive stance in an agile business".

 

Tweet-worthy takeaways:

  • “Culture is the sum of all behaviors, especially ones demonstrated by the leadership team.“
  • (On leadership agility) “To make a positive culture change in an organization, you must ‘do’ and teach as you do.”
  • [On unintentional undermining] “If business and IT teams have competing incentives, it naturally pits them against each other.”
  • How to build a cohesive leadership team? “Find a way for managers to be vulnerable with each other... and even learn to put the goals of other managers first.”

 

Ronica Roth (Advisor & Team Lead, Agility Services, CA) and Michael Ball-Marian (Director of New Product Incubation) held a session on "The 3 Key Steps to Agility You Skipped: A manager's guide to intentional culture change".

 

Tweet-worthy Takeaways:

  • “Good decisions require strong facilitation. Make facilitation efforts a core part of your agile transformation.”
  • “It’s not only the scrum master’s job, but also the manager’s job to make the powerful connection between agile principles and agile practices.”
  • “Retrospectives are one of the foundational components of agile.” We need to properly inspect and reflect on our experiences in order to enable continuous learning.

On Wednesday evening, the exhibitors held a special Happy Hour event, in which CA tapped into the beach-themed spirit complete with inflatable beach balls, festive swimming tubes, light-up cups, a beverage bar and even more fun giveaways.

 

Thursday morning, Laureen Knudsen (Executive Advisor, Agile Management, CA) and Doug Dockery (Daugherty Business Solutions) presented to a full room of attendees on the topic of "The Modern PMO", sharing their stories and experiences leading some of the top agile transformations across the country.

 

Tweet-worthy takeaways:

  • [On software waste] “Up to 80% of products lose money, and 60-80% of products are never used.”
  • “If you’re going to build (software), it has to have value for your customers and there needs to be measurements in place. Otherwise it is waste.”
  • “What is value? Value is: money earned, money saved, or risk mitigated. Make sure your customers know the context of the value you’re providing them through key metrics.”
  • [In the Modern PMO] “Provide support to your leaders, give your executives the data they need to run the business, and force trust, collaboration and knowledge-sharing.”

 

Laureen and Doug raffled 5 copies of their book, "Modern Business Management: Creating a Built-to-Change Organization" that details what a C-level executive needs to know about agility management to compete and win in today's fast-paced markets.

 

Purchase an eBook or softcover copy of Modern Business Management: Modern Business Management - Creating a Built-to-Change Organization | Doug Dockery | Apress 

 

Marla Schimke (Sr. Director, Demand Generation, CA) and Laureen Knudsen recorded an AgilityCast video/podcast to discuss some of the emerging terms "Weaponized Agile" and "Industrialized Agile" that have been heard throughout the agile community and conference. Laureen provides her expert definitions of both terms, and explains how "Weaponized Agile" can hinder an agile transformation, whereas "Industrialized Agile" can help an organization reap the benefits of agility. AgilityCast episode coming soon!

 

 

Read more of this series:

 

Thanks for spending the week at Agile 2018 with the CA team, or following along through the blog recap series!

 

Didn’t make it to Agile 2018 this year? Our experienced team of agile and agile software experts are ready and willing to help you create a purpose-driven culture in your organization. Learn more at: https://www.ca.com/endtoend

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