Agile India Conferences at Mumbai and Bengaluru – Program Updates

If you haven’t already heard about Agile India [ASCI] conferences at Mumbai and Bengaluru : Jan 16-17 and Jan 22-23 respectively, then you can find more information about them here: http://www.agileindia.org/agileindia2010

I was looking at the Program Agenda in the conferences and it seems like these are heavily oriented around People and People Management. There is only one direct topic on Product Engineering on one/ more of the many popular engineering techniques.

Let us look at the Mumbai conference:

• Jeff Patton, is a renowned figure in Agile Product Design. He would be delivering KeyNote 1 on the topic: Outside the Code: Using Agile Ideas to drive Product Success. As a product manager, this seems like a great topic. Excited 🙂
• Monkey See, Monkey Do : [earlier titled a bit more provocatively] : promises to be a provocative look at the world of Agile coaching/ experts and even some practices. Go in, with no expectations and be surprised [or startled :-)].
• Getting Ready To Produce – What is Needed Before Iteration 1 is a great topic and would definitely be helpful to all the teams. I know this, because a lot of teams ask me this question all the time.
• Continuous Monitoring (for Continuous Improvement) is another excellent topic and something that all managers would love – how to track/ meet tracking requirements
• David Hussman, another renowned figure would be delivering Keynote 2: Adding Sanity to Your Agility: Doing What Works Over Doing What You are Told. Humn! Go for the speaker and not the title. You will benefit for sure 🙂
• Analysis Anti Patterns, a great topic [and rare to see Analysis topics in Agile Conferences]. I am sure it would be a must for all the BAs and PMs out there.
• Agile Adoption with Augmented Distributed Team for developing on top of existing application, is a heavy duty title and also a case study. Hence, this would really be exciting. I am sure everyone who works with distributed teams would take back important tips.
• A Critical Look at CMM and Agile Through Gen Y is a talk I am looking forward to personally. The title says it all and working with Gen Y for many years now, I think I can do with all the tips anyone can share.
• Scott Shaw, kicks of the second day with Lean Concepts for IT Professionals. With everyone focusing on “Next Generation Agile”, it is good to go back to the basics.
• Using ToC and JIT to coach Agile Teams is for all the Agile Coaches and would be coaches.
• User Story Mapping is the second topic focused around planning and analysis. Again, would be useful for anyone involved in planning, estimating and analysis.
• Test Automation strategies for Agile is the only engineering related topic in the schedule. And probably the most relevant one too.
• Agile Fiascos – Art Gallery is the second most awaited talk for me in the conference.
• Agile Adoption Failure Modes is for you if you are into a few years of your Agile adoption. It might just hit a nerve or motivate you or do both.
• Evolutionary Architecture and Design just about sums about the Product Design/ Analysis theme perfectly.

Some of the above talks are not featured in Bengaluru. Analysis Anti Patterns, Test Automation Strategies for Agile, Lean Concepts for IT professionals and Evolutionary Architecture and Design are not there in Bengaluru. However, they have some exhilarating talks nonetheless.

• Facilitating Dialogue in situations of Conflict is an excellent topic and I am already feeling guilty of not being there to hear this talk.
• Cultural Challenges in Global Agile and Offshore Agile Challenges and Mitigation Strategies are excellent topics too – more focused and would definitely be interesting to listen to.
• Breaking the Monotony – another one that hits the nerve : pertinent to the core.
• Babysteps to Agility by Jann Thomas is perfect for everyone still looking for a buy-in : inside them or outside them.

Above all, I think it will be great in both the locations, although I will want to be at Bengaluru too 🙂