Well, maybe not the center of the Agile universe, but there sure is a lot going on this month in and around the DC area (with most of it occurring in the Northern VA area). Take a look:
Summary
September 30th | Agile Alliance Board Reception 6:30PM to 9:30PM, The Westin Hotel @ Tyson's Corner |
October 6th | PMI Fairview Park Luncheons: Agile Project Management - Truths and Misconceptions Exposed Presented by me :) 11:30AM – 1PM, Falls Church, VA |
October 6th | DC/NOVA Scrum User Group - Enterprise War Stories 6:30PM, Bungalow Billiards in Chantilly, VA |
October 7th | APLN DC Chapter Meeting - The Art of Storytelling Presented by Fadi Stephan 6:30PM – 9PM, Vienna, VA |
October 8th | Agile Influencers DC 5:30PM, Argia's Resturant, Falls Church, VA |
October 9th – 12th | PMI Global Congress All day events from 10/9 through 10/12 My session "Agile at the Office of Personnel Management: A True Story" 10/12 @ 2:15-3:15PM Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center, National Harbor, MD |
October 22nd | Agile Tour DC 9AM – 5PM, near Tenleytown Metro, Washington, DC |
Details
Agile Alliance Board Reception
This is a great opportunity to meet the new Agile Alliance Board of Directors, now featuring local Agilist Linda Cook. If you plan on attending, please RSVP to Gale Niles at admin@agilealliance.org. For more information, see http://www.agilealliance.org/index.php/events/agile_alliance_board_reception.
Agile Alliance Board Reception
September 30, 2010, 6:30 pm to 9:00 pm
The Westin Tysons Corner
7801 Leesburg Pike
Falls Church, VA 22043
PMI Fairview Park Luncheons: Agile Project Management - Truths and Misconceptions Exposed
In this interactive presentation, I will be presenting a series of Agile Truth or Misconception questions to the audience and we will interactively explore this topic. This promises to be an interesting session for those just learning Agile as well as good for those deep in Agile.
There is no fee for this session, but it is a brown bag lunch session. There is a cafeteria in front of the auditorium in the Noblis building where one can purchase lunch and bring to the presentation. More information available at http://www.pmiwdc.org/2010/10/Fairview
Wednesday, October 6, 2010
11:30 am: Networking
12:00 pm – 1:00 pm: Program
3150 Fairview ParkDrive South
Falls Church, VA 22042
DC/NOVA Scrum User Group - Enterprise War Stories
This DC/NOVA Scrum User Group is a relatively new user group formed by the Motley Fool's Max Keeler. The format is a round table discussion kicked off by a general topic. The fun thing is that we meet at a pub, so there are drinks involved. See Max's notes below for more details. More information available at http://groups.google.com/group/dcnova-scrum-user-group and http://groups.google.com/group/dcnova-scrum-user-group/browse_thread/thread/5c5d9a12a02f629b. Unfortunately, I will be out of town for this event, but it promises to be a good session.
From Max:
- Meet-up starts at 6:30 here: http://www.mapquest.com/mq/3-pZZiy7mckDBB
- The topic will be: "Enterprise Scrum implementation war stories: What has worked, what has failed and everything in between."
- Like last time, we'll chat informally until about 7:30 allowing people to filter in.
- At 7:30ish we'll start discussing the topic, and break into groups if necessary.
- We seem to end at around 9.
Wednesday, October 6th
6:30PM to 9PM
Bungalow Billiard & Brew Co
13891 Metrotech Dr
Chantilly, VA 20151
(703) 502-3925
APLN DC Chapter Meeting - The Art of Storytelling
The Agile Project Leadership Network (APLN) DC chapter meeting generally occurs on the second Thursday of every month and is in presentation format. I'm very excited about this month presentation and disappointed that I will miss it because I will be out of town. Fadi Stephan will be presenting "The Art of Storytelling". The summary reads as follows:
"Agilists use user stories as a way to capture user requirements and drive the planning process for iterative and incremental delivery of software. In this presentation we'll see the benefits of using user stories over other types of requirements gathering approaches. After mastering the basic concepts and attributes of user stories, we will progress quickly and discuss different techniques for user role modeling, methods for capturing requirements, criteria for splitting or merging stories, and ways to handle dependencies, constraints, assumptions, and non-functional requirements. We'll wrap up with clear guidelines on writing effective user stories."
I have seen so many teams struggle with writing and using User Stories and I think this session will be great for helping attendees get a deeper understanding of User Stories. Since I work with Fadi and will not be in town for his presentation, I look forward to chatting with Fadi about his presentation. More information available at http://aplndcoctober2010.eventbrite.com/
Thursday, October 7th
6:30 to 9PM
AT & T Facility
1900 Gallows Rd.
Vienna, VA 22182
Agile Influencers DC
After the recent Agile Coach Camp in North Carolina, Paul Boos noted that there were quite a few attendees from the Northern Virginia Area. Thus he started the Agile Influencers of DC group. This group meets on the second Friday of every month. The meeting generally start with lightening round presentation/discussion around specific topics followed by group discussions. The fun thing is that the meeting occurs a Argia's Restaurant, which is a great Italian place in Falls Church. For more information, see http://www.coactivate.org/projects/agile-influencers-of-dc/summary
Friday, October 8th
Argia's Restaurant
124 North Washington Street
Falls Church, VA 22046-4514
Tel: (703) 534-1033
Web: www.argias.com
Google Map: http://bit.ly/cVixWL
PMI Global Congress
Now this is interesting, at this year's PMI Global Congress, there are at least 14 separate talks on the subject of Agile. I'm not sure what the numbers were in the past, but I have to believe this is a record. As I was filling out my registration program (unlike the Agile conference, PMI makes you pre-select all your sessions) I realized that there was at least one Agile presentation during every time slot of this 4 day conference. That is amazing!
I, along with David Neumann, will be presenting on the topic of Agile at the Office of Personnel Management (http://congresses.pmi.org/NorthAmerica2010/TheCongress/AOF/Event.cfm?EventID=196). For more information, see http://congresses.pmi.org/NorthAmerica2010/TheCongress/
October 9th through 12th
Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center
201 Waterfront Street
National Harbor, MD 20745
Agile Tour DC
This one is also very exciting. The Agile Tour DC is a one day event in DC that will feature 3 tracks:
- Agile Essentials – Get the skills you need to get started.
- Enterprise and Government Agility – See how it works in the large and hear from a Panel of practitioners working in government.
- Open Talks Track – Create the conference you want in this Open Space (like) track. Don't see a talk on one of the other two tracks propose one or attend one of the 4 concurrent Open Talks.
For more information, see http://agiledc.org/. Use the code "AgileDC" for $10 off registration.
October 22nd
9AM – 5PM
Conference Center
4000 Wisconsin Ave, NW
Washington, DC 20016