Cars, Trains, and Kanban - How to Move Faster

When: March 10, 2016  (Second Thursday) Networking: 5:30 - 6:00 pm Program: 6:00 - 7:30 pm

Agile practitioners adopt kanban with high expectations: decreased cycle time, increased throughput and a clearer look at where projects stand. But where do all these high hopes come from? And how do you make them come true? In this talk, we’ll explore the underlying principles behind kanban—from systems thinking to lean manufacturing—and draw some fun parallels to everything from car traffic to passenger trains. Understanding these core concepts is the real key to moving faster with kanban. 

This talk is for agile beginners, teams who are considering or have recently adopted kanban, and teams who want to optimize their kanban process.

They’ll learn: 

• What kanban really means—a brief history and how it applies to agile software development 
• Why limiting work in progress (WIP) is essential to speeding up your development efforts + tips for setting WIP limits 
• The right way to pull cards from one state to the next (and why it’s a lot like trains) 
• How to spot bottlenecks in your process, fix them and maximize output

Peter Kananen is a Partner and Delivery Manager at Gaslight (www.teamgaslight.com), an agile software development company that works with everyone from growing San Francisco startups and disruptive education companies to Fortune 500 giants like P&G and Omnicare. Peter spends his days tracking the happiness of teams and clients, always trying to provide just enough support and guidance to keep things headed in the right direction. Every project at Gaslight follows lean and agile principles and uses kanban. He’s spoken at CocoaConf and Agile Cincinnati, and helped start the Cincinnati Cocoa Dev user group.

PMP's: this event counts as 1 PDU

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The Eight Constants of Change: What Leaders Need to Know to Drive Change and Win

When: February 11, 2016  (Second Thursday) Networking: 5:30 - 6:00 pm Program: 6:00 - 7:30 pm

February’s presentation highlights the best practices in driving organizational change. It answers questions such as: What do employees need during times of change, transition and growth? What elements are required to manage change successfully? And, what is a leader’s role during change?

This program will help professionals understand their role and the key elements they can participate in and champion to help drive and sustain business change. This approach directly affects employee understanding and adoption of operational and strategic changes.

NEW: Darren Terrell will warm us up with a 10 +/- 5 min lightning talk on DISC

Kate Nelson has over 20 years of business and change management experience helping large and small companies worldwide get people ready, willing, and able to work in new ways. Kate is the co-author of two popular books on organizational change management, The Change Management Pocket Guide and The Eight Constants of Change. Kate has provided change management consulting and training to large and small organizations around the world as they implement change.  Kate's clients have spanned the retail, consumer products, life sciences, healthcare, and manufacturing industries. Kate has authored articles in regionally, nationally, and internationally distributed publications and is frequently cited as an expert in the field of organizational change. Kate is also a frequent speaker at conferences and organizational events on the topic of managing change and developing an engaged and productive workforce.  Before co-founding Change Guides in 2005, Kate worked with Deloitte Consulting serving clients and shaping the firm's change management practice.  She earned a BS from the College of William and Mary, an MBA from the Fisher School of Business and an MS from the School of Natural Resources at Ohio State University. Kate is currently a member of the Board of Directors of the global Association of Change Management Professionals (ACMP).  She currently lives in Cincinnati Ohio.

PMP's: this event counts as 1 PDU

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January Meeting: Scaling and Measuring Agile Adoption

When: January 14, 2016  (Second Thursday) Networking: 5:30 - 6:00 pm Program: 6:00 - 7:30 pm

As Agile methods have become common, adoption within a single development team is fairly straightforward. Scaling and measuring Agile methods with multiple teams often proves much more challenging. This session covers the keys to success in scaling and measuring Agile methods beyond a single team.

Key points include:

• The importance of Agile People, Agile Process, and Agile Tools
• The need to focus on measuring information which aids in decisions and actions.
• Agile maturity at all levels: individual, team, and organization-wide
• Self-improvement mechanisms
• Gaining a true understanding of Agile fundamentals
• Implementing one-piece-flow
• Important elements to measure success including: story points forecast vs done, reduction of hardening time, cycle time, work in progress, Net Promoter Score, and profits

Prathima Bhima is a multi-faceted delivery oriented Agile Practitioner with passion for continuous improvement. She has exercised astute thought leadership with several years of Customer Engagement experience and has a proven track record leveraging agile practices to consistently deliver exceptional results at a sustainable pace. Prathima is skilled in the art of Scrum & Agile Development, while building and managing relationships with project, program & portfolio level stakeholders. Moreover, she has experience in Software Development, Project management and Technology operations, including DevOps, with over a decade of experience working for Fortune 500 companies in the Banking & Financial Service & Federal Government entities.

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December Meeting: 4th Annual Holiday Mixer

It's time for the 4th Annual Agile Cincinnati Holiday Mixer!  Come join your Agile Cincinnati leadership team and sponsors at the Fox & Hound in Mason for an evening of networking and fun.  Learn more about Agile Cincinnati, help us understand how to be a better organization for you, or just come to learn more about each other and have fun!  This year we are using our sponsorship dollars to raffle prizes throughout the evening including a Samsung Galaxy Tablet (details below).  Additionally, Eliassen Group will be raffling a special prize. Don’t miss the fun and special surprises all evening long!  

Holiday Mixer Sponsorship

In addition to their annual sponsorship, the following sponsors have generously offered to sponsor the cost of the appetizers and the room, so please be sure to thank their representatives at the event! Members are responsible for purchasing their own beverages.

Door Prize – must be present to win.

Enter to win a Samsung Galaxy Tab A 8" 16GB (Wi-Fi), Smoky Titanium
 

 

When: December 10, 2015  (Second Thursday)
Time: 6:00 - 8:00 pm (room reserved until 9 pm)
Where: Fox & Hound Sports Tavern, 5113 Bowen Dr, Mason, OH 45040

Please register through Eventbrite so we have an idea of how many people to expect

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