ROCK Your Retros!!

Are your Retrospectives in retrograde? Are they dull, boring and predictable? Are they like bad cover versions of your once favorite song? Do your “Lessons Learned” make you wonder whether we learned anything at all?

While the work of retros is serious, it doesn’t have to be somber. Terry presents a variety of ideas to spice up your retros and amp them up! Learn how to get the most out of retros and make sure they are an investment not a cost. You’re sure to come away with new ideas and new resources you can use to start planning your next retro tomorrow and take it to the top of the charts!
 

Terry Wiegmann is a Director and the Quality Assurance Service Line Lead with Quick Solutions, LLC. She was the founding president of the Columbus Chapter of the IIBA, and was an Awesome Woman in Agile nominee. She is an IIBA Certified Business Analysis Professional, an ASQ Certified Software Quality Engineer, a Professional Scrum Product Owner and an Advanced Toastmaster Gold. She has a solid background and hands-on experience in both quality assurance and business analysis in commercial and back office software, across waterfall and agile approaches. She presents frequently on agile practices, business analysis, quality assurance and test automation, including Agile2014. She is passionate about helping analysts and teams have courage, celebrate learning and continually improve, and has  been published in AgileConnection, Sticky Minds and Best Practices for Better Business Analysis.  

PMP's:  This Event Counts for 1 PDU

Networking: 5:30 - 6pm
Program: 6 - 7:30 pm

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June Meeting: A Primer On Self Organizing Teams

You’ve heard that self organizing teams are very effective and a precept of agile, yet most of the context of self organization revolves around scrum and extreme programming. This session presents a model for categorizing the effectiveness of behavior related to self organization and clarifies where self organization is occurring and where it is not.

As part of this session we will use experiential learning exercises to discover answers to tough questions such as:

• What is the difference between a team and a work group?
• What’s the difference between self-organizing, self-directing, self-managing?
• How do you manage self organization and avoid a chaotic mob?
• Is a self-organizing team always the best choice?
• How is self organization in lean or Kanban environments different than Scrum or XP?

Wear your sneakers because this will be a very active presentation.

Dr. Charles Suscheck specializes in software development methodologies, and project management. He is one of only 8 people in the world and 4 in the USA certified to teach the entire scrum.org curriculum and the first person in the world certified to teach the Scrum.org Scaling Professional Scrum course. He has over 25 years of professional experience in information technology, beginning his career as a software developer. Dr. Suscheck’s holds a Doctorate, Masters, and Bachelors in Computer Science and is a Professional Scrum Trainer (PST), Professional Scrum Master (PSM I and II), Certified Scrum Master (CSM), certified Scrum Practitioner (CSP) and certified RUP specialist. An educator at heart, he has over 30 published articles and conference proceedings and has spoken nationally and internationally at various software management conferences.

PMP's:  This Event Counts for 1 PDU

Networking: 5:30 - 6pm

Program: 6 - 7:30 pm

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May Meeting: Real-World Agile Transformation - A One Year Case Study

A consistent challenge companies face are finding real-world ways to implement Agile practices in a large, possibly waterfall, environment.  People with day-to-day business problems are often confronted with theories and textbook approaches that may not seem practical in their complex enterprise structure.

In this session, you will be given real examples and immediately applicable techniques you can apply to either start your Agile journey or enhance your current progress.  For several years, Paycor had “pockets of Agility”.  But in early 2014, Paycor kicked off a focus, determined Agile Transformation.  We will review the steps taken over the last year to dramatically increase the company’s agility and reflect on areas of difficulty most organizations face.

Areas of discussions will include:
1.    Identifying Practical Techniques to Get Started
2.    Developing Agility at the Team Level
3.    Expanding Agility to the Enterprise

Shawn Brock is a Director of Product Development at Paycor where he leads Paycor’s cloud-based Platform Services scrum teams.  With a background as a software developer, project manager, and entrepreneur, he is also a contributing member of Paycor’s “Enterprise Transformation Council”. 

Amy Owens and David Granger are Program Managers at Paycor who oversee all company infrastructure and product development projects.  They have been, and continue to be,  primary contributors to the ground-up Agile Transformation of Paycor. 

Zachary Werden is a software developer at Paycor who helped lead the launch of Paycor’s cloud-based Time Solution.  He is a founding member of the Wisdom Cube, and a pioneer of Paycor’s Agile transformation with grassroots efforts such as “The Agile Trail”.

PMP's: This event counts for 1 PDU
Networking: 5:30 - 6:00 pm
Program: 6:30 - 7:30 pm

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Agile Cincinnati Welcomes Paycor as a Bronze Sponsor

Paycor sponsored Agile Cincinnati at the Bronze level this month and claimed "FIRST" sponsorship in 2015!  We are excited to have Paycor supporting the leading Agile community within the greater Cincinnati area! Please remember to thank them at future events for their generous support.

In the meantime, we encourage you to visit Paycor at their new headquarters when they host Lean Startup circle for a discussion on "How the Flying Pig Was Born" with Paycor CEO Bob Coughlin.