November Meeting: Understanding Collaboration Architecture - Product Elicitation Workshop

Regardless of what we tell them, customers want to believe that the product or service that they’re receiving is going to solve their problems. Not just the problems that we told them they have, but the real problems that are driving their want for new product. In some cases, these may match. In others, they are very different.  Effective Collaboration is key to giving customers ways to tap into these deep needs and express them clearly.  Discover how this works, learn key questions to help you articulate your understanding of the the product, and learn by doing, the mental states your customers experience when asked, "What are the requirements?"

Scotty is a speaker, certified coach and trainer whose focus is on business strategy, product development and agile project management adoption, as well as customer relationship management as it pertains to understanding the customer’s role in the product development process. With over 18 years of experience in supply-chain, IT and project management, in both commercial and government contracting, Scotty helps bridge the gap between business goals and objectives and quantitative technical needs. He has a passion for using serious games to solve real world problems, is an Innovation Games® Qualified Instructor and Trained Facilitator, and CEO and founder of Bevill Edge®.

Toys for Tots Drive

Would you like to share a little holiday chear this year? This year we are participating in the local Toys for Tots Drive.  Please bring an unwrapped toy to the meeting and we will deliver it to the organization.  For more information on Toys for Tots, visit toysfortots.org

When: November 14, 2013 (Second Thursday)
Networking: 5:30 - 6pm
Program: 6 - 7:30pm.
Where: Max Train, 4900 Parkway Drive, Suite 160, Mason, 45040

PMP's: This event counts for 1 (one) PDU

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Cohesion renews Silver sponsorship in 2013!

Cohesion renewed their Silver sponsorshp and became our first annual Silver level sponsor in 2013!  Please thank them for their support when you see them at the meeting next month.  Agile Cincinnati would not be able to cover our operating costs or provide great programs to you without the sponsorship of organizations like Cohesion.  Click on the image below to find out more about our latest sponsor or directly navigate to www.cohesion.com.

October Meeting: Introduction to Continuous Delivery

Most enterprise software development has evolved to a place where releases are infrequent and occur long after features were first conceived. The day of release is a nail-biting affair for which we assemble swat teams and stand ready to scramble and fix the inevitable problems. This has enormous impact on the businesses that we work for, making us vulnerable to nimble competitors. We are forced to predict (guess) what customers want rather than relying on real user feedback, we can't react to market changes or explore new business ideas quickly, and we end up not building the right thing for our users or at least investing too much money in something where a lighter solution would have sufficed.
 
Continuous Delivery is a set of practices and principles aimed at building, testing, and releasing software faster and more frequently.  Techniques such as automated testing, continuous integration and automated deployments allow software to be developed to a high standard and easily packaged and deployed to test environments.  This results in the ability to rapidly, reliability, and repeatedly push out enhancements and bug fixes to customers at low risk with minimal manual overhead.
 
This presentation will discuss the fundamentals of continuous delivery, some of the key principles and practices that need to be implemented to be effective, how MedPlus/HTS has progressed on its continuous delivery journey and the benefits we have seen

Fred Hilkowitz is the Director of Project Management for Quest Diagnostics, Healthcare Technology Solutions (HTS) division, formerly known as MedPlus.   He also serves as the Continous Delivery champion for the company.  Fred joined MedPlus in 2005 and has held a variety of management positions during his time at the company.  He started his career as an intelligence officer in the Air Force and then transitioned into software while working for Raytheon.  He holds a PMP Certification, a bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and a Masters in Business Administration from Indiana University. 

When: October 10, 2013 (Second Thursday)
Networking: 5:30 - 6pm
Program: 6 - 7:30pm.
Where: Max Train, 4900 Parkway Drive, Suite 160, Mason, 45040

PMP's: This event counts for 1 (one) PDU

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September Happy Hour

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