Topic: Swarming - The Birds and the Bees and Agile
More and more teams find themselves working in an incredibly chaotic
environment. How the team reacts to the stimuli in that environment
can mean the difference between success and failure. Discovering and
applying the rules that will best guide us to success in this complex
ecosystem is a daunting task. Where else can we look for examples of
this kind of complex group behavior?

In the animal world there is a fascinating set of behaviors that are
self organizing, emergent, have simple rules, no central control, etc.
These ideas resonate strongly with some of the central tenets of Agile
development. These patterns of behavior exhibited by animals are very
reminiscent of the team behavior we are seeking in Agile development
teams. What can the behavior of groups of animals teach us about
working on Agile teams?

In this presentation we will discuss the definition and
characteristics of swarming behavior and how it applies to the work of
Agile teams. Through a combination of hands on exercises and
discussion, we will explore the rules that seem to work well in the
natural world and the Agile development world.

About the Speaker
Tom Perry - Sr. Program Manager/Agile Coach at Authorize.net. 15 years
development experience including applications for desktop publishing
and the web. 10 years experience mentoring, coaching, and consulting
with Agile teams (XP, Scrum). Tom is a Certified Scrum Practitioner
and Project Management Professional (PMP).

Meeting Date and Agenda
Thursday, July 31st, 2008
6:00pm Food & Drink
6:30pm Some words of Thanks
6:45pm Topic: Swarming - The Birds and the Bees and Agile
7:30-ish End of talk, general questions etc.

Location
Qpass Corporate Headquarters
2211 Elliott Avenue
Suite 400
Seattle, Washington 98121
Phone: +1.206.447.6000

Further inquiries can also be emailed to SeattleScrum at Gmail dot
com. This announcement may also be found at Seattle Scrums home page:
http://www.SeattleScrum.org.