It's BeyondAgile: people making software that works!

In our never-ending series of just-in-time events, BeyondAgile presents:

"Overcoming Agile ADHD"
Thursday, 18 June 2009
6:30 to 8:30 p.m.

Read on for agenda and locations information, or visit our Google Group
at http://groups.google.com/group/beyondagile


- The Blurb
Fear of decision making often leads teams to exhibit one or more of the
dysfunctional symptoms of "Agile ADHD." This month's BeyondAgile event is a
preview of an Agile 2009 tutorial (see http://www.agile2009.com/node/3110 for
more info on that) that uses ADHD as a Metaphor for dysfunctional decision
making.

In this tutorial, Bruce Winegarden and David Ullman will go beyond estimating
and scheduling to address how to improve timeliness in making many other types
of decisions that affect the overall productivity and effectiveness of an agile
development team. You'll take away principles and practices that enable their
team to embrace uncertainty and be proactive in making better decisions at the
most responsible moment.

Bruce Winegarden has extensive business and technical knowledge for software and
systems development, product management and innovation. He enjoys guiding teams
of people from different disciplines discover sustainable practices that smooth
and accelerate their delivery. As principal consultant at Eagle Eye View, he
delivers consulting, modeling, training, and coaching services applying Lean and
Agile principles that enable organizational changes to streamline product
development, improve business workflows, and deploy more meaningful and
effective information technology. Bruce is also a charter member of BeyondAgile,
and volunteers on the BeyondAgile program team.

Dr. David G. Ullman is President of Robust Decisions Inc. An active product
designer, he has taught, researched and written about design and decision-making
over 20 years. His text, The Mechanical Design Process, 4rd edition,
McGraw Hill, 2009, is used at many universities. His book, _Making Robust
Decisions_, was published in 2006. He has published more than 20 mechanical
product design process and decision-making papers. He is a Fellow of the
American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) and founder of its Design Theory
and Methodology committee.


- Event Agenda
o Welcome and Announcements (10 min.)
o "Agile ADHD" presentation (60 min.)
o Questions and Answers (15 min.)
o Giveaway Drawing (a copy of Dr. David Ullman's book _Making Robust Decisions_)
(5 min.)
o Meeting Retrospective (10 min.)
o Socializing and Breakout/Breakup/Beer


- Event Location
We're meeting at *two* physical locations this month, connected through
videolink:

Eastside (Redmond)
SolutionsIQ
First Floor Training Center
10785 Willows Road NE, Suite 250
Redmond WA

Directions and picture of building at
http://www.solutionsiq.com/about-us/contact-us.php
Look for the tent signs and the blue BeyondAgile logo

Westside (Seattle)
Amdocs Digital Commerce Division (formerly QPass)
Greece Room
2211 Elliott Ave Suite 400
Seattle WA


Questions? Contact us at beyondagile@..., or visit our Google
Group, or contribute to the nascent Wiki at beyondagile.org. Or (we're really
letting a thousand flowers bloom here) you can RSVP/discuss the event at the
BeyondAgile Facebook site:

http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/event.php?eid=68941257907&ref=nf


- What's BeyondAgile?
It's the combination and follow-on to a number of the agile-oriented user and
interest groups that have operated in the Puget Sound area. We aim to:

o Build a bigger agile community
o Take advantage of overlaps between existing groups
o Expand beyond meetings and provide a place to collaborate
o Align software development and business
o Explore cutting-edge ideas and techniques
o Discover the most useful practices among all agile processes


- When do we meet?
The plan was to gather at least once a month on the *3rd* Thursday of the
month--that's a change from our previous plan to target the fourth Thursday--
and probably more often. With luck, that date will work better for more people
than the previous date did.


- Where do BeyondAgile events happen?
Our goal is to have many answers to this. As a result, we've worked to remove
the impediment offered by bridges and commuting: we (try to) hold our events in
both Eastside and Seattle locations, through the semi-magic of videocasting.
That's (much) harder than it seems; we'd also still like to present events freed
from the confines of time through streaming video. If you can make that happen,
please, pease, please volunteer to help!


- What is BeyondAgile like?
That, in large part, is up to you. A primary reason for consolidating our
efforts is to broaden our base of support, capability, and leadership. We
envision a more active, multi-faceted organization that does more than just host
talking heads. Come to our events, join our program team, or just watch what we
do on our online sites--you decide what works for you!