Presented by Jeff Smith

The manifesto has been around about 15 years now. Many of us have done our share of projects, initiatives, and transformations... Maybe some of us have even experienced agility. But there are also failed attempts, feel-good implementations, and superficial efforts. Where is this magic we keep hearing about?

Elisabeth Hendrickson named her acid test for agility some years back.

Agile teams produce a continuous stream of value, at a sustainable pace, while adapting to the changing needs of the business.

So - how about it? Are we there yet? If you are in a larger enterprise, are you still moving forward? Has anyone given up? When does it really work - and when we are not given these critical success elements, what can we do?

In this presentation, I will review things I have seen... good and bad... that slowed us down or made it work, that were misunderstood by us, by our teams, by leadership. The intent is for the group also to get involved, offering some of their own questions, thoughts, and experiences... Audience involvement is designed in. All of this, in hopes of realizing the magic or at least breaking through to new and productive possibilities.

Jeff Smith has over 30 years in high-tech, first having worked in electronic design and then moving into software development, finally settling into a performance focus guiding software teams in lean and agile practices, organizational change, and technical methods to support this. Employers, clients, and customers have included companies large and small in many industries, including Dell, IBM, Boeing, Lexis-Nexis, MDProductivity, NetObjectives, Trilogy, Recognition Equiment, Mizar, LTV Aerospace & Defense, Amdahl, and others known and obscure. Jeff holds a Bachelors from Texas A&M in Electrical Engineering and is a Certified ScrumMaster, with certifications also in software test, ITIL, Six Sigma, and Lean+. He has served for professional groups such as SeaSPIN, Austin SPIN, Austin Agile, Austin Agile University, the Seattle Chapter of ISPI, the Austin Chapter of AITP, and BeyondAgile. He spends most of his spare time fishing for clarity, railing at Facebook, grasping at straws, playing drums, and reading TPS reports.