Fwd: Test Message - HTML Format:What's Going On At Agile Austin

[Walter Bodwell]

Here's a first cut at the newsletter for next month's events.  It will go out on Friday night.  Let me know if you have any changes / additions.

Thanks,

Walter

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http://www.walterbodwell.com
http://www.planigle.com (Planigle, the way to Plan Agile)

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From: Agile Austin <Agile_...@mail.vresp.com>
Date: Mon, Feb 24, 2014 at 9:54 PM
Subject: Test Message - HTML Format:What's Going On At Agile Austin
To: wbod...@gmail.com

Welcome to Agile Austin's monthly newsletter.  In it, we'll publicize what's new at Agile Austin, upcoming events, blog entries from the local community and anything you need to know about Agile Austin.

What's New At Agile Austin

 

Conference updates.  The 2014 Keep Austin Agile Conference is officially sold out.

Board meeting.  For those who were unable to attend our February board meeting and are interested in what we talked about, you can see the notes here: https://docs.google.com/a/agileaustin.org/document/d/1YE42Z3-V1Q_Vi2XFUt0ZostnvkVhOTDLPSFK3r8McWY/edit.

 

Meetings

 

Mar 3 (6:30 - 8:30 pm)	Conference Planning BancVue, 4516 Seton Center Pkwy, Suite 300, Austin, TX 78759 Join us in helping to plan the next "Keep Austin Agile" conference, to be held March 21, 2014 at The Renaissance hotel. More information will be sent to the Agile Austin notify mailing list as it becomes available.
Mar 4 (6:00 - 9:00 pm)	Monthly Meeting - Lean Product Management: Is it more Product Managers you need or less Products? BancVue, 4516 Seton Center Pkwy, Suite 300, Austin, TX 78759 Lean Product Management can mean a lot of things. Unfortunately today it mostly means "One Product Manager for every three to five Products". That is a version of Lean, but it is not what we need to be striving for. Ideally what I mean when I talk about Lean Product Management is eliminating as much waste as possible from the process of Product Management and Product Marketing without sacrificing our core competencies in favor of non-essential activities. In this session I'll talk about Lean applied to Product Manager core activities and share some tools that I use that will help you. In this quick workshop, I will be facilitating us through several activities to help you get practical guidance on how to do the job. We will go through a list of several common challenge areas that I've seen in my 17 years and discuss how you can implement different tools and techniques that will help you. Attendees are encouraged to bring to the session an artifact from your tool that works well for you. We might do a little "Show and Tell".  My session is all about directed, peer interaction so that you can get real context of how this thing called Agile and Lean may work for you. I look forward to learning with you! (Get ready to play some Innovation Games in the process!) Speaker: Jeff Brantley To Register (and for more info): http://www.eventbrite.com/event/10569534763
Mar 5 (6:00 - 8:30 pm)	Book Club - Continuous Delivery, Session 3 of 5 Planview, 8300 N Mopac Expy, Austin, TX 78759 Humble and Farley, “Continuous Delivery: Reliable Software Releases through Build, Test, and Deployment Automation.” We'll have read through chapter 9 before we meet 3/5/14. Prior to the usual discussion, Ned Horvath will be demonstrating UT's PyPE (Python Production Environment) deployment scheme. This makes a full evening, please plan to arrive by 6pm! Chapters to Focus On: Chapters 7-9  Amazon links – Hardcover: http://amzn.to/1hJiEDL, Kindle: http://amzn.to/1f8rsD1 To Register (and for more info): http://www.eventbrite.com/event/10701617827
Mar 6 (6:00 - 9:00 pm)	Distinguished Speaker Series - Building Successful In-House Innovation Teams TENTATIVE Location: SolarWinds or Silicon Labs You’ve read The Innovator’s Dilemma. You’ve bought in to The Lean Startup. You’re ready to kickstart your company’s product innovation efforts. There’s just one problem: you’re not sure where to begin: What can design teach us about building a collaborative culture?  How do you structure a successful product design team? How should that team work? How will that team measure success? Jeff will offer practical, step-by-step, guidance on how to build and support successful product design innovation in your business. Using insights gained from leading and working with dozens of product and design teams, Jeff will step through team makeup, process steps, management structure and the corporate infrastructure needed for these teams to flourish. Speaker: Jeff Gothelf To Register (and for more info): http://www.eventbrite.com/event/10730594497
Mar 7 (noon - 1:00 pm)	Agile Leaders SIG - Continuous Improvement -- Implementing The Philosophy Of Kaizen CA Technologies, 5001 Plaza on the Lake, Third floor, Austin, TX 78746 How best to implement continuous improvement?  Instead of traveling to a conference, registering for a web seminar, having a 3 day retreat, or etc... how about we come together and briefly share a few basic principles that worked in our past experiences. The Kaizen philosophy has the ability to not only improve processes and the product you deliver, but also improve people!  Speaker: Max Ekesi To Register (and for more info): http://www.eventbrite.com/event/10631620463
Mar 11 (noon - 1:00 pm)	Kanban SIG Planview, 8300 N Mopac Expy, Austin, TX 78759 More information will be sent to the Agile Austin notify mailing list as it becomes available.
Mar 11 (6:30 - 8:30 pm)	Conference Planning BancVue, 4516 Seton Center Pkwy, Suite 300, Austin, TX 78759 Join us in helping to plan the next "Keep Austin Agile" conference, to be held March 21, 2014 at The Renaissance hotel.  More information will be sent to the Agile Austin notify mailing list as it becomes available.
Mar 17 (6:30 - 8:30 pm)	Conference Planning BancVue, 4516 Seton Center Pkwy, Suite 300, Austin, TX 78759 Join us in helping to plan the next "Keep Austin Agile" conference, to be held March 21, 2014 at The Renaissance hotel.  More information will be sent to the Agile Austin notify mailing list as it becomes available.
Mar 18 (noon - 1:00 pm)	Product SIG - LeanStartup Methods for Managing Existing Products CA Technologies, 5001 Plaza on the Lake, Third floor, Austin, TX 78746 There has been a lot of discussion lately about LeanStartup among product teams and product leaders who want to grow their company through innovation.  Usually the only companies who try it are actual startups (which represent a small fraction of companies and budget.)  Eric Reis offers us a generic playbook for what this is and how we can do it.  Well, sort of… Eric admits that his book is just a start and there are any number of ways that the principles could be implemented.  Books like LeanUX and LeanAnalytics, and the soon to be released Lean Product Book are examples of the ongoing "how to" publications that will help all of us to some extent.   But this is not something that can be implemented from a book.  It will take commitment to learning and risk-taking.  You need to start your mind-shift and behavioral changes now!  Product Leaders need to take that banner and go forward in the organization to champion the cause.  The team needs to get behind the idea that we are experimenting and learning together.  Everyone needs to take the long-term view on this and consider each small victory another step on the journey towards continuous, validated innovation.  Yes, even if you do not have all the technical instrumentation in place, or all the support of your stakeholders, or all the skills and experience, you too can begin the journey and make progress with your team(s).  Jeff will discuss various ways he has done just that and we can discuss together how to remain in synch with the principles of LeanStartup even if you are a 30 year old company and your product traces its history back to the nineties.   Speaker: Jeff Brantley To Register (and for more info): http://www.eventbrite.com/event/10688588857
Mar 18 (6:00 - 9:00 pm)	Agile Austin U - Agile Leadership St. Edward’s University–North Austin, 9420 Research Boulevard, Echelon III, Suite 100, Austin, TX 78759 This is a four-week class that will be held 6 - 9 pm on March 18, March 25, April 8, and April 15. The expectation is that you enroll only if you are able to attend all four sessions.  Agile leaders deliver high-impact business results by relying on self-organizing teams to plan, execute and innovate throughout the project lifecycle. Rather than plan, instruct, and direct, the agile leader educates, coaches, and facilitates. Development of these critical skills and the process and tools that support the agile team is the focus of this course. Special emphasis on leadership development and enabling organizational change is central.    Class is limited to 15-20 participants. Anyone who is not on-time for the first session will have their slot re-assigned to an alternate.  Food and beverages will be provided. To Register (and for more info): http://www.eventbrite.com/event/10689284939
Mar 19 (6:00 - 8:30 pm)	Book Club - Continuous Delivery, Session 4 of 5 Planview, 8300 N Mopac Expy, Austin, TX 78759 Humble and Farley, “Continuous Delivery: Reliable Software Releases through Build, Test, and Deployment Automation.” Chapters to Focus On: Chapters 10-12 Amazon links – Hardcover: http://amzn.to/1hJiEDL, Kindle: http://amzn.to/1f8rsD1 More information will be sent to the Agile Austin notify mailing list as it becomes available.
Mar 21 (noon - 1:00 pm)	Conference - Keep Austin Agile 2014 Renaissance Hotel, 9721 Arboretum Boulevard, Austin, TX 78759 This one day event will offer various tracks for education and networking in a relaxed environment at the spacious and newly renovated Renaissance Hotel in north Austin. Unfortunately, the conference has sold out and due to conference constraints, no further tickets will be available. Our first conference, Keep Austin Agile 2012, sold out with over 400 attendees. Keep Austin Agile 2014 has proven to be even more popular, selling out significantly earlier even though we have increased the size of our intended audience. For those attending, you can begin refining your individual conference schedule now. Sold out.
Mar 25 (6:00 - 9:00 pm)	Agile Austin U - Agile Leadership St. Edward’s University–North Austin, 9420 Research Boulevard, Echelon III, Suite 100, Austin, TX 78759 This is a four-week class that will be held 6 - 9 pm on March 18, March 25, April 8, and April 15. The expectation is that you enroll only if you are able to attend all four sessions.  Agile leaders deliver high-impact business results by relying on self-organizing teams to plan, execute and innovate throughout the project lifecycle. Rather than plan, instruct, and direct, the agile leader educates, coaches, and facilitates. Development of these critical skills and the process and tools that support the agile team is the focus of this course. Special emphasis on leadership development and enabling organizational change is central.    Class is limited to 15-20 participants. Anyone who is not on-time for the first session will have their slot re-assigned to an alternate.  Food and beverages will be provided. To Register (and for more info): http://www.eventbrite.com/event/10689284939
Mar 27 (6:30 - 8:30 pm)	Board Meeting - March Meeting TBD Join the board in discussing how things are going with Agile Austin. The first thing we do in board meetings is ask for additional topics / prioritize the topics at hand. As a result, the agenda will change. The best way to encourage discussion of a particular topic is to attend. More information will be sent to the Agile Austin notify mailing list as it becomes available.

Blog Entries from the Community:

• Improve Your Visibility into Release Progress

That's it for this month (check the web site for late breaking news).  As always, we welcome your feedback.  How can we help you solve the problems you face in becoming more agile?

The Agile Austin Board

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