Andrew Fuqua began developing software professionally in the mid ’80s using an iterative and incremental approach. After a few years of working in not-so-agile environments, Andrew got iterative and incremental again with a Smalltalk team in ’96, and then began using eXtreme Programming in 1999. For the last few years, Andrew has been involved in agile transformations in larger organizations, which brings us to his current role as an Enterprise Agile Coach with LeadingAgile. Andrew has previously held positions in management, product management and software development at companies like Internet Security Systems, Allure Global, and IBM.
Andrew is the president of the Agile Atlanta user group, which he helped start in 2001, as well as the Atlanta Limited WIP Society. He has also been active in other groups around town. Andrew earned a BS and MS in computer science and has an MBA from Duke University.
Learn what Kanban is, what it isn’t, and how to apply it to an IT or software development project. Kanban focuses on the flow of work through a system. It’s a useful tool to visualize the work and the problems that impact flow. It supports evolutionary process improvement and helps control the amount of work in process. Being less prescriptive than many SW Dev methods, it can be used more naturally, that is without shocking the system as it is being adopted. This will be an informal and interactive session with lots of time for Q&A. Time permitting, we’ll touch on pull systems, metrics, value stream mapping, the Theory of Constraints and the Scientific Method.
Skill Level: Beginner
Creativity is an important aspect of successful software product development and IT projects. Creativity is subject to the mood of the team – it doesn’t exactly ooze from a team that is demoralized. But how do you motivate creative types? It seems that it’s as easier to demotivate knowledge workers than it is to motivate them. Or is it? Programmers, testers, analysts and product managers can be motivated if you just take care. Know what motivates teams in general, find out what motivates each individual, be observant, and use a couple simple “tools”. This talk covers these concepts and includes thoughts from Jurgen Appelo’s Management 3.0 and Dan Pink’s Drive.
