Events

November 2022 Chapter Meeting

Title:

Get your 4x4 In Gear - Bringing Scrum and Kanban together

Presentation Description:

Understanding the 4 Kanban practices and the 4 Kanban metrics of Professional

Scrum with Kanban and how a Business Analyst can help

Scrum is an excellent framework for many teams, but in my experience, some teams want or

need more.

More data
More visualization
More focus on getting things done.

But, sometimes the team needs less.

Less anxiety
Less ambiguity
Less waste

By combining Professional Scrum with Kanban principles and metrics we have a phenomenal

opportunity to ask the right questions sooner, solve the right problems faster and measure

more of what matters.

In this session I'll present the 4 principles and 4 metrics that will help your team focus on flow

as well a show you how to uncover and move past “faux Kanban”. Both of these takeaways

should help you use data so that you can solve the right problems sooner, have better

conversations with stakeholders and optimize.

Jim will discuss the practices and metrics that Scrum Teams can use with Kanban to focus on

their flow and create a basis for continuous improvement.

Presenter:

Jim Sammons

Speaker Biography:

Jim has been called an Enterprise Agile Coach, Agile Coach, Scrum Master, Trainer and a whole host of other titles over the last 25 years in tech. If Jim could be called anything, it would be an “Agile Maverick”, a nod to his favorite movie Top Gun.

Jim is a Professional Scrum Trainer (PST) with Scrum.org and also holds a variety of certifications in Kanban, SAFe, LeSS and other practices (there are probably even some expired Microsoft and VMware certs to be found somewhere in his basement, next to the action figures and copious amounts of books). A self-described “Agile Hippy”, he loves helping people, teams and organizations of all sizes take a more humanistic approach to work in the spirit of getting more valuable work done.

His interests run the gamut, but he has a particular passion for boardgaming, coffee and making things from wood and metal with his 3D printer, lathe and CNC. He also picked up the jigsaw puzzle hobby during the early days of COVID and there is normally a puzzle (and sometimes two) in progress somewhere within easy reach.

https://www.scrum.org/jim-sammons

December 2022 Chapter Meeting

Title:

The Case for Business Analysts on Agile Teams

Presentation Description:

Many Agile Purists say there is no need for a BA on an Agile team. This opinion could not be further from the truth. The belief appears to have resulted from the fact that Business Analyst was not a job title on an Agile Team. The challenge to anyone is to explain how you can have a successful project without business analysis. Although many companies do not use the business analyst's title anymore, there's no doubt that someone performs the business analysis.

This Business Analysis may be concentrated with one or two resources or distributed among all team members. The best scenario is to have one person dedicated to performing business analysis. If this person is an experienced business analyst, that is a bonus. Still, in any case, it's guaranteed the team could not deliver anything of value to the business area without business analysis.

A case study will share a Strategic Project to replace a customer-facing tool with unsupported software on unsupported hardware. Our Agile team used SAFe and included Business Analysts to create a web-based tool that resulted in several wins for the team.

Three Top Reasons a Business Analyst is Needed on an Agile Team

The Business Analyst is an expert at conducting the Elicitation of Requirements sessions.

The Business Analyst serves as the domain expert and can quickly answer the developer’s questions.

The Business Analyst has Leadership skills that are invaluable to the team.

Learner Objectives:

This webinar will help participants to gain an understanding of why Business Analysts belong on an Agile team. The webinar will be helpful to participants of all experience levels and varied roles.

Business Analysts, Product Owners, and anyone who works on or manages a team that needs to perform business analysis will benefit from this presentation.

Business Analysis is necessary on all project teams to be successful

Why Business Analysts should be performing that business analysis

Explain why the Business Analyst is the glue that helps the team to succeed

This presentation will be helpful to participants of all experience levels and varied roles

Presenter:

Judy Alter

Speaker Biography: