According to research almost 85% of today’s leaders are constrained by narrow, analytical and habitual thinking. Typically, they are still struggling with ways of thinking that make them defensive, controlling, and self-centered which deeply affect performance and teamwork. We know that agile leaders at post-heroic stages are much more capable of working in collaboration. So, what differentiate these leaders? What transformative process can be used to develop Catalyst leaders & teams? This presentation will show you a proven and powerful path to develop post-heroic leaders and teams.

In this session, we offer a synthesis of several bodies of thought that address processes, people, technology, change and leadership within the context of a large agile transition. While the competencies of agile development are well developed, the exploration and leveraging of other research on systemic change offers real insight to the complex organizational task of sustaining agile processes. We intend to fuse such research with our own experiences leading substantial agile transformations, to help senior leaders gain powerful new tools for leading their own agile transitions.

Your mind offers two alternate—and generally unconscious—responses when things go wrong. One response solves problems with snap judgment, hasty advice, and evident policy. The alternate response expands the problem space for new awareness and new-found truth. You are completely equipped for both. The first is fast and solves anxiety about the problem. The second is slower, produces learning and growth, and addresses the real problem.

In this session you’ll explore a life-long practice developed from 20 years of field studies for choosing the appropriate leadership response.

Agile adoption initiatives succeed and fail. There is no agreement on why they do so. The current focus for scaling Agile seems to be on modifying existing Agile practices, adding new ones, and getting the right toolset installed. I’ve come to believe that the main reason for the success of any Agile adoption effort are the individuals, their skills and their personalities. All other aspects of Agile are of secondary importance.

In this talk I will share several individual skills and mental models that are necessary for successful scaling.

Transitioning 25,000 developers to agile development processes is a challenge on its own—and making the transition during a global recession is even more ambitious. Join Sue McKinney as she discusses her experiences leading the move to agile at IBM, how their agile teams often struggled, and ways leaders provided support and understanding at many levels. As the global recession set in, Sue looked for tools leaders could use to increase productivity—even after cost cutting—and unleash the talent and innovation agile teams need to continue succeeding.

James Shore (coauthor of The Art of Agile Development) and Rob Myers of Agile Institute help you examine the role of metrics on Agile teams. We take a broad survey of metrics being used on Agile projects, both traditional and innovative, and look at the value and dangers to the success of the team. We look at how the simple act of measuring, itself, can be harmful, and when it is well-justified. Metrics at every level of the Agile organization will receive scrutiny: Measuring value, team performance, progress, quality, and even code design attributes will be taken into consideration.

In a large agile organization (more than three teams or 30 team members) with self-organized empowered teams, R&D leadership roles still exist to support these teams through topics including resource management and strategic vision. This talk will highlight these R&D leadership roles, describe several example R&D organization structures, and then describe the behaviors (good and bad) stimulated by these structures, the challenges, and their impact on the teams. The talk concludes by describing the key attributes of leaders who will thrive in a large agile organization.

In these turbulent times, businesses need people with specific characteristics and attitudes to enable survival and success. It turns out these attitudes and are very similar to what is needed on an Agile project team. This talk examines what attitudes and perspectives team members need to be successful on Agile projects, how these can contribute to overall organisational success and how to encourage and instil these attitudes in a team.

Project Managers comprise the single largest category of agile practitioners that are actively engaged in the industry (18%). However, there is no clear consensus on the role of project manager within the Agile community. Viewpoints range from: • The PM is complete waste. • The PM is a necessary part-time helper. • The PM is a crucial communicator and facilitator.

So who’s right? This interactive session will seek to address these questions about who is good, who is bad, why they are, and who says so.

Imagine yourself with a team that flies in from AU, the UK, and US in bi-weekly shifts to work with a telecommunications giant. Mix in inexperience, a shared resource model, bad behaviours, and a mandated intro to Agile in a silo-ed non-agile environment. Couple this with a capability driven / satellite team who’s focus is to assist other teams to drive out SOA: and you have a recipe for a Team in Flux. Working to find a system that worked for this team was a long and arduous journey full of misdirection, poor choices, and learning around structure, Agile methodologies, and people in general.