Two industries that extensively deal with risk are Investment Banking and Oil Exploration. As seasoned veterans involved in developing software in these industries, Chris and Todd will introduce a number of theories, tools and practices surrounding risk and risk management. They will share their practical experience using these techniques and approaches, explaining what works and what does not based on their experience and that of their colleagues.

Animal behaviors such as Swarming, Flocking & Shoaling provide intriguing insights into how groups spontaneously form and interact. The natural world is full of rules, both simple and complex that enable groups of animals to function extremely efficiently. Looking at these examples, we can draw interesting parallels with the behavior of groups of people - and we can learn interesting things about the rules that we use when we work in teams. This presentation draws on extensive research on groups, both human and animal, and provides useful insights into how we can best organize ourselves.

Facilitation skills are essential for anyone. In fact, everyone facilitates whether they know it or not! Do you work on a team, manage an organization, or otherwise work with others? The opportunity to facilitate will come up.

The Agile Alliance states that “The Gordon Pask Award recognizes two people whose recent contributions to Agile Practice make them, in the opinion of the Award Committee, people others in the field should emulate.” This panel brings together some of the previous winners so that they may share their contributions and help encourage others to participate in building the body of Agile knowledge. For the intermediate practitioner, it should reinforce the notion that as we practice Agile and learn how to adapt for the best outcome, sharing what we learn helps the whole community.

Have you ever been told to multitask–working on so many projects simultaneously you don’t know where to start or what to do next? Or, have you ever felt so pressured by your organization that you asked your staff to multitask?

Multitasking happens when leaders don’t set direction for themselves and other people. When leaders decide which projects people work on in what order—the project portfolio—they set the stage for success. But those decisions are not easy. We will see what a portfolio is, what it is and isn’t, and we’ll explore how to make collaborative decisions.

An Exercise in Agile Facilitation - http://agilejournal.com/articles/columns/articles/1233-the-invisible-pro...

This session focuses on an approach taken by Agile Project Managers to develop empowered and effective teams using a series of techniques focused on trust, transparency, team dynamics, and agile facilitation. More so, ensuring that the Project Manager does not end up as the central figure dominating the project is equally critical, highlighting that it takes an unselfish personality to create a truly self-organizing team.

This presentation illustrates, using an animated Agile Story Card Wall, the concepts of Lean’s Work in Progress, Drum–Buffer–Rope from Theory of Constraints and Systemic Thinking from Peter Senge’s The Fifth Discipline. The presentation, originally inspired by the MIT Beer Game, uses Flash animation to show the flow of story cards across a Story Card Wall over 10 iterations, demonstrating the effects on the team’s throughput as a result of a staffing decision made during the project. The presentation also includes an Excel spreadsheet to do ‘What If’ scenarios.

Do you understand why your team behaves the way it does? In this session, you’ll leave with ways to unlock the true potential of your team through better and more productive communication. You will learn how to identify behavioral profiles, and how to capitalize on the diverse behaviors found on typical teams. A highly interactive, fun, and refreshing look at the human element with actionable techniques that target individuals and their interactions. Topics range from enhancing interpersonal communication (Tango) to effectively leveraging the anatomy of your team (Square Dance).