Panelists: Yael Dubinsky, Amr Elssamadisy, David Hussman, Linda Rising

Moderator: Orit Hazzan

Diversity can be expressed in different ways, such as, worldviews, minorities, cultures and skills. Studies tell us that diversity benefits with societies that foster it. Diversity is also perceived as a powerful management practice, and therefore, not surprisingly, diversity is introduced into agile environments. In the panel the panelists present their views at diversity, specifying how diversity can be expressed and fostered.

We know why engineers use agile but should Executives fund it? Through this panel discussion learn the benefits of Agile 4 those that hold the checkbooks:

*Why Executives should see Agile as a necessary change
*Benefits of Agile 2 an enterprise business, including non-engineers
*Justify funding 4 training, tools, etc
*Link Agile metrics 2 the balanced scorecard without compromising the principles of Agile

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.

Experienced product managers working with agile product teams for the first time are stuck between old methods and new ones. Developers are requesting new artifacts, advocating new meetings, and defining new roles. Old processes and artifacts that seemed to be working are not valued by agile teams. While developers are learning how to deliver working code faster, without agile product management the team might be building the wrong things. Agile product managers and product owners face issues focusing on the business, technical, marketing, and sales roles required for effective agile teams.