We were fortunate to enjoy a cool winter morning, in a high floor of a building in downtown that offers a breathtaking view of the river Paraná. Gorgeous!

At the beginning, we held a dynamic called  “tribes” through which we identified different groups of professionals and their knowledge and use of Agile methodologies in their projects (it’s amazing how this kind of exercise always works, whatever the context or group of persons).

Later on, we started talking about the Principles, the Agile Manifesto, User Stories, Sprints, Product Backlog, Release Plan, Task Board, Daily Standup Meetings, Retrospectives…, trying to understand what makes Agile Methodologies so effective when talking about improving the quality delivered to the customer and the practices of our daily work.
Even though many people are reluctact about these methodolgies and find them strongly contrasting with what they´ve learnt so far, there are many others who are positively interested and look forward both to learning more about Agile and applying it at work. The mere act of participating in this experience is a great way to do it!

Here I post the presentation we used (in spanish):

Hope to see you again soon, Rosario!

Here I post a video that illustrates the session:

For more information about these CSD certification workshops you can visit Keer’s dedicated webpage: http://www.kleerer.com/en/CSD

These courses will put speccial focus on the agile engeneering practices for software development like continuous integration, concurrent version managing, test automation, User Stories aceptance criteria automation (ATDD), TDD and refactoring, database evolutive development, database refactoring, taskboards usage, agile metrics, planning poker, release planning, retrospectives, etc.

There will be three different tracks for you to become a Certified Scrum Developer:

Track 1: Planning Orientation for non Certified Scrum Masters:

1. Introduction to Scrum (1 day course)

2. Estimatin and Planning with Scrum (1 day course)

3. Agile Software Developmenr (3 days course)

Track2: Software and DB Development Orientation for non Certified Scrum Masters:

1. Introduction to Scrum (1 day course)

2. Agile Software Developmenr (3 days course)

3. Agile Database Development (1 day course)

Track 3: Software Development Orientation for Certified Scrum Masters:

1. Agile Software Developmenr (3 days course)

After following any of these tracks you’re qualified to take the Scrum Alliance CSD exam.

You can see the course calendar in Kleer’s Scrum Alliance profile or in the Agile en Acción! calendar, grouped by track.

For more information you can download Kleer’s CSD brochure from:

http://www.kleerer.com/downloads/Kleer-CSD-Brochure-es.pdf

From March-16th trough March-26th the workshop named Agile en Acción! took place in Buenos Aires City.

This edition was delivered to 15 participants, who through a serie of workshops based on real requierements created EPICs and User Stories, estimated and prioritized them, created the Product Backlog, defined Velocity, put together the Release Plan, and ended with a series of retrospective execices.

There was a great dynamic between the participants and between the teams that were built. We all have fun during those 4 days. I took some photos that you can access here: http://bit.ly/alQC2j

Greetings!

There will be a new Agile in Action! in April-2010: http://bit.ly/agile-en-accion–abril-2010

At the University of CEMA I was received by Anabela Amoresano, in charge of the event coordination. A few minutes later there were several volunteers from the PMI Buenos Aires Chapter arriving.

While waiting for the start, I had a very interesting discussion and exchange about the application of agile methodologies with Abel Bernal. I’ll probably cover the topic in a future post, it’s worth.

At 6:30PM Jose Esterkin, President of the PMI Buenos Aires Chapter, began the meeting by commenting on developments of the chapter, volunteer opportunities and PMI Tour Buenos Aires. Immediately after, Cecilia Boggi made the introduction of the talk and there we went … Below is the presentation I used:

Special thanks to Cecilia and Jose for the space to develop this particular issue.

Greetings!

On Thursday March 4th, 2010 at 6:30 PM I’ll be talking for about an hour at the PMI Buenos Aires Chapter monthly members meeting.

The talk is entitled “Agile Methodologies & PMI” which will present the assumptions that shape traditional project management but seen from an agile perspective of time, cost and scope management. Traveling through the processes and PMBOK knowledge areas I’ll show how to adapt them to agile projects. There will also be several PMP tips discussed that any PMP can apply tomorrow to immediately start building an agile culture in their projects. All this will be discussed based on past experiences.

All attending PMP will be able to get 1.5 PDUd accredited (category 3).

Enyone interested in participating in this members’ meeting, please express your intention clicking here. For any questions, ask rm@pmi.org.ar

The dates are March 16, 19, 23 and 26, 2010 from 6:30pm to 10:30pm.

This 4-day workshop focuses on initiating and planning an actual software development project using Scrum. We’ll see in great detail each of the scrum elements (backlog, user stories, prioritization, estimation, release planning, sprint planning, etc.) and participants will create the actual project elements over a series of workshops.

The objectives of this practical training is for participants to:

• Obtain a deeper understanding of agile methodologies, values and practices.
• Put into practice the knowledge acquired in the CSM certification course (for those who already attended)
• Obtain live experience through a simulation of an agile project
• Be prepared to work in an agile environment

Agile in Action! is aimed at:

• Development teams, Project Managers and CTOs who want to implement agile methodologies in their work environment and prefer practical experience before doing so
• Development teams, ScrumMasters and CTOs who are implementing Agile methodologies in their work environment and want to find practical solutions to common problems
• ScrumMasters who have attended a CSM course and want to apply the acquired knowledge in a real example
• Students Systems or related degrees who wish to acquire real experience in agile development and agile project management to thereby acquire a more competitive IT market
• Systems Eng. professionals or related professionals who wish to incorporate real expertise in agile project management

More Info … / Registration …

Agenda AO La Plata 2009

I highlight some sessions I was able to participate in, all of them of an excellent level:

Lean introduction (facilitated by Juan Gabardini) and Agile introduction (moderated by Nicolás Paez) were the first two sessions. I saw people very engaged on the topics, I admit it was hard to stop those sessions on-time due to the atendees’ enthusiasm.

The starts of the second track were SCRUM intro (proposed and moderated by Marcelo Belnicoff) and Agile Team Communication (moderated by Nicolás and Esteban).

Lunch arrived on-time, there was an excellent climate where people exchanged concerns, experiences, questions, solutions, doubts, opinions. A great networking context.

We started the afternoon with the “Pajarraco” Game, during which I took some photos (taken with my cell phone) and a lot of other parallel sessions, more advanced ones in which I was lucky to participate: CMMI+PMI+Agile, Scrum with very little teams, Agile Testing, How to engage the client in Agile Projects, Non IT-industry implementations of agile methodologies, etc.

* Pajarraco Photos:

After a coffee break during the afternoon, there was an interesting debate about Retrospectives (open discussion format) and an Agile Architecture presentation (by Diego Fontdevila).

We reached to the closure with more than 40 people. It was facilitated by Diego with excellent results, as we’re used to in every Open Space: great people interaction, highly engaged & active people,really interesting topics, living experiences, etc. The result was more than positive:

Resultado AO La Plata 2009

The next steps we’re taking at “La Plata” level is to organize a monthly event where to discuss agile topics following the same approach that has been working for months in Buenos Aires, while at a national level we still have the organization and realization of the Rosario, Mar del Plata and Bahía Blanca Agile Opens. And any new city who wants to have one.

A new Agile Open was finished, and -same as the previous ones- it left it’s footprint.

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