COLLABERATIVE LEARNING and MENTORING

One of our key values is helping the community and its members grow as agilists. We do this though:

  • Sponsoring our communities of practice
  • Supporting external educational events and communities of practice
  • Mentoring new Agilists

COMMUNITIES of PRACTICE

We sponsor and facilitate a 30-minute, weekly community and a 90-minute, monthly community. While we may introduce techniques to educate and to keep the meetings engaging,  the communities decide the what and the how. If you would like to learn more or join either community, please send a note to info@agilen2n.com.

Weekly Community

Our Friday noon (CT) virtual micro-sessions provide an opportunity for new and experienced Agilists to come together and discuss a very narrow topic. The community constantly evolves session format to best serve its members. Our meetings may feature:

  •  a question or situation offered by a participant, followed by a discussion
  •  a 5-10 minute presentation by a participant to introduce their topic/situation/question followed by a discussion
  •  a half-hour presentation by a participant with Q&A
  •  discussion of the top item of the backlog
    •  Certification vs understanding vs experience – impact of model prescriptiveness
    •  How does the current Scrum Guide tie sprint goals more closely with product goals?
    •  How do you remember technical debt items – story, 3M note, just-fix-it
    •  If you’re not getting value from [fill in the blank] you may be doing it wrong
    • FinOps
    • Who should see which Agile metrics?
    • What is the role of a PM in an Agile organization? How many teams can a PM support? Does this change with maturity?
    • How granular does a road map need to be for different levels of the organization?
    • What tools exist to coordinate the dependencies of a set of enterprise agile teams?
    • What behaviors should a PM retain when transitioning to an Agile organization?
    • Should SAFe be introduced from  Team up or Portfolio down?
    • Should teams pick their own project management tools? Development? Does this change for complex projects/services?
    • Barriers to safety within a team
    • Barriers to safety outside a team
    • How do we measure “success” – pick a “success”
DatePresenterTopic
3-Jun-22No meeting
27-May-22TeamDealing with the Integration of PMs, SMs, RTEs Between a New Company and One That Has Just Started Its Agile Transformation.
20-May-22TeamAgile Antipatterns
13-May-22TeamAgile Antipatterns
6-May-22No meeting
29-Apr-22TeamDo SMs need PM skills & credentials?
22-Apr-22TeamWhen the Senior PO is Not Agile (but is sure he is)
15-Apr-22TeamWhich Metrics Should (Not) Be Shared
8-Apr-22No meeting
1-Apr-22TeamIntroducing test automation to a scrummerfall team
25-Mar-22No Meeting
18-Mar-22No Meeting
11-Mar-22No Meeting
4-Mar-22No Meeting
25-Feb-22TeamRetrospectives
18-Feb-22TeamWorking with Non-Agile Customers & Defect Management
11-Feb-22TeamEstimating very short projects
4-Feb-22No Meeting
28-Jan-22No Meeting
21-Jan-22TeamIntroduction to Agile Games
14-Jan-22TeamApplying Agile Principle 3 to Principle 12
7-Jan-22No Meeting
31-Dec-21No Meeting
24-Dec-21No Meeting
17-Dec-21TeamWhy did the Scrum Guide change "Role" to "Accountability"
10-Dec-21No Meeting
3-Dec-21No Meeting
26-Nov-21No Meeting
19-Nov-21TeamShould Test Automation be Integrated into Team?
12-Nov-21TeamGuidebook for Scaled Agile Transformation
5-Nov-21No Meeting
29-Oct-21TeamUsing the influencer model for Agile transformation
22-Oct-21TeamBecoming a Contributor to an Agile Transformation when Your Official Role is Limited and is Not IT
15-Oct-21TeamDealing With a New, Controlling PMO Leader
8-Oct-21TeamFast Learning of SAFe Introduction, a Case Study
1-Oct-21TeamWhat is the role of documentation in an Agile organization?
24-Sep-21TeamDealing with People in Power Who are Unwilling to Change
17-Sep-21No Meeting
10-Sep-21TeamWhat behaviors should a PM leave behind when becoming Agile
3-Sep-21TeamDealing with a BA in a Product Owner role
27-Aug-21TeamShould we estimate and to what degree?
20-Aug-21TeamSec-Dev-Ops or Dev-Ops-Sec or Dev-Sec-Ops
13-Aug-21No Meeting
6-Aug-21No Meeting
30-July-21TeamNo meeting
23-July-21TeamShould managers attend retrospectives? Does this change with team maturity and trust in manager?
16-July-21Sonia MartinSynchronous v Asynchronous Sprints
9-July-21TeamBacklog

Monthly Community

We sponsor the West Suburban Agile Community of Practice on the third Thursday of the month, 7:00-8:30pm CT (virtual for now). Since February 2015 the community meeting provides an opportunity for new and experienced Agilists to come together to network and to have a wide-ranging discussion of Agile topics. The meeting format is highly interactive with minimal presentation and maximum on sharing of experiences through discussion. Attendees can share their valuable experiences and have an opportunity to learn from each other. The community determines the topics and format it will use for the meeting.

OTHER ORGANIZATIONS

Agile N2N supports other organizations and their work to share Agile knowledge. We have provided speakers or sponsorship of professional organizations and education institutions such as the Project Management Institute, the Illinois Institute of Technology, the IEEE, the Human Resources Management Association of Chicago, and the American Society for Quality.

We are a proud partner of the Western Chicago Suburbs Agile Meetup Group.

MENTORING

Several of us mentor new and experienced Agilists in their career development. The mentoring involves one-on-one sessions where we discuss books and topics in great detail over a three to six month period. We also provide guidance on creating an Agile focused resume and interview preparation.

If you are interested in learning more about this opportunity, please contact info@agilen2n.com.