Zhon Johansen Proposal for Agile 2009, 2010 session
Title: Energize Your Agile Community with Roundtable or, Create an "Idea Salon" - start a Roundtable discussion group in your community
Stage: Agile Frontier
If we want this to go on the Agile Frontier stage, we need to spice up the abstract. The angle we're thinking of is that roundtables like these are seedbeds for new ideas. What new ideas have come out of Agile Roundtable? What is controversial? Alistair teaches us not to accept Agile dogma.
The other possible stage is Manifesting Agile, but Kay thinks the Agile Frontier will have the right people that we want to come to this session.
What other stage might be a fit?
Session Type: Workshop
Keywords: user group, discussion, community, facilitation, new ideas
Duration: 90 minutes
Primary and secondary personas:
Level: Expert
Abstract:
Do you remember the energy from the early XP/Agile conferences? Do you want this same energy in your local community? Don't wait for someone else to do it - start a local roundtable today.
Started by Alistair Cockburn, the Salt Lake Agile Roundtable has been active for 13 years and has spawned a thriving local Agile community, strong Agile teams at local companies, local conferences, and two Gordon Pask award winners. In this session, you'll see and try the practices that work for us. You'll experience the unique feel of our user group and leave ready to start or re-energize your local group.
Learning Outcomes:
- See and try the practices that have made a very successful, long running Agile user group
- Learn how to host your own meetings with similar format
- Walk away with everything you need to start and sustain an Agile discussion group
- Learn how to run a self-sustaining, powerful user group that never requires preparation or planning time
Process/Mechanics:
Part 1: Deconstructing Salt Lake Agile Roundtable (30 minutes)
We break the experience of a roundtable into three main areas: gathering topics, discussing a topic, and wrapping up, plus a bunch of logistical tips and tricks. The attendees form groups of 10-12. With selected attendees we demonstrate the main areas, then the groups each try a different area, then we debrief and reflect. The attendees share what has worked in their community. We finish with a brief discussion of Salt Lake Agile's particular logistical tricks and hear what others are doing.
We'll probably give a short handout summarizing the Salt Lake Agile Roundtable format and logistics.
Part 2: Experience the Joys of Agile Roundtable (60 minutes)
The attendees run a roundtable discussion from beginning to end.