Agile Users Group
Please note that the AUG has ceased to exist due to lack of time on my behalf (I am a Dad now). Below is left for historical reasons only...
In early 2008 the idea formed to create an informal gathering for all those interested in Agile to get together, share experiences and help each other. The first meeting took place in April 2008 at the Pomeroys Pub with a good turnout and a general interested to keep going.
Since then we had quite a number of meetings, approx. every two months in 2008. Since January 2009 we have now established a monthly rythm with a fixed day of the last Wednesday of every month. If you are interested, please just come to one of our meetings. Attendance is of course free and we welcome anyone new joining us for a session! We are listed on the ScrumAlliance website and with the APLN.
AUG meeting on 27/05/2009
I am pleased to announce the next meeting for the South Island Agile Users Group. This will be a disputation style session with time to discuss & ask questions. Please feel free to forward this invite to anyone interested.
Quick facts:
Canterbury innovations incubator (Cii), 200 Armagh Street
Date & Time:
Wednesday, 27/05/2009, 17:10 for 17:30 start (ending around 18:45)
Topic:
Test Driven Development (TDD) and Agile. Colin Basterfield will be explainig TDD, it's fit with Agile, where TDD makes sense from his experience (and where not). We will then dispute pros and cons of TDD and would welcome many (controversial?) questions.
Sponsor:
Clarus for nibbles and drinks and the Cii for the venue. Thanks!
Level:
All
If possible, please RSVP via email to me by 26/05. Looking forward to seeing you there!
Cheers,
Jan
AUG meeting on 29/04/2009
New: Takeaways from this session
I am pleased to announce the next meeting for the South Island Agile Users Group. This will be a chalk and talk session about introducing agile with plenty of time to discuss & ask questions.
Quick facts:
Canterbury innovations incubator (Cii), 200 Armagh Street
Date & Time:
Wednesday, 29/04/2009, 17:10 for 17:30 start (ending around 18:45)
Topic:
Introducing Agile; an open session with Craig McLintock (Meridian) on a real world example of how agile was introduced at Meridian. Craig (and I) will share experiences on things like; how to get started, how does reporting work, what to expect when creating an agile team, how to sell agile, when to bend the rules (and when not), agile in a non development project,...
Sponsor:
Clarus for nibbles and drinks and the Cii for the venue. Thanks!
Level:
Entry and Intermediate
If possible, please RSVP via email to me by 28/04. Looking forward to seeing you there!
Cheers,
Jan
AUG meeting on 25/03/2009
I am pleased to announce the next meeting for the South Island Agile Users Group. We have been up and running for almost a year and now feels like the right time to use this session to discuss people's ideas, expectations, and thoughts around were we would like the group to go. We thought we do this over a drink in the foyer upstairs at the Cii.
Quick facts:
Canterbury innovations incubator (Cii), 200 Armagh Street
Date & Time:
Wednesday, 25/03/2009, 17:10 for 17:30 start (ending around 18:45)
Topic:
What do you want out of the Agile Users Group? Expectations, ideas, thoughts...
Sponsor:
Clarus for nibbles and drinks and the Cii for the venue. Thanks!
Level:
All
If possible, please RSVP via email to me [a] by 24/03. Looking forward to seeing you there!
Cheers,
Jan
AUG meeting on 25/02/2009
I am pleased to announce the next meeting for the South Island Agile Users Group. Please note that with this invitation we are introducing a 'level' into the invite, taking feedback from previous sessions onboard. This is to give an indication of the level of familiarity with Agile that would be helpful to have, in order to get the maximum out of a session. As always, any feedback is highly welcome.
Quick facts:
Canterbury innovations incubator (Cii), 200 Armagh Street
Date & Time:
Wednesday, 25/02/2009, 17:10 for 17:30 start (ending around 18:30)
Topic:
Lean principles. We want to do a book review of Tom and
Mary Poppendieck's book on Lean Management, discuss the underlying ideas and their impact on Agile (e.g. influence onto the Agile Manifesto).
Sponsor:
Clarus for nibbles and drinks and the Cii for the venue. Thanks!
Level:
Intermediate
If possible, please RSVP via email to me [a] by 24/02. Looking forward to seeing you there!
Cheers,
Jan
AUG meeting on 28/01/2009
I am pleased to announce the next meeting for the South Island Agile Users Group - and that we now have a proper home thanks to the Canterbury innovation incubator (or short Cii). The upcoming meeting will also be the first to take place at the new venue. Due to other bookings with the Cii, this does however mean we will be changing to a Wednesday meeting time. We hope this is still a day you will be able to make.
Quick facts:
Canterbury innovations incubator (Cii), 200 Armagh Street
Date & Time:
Wednesday(!), 28/01/2009, 17:10 for 17:30 start (ending around 19:00)
Topic:
User stories. This will be an interactive session on user stories, how to use them, experiences using them, limitations... with time for questions afterwards.
Sponsor:
Clarus for nibbles and drinks and the Cii for the venue. Thanks!
If possible, please RSVP via email to me [a] by 26/01. Looking forward to seeing you there!
Cheers,
Jan
AUG meeting on 04/12/2008
I am pleased to announce the next meeting for the South Island Agile Users Group.
Two product owners will share their experiences with 'going Agile' with us. The session will be held in the spirit of a sprint retrospective and will hopefully allow everyone to ask question and discuss & share own experiences. The meeting will take place right after the first day of the Scrum Master course at the Hotel SO and we hope many of the 'soon to be' certified Scrum Masters along with the course's trainer Gabrielle Benefield will also join us.
Quick facts:
Venue:
Hotel SO (map see here)
Date & Time:
04/12/2008 17:30 for 17:45 start (ending around 18:45)
Topic:
Experiencing Agile from a business's perspective (e.g. product owner in Scrum) Presenters: Chris Toohey (Statistics NZ), Marc van der Putten (House of Travel)
Sponsor:
Clarus for venue and nibbles
Please RSVP via email to me by 02/12 if possible. Looking forward to seeing you there!
Cheers,
Jan
AUG meeting on 25/09/2008
We are pleased to announce the next date for the South Island Agile Users Group meeting. Please RSVP to Jan or Richie so we can arange adequate quantities of food and drink. Please also note the changed venue, as we will be hosted by House of Travel for this event.
Date & Time: Thursday, 31/07/2008, 17:30
Location: House of Travel Holdings, Allan McLean Building, 210 Oxford Terrace
Agenda: “Testing in an Agile environment” presented by members of one of Richie's teams who wish to share their experiences on testing in an Agile environment. After making the huge step from waterfall to Agile environments, Richie asked them to prepare an informal talk on the pain they felt and how they see the success/failures testing under this project management methodology. As usual, we will have time for questions and discussions afterwards.
Sponsors: Clarus and House of Travel, for food, drink, and accommodation
Looking forward to seeing you there!
AUG meeting on 31/07/2008
It has been a while but the next meeting of the Agile Users Group is organised! Please RSVP to me so we can rrange adequate quantities of food and drink. Please also note the changed venue, as we will be hosted by Clarus for this event.
Date: Thursday, 31/07/2008
Time: From 17:30 with beer & pizza - presentation starting at 18:00
Location: Clarus, 61 Kilmore Street
Agenda:
David Bales will speak about experiences and lessons learned after 38 Scrum sprints at Statistics NZ
Questions and discussion
Discuss next meetings agenda (proposal; video on Agile and discussion of same)
Sponsor: Clarus, for food, drink, and accommodation
AUG meeting on 05/06/2008 (not at the Pomeroys)
We have another Agile User Group evening planned for Christchurch central on JUNE 5TH. We are delighted to announce that we have a very special guest for the evening.
Gabrielle Benefield, who introduced Agile techniques and Scrum to YAHOO, will be down in CHCH running the CSM course and has very kindly offered to talk on Scrum. Gabrielle has a wealth of knowledge in this area, gained from running 170 Scrum teams at Yahoo. She has since moved on to greener pastures, so we are very fortunate indeed to have someone of such high standing within the Agile Community gracing our Garden City.
So you will have a chance to buy Gabrielle a drink in return for tapping into her experiences of introducing and managing Scrum teams at the highest level.
We need to know numbers for this event so please contact Jan or Richie to RSVP by COB 3rd June and learn of the venue in exchange ;)
As with previous meetings, Clarus will be sponsoring the event. Thanks for that!
01/05/2008 at the Pomeroys
Richie Moyle and I would like to invite you to the second South Island Agile Users Group's get together on May 1st at the Pomeroys (www.pomeroyspub.co.nz) after work at 5:30 pm. Proposed agenda;
- quick round the table
- what everyone wants out of the group
- topic of the evening: points of failure & success factors when introducing Agile to a Waterfall environment
- discussion (& have a beer)