Rory Madden

The world is full of bad software - and our processes are to blame. Researchers research, designers design and developers code. We treat each separately as if we can know how customers will react to our products. But to build great products we need to work in really small batches and iterate based on what we learn. The siloed nature of many organisations makes this way of working very hard.

In this workshop we will go over why we work in our current siloed ways, why it was the most efficient way to do things last century, why it no longer is the best way to work and how we can shift to a new way of working.

This workshop goes beyond just saying things like "work agile together" to dig into the changes required to team structures, planning, funding, governance and more.

You’ll walk away from this workshop with a higher level understanding of the complex challenges facing people at different levels of an organisation and how to improve your processes in a way that works for everyone.

Have you spent week's pulling together the data to make a compelling case for changing your processes or adopting a new way of working. Your manager congratulates you on doing a great job and everyone is on board.

But then nothing happens.

It's clear that we will make more money or save more costs if we go for it but there are always competing priorities and deadlines that seem to trump your change.

We'll talk through why this is happening, and what you can do about it.

The agile manifesto argues for People over Process because designing software is a messy, collaborative activity. Yet every company insists on installing processes to manage software development.

Rather than having a talk about whether one is better than the other we are going to have a debate. Rory and Jaco will go head to head on whether processes help or hinder in software.

Expect compelling arguments, audience interaction, and actionable insights that challenge how we approach team dynamics and organizational success.

A 2020 study found that only 13% of projects delivered the expected benefits within the expected costs. Luckily we're all agile now so our effectiveness rates are much higher... right? (Spoiler - they are not).
In this talk, Rory will explain why fake agile, or water-scrum-fall is more common than real agility and, more importantly, how you can make it easier for senior leaders in companies to make the necessary changes to enable real agility.

The agile manifesto argues for People over Process because designing software is a messy, collaborative activity. Yet every company insists on installing processes to manage software development.

Rather than having a talk about whether one is better than the other we are going to have a debate. Rory and Jaco will go head to head on whether processes help or hinder in software.

Expect compelling arguments, audience interaction, and actionable insights that challenge how we approach team dynamics and organisational success.

Cross-functional teams are different to teams of functions. On the outside they look the same but how they work is completely different.

Empowered teams own a part of a product from idea to satisfied customers. This means they need to do continuous research, continuous design and continuous development. But what about their practices and processes.

In this workshop we will cover:

1. How teams gain the context needed to make decisions
2. The new team Kanban
3. From push to pull systems
4. Pairing and Teaming practices
5. Upskilling, when isolated from functions
6. Aligning with other teams around the org

Join if you want to know not just how empowered teams should work but also learn why (and be able to back up your suggestions).

Have you spent week's pulling together the data to make a compelling case for changing your processes or adopting a new way of working. Your manager congratulates you on doing a great job and everyone is on board.

But then nothing happens.

It's clear that we will make more money or save more costs if we go for it but there are always competing priorities and deadlines that seem to trump your change.

We'll talk through why this is happening, and what you can do about it.

A 2020 study found that only 13% of projects delivered the expected benefits within the expected costs. Luckily we're all agile now so our effectiveness rates are much higher... right? (Spoiler - they are not).

In this talk, Rory will explain why fake agile, or water-scrum-fall is more common than real agility and, more importantly, how you can make it easier for senior leaders in companies to make the necessary changes to enable real agility.