Agile2014 Conference

July 28-August 1 - an opportunity not to be missed!

By Adam Light, PMP

Orlando is about as far as you can get from Portland while remaining in the continental United States. What is so special about the Agile2014 Conference? Why should you travel so far to be there, and why should your organization commit the time and money to send you?

In one word: Energy!

From its beginnings as a three-day conference for the XP (eXtreme Programming) community in 2001, this annual conference, produced by the Agile Alliance, has grown to become the premier event for members of the Agile community. As the Agile community itself has expanded dramatically, the conference has steadily broadened to encompass multiple sub-communities. This annual conference has become a sort of gathering of tribes. By attending you gain access to a showcase of the best ideas from many sources and you can tap into the energy of those many tribes.

When you consider the conference fees and the investment in travel, major industry conferences all cost about the same, but the value they offer attendees varies greatly. The breadth and quality of sessions and events at this conference is unmatched. To give a flavor of the depth and quality, consider that this year's soon-to-be-announced program is divided into 17 peer-reviewed tracks. As one of about 20 volunteer reviewers for the Enterprise Agile track, I helped review over 170 submissions for this track alone. Some of the most knowledgeable people in the industry put a great amount of effort into almost every submission and only about 15 percent of those submissions are included in the final program. I have attended many conferences catering to a variety of industries where the entire program is put together by a few paid staffers or where almost every submission is accepted to the conference. Never have I seen an industry conference where the program benefits from such a level of involvement and selectiveness as the Agile Alliance conferences.

As THE big-tent gathering of Agile thinkers and practitioners, the Agile2014 conference offers something for every project management professional.

If you have limited knowledge, you can begin with the Agile Boot Camp track, curated this year by Portland's own Agile luminary Diana Larsen. (Diana has also been invited to deliver one of three keynote addresses.) In the Boot Camp, you can obtain a brief but systematic overview of Agile concepts, terminology, methodologies, and practices. Upon completion of the Boot Camp, you should feel comfortable discussing basic Agile practices, and have a mental framework to help you get the most out of the remainder of the conference. For those in the market for Agile training, the Boot Camp alone would be worth the price of admission!

If you are hungry for more topical information you'll be able to choose from several talks by the creators and practitioners of the much-discussed Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) as well as commentary from the creators of Scrum and XP and other leading thinkers in the industry. If your company is in a domain or market which sometimes seems inhospitable to Agile approaches, come meet conference attendees and presenters from government entities and heavily-regulated industries such as medical devices and connect with people who have years of experience using Agile practices for offshore development. If you have a specific topic you want to learn more about, odds are good that you will find a tutorial session that fits your interests.

And if you are looking for a more life-altering perspective be sure to check out the keynote address by Bjarte Bogsnes, the internationally renowned proponent of Beyond Budgeting, who has helped Statoil, a $130 billion company, implement innovative alternatives to traditional management. These include abolishing traditional budgets and calendar-based management in favor of more decentralized, agile and human processes.

The Agile Alliance puts on a great conference and they continue to raise the bar each year. Thirteen years in, this conference is a magnet for leading edge thinkers from a variety of perspectives. If you are going to do one thing to expand your career perspective in 2014, I encourage you to investigate the Agile2014 conference at: http://agile2014.agilealliance.org/

About the Author

Adam Light, PMP is Management Consultant and Principal at SoTech Advisors where he helps organizations apply Lean and Agile methods to unlock greater value from software development and other forms of knowledge works. Adam works with enterprise clients to adopt and scale Agile methods, design and operate Lean and Agile work systems, plan and deliver critical projects, and build the knowledge foundation necessary to sustain continuous improvement. Connect with Adam at http://www.sotechadvisors.com.