The document summarizes Joanna Vahlsing's recap of the Agile2016 conference held in Atlanta, Georgia from July 24-29, 2016. Some key details from the conference included over 2,500 attendees from 42 countries, 270 sessions across 18 tracks, and 1,300 proposals submitted. Joanna attended 18 sessions covering topics like agile program management, leadership, and women in agile. A highlight was a keynote by Joshua Kerievsky on modern agile principles focused on making people awesome, safety, experimentation, and continuous value delivery. Another session recapped was "Women in Agile: I Want to See You Be Brave" encouraging women to find their voice and leadership opportunities.

1. Hyatt Regency in Atlanta, Georgia – July 24 through 29, 2016
Chicago Agile Open Space Meetup
August 9, 2016
AGILE ALLIANCE’S #AGILE2016 RECAP

2. Joanna Vahlsing
Sr. Director, Program Management
joanna.vahlsing@centro.net
@joannavahlsing
About Centro (www.centro.net)
• Founded in 2001
• Chosen one of Crain’s Best Places to Work for in Chicago for the last six
years
• What we do:
• Centro is reinventing digital advertising by focusing on one goal:
improve the lives of the people behind the campaigns.
• How do we do it:
• Our software platform empowers digital media professionals by
automating the entire digital media lifecycle from research to
planning, buying, optimizing, reporting, and reconciliation.
• More than just tech:
• We also have an amazing team of media strategists and digital
experts committed to providing our clients with raving fan service
at every stage of any campaign.
• We’re Hiring!
• Check out www.centro.net/careers for our open positions!

3. Agile2016 :: Some Stats
Over:
• 2,500 participants from 42 countries
• 270 sessions in 18 tracks
• 3 conference level floors
• 1,300 proposals submitted
• 150 evaluators to review them
18 Tracks
• Agile Boot Camp
• Audacious Salon
• Coaching and Mentoring
• Development Practices and
Craftsmanship
• DevOps
• Enterprise Agile
• Experience Reports
• Government
• Leadership
• Learning
• Lightning Talks
• Project, Program and
Portfolio Management
• Stalwarts
• Testing and Quality
• The Future of Agile Software
Development
• User Experience
• Working with Customers
Personal Stats:
• Attended 18 sessions
• Gained 25 ½ hours of learning
• About 100 pages of notes
• Hundreds of pictures and a lot of audio/video
Opening Keynote Photo by @BillyGarnet

4. Sessions Attended (it was very difficult to decide)
1. Agile Program Management: Measurements to See Value and Delivery
2. Building Blocks of a Knowledge Work Culture
3. Coaching Nightmares: Insights we can Learn from Gordon Ramsay
4. Digital Disruption: Let’s Create the Future of Agile
5. Growing Your Servant Leadership
6. Industry Analyst Panel Discussion: Agile Trends and Future Directions
7. Leadership for Genius Tribes
8. Managing for Happiness
9. Meeting resistance and moving forward
10. Modern Agile
11. Outcome Oriented Agility: Transformations that work with, rather than against, cultures
12. Purpose Driven Teams
13. Stop talking to a Brick Wall - how culture impacts conversations about Agile
14. The Manager Role for Enterprise Agility - this is what Good looks like
15. The State of NoEstimates
16. Women in Agile Workshop
17. Women in Agile: I Want to See You Be Brave
18. You Can't Fix What You Don't See: Visualizations that Spark Conversation and Change
Got to network with some cool people
and thought leaders, including:
Woody Zuill (NoEstimates)
Johanna Rothman
Anders Ivarrson (Spotify)
David Hussman (DevJams)
To see a summary and links to materials,
photos and videos of the sessions go to:
http://tinyurl.com/JoannaRecapsAgile2016

5. Modern Agile Recap
Wednesday Keynote by
Joshua Kerievsky, CEO of Industrial Logic
@JoshuaKerievsky

6. Today, I’d like to share with you what I heard, and I encourage
you to watch the video when it’s posted.

7. What is Modern Agile?
Over the past decade, innovative companies,
software industry thought leaders and lean/agile
pioneers have discovered simpler, sturdier, more
streamlined ways to be agile. These modern
approaches share a focus on producing exceptional
outcomes and growing an outstanding culture.
Today, it makes far more sense to bypass antiquated
agility in favor of modern approaches.
Modern agile methods are defined by four guiding
principles:
• Make people awesome
• Make safety a prerequisite
• Experiment and learn rapidly
• Deliver value continuously
World famous organizations like Google, Amazon,
AirBnB, Etsy and others are living proof of the power
of these four principles. However, you don’t need to
be a name brand company to leverage modern agile
wisdom. From Modernagile.org

8. What were the key points I heard?
• Rethinking Definition of Done and Definition of Agile

9. What were the key points I heard?
• The concept that Scrum practices are like training wheels
“It is like seeing someone with a really big, fat, and heavy laptop: You just feel bad for them.
When I see people doing old agile processes, that is how I feel.”
– Joshua Kerievsky

10. What were the key points I heard?
A new perspective on the four basic principles of the Agile Manifesto are:
• Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
• Working software over comprehensive documentation
• Responding to change over following a plan
• Individual interactions over processes and tools
“These basic four values or principles of the manifesto I am humbly
suggesting we consider them very useful and historical, and consider modern
agile to be our new goal”
The challenges with the principles is that they fail to:
1. Consider the entire ecosystem of a project, not just one part of it
anymore.
2. Deliver value continuously, not just deliver working software.
3. Experiment to figure out problems.
4. Foster a healthy environment.

11. What were the key points I heard?
• These conversations have been building for a few years now

12. What were the key points I heard?
• Popular books are being written in the focus areas of Modern Agile

13. What were the key points I heard?
• Ideas on how Agile can evolve
Toyota’s Two Pillars: Respect for People
and Continuous Improvement
More than just software

14. What were the key points I heard?
• The importance of psychological safety

15. What were the key points I heard?
• Tactical ideas for how to have psychologically safe meetings

16. What were the key points I heard?
• Why delivering value constantly is so important

17. What were the key points I heard?
• Other favorite quotes:

18. A new way to think about the Agile Manifesto

19. Women in Agile: I Want to See You Be Brave Recap
Tuesday Afternoon Session by
Kara Minotti Becker
@Kminottibecker

20. Session Overview
Do you ever wonder what would happen if you say what you want to say?
Agile has the potential to completely upend traditional management hierarchies
and cultures. In the promised land of the true Agile team, every member has an
equal voice. Leadership is not owned by a person. Rather, it is found in a
thousand moments of opportunity.
For some, and perhaps especially for women, that means we must hone our
ability to step confidently into leadership opportunities and speak our minds
openly. To do this, we must own our voices, our intelligence, and our power to
lead. We must, in short, say what we want to say.

21. Setting the Stage

22. Setting the Stage

23. Finding our Voice

24. Finding our Voice

25. Words Matter

26. Words Matter

27. Pantene Commercial on Labels

28. Fears

29. No Fear

30. Session Conclusion
At the end of the session, Kara pumped us up to be #Brave.
…and, yes, the Sara Bareillies song Brave played
a number of times throughout the session…