Event List

  • January 14 - APLN Houston Chapter Meeting - HESS Club -Futurespective Workshop …Register Here
  • December 9 - APLN Houston/PMI Houston Joint Meeting - SYSCO Corporation - Moving Beyond Software: Agile Project Management with Scrum …Register Here

Even projects that have solid, well-defined project plans encounter some degree of change and waste. Shifting market conditions, budget cuts, staff restructuring, or any number of influences can disrupt the best plan while contributing to customer dissatisfaction and staff discouragement. Moreover, projects that begin with changing or unclear requirements make it difficult to establish even basic project expectations. Scrum is the agile project management methodology that allows teams to deliver pieces of the project iteratively and incrementally throughout the life of the project, absorbing change and new requirements as the project proceeds. Although Scrum is usually associated software development, some have discovered that Scrum can benefit their non-software projects, too. Is Scrum for you and your organization? To answer this question this session will present the basic concepts of Scrum; explore its major differences from traditional practices, and discuss where agile methods can be more productive.

Peter Borsella, founder of Winnow Management Corporation, is a Project Management Professional and a Certified ScrumMaster Trainer with the ability to contribute across a wide range of environments that has taken him to companies such as Hilton, Cisco, and AOL, and to various countries such as India, Hungary, and Israel. He is adept at providing authentic leadership to create effective teams and his goal is to help others understand how to get the best return from any project by achieving higher levels of software quality, increased customer satisfaction, and cohesive teams that enjoy increased productivity.

  • December 10-11 - Certified Scrum Master Training with Peter Borsella …Register Here
  • November 12 - APLN Houston Chapter Meeting - HESS Club - Four Lessons of Life: Applying them to Agile Projects

Tony Akins will share four lessons he has learned from life and how they apply to leading agile projects.

  • Do what works all the time - If a practice, technique, and/or approach works, do it all the time.
  • Don’t work in the dark - It’s all about feedback - the longer you work without feedback, the longer you are working in the dark.
  • Make it better - Unless you can make it (a piece of code, a project, a relationship) better, don’t bother working on it. 
  • Everyone has value - Or, as my wife likes to say, everyone brings a gift to the table.

Anthony Akins has been in the software industry for over 20 years, working in research and development, direct marketing and sales, product development (all phases from initial requirements to in the field maintenance), training and development, process improvement and technology transition. He is currently the Director of Software at Behavioral Recognition Systems where he oversees the day-to-day operations of Research, Development, Quality Engineering and Deployment staffs. Previously Tony was a Senior Consultant at Valtech Technologies where he provided expertise in agile project management.

  • October 8 - APLN Houston Chapter Meeting - HESS Club - Scaling Agile

Agile techniques have consistently demonstrated their benefits for co-located, small project teams; however, many organizations want to gain similar benefits for their large scale, highly distributed projects. Join Bryan Campbell, CSM/PMP/ITIL as he draws upon more than 8 years of experience applying agile techniques to large scale projects and presents what’s involved in “Scaling Agile”. Learn which techniques work most effectively and common mistakes to avoid, understand different organizational models that yield the greatest benefit in large scale settings and get some insight into cutting edge techniques that improve virtual collaboration. Bryan will also discuss a lightweight risk-management mechanism to ‘right-size’ the ceremony and formality often associated with large scale projects.

Bryan Campbell (www.bryancampbell.com) is an IT Leader with 20 years of IT experience and more than a decade in software development. As the Senior Program Manager at BMC Software Inc., Bryan is actively engaged in applying, mentoring and teaching Agile and Lean techniques on large scale projects. Previously, as the Vice-President of Delivery Services for Valtech Technologies Inc., an Agile and Lean Transformation consulting company, he was responsible for directing more than 150 consultants applying agile and lean software development techniques. Bryan has extensive experience managing software development projects using Scrum, XP, agile and iterative development techniques in a variety of industries. He is based in Houston, Texas and is the author of several articles on software.

This two-day workshop will guide traditionally trained software development project managers who want to make the transition to an agile project management approach. A mapping of the PMBOK® Guide practices to agile practices will help students see how the two relate, and how they differ. Using familiar terminology and concepts, attendees will leave with a clear understanding of the changes they need to make both personally and professionally as they cross the bridge to agility.

Michele Sliger (http://www.sligerconsulting.com) is the co-author of The Software Project Manager’s Bridge to Agility. She has extensive experience in agile software development, having transitioned to Scrum and XP practices in 2000 after starting her career following the traditional waterfall approach. A self-described “bridge builder,” her passion lies in helping those in traditional software development environments cross the bridge to agility.

  • September 10 - APLN Houston Chapter Meeting - HESS Club

    • The APLN was founded by Jim Highsmith in February of 2005 with the writing of the Declaration of Interdependence.  The Declaration of Interdependence was born to be a manifesto for project leaders, at all levels, in any organization.  It remains a rallying cry for leaders who are passionate about building great teams and delivering value within their organizations. This talk will explore the six principles behind the Declaration of Interdependence and how these principles apply in both traditional and agile organizations.  Todd Little will discuss the mission of the APLN and it is being translated into action at the national and local levels.  Todd will share his experience as an active board member and his own thoughts on the future of APLN and Agile Leadership

    Todd Little (www.toddlittleweb.com)is a Sr. Development Manager for Landmark Graphics Corp. For over 25 years he has been involved in almost all aspects of software development with a focus on commercial software applications for oil and gas exploration and production. He is on the Board of Directors for the Agile Alliance.  In 2003, he co-founded the Agile Development Conference, and served as the Program Director for ADC2004 and for Agile2005 and Agile2006.  He is a co-author of the Declaration of Interdependence for Agile Project Leadership and a founding member and past President of the Agile Project Leadership Network (APLN).

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