Leading Positive Change Without Authority

Agile methods are all well and good. You may have learned about Kanban, or Test Driven Development, or gone to Scrum Certification, however you're not the one ultimately in charge and can't make that change. Does that mean you can't benefit from agile methods without the whole group? Maybe Agile only works in the US and Europe and will never work here; not in Egypt; not with our reality of hierarchy and team structures?

In this presentation we'll go over some of the most effective practices and talk about how they can be modified to be used alone on a non-agile team. You'll learn what you can do to learn, practice, and improve with agile methods even when you are not in charge.

The presenter will describe a set of agile practices that can be modified to be very effective alone. He will present the original practice, the modifications, your expected results, and what you'll be giving up by not having a full team practice.

Structure:

Things will be done a little differently in this meeting. The meeting will be structured into three different parts:

A) First hour: Socialization and introductory presentation: There will be a light snack provided. Come at the beginning to socialize with professionals from around Cairo and discuss your experiences. This will be followed by a short 15 minute presentation by a fellow practitioner.

B) Second hour: Main presentation. This will be the main event. The lecture/workshop will be presented and is scheduled for a full hour.

C) Third hour: Open discussion with the presenter on the given topic. After the lecture this is your chance to sit in a round-table discussion with the presenter and ask questions, share insights, and basically take what you've learned to the next level.

What's great about this structure is you can take as much or as little as you want out of it. Come early, meet your peers, enjoy a light snack and soak up all you can. Or just show up for the main event. Stay late if the subject interests you and you want to talk more about it and get to the point where you are ready to experiment with the ideas on Sunday morning.

Presenters:

Amr Elssamadisy: https://eg.linkedin.com/in/amrelssamadisy

Amr is a software development practitioner, seasoned teacher and coach who thrives on delighting his clients. By bringing together expertise in business-focused agile adoption, systems thinking, and the human dynamics of software development, Amr has been able to consistently help teams and organizations create spectacular results and get the most from their Agile and Lean adoption initiatives. Amr's specialties include program and project management, test-first programming, and evolutionary design and architecture.

Corporate culture is Amr’s current passion. Creating high performance teams are rare; Agile methods are a great toolset, but they are not enough. For the type of success where teams are 2x, 5x, and 10x better – and remain so, they need the technical practices (from agile/ lean/ etc.) as well as individual human dynamics and a business environment that supports and encourages the correct behavior.

A sought-after speaker for conferences around the world, Amr is the author of Agile Adoption Patterns: A Roadmap To Organizational Success and Patterns of Agile Software Adoption. He holds a Masters in Computer Science from Utah State. He currently lives in Cairo, Egypt.

Note: This is a community activity, and there is no fees for this meetup. However, we share the costs of the venue, which is around 35 EGP per person.