Oslo XP Meetup

Oslo XP March Meetup: Linda Rising

March 13, 2009 · 4:00 PM
Institutt for Informatikk

This meetup will be in English As a true agilist, Dr. Linda Rising has graciously offered to prepare for all three talks, and you, our audience will be able to choose from one of the following presentations: Are Agilists the Bonobos of Software Development? The chimpanzees and the bonobos are the animals whose genetic make-up is closest to that of human beings, but their "cultures" (and, yes, these animals definitely have well-defined cultures) are very different. The chimpanzees are aggressive, and operate in a strict, alpha-male-dominated hierarchy, while the bonobos are gentle and promiscuous! What sort of tie-could this have for those of us who favor agile development over plan-driven? Deception and Estimation: How We Fool Ourselves Cognitive scientists tell us that we are hardwired for deception. It seems we are overly optimistic, and, in fact, we wouldn't have survived without this trait. With this built-in bias as a starting point, it's almost impossible for us to estimate accurately. That doesn't mean all is lost. We must simply accept that our estimates are best guesses and continually re-evaluate as we go, which is, of course, the agile approach to managing change. Linda Rising has been part of many plan-driven development projects where sincere, honest people with integrity wanted to make the best estimates possible and used many "scientific" approaches to make it happen---all for naught. Re-estimation was regarded as an admission of failure to do the best up-front estimate and resulted in a lot of overhead and meetings to try to "get it right." Offering examples from ordinary life---especially from the way people eat and drink---Linda demonstrates how hard it is for us to see our poor estimating skills and helps us learn to avoid the self-deception that is hardwired in all of us. Who do You Trust? Beware of Your Brain Cognitive scientists tell us that we are more productive and happier when our behavior matches our brain's hardwiring---when what we do and why we do it matches the way we have evolved to survive over tens of thousands of years. One problematic behavior humans have is that we are hardwired to instantly decide who we trust. And we generally aren't aware of these decisions---it just happens. Linda Rising explains that this hardwired "trust evaluation" can get in the way of working well with others. Pairing, the daily stand-up, and close communication with the customer and others outside the team go a long way to overcome our instant evaluation of others. As Linda helps you gain a better understanding of this mechanism in your behavior and what agile processes can do to help, you are more likely to build better interpersonal relationships. Bio Linda Rising has a Ph.D. from Arizona State University in the field of object-based design metrics and a background that includes university teaching and industry work in telecommunications, avionics, and strategic weapons systems. An internationally known presenter on topics related to patterns, retrospectives, and the change process, Linda is the author of Design Patterns in Communications, The Pattern Almanac 2000, A Patterns Handbook, and co-author with Mary Lynn Manns of Fearless Change: Patterns for Introducing New Ideas. Find more information about Linda at www.lindarising.org. Thanks to ProgramUtvikling who sponsors our March-meetup!

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Jerome Lacoste

Different type of talk. Always interesting!

0 · March 17, 2009
Ole Christian Rynning

PS: Linda was correct about classifications
{Tribe: Hominini, Subtribe: Panina, Genus: Pan} vs. Human { Tribe: Hominini, Subtribe: Hominina, Genus: Homo }

0 · March 16, 2009
Ole Christian Rynning

Very interesting topic and highly relevant to all business-people. This is a topic I would like to explore further in the future!

0 · March 16, 2009
A former member

inspiring. looking at things from a different angle. very interesting psychologial studies mentioned

0 · March 16, 2009
Kjell Lundene

An interesting, challenging, and not the least surprising topic.

0 · March 16, 2009
Ketil Samuelsen

Entertaining talk, I wish she had elaborated a bit more on how to apply the behaviour psycology findings in the workplace though.

0 · March 16, 2009
A former member

Thought provoking and inspiring.

0 · March 15, 2009
Ole Morten Amundsen

Lovely little lady! The psychologi part of software development has too little focus on it today. I want more!

0 · March 15, 2009
A former member

The Magic Lady enchanted the nerds with psychology.

0 · March 14, 2009
Karianne Berg

Linda var tankevekkende og overbevisende, som vanlig. Ei dame vi burde lytte mer til!

0 · March 13, 2009
Knut Vidar Siem

Kjempebra foredrag av Linda Rising. Skulle ønske at dette var en annen dag slik at jeg fikk med meg folk fra prosjektet! Godt improvisert med ølsalg :)

0 · March 13, 2009
Ole Christian Rynning

Final location will be announced during Wednesday, and please update/confirm your RSVPs!

0 · March 9, 2009
Ole Christian Rynning

It's a Friday ;)

0 · March 2, 2009
Jerome Lacoste

kl 4 ! Det var tidlig :)

0 · March 2, 2009