From: Danube & ScrumWorks [mailto:[address removed]]
Sent: Sunday, August 31,[masked]:03 AM
To: Michael Fortunato
Subject: Scrum Users of the World, Unite!

Extracurricular Activities: Scrum User Groups
Laszlo Szalvay, President, Danube Technologies, Inc.


A year ago, Danube's CST Kane Mar co-founded the world's first Scrum users group in Seattle, Wash. The idea of the user group was nothing new; practitioners of other agile practices (i.e. Extreme Programming) coming together for informal meetings has become increasingly common. But when Kane and co-founder Chris Sterling started a group that focused on Scrum, they discovered a genuine need within the community. Since then, Scrum user groups have begun springing up across the country in Orlando, Atlanta, and Portland and the globe, with groups in Italy, Germany, and South Africa. There are more on the way, too. A users group in the Netherlands will meet for the first time later this year.
"Many of us in the Scrum community had talked about starting a group for a long while, so I'm glad we finally did it," said Kane, who will be sharing Boris Gloger's game for exploring process flow, the " ball point game," at the group's next meeting on September 25th. "It's so helpful to have a group that speaks the same language. Scrum involves a highly specific vocabulary. Now, when we talk about a ?sprint,' for example, we can be confident that we have a shared understanding of what that means."
That's not to say that the meetings are only attended by Scrum process authorities. On the contrary, many of the most enthusiastic participants are relatively new to Scrum. Because each monthly meeting examines a different topic presented by a guest speaker, the user group is an opportunity for less experienced Scrum practitioners to learn best practices and brainstorm solutions with people who know how challenging Scrum can be.
"Because of the nature of Scrum, many of the topics address organizational issues rather than technical ones," Kane explains. "There have been excellent presentations on managing software debt or haiku-driven development, but people seem to need the most help with organizational issues."
The Seattle group is always on the lookout for guest speakers, so if you have a suggestion, please send an email to [address removed] . Or if you'd like advice for starting a Scrum users group in your city, feel free to get in touch with Kane at that same email address. Scrum users of the world, unite!

ScrumCORE ? Webinar Series: "What Is Scrum?"
Danube 's ScrumCORE team led by five Certified Scrum Trainers offers regularly scheduled webinars on the fundamentals of Scrum, from roles and terminology to best practices. The first webinar, which focused on Scrum Career Paths, was a huge success. Next up, Danube CST Kane Mar will get back to basics for a session called "What Is Scrum?" He'll discuss Scrum's fundamentals, including its roles, meetings, and artifacts. This session will be held on Monday, September 15th at 1 p.m. PDT. To register, just head here. To take a look at the complete list of upcoming ScrumCORE webinars, head here and scroll to the bottom of the page.

Feature Focus
By JD Aspinall and Laura Howley, ScrumWorks ? Pro Team
ScrumWorks Pro was created to bring teams closer together, especially when they're spread out across multiple buildings, cities, or even continents. In the latest release of ScrumWorks Pro, a pair of new features Notification of Events and the Change Log has made staying on the same page even easier. The Notification feature allows users to subscribe to email notifications regarding important events, such as status changes and edits, while the Change Log captures a record of all changes made in ScrumWorks Pro for tracking and auditing purposes. With these new features, users are immediately updated about their team's activities, enabling more frequent communication and more effective collaboration.
If you're interested in learning more about these features and what else is new in ScrumWorks Pro 3.1, Danube hosts regular demonstrational webinars. To take a look at the full schedule, head here. The next session will take place on Wednesday, September 10th at 10 a.m. PDT. If you'd like to register to attend, just click here.

Retrospective: Agile 2008
Earlier this month, Danube had the pleasure of sponsoring and attending Agile 2008 in Toronto . It was a great opportunity to meet customers and Scrum enthusiasts, so thanks to everyone who stopped by our booth! We also hosted a mid-week mixer and, as promised, gave away more free stuff, including 15 public course enrollments and, the grand prize, two 20-user licenses for ScrumWorks Pro. Congratulations to Man-Wui Chung of Yahoo! and Suzan Quick of Flagstar, who each won a 20-user license for ScrumWorks Pro.

Of course, we're most excited about how the agile community is growing and the role Scrum is playing in driving that growth. Two of Danube's Certified Scrum Trainers presented topics that addressed vital issues for the community. Jim Schiel presented his thoughts on scaling Scrum for the enterprise, based on his experience scaling Scrum for hundreds at Siemens. Dan Rawsthorne, PhD presented his thoughts on monitoring the success of an agile project using EVM and EBV metrics. You can download his paper here.

We're excited to keep building community and sharing our ideas on Scrum best practices. Next up, you can catch us at the Scrum Gathering in Stockholm in October. Hope to see you then!


Danube in the News
"Scrum: An Agile Development Favorite"
By John K. Waters
Published in Application Development Trends on Tuesday, July 29, 2008

When it comes to agile software development methodologies -- such as Extreme Programming, Scrum, New Methodology, Dynamic System Development, Lean and others -- it often seems as though Extreme Programming grabs most of the headlines. But as far as Victor and Laszlo Szalvay are concerned, Scrum has emerged as the most popular lightweight method, and they say they've got the numbers to prove it.
To continue reading, click here: http://www.adtmag.com/article.aspx?id=23023

ScrumCORE Training Course Schedule
By Tommi Johnstone, Public Course Coordinator
For more information about ScrumCORE training sessions, contact Tommi at [masked] or [address removed].

September 09 -[masked]
Vienna, Austria Certified ScrumMaster
September 10 -[masked]
Portland, OR Certified ScrumMaster
September 11 -[masked]
London, UK Certified ScrumMaster
September 15 -[masked]
Espoo, Finland Certified ScrumMaster
September 15 -[masked]
Amsterdam Certified ScrumMaster
September 17 -[masked]
Boston, MA Certified ScrumMaster
September 19 -[masked]
Boston, MA Product Owner
September 24 -[masked]
Dallas, TX Certified ScrumMaster
September 24 -[masked]
Boise, ID Certified ScrumMaster
October 01 -[masked]
Salt Lake City, UT Certified ScrumMaster
October 01 -[masked]
Orange County, CA Certified ScrumMaster
October 02 -[masked]
Zurich, Switzerland Certified ScrumMaster
October 06 -[masked]
Helsinki, Finland Certified ScrumMaster
October 06 -[masked]
New York, NY Certified ScrumMaster
October 08 -[masked]
Bay Area, CA Certified ScrumMaster
October 08 -[masked]
Helsinki, Finland Product Owner
October 14 -[masked]
Seattle, WA Certified ScrumMaster
October 22 -[masked]
Portland, OR Certified ScrumMaster
October 24 -[masked]
Portland, OR Certified ScrumMaster
October 27 -[masked]
Dallas, TX Certified ScrumMaster
October 29 -[masked]
London, UK Certified ScrumMaster
October 30 -[masked]
Boston, MA Certified ScrumMaster
November 03 -[masked]
Baltimore, MD Certified ScrumMaster
November 06 -[masked]
Oulu, Finland Certified ScrumMaster
November 10 -[masked]
Helsinki, Finland Certified ScrumMaster
November 12 -[masked]
Chicago, IL Certified ScrumMaster
November 18 -[masked]
Seattle, WA Certified ScrumMaster
November 18 -[masked]
Vancouver, BC Certified ScrumMaster
November 19 -[masked]
Philadelphia, PA Certified ScrumMaster
November 20 - 20, 2008
Vancouver, BC Product Owner
November 20 -[masked]
New York, NY Certified ScrumMaster


Danube would like to thank its venue partners SoberIT and Improving Enterprises for hosting courses in Helsinki, Finland and Dallas, Texas, respectively. Danube is always searching for companies to partner with to provide space for our public CSM courses. If you're located in a major metropolitan area, are interested in Scrum training for your team, and have the space to host a class of 15 to 35 participants at your location, we are interested in partnering with you. To find out more information about special rates and discounts for partners like you, please contact Ayla Goren at [address removed] or [masked].



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