Pragmatic Agility: Making Reality Meet Theory

Abstract:
Anyone who has been in the agile community for a long time has surely encountered cases where the results you see in practice haven’t quite lived up to the promises offered up in the glossy literature. Most organizations tend to get some benefits from agility, but if they were to make a few adjustments they could enjoy many more.

This presentation will explore some key organizational, psychological, and technical factors that lead to these less-than-ideal situations, as well as ways in which some companies have managed to overcome them and wring more value out of their agile implementations. You’ll leave with some practical (and occasionally radical) ideas of how to amplify your own company’s adaptability, speed, engagement, quality, and innovation.

Bio:
Arlen Bankston was at the vanguard of the agile movement, beginning to practice within two years of the Agile Manifesto’s writing. He was among the first to explicitly blend lean systems thinking and user experience practices with agile software development practices. Arlen was one of the earliest Certified Scrum Trainers, exploring Lean, Six Sigma, BPM and other process management and systems thinking approaches to ensure that organizations took a holistic perspective beyond just the software. He became a Lean Six Sigma Master Black Belt while leading a Lean-Agile practice for six years and was a successful entrepreneur helping to lead the consultancy LitheSpeed for fifteen years following. He has now formed the company Adaptagility LLC and is working in concert with Grow-Lean LLC.

Today, Arlen has worked across virtually every industry and enjoys a reputation as a thought leader and a dynamic, entertaining, and practical trainer and presenter. He has trained and mentored thousands of ScrumMasters, Product Owners, team members and executives, designing the Agile Leadership Academy to address the leadership and structural challenges that still plague many otherwise successful companies. He has consulted and trained for hundreds of clients across every industry such as RBC, Monster, Marriott, NBC Universal, CNBC, NGA, Capital One, T. Rowe Price, Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae and the Armed Forces Benefits Association. Arlen wrote the book “HR and the Agile Organization” to describe how human resources departments can adapt to better support organizations that are trying to become more adaptive while improving employee engagement and retention along the way.