Combined Practice Event - Surviving in an Agile World

Five High-impact Agile Engineering Practices
Eoin Woods

Agility means that we need to embrace the fact that doing most of our design work before we implement anything does not work very well, and perhaps never did. Agile working has proved that delivering software early and often helps to reduce risk, lower cost and deliver value earlier than previous approaches.  This means that architecture work needs to evolve from a set of "up-front" blueprints into something much more fluid and evolving, based around styles and patterns, principles and decisions.  While easy to say, this change of focus means that we need to rethink how architects spend their time and how they work with their development, UX, testing and other colleagues. 

In this talk Eoin Woods will explain 5 key practices that he has found to be the most valuable way to spend a lot of his time as an architect in this more fluid, evolving and continuous architectural world.  The practices are Technical Leadership, Quality Attribute Requirements, Architectural Decisions, Managing Technical Debt and Feedback Loops.  For each one we will identify why it is valuable and what we need to do to make it effective.

Eoin is an experienced software engineer and architect, formerly CTO and Chief Engineer at Endava. He is an Academic Visitor, teaching at Imperial College London on a part-time basis. On top on that Eoin is a regular conference speaker, has co-authored or contributed to four books on software architecture and received the 2018 Linda Northrup Award for Software Architecture, from the Software Engineering Institute at CMU.

Surviving Agile, by Embracing the Right Practices
Derk-Jan de Grood

Nowadays, the world is changing rapidly. This not only influences our sense of security, but also forces us to reconsider how we work — and it profoundly impacts the organizations we work for. In the context of agile adoption and ongoing digital transformation, we may feel challenged in our roles as professionals. 

So how do we stay relevant? What do we need to do to stand out and continue to contribute in a meaningful way? 

Whether you're part of an organization just beginning its agile journey, you're navigating the complexities of a third-wave agile transformation, or your organization is moving away from Scrum, Safe, or whatever agile methodology. One key question remains: What does it take to truly stand tall? 

Derk-Jan de Grood will explore the power of practices — and how embracing the right ones can unlock new levels of proficiency, elevate your skills, and ensure stronger alignment with your organization’s evolving needs. 

Derk-Jan is principal consultant and inspirator at Innspire. He is a sought after keynote speaker at conferences around the globe with a true passion for sharing his experiences and insights. Read one of his bestselling books, visit his blog, listen to his podcast, or come hear him speak at this years CGI congress. .