Team Effectiveness Talks & Presentations

From Concept to Code

Presentation of how User Story Mapping and Behavior Driven Development led to one of the most successful software feature implementations the team members involved had ever witnessed. Using these and other technical practices, we were able to deliver a demonstrably higher quality product in a small fraction of the time other similar efforts required, and with a lower cost of ownership and maintenance.

Reading the Undercurrents of Team Interactions

Delivered as an invited topic at international conferences Agile2022, Global Scrum Gathering 2019 Austin; regional conferences for AgileDC, AgileNYC, and Agile Maine; and numerous private clients. An introduction to how our preference for interacting with information (Kolb Experiential Learning Model) and speech actions (Kantor’s Structural Dynamics) in conversations drive (in)effectiveness and what to do about it.

Working With User Stories

I have seen too many teams’ effectiveness degraded by low quality backlog items. The User Story format for capturing business needs centered on those who directly benefit is easy to learn though difficult to deeply understand. Being able to detect common patterns of low-quality user stories enables teams to flush out assumptions and risks before committing to implementation. Working With User Stories presents eight ways that, like intricately folded origami, work is hiding inside a backlog item. Even more, for each, it offers a concrete way to address it.