Agile 2009

This year's Agile conference in Chicago certainly did not disappoint. Besides presenting at the conference with my former colleague Belkis McCall-Vasquez on "The Amazing Team Race", there was plenty to learn and plenty of exciting people to meet.

This week, before Labor Day, I plan to devote my posts to highlighting some of the interesting lessons learned during my week at the Agile 2009 conference. Some of these highlights include:

• J.B. Rainsberger's thoughts on how most organizations' integration tests today are a scam and how they can be more focused and effective.
• Pete Behren's recommendations in running effective and successful Scrum meetings.
• David Hussman's savvy approach in coaching and producing value for organizations adopting Agile.
• Renzo Borgatti's presentation on leveraging the Pomodoro technique to get your teams focused on completing their tasks on a daily basis.
• Luke Hohmann's approach to prioritizing your backlog for profit.
• Scott Ambler's myth-busting approach to statistics he's found with organizations using Agile.

Finally, the entire conference was honestly a great learning experience and even a lot of fun. It included Muzik Masti music every night, engaging networking events (especially those put together by ThoughtWorks), and a fun night on a Lake Michigan cruise around Chicago with fireworks hosted by VersionOne. To the right is a picture of Jeff Patton, Belkis McCall-Vasquez, myself, and Pete Behrens in front of the Mystic Odyssey for our cruise that evening.