Mike Cohn
Rocky Mountain Software Symposium
Denver · May 5 - 7, 2006
Agile software development trainer, consultant and coach
Mike Cohn is the founder of Mountain Goat Software, a process and project management consultancy and training firm. He is the author of User Stories Applied for Agile Software Development and Agile Estimating and Planning, as well as books on Java and C++ programming. With more than 20 years of experience, Mike has previously been a technology executive in companies of various sizes, from startup to Fortune 40. A frequent magazine contributor and conference speaker, Mike is a founding member of the AgileAlliance, and serves on its board of directors. He can be reached at mike@mountaingoatsoftware.com.
Presentations
An Introduction to User Stories for Software Requirements
The technique of expressing requirements as user stories is one of the most broadly applicable techniques introduced by Extreme Programming. User stories are an effective approach on all time constrained projects, not just those using XP.
Overview of Agile Estimating and Planning
Estimating and planning are key skills. A good plan helps both the organization and the developers working on the project. In this session you’ll learn how an easy and effective approach to estimating and planning that can help you create more realistic plans.
Managing Agile Projects: Dispelling the Myths
There is a myth that agile projects do not need project management and that they cannot be estimated and planned. In this session we will dispel those rumors and learn why the job of the agile project manager is to do more than just buy pizza and get out of the way.
Project Economics: Selecting and Prioritizing High Value Projects
Almost all of us have worked on too many projects that have failed because of economic reasons rather than technical reasons. Just as the technical team is required to estimate the effort that will go into a project, a marketing or product management team should estimate the benefits of doing the project. Benefits can come in the form of additional sales, increased customer retention, increased operating efficiencies, and so on.
Salvaging Struggling Projects: Digging for Gold Instead of Digging a Deeper Hole
Projects struggle for many reasons—overly aggressive deadlines, unproven technologies, scope creep, team dynamics, communication problems, and inter-team coordination are just some of the reasons. If not given attention, these problems can ultimately cause a project to fail entirely. However, if you act early and in the right way, most struggling projects can be turned around.