Agile Project Management (With Just a Bit About Mingle)
You can read books about Agile projects, but you must consult real-world experience to really understand the dynamics of agile project management. This session discusses agile management topics including estimation, project tracking, and useful metrics (and how to obtain them). And just a little about Mingle, the agile project tracking tool from ThoughtWorks.
OK, sure, you can read the XP Explained book. Now what? Agile project management in the real world requires understanding of not just the practices but why they work. This talk delves into several topics relevant to agile project management, including estimation, project tracking, accurate project metrics (and the practices that make them possible). This talk is designed to describe some of the nuances required to handle real agile projects, along with a demonstration of some of the artifacts ThoughtWorks uses to track projects (the most elaborate spreadsheet you've ever seen!). And, towards the end, I show how our experience has culminated into Mingle, the agile project tracking tool from ThoughtWorks with skinnable religion.
About Neal Ford
Neal is Director, Software Architect, and Meme Wrangler at ThoughtWorks, a global IT consultancy with an exclusive focus on end-to-end software development and delivery.
Before joining ThoughtWorks, Neal was the Chief Technology Officer at The DSW Group, Ltd., a nationally recognized training and development firm. Neal has a degree in Computer Science from Georgia State University specializing in languages and compilers and a minor in mathematics specializing in statistical analysis.
He is also the designer and developer of applications, instructional materials, magazine articles, video presentations, and author of 6 books, including the most recent The Productive Programmer. His language proficiencies include Java, C#/.NET, Ruby, Groovy, functional languages, Scheme, Object Pascal, C++, and C. His primary consulting focus is the design and construction of large-scale enterprise applications. Neal has taught on-site classes nationally and internationally to all phases of the military and to many Fortune 500 companies. He is also an internationally acclaimed speaker, having spoken at over 100 developer conferences worldwide, delivering more than 600 talks. If you have an insatiable curiosity about Neal, visit his web site at http://www.nealford.com. He welcomes feedback and can be reached at nford@thoughtworks.com.