SPEAKER
Optional Conference: Agile management, not just for managers
Francesco Degrassi
Francesco Degrassi is a software developer with more than 10 years of experience in the ICT security field, building complex, enterprise-level applications in diverse domains. He has been active on Lean Software Development and agile methodologies for several years now, applying them in their group, involving coworkers, upper management and clients in a continuous improvement path. He's now working with OptionFactory (http://www.optionfactory.net), delivering valuable software faster and helping other companies do the same. In the last couple of years he presented at several lean/agile events both in Italy and abroad: BetterSoftware 2013 in Florence, Agilia 2014 in Brno, the first Optional Conference in Budapest, ALE2014 in Warsaw and will speak at Agile4Innovation in Milan next march. You can find out more, including slides and videos, from his LinkedIn profile: http://it.linkedin.com/pub/francesco-degrassi/0/69b/b2b/
Fifty shades of fail – a lean perspective on success & failure
In an ever-faster-moving environment, lean and agile principles help us deal with risks and unknowns by focusing on eliminating waste, validated learning, deferring decisions, responding to change. But even when we fail to apply them, we might sometimes achieve some level of “success” nonetheless.
But what does “success” actually mean? Can we really appreciate the importance of agility, of an exploratory approach, of validating ideas as we go, without defining what success (and hence failure) does looks like?
Going from a personal experience developing an innovative service for a primary european telecommunications company, where we failed to apply lean and agile principles, I’d like to explore the idea of success and how a project can be completed on time, on scope and on budget and win the hearts of customers, and still be a (bad) failure when we consider what could have been.