Gil Broza, author of “The Human Side of Agile” (recently reviewed on InfoQ) has announced a series of audio interviews with a variety of authors and commentators on the topic of “Individuals and Interactions” in May. The theme of the series is "Apply proven strategies, approaches, and actions to make the Agile promise happen".
He spoke to InfoQ about the series.
InfoQ: What motivated you to put this series together, what is the goal of the sessions?
Broza: Agile development seems to be everywhere nowadays, but the results are mixed at best. Process is not the issue; the main challenge is how organizations relate to the individuals and the teams that apply the process. I'm on a mission to make software development effective, humane, and responsible. Having written the book, I'm now connecting leaders and practitioners with more mentors who can help make that happen.
InfoQ: Who are some of the speakers, and what topic areas are they exploring?
Broza: Rick Ross will describe how his business thrives by applying a people-centric approach to drive innovation and uncover technology based opportunities. I'll speak with Johanna Rothman next on the specifics of keeping one's focus -- not as a Lean process element, but as a good way to stay sane and engaged, and thereby productive and useful. Ellen Gottesdiener and Mary Gorman, who recently wrote "Discover to Deliver," will discuss the identity shift we're seeing nowadays of people seeing themselves as agents of value delivery, not just of programming. We'll have Christopher Avery discuss the research and practice behind high-performance teams, as well as David Spann and Eugene Kiel on collaborative leadership. We'll close with Bob Schatz on the human aspect of "best practices."
InfoQ: How will you keep the theme consistent across such a diverse group of speakers?
Broza: I derived the topics and their draft abstracts from one my favorite keynotes. Then, I collaborated with each speaker to finalize the abstract and identify key messages. The details will evolve on the live calls, but always with the theme in mind. That should be easy: the group is diverse, but they are all motivated by similar goals
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InfoQ: Why did you select this group to be the interview subjects?
Once I had the list of 10 topics, a list of names suggested itself. I wanted practitioners and senior managers, consultants and authors. Having already collaborated with more than half of them, I knew their work and style, and that we shared the vision and preferences to produce valuable interviews for our listeners.
InfoQ: Where can InfoQ readers get more information?
Broza: The website has the detailed program and the registration links. This virtual training starts in mid-May, but early birds -- people signing up in April -- get 20-30% off.
InfoQ Readers can get an additional 15% discount by using the coupon code: IQSH13.