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InfoQ Homepage News Agile Australia 2015 to Focus on the Art of Simplicity

Agile Australia 2015 to Focus on the Art of Simplicity

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The Agile Australia 2015 conference is running in Sydney on 17 - 18 June with its theme around the art of simplicty. The conference has been running since 2009 and is set to attract over 1,000 delgates representing over 250 of Australia's leading organisations.

The Art of Simplicity encourages us to debate how simplicity is achieved and to consider the challenge of how to deliver more while doing less. It’s about the art of maximising the work not done. Simplicity encapsulates the essence of Agile.

The conference this year will feature keynotes from David Marquet, Linda Rising, James Shore and Irene Au as well as over 50 sessions from local and international experts across five streams: The Basics, Build Measure Learn, Culture Teams Mindset, Organisations and Communities and Technical Excellence.

InfoQ caught up briefly with some of the keynote and invited speakers to get their thoughts ahead of the conference.

David Marquet is a retired US Navy Captain and author of the award winning book "Turn The Ship Around" and shared his thoughts on the simplicity of leadership:

Imagine a workplace where everyone engages and contributes their full intellectual capacity - a place where people are healthier and happier because they have more control over their work; a place where everyone is a leader. Leaders will fix the culture, not people. Leaders act their way to new thinking, not think their way to new action. Leadership is not for the select few at the top. A highly effective organisation has leaders at every level.

Linda Rising is best known for her work around organisational change patterns and her books including "Fearless Change" and shared her thoughts on what is exctiting in the Agile community in 2015:

I think the latest topics in software development are leading and will continue to lead how the world operates. What we are learning -- about the power of Agile, how to really apply lean and continuous approaches, is now being applied in the business world at large. We are showing the way! By capturing our best ideas in patterns, we can do a better job of sharing what we know. Pattern names allow a conversation about any domain by covering the problem space with a pattern language, a vocabulary to move toward a common understanding and better communication and improved sharing of ideas.

Irene Au is an Operating Partner at Khosla Ventures and the former head of design at Google, Yahoo and Udacity and shared her thoughts on the simplicty of design:

Design is a profession where people learn by doing. Keep making stuff, let people try your offering, get feedback, and commit to continuous improvement. Better design only comes through iteration. Once you realise that you are committed to iterating, the pressure to be perfect coming out the door is lifted, and liberates you to be more creative and generate new ideas. Develop your sense of taste: What makes a great product great? What do you love about it and why? What makes a bad product bad and how can you avoid that?

Finally, we caught up with Nigel Dalton the CIO of REA Group, an Agile Australia Advisor and credited as being ""Australia's godfather of Agile":

This coming Agile Australia conference is my 7th, once again back in Sydney where it all began. I recall that year arguing with John Sullivan that the movement’s future crisis would be a shortage of product managers, not engineers (wonder who was right John?); and marveling that less than 25% of the room was actually doing or attempting agile in any serious fashion. What a long way we have come.

Registration is still open for the event and InfoQ will be attending and covering the key outcomes from the conference.

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