Is there interest in Agile project management talks/training at the Plone Conference?

[Martin Aspeli-2]

Hi all,

As some of you know, one of my colleagues at my
doesn't-like-to-be-name-dropped "Big 4" consulting companies in London
is a bit of an Agile guru. This person - shall we call him Mike -
regularly gives training to our graduates and more experienced
practitioners on the principles and practices of running Agile projects.
He has a wealth of experience in how to manage (and sometimes how not to
  manage) software development projects according to these principles.
He is also a very engaging speaker and has a lot of good materials to hand.

There are lots of small Plone companies, many of which used to be even
smaller, and many of which are owned by technologists rather than
project managers. I suspect that many people would be interested to
receive a bit of project management training and perhaps get some
pointers to where to learn more. I also think it could be fun. There are
games and possibly Lego involved.

Mike is not a Plonista and wouldn't come to the Plone conference out of
his own pocket. However, he'd be interested in doing this for a trip to
Washington DC.

*If* there is interest in this, I think we could get Mike over to the
conference. The ideal would be to have a full day. A half day would be
great too. A 90-120 minute slot during the conference could also work.

For this to happen, we'd need to pay for Mike's flights (from London)
and accommodation. There may be other costs involved too, especially if
we want to structure this as pre-conference training. Of course, we'd
also need to confirm that this was logistically possible, though Alex
Clark seems to think we could make something work.

So, I would like to gague interest quite quickly:

  - Would you be interested in such a session?

  - If so, would you prefer

    [ ] Full day pre-conference
    [ ] Half day pre-conference
    [ ] 90-120 minute slot during the conference

  - Would you be willing to pay? If so, how much? For comparison's sake,
I think 2-day pre conference training is normally $250-350.

  - Would you be willing to directly sponsor such an event?

Based on your feedback, we'll try to work something out. I don't think
it's fair to ask Mike to get stuck with the financial risk, so we'd
probably need to at least promise the money to cover his expenses up
front. I don't know for sure, but I think we're talking about ca $1500
all in all in expenses, possibly a bit more ($2500?) if we try to
arrange pre-conference training (which involves costs for room hire and
so on).

Cheers,
Martin

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Author of `Professional Plone Development`, a book for developers who
want to work with Plone. See http://martinaspeli.net/plone-book


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[Nate Aune]

Hi Martin,

I would be interested in hearing Mike speak, and possibly attending a training session. I'd want to see some more info about what he would be presenting before committing to a training session.

Nate

On Thu, Jun 26, 2008 at 5:03 PM, Martin Aspeli <[hidden email]> wrote:

Hi all,

As some of you know, one of my colleagues at my doesn't-like-to-be-name-dropped "Big 4" consulting companies in London is a bit of an Agile guru. This person - shall we call him Mike - regularly gives training to our graduates and more experienced practitioners on the principles and practices of running Agile projects. He has a wealth of experience in how to manage (and sometimes how not to  manage) software development projects according to these principles. He is also a very engaging speaker and has a lot of good materials to hand.

There are lots of small Plone companies, many of which used to be even smaller, and many of which are owned by technologists rather than project managers. I suspect that many people would be interested to receive a bit of project management training and perhaps get some pointers to where to learn more. I also think it could be fun. There are games and possibly Lego involved.

Mike is not a Plonista and wouldn't come to the Plone conference out of his own pocket. However, he'd be interested in doing this for a trip to Washington DC.

*If* there is interest in this, I think we could get Mike over to the conference. The ideal would be to have a full day. A half day would be great too. A 90-120 minute slot during the conference could also work.

For this to happen, we'd need to pay for Mike's flights (from London) and accommodation. There may be other costs involved too, especially if we want to structure this as pre-conference training. Of course, we'd also need to confirm that this was logistically possible, though Alex Clark seems to think we could make something work.

So, I would like to gague interest quite quickly:

 - Would you be interested in such a session?

 - If so, would you prefer

  [ ] Full day pre-conference
  [ ] Half day pre-conference
  [ ] 90-120 minute slot during the conference

 - Would you be willing to pay? If so, how much? For comparison's sake, I think 2-day pre conference training is normally $250-350.

 - Would you be willing to directly sponsor such an event?

Based on your feedback, we'll try to work something out. I don't think it's fair to ask Mike to get stuck with the financial risk, so we'd probably need to at least promise the money to cover his expenses up front. I don't know for sure, but I think we're talking about ca $1500 all in all in expenses, possibly a bit more ($2500?) if we try to arrange pre-conference training (which involves costs for room hire and so on).

Cheers,
Martin

--
Author of `Professional Plone Development`, a book for developers who
want to work with Plone. See http://martinaspeli.net/plone-book


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blog: http://nateaune.com
company: http://jazkarta.com
twitter: http://twitter.com/natea
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[Geir Bækholt · Jarn]

On Jun 26, 2008, at 23:03 , Martin Aspeli wrote:

> - Would you be interested in such a session?


Sorry for not responding quick, Martin. I have been and still am  
incredibly busy, and have not been able to pay this any attention.

We (at least myself, and probably more of the team) are really  
interested in this and we'd be willing to pay for it. This is stuff  
the Plone community really needs!
I have not been able to think through how many of us would be able to  
attend and how much we'd be prepared to pay. I'll try to get a better  
response for this over the weekend.
I'd love to do a full-day workshop/training-session-like thing.


--
_______________________________________________________

  Geir Bækholt · Managing Director, Jarn · www.jarn.com

    Plone Solutions, Development, Hosting and Support
______________________________________________________

        Plone Solutions is now known as Jarn
              www.jarn.com/name-change



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[Martin Aspeli-2]

Geir Bækholt · Jarn wrote:

> On Jun 26, 2008, at 23:03 , Martin Aspeli wrote:
>
>> - Would you be interested in such a session?
>
>
> Sorry for not responding quick, Martin. I have been and still am  
> incredibly busy, and have not been able to pay this any attention.
>
> We (at least myself, and probably more of the team) are really  
> interested in this and we'd be willing to pay for it. This is stuff  
> the Plone community really needs!
> I have not been able to think through how many of us would be able to  
> attend and how much we'd be prepared to pay. I'll try to get a better  
> response for this over the weekend.
> I'd love to do a full-day workshop/training-session-like thing.

Thanks Geir!

Basically, the current thinking is that we'll submit a talk for a 45
minute slot at the conference to talk about some basics, and then
schedule a half-day workshop on the first day of the sprints (Saturday)
to learn more and get some hands-on experience with the techniques and
tools. That's not confirmed, and I'll need to check with Alex & Matt
that it's feasible logistically, but it sounds like a workable plan.

Mike is happy to do this, but we'll need to assure up front that we can
cover his costs. We're not thinking of this as paid training in any
other sense, but we can't ask Mike to pay for it himself or take a risk
that he won't be reimbursed.

I'll have a more detailed proposal/agenda shortly, along with some
indicative costs. If we can get some commitment to cover those, then
this can happen. If people aren't interested, then no harm done, but as
you said, I think this is something that could be interesting to a lot
of people.

Martin

--
Author of `Professional Plone Development`, a book for developers who
want to work with Plone. See http://martinaspeli.net/plone-book


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[Andreas Zeidler]

On Jul 4, 2008, at 1:51 AM, Martin Aspeli wrote:

> Geir Bækholt · Jarn wrote:
>> On Jun 26, 2008, at 23:03 , Martin Aspeli wrote:
>>> - Would you be interested in such a session?
>> Sorry for not responding quick, Martin. I have been and still am  
>> incredibly busy, and have not been able to pay this any attention.
>> We (at least myself, and probably more of the team) are really  
>> interested in this and we'd be willing to pay for it. This is  
>> stuff  the Plone community really needs!
>> I have not been able to think through how many of us would be able  
>> to  attend and how much we'd be prepared to pay. I'll try to get a  
>> better  response for this over the weekend.
>> I'd love to do a full-day workshop/training-session-like thing.
>
> Thanks Geir!
>
> Basically, the current thinking is that we'll submit a talk for a 45  
> minute slot at the conference to talk about some basics, and then  
> schedule a half-day workshop on the first day of the sprints  
> (Saturday) to learn more and get some hands-on experience with the  
> techniques and tools.

perfect.  i'd be very interested in attending and would also throw in  
some money to cover mike's expenses.

cheers,


andi

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zeidler it consulting - http://zitc.de/ - [hidden email]
friedelstraße 31 - 12047 berlin - telefon [phone]
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[Stefan Eletzhofer]

Hi guys,

On Fri, Jul 4, 2008 at 1:40 AM, Geir Bækholt · Jarn <[hidden email]> wrote:

>
> On Jun 26, 2008, at 23:03 , Martin Aspeli wrote:
>
>> - Would you be interested in such a session?
>
>
> Sorry for not responding quick, Martin. I have been and still am incredibly
> busy, and have not been able to pay this any attention.
>
> We (at least myself, and probably more of the team) are really interested in
> this and we'd be willing to pay for it. This is stuff the Plone community
> really needs!
> I have not been able to think through how many of us would be able to attend
> and how much we'd be prepared to pay. I'll try to get a better response for
> this over the weekend.
> I'd love to do a full-day workshop/training-session-like thing.
>

Same over here. I'd love to attend a full day, and I'd spend money on that, too.

I'd spend probably about EUR 200.- for a full day.

I must say, though, that I'd really like to know a bit more about the person in
question, though :)

Cheers,
Stefan.



--
Stefan Eletzhofer
InQuant GmbH
Bahnhofstraße 11
D-88214 Ravensburg
http://www.inquant.de
[phone]
[phone] (FAX)

Geschäftsführer: Lutz Mende
HRB 552769, St.Nr.: 77025/22069, USt.-IdNr.: DE245179196

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[Martin Aspeli-2]

Stefan Eletzhofer wrote:

> I'd spend probably about EUR 200.- for a full day.

That's great! We're trying to raise about $2000 now to cover expenses.
The proposal is to have a 45 minute regular talk + a half day workshop
during the sprints (Saturday). This will happen if (a) we get enough
money pledged (we're a little over half way now) and (b) we can make it
work logistically (this sounds likely)

> I must say, though, that I'd really like to know a bit more about the person in
> question, though :)

The speaker would be Mike Robinson, a colleague of mine.

Mike is a certified Scrum master and Prince 2 practitioner, among other
things, and he often speaks at conferences (e.g.
http://news.zdnet.co.uk/software/0,1000000121,39419829,00.htm).

I always thought Mike would be a good fit for the Plone conference.
He's an engaging and passionate speaker, and has a lot of good
materials. I hope that if you were to go to his talk, you'd leave with
a few useful tips and an interest to follow up with further reading or
experimentation. If you went to his workshop, you may leave with some
hands-on experience, a few useful materials and a more detailed
understanding of the techniques and principles involved. There'll
naturally be time for questions as well.

Mike is not a Plonista. He won't be at the Plone conference unless we
invite him. The thinking is:

  - We do a whip round to pay for Mike's flight, hotel and conference
entry fee (unless this can be waived, Alex?)
  - Mike gives a 45 minute talk at the conference proper (assuming
Alex/Matt approves, of course)
  - We do a half day workshop on Saturday (first day of the sprint) for
anyone interested, again assuming we can make this work logistically

Mike's proposed an agenda, which I've pasted below.

Agenda
----------

30 minute presentation - What makes a great development team?

No one method fits all projects in all organisations, different
techniques work in different situations. However, what is more
important is that we have a set of core principles that sit at the
heart of any approach we adopt. These principles are not limited to
any single method or even role or period within a method. By following
a set of well understood guiding principles and using a continuous
cycle of inspection and adaptation, the process, practices and
techniques will evolve to best fit the situation. In this presentation
I'll share what I believe are the core principles for a great
development team.

3 hour workshop - Controlling Chaos

The goal of this session is to introduce the fundamentals of Agile
Software development and describe a potential approach to managing an
Agile project.

The session will be made up of a series of short presentation,
followed by discussions and some hands on exercises.

Key subjects:

          o Core values
          o Empirical versus defined process
          o An example process
          o Requirements and Planning
          o Planning game

If time permits we will also try and cover the most popular subjects
from these:

          o Some practices and tools – discussion
          o Building your process
          o Scaling
          o Quality assurance and user acceptance testing


--
Author of `Professional Plone Development`, a book for developers who
want to work with Plone. See http://martinaspeli.net/plone-book


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[Stefan Eletzhofer]

Hi Martin,
Hello List,

Am 12.07.2008 um 01:29 schrieb Martin Aspeli:

> Stefan Eletzhofer wrote:
>
>> I'd spend probably about EUR 200.- for a full day.
>
> That's great! We're trying to raise about $2000 now to cover  
> expenses. The proposal is to have a 45 minute regular talk + a half  
> day workshop during the sprints (Saturday). This will happen if (a)  
> we get enough money pledged (we're a little over half way now) and  
> (b) we can make it work logistically (this sounds likely)

That would be very cool, indeed.

>
>
>> I must say, though, that I'd really like to know a bit more about  
>> the person in
>> question, though :)
>
> The speaker would be Mike Robinson, a colleague of mine.
>
> Mike is a certified Scrum master

I had to look that up, here's the link:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scrum_%28development%29
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scrum

> and Prince 2 practitioner,

And that, too. Sigh.

http://www.prince2.com/what-is-prince2.asp

> among other things, and he often speaks at conferences (e.g. http://news.zdnet.co.uk/software/0,1000000121,39419829,00.htm)
> .

>
>
> I always thought Mike would be a good fit for the Plone conference.
> He's an engaging and passionate speaker, and has a lot of good
> materials. I hope that if you were to go to his talk, you'd leave with
> a few useful tips and an interest to follow up with further reading or
> experimentation. If you went to his workshop, you may leave with some
> hands-on experience, a few useful materials and a more detailed
> understanding of the techniques and principles involved. There'll
> naturally be time for questions as well.
>
> Mike is not a Plonista. He won't be at the Plone conference unless we
> invite him. The thinking is:
>
> - We do a whip round to pay for Mike's flight, hotel and conference
> entry fee (unless this can be waived, Alex?)
> - Mike gives a 45 minute talk at the conference proper (assuming
> Alex/Matt approves, of course)
> - We do a half day workshop on Saturday (first day of the sprint) for
> anyone interested, again assuming we can make this work logistically
>
> Mike's proposed an agenda, which I've pasted below.

(agenda snipped)

That looks very intersting to me, something I've been looking after
for quite some time, and which fits my current needs. I'm very much
looking forward to the pconf'08!

Thanks,
Stefan.

--
Stefan Eletzhofer
InQuant GmbH
Bahnhofstraße 11
D-88214 Ravensburg
http://www.inquant.de
[phone]
[phone] (FAX)

Geschäftsführer: Lutz Mende
HRB 552769, St.Nr.: 77025/22069, USt.-IdNr.: DE245179196






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[Andreas Zeidler]

Martin Aspeli wrote:
> Mike is not a Plonista. He won't be at the Plone conference unless we
> invite him. The thinking is:
>
>  - We do a whip round to pay for Mike's flight, hotel and conference
> entry fee (unless this can be waived, Alex?)

wouldn't that be the case for speakers anyway?


andi

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[Martin Aspeli-2]

Andreas Zeidler wrote:
> Martin Aspeli wrote:
>> Mike is not a Plonista. He won't be at the Plone conference unless we
>> invite him. The thinking is:
>>
>>  - We do a whip round to pay for Mike's flight, hotel and conference
>> entry fee (unless this can be waived, Alex?)
>
> wouldn't that be the case for speakers anyway?

Speakers get a reduced price, but do not get in for free.

Martin

--
Author of `Professional Plone Development`, a book for developers who
want to work with Plone. See http://martinaspeli.net/plone-book


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