The next Agile KC meeting will be Thursday May 23, 1013 at 6:30 PM at Centriq Training Center. 

Registration: This will be a sponsor supported event.  Dinner will be served.  In order to help our sponsor plan accordingly and know how many guests to expect, please register for this meeting at Eventbrite at http://www.eventbrite.com/event/6700414119

See www.agilkc.org for a map.  

 

Meeting Topic:   Agile Cultural Evolution an Experience Report

Meeting Learning:  

During last month’s meeting on coaching, several of the members expressed that they would like to hear what some organizations have done and experienced in their adoption of agile practices and cultural changes.

 

Meeting Description: 

This meeting will be a panel discussion format.  Tom Westervelt, Nathan Lagergren and Steve Toalson will share their organizational backgrounds and experiences around the adoption of agile practices and changes in the team and organizational culture.

 

The trio will discuss what has worked, what has not and what they have learned from the experience.  This will be an excellent opportunity to share your thoughts and observations on the topic as well as bring your questions for the community at large. 

 

About the Speakers: 

Steve Toalson is an Agile Team Coach at Hallmark Cards (learning and practicing agile for 1+ year).  He has also been a Project Manager (formerly PMP Certified) at Hallmark for 5 years.  He knew what he wanted to do when he was a freshman in High school.  He earned his BA in Computer Science from Washburn University and went to work for Electronic Data Systems (EDS) for 8 years.  He then relocated back ‘home’ to Lawrence from the east coast to work at Payless ShoeSource for 12 years prior to joining Hallmark.  Steve has a passion for working with people, which probably makes him suspect as a PM, but serves him well as an Agile Coach.

Tom Westervelt has over 25 years of IT experience in the healthcare and financial industries, ranging from design to programming to project leadership.  He is currently the lead Scrum Master for the Business Process Solutions division of DST Systems, Inc. and has been one of the leaders of their Agile transformation for the past five years.

Nathan Lagergren is an Enterprise Scrum Master at JP Morgan Chase, currently responsible for reengineering the software development process to ensure a successful transformation from waterfall to agile software development methodologies across multiple lines of business.