Event Description:

How can your organization best adopt agile with so many constraints?

This session introduces a new approach to agile adoption efforts covering important concepts such as adopting values not practices, the difference between education and training, readiness assessments, and the process of organizational change.  One of the tangible outcomes from this talk is a roadmap to agility that consists of five different levels, or steps, along with the different practices that can help an organization achieve each level of this roadmap.

The talk includes a fun and exciting hands-on simulation of an agile adoption engagement. The simulation exposes the attendees to many of the challenges that occur during agile adoption efforts and provides them with insights on possible solutions for these challenges.  Most importantly, after the exercise each attendee receives a deck of the custom-made cards they used during the simulation exercise. Everyone will enjoy, benefit and have fun.

Speaker Bio:

Ahmed started his career as a software developer at some of the largest software firms in the Middle East. After several years of software development, Ahmed decided to pursue a Masters degree in Software Engineering from Virginia Tech with a research focus on Requirements Engineering. He then went on and earned his doctorate in Agile Software Development Methodologies and Process Improvement. His latest research includes a value-based agile measurement index and a process framework for the adoption of agile practices. Dr. Sidky's work has gained popularity and respect in the agile community as a practical approach for organizations of all types attempting to adopt agile. Dr. Sidky is a frequent speaker at numerous national and international agile conferences and is currently the program chair for the Agile 2009 conference in Chicago. He has also organized the first agile conference in the Middle East, Agile Egypt.

Dr. Sidky co-authoring a new book about agile adoption as well as a reviewer for a number of journals, conferences and publishing houses. Currently, Dr. Sidky helps guide organizations during their transition to agile software development, and enjoys coaching and educating agile teams in various places around the world.