David Norton
This week I am in Chicago attending the Agile 2009 conference. Now in its 8th year this is the major event in the agile calendar. The event kicked off today boasting over 1400 delegates, a measure of the interest in agile in these austere days of travel bans and belt tightening. With over 300 session its looks to be a busy week, its times like these I wish had a clone.
Even though the conference has grown year on year it still has its agile vibe. The coffee breaks were a mix of ice breaker conversation plus enthusiastic exchange of ideas, and “call me, I love to help”.
With 2009 being the tipping point for agile adoption (in no small part due to the economic melt down) it’s no surprise Agile 2009 is a more mature affair. Fresh faced developers rubbing shoulders with gray haired senior management. And there is no shortage of Fortune 100/500 delegates walking around. GE and Nokia is a couple I spotted, with a large contingent from finance.
One thing I am really pleased to see is a great emphasis on agile with a capital “A” – its not just XP and Scrum. There are session on project management, product owner, agile and CMMI and even agile with system engineering. All signs agile has gone mainstream.
Finally, one of the hardest things to do in the world is to grow up with a sense of wonder and inquisitiveness intact. It’s easy to accept the status quo and stop asking why? Why do we have to do it this way? Why can’t we do if differently? It’s good to see agile growing up but still asking why and challenging the established view of IT.
I am looking forward to a very busy and interesting week
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Category: Agile Application Development Tags: #agile2009
