Adrian Fittolani

Head of Engineering & Delivery, Target Australia

Straight Talk

Have you noticed lately that being an exponent of Agile often means being a defender of Agile?

To me, this is completely reasonable and points at this moment as a critical one in the history of the movement. 20 years after Snowbird, it falls to us to show that what we have built is more than a flim-flam show.

It might be that your house is in order and performing, but you can’t find the words or evidence. It might be that you really need to shape up. One thing’s certain though, barking words like “trust the teams” and “micro-management blah blah” alone will not (and should not) cut it.

• What kind of an Agile environment do you have?
• How does it operate?
• How effective is it?
• Why is it better than other ways of managing software delivery?

If you think you might struggle with these questions in a conversation with your CEO, Founder or investors then ask yourself another question.

• How can I reasonably continue asking them to fund this system?

In this talk, I will share the 10 most useful tools and models (conceptual, statistical and visual) I have found over the last 15 years, for analysing Agile team environments and explaining them to others. Some I have borrowed, some I have built.

I don’t promise proof that Agile is a silver bullet for all industry’s problems, but I might be able to arm you with some devices and words that are helpful in explaining WTF we are all on about!

By the time we’re done, I believe you’ll have some useful new tools (and maybe even some new ideas) that you can use in your own work, to keep the Agile dream healthy and alive.

About Adrian Fittolani

Adrian Fittolani is a father, a runner, a developer, a guitarist, a handyman, a speaker, a sports coach, a dressmaker, a husband, a mechanic, a trainer and the Head of Technology at Target Australia. He considers himself to be good at only three of these things. A different three, depending on the week. For all of them though, for his 17-year career in software, and for being a member of Melbourne’s tech and Agile community, he also considers himself about the luckiest person around.