AgilePalooza Los Angeles Speaker Bios

David Hussman - Software Anthropologist and Coach

David teaches and coaches agility as a delivery tool. He has spent the last 10 years teaching and learning better ways to produce products with companies of all sizes around the world. Sometimes he is pairing with developers and testers, while other times he is helping to plan and create product roadmaps. David often works with leadership groups learn to introduce and (pragmatically) use agile methods to foster innovation and competitive business advantage.

Prior to working as a fulltime coach, David spent years building software in a variety of domains: digital audio, digital biometrics, medical, financial, retail, and education to name a few. David now leads DevJam, a company composed of agile collaborators, mentors and practitioners. DevJam’s use of agility helps people and companies improve their software production skills as well as their understanding of who will be using and buying their product and why. DevJam provides seasoned leaders that strive to pragmatically match technology, people, and processes to create better products in more competitive cycles.

Along with teaching and coaching, David participates in conferences around the world and continuously publishes to a variety of sources. He has contributed to several books as well as helping to create agile curriculum for The University of Minnesota and Capella University.

For more information, check out the DevJam website www.devjam.com

 

Jeff Patton

Jeff Patton has designed and developed software for the past 12 years on a wide variety of projects from on-line aircraft parts ordering to electronic medical records. Jeff has focused on Agile approaches since working on an early Extreme Programming team in 2000. In particular Jeff has specialized in the application of user centered design techniques to improve Agile requirements, planning, and products. Some of his recent writing on the subject can be found at www.AgileProductDesign.com and Alistair Cockburn’s Crystal Clear. His forthcoming book to be released in Addison-Wesley’s Agile Development Series gives tactical advice to those seeking to deliver useful, usable, and valuable software.

Jeff works currently as an independent consultant, is founder and list moderator of the agile-usability Yahoo discussion group, a columnist with StickyMinds.com and IEEE Software, and a winner of the Agile Alliance’s 2007 Gordon Pask Award for contributions to Agile Development. 

 

Diana Larsen

Diana Larsen sparks the creation of workplaces where productive teams display resilience in times of change and focus on frequent delivery of high value software their customers want and use. Drawing on fifteen+ years of experience working with technical professionals, Diana takes a pragmatic approach to consulting with leaders and teams to promote work process designs where innovation, inspiration, and imagination flourish.

Diana leads system-wide groups in collaborative thinking and planning, as well as guiding teams through project kick-offs, chartering and retrospectives. She coaches managers and leaders on their role in a changing workplace and presents workshops on agile adoption, self-organizing team development, team leadership & management, organizational change, and leading retrospectives.

Current (2007-2010) chair of the Agile Alliance Board of Directors, Diana co-authored Agile Retrospectives: Making Good Teams Great! and posts at her blog, “Partnerships & Possibilities” http://www.futureworksconsulting.com/blog . Diana discovers solutions and possibilities where others find only barriers and obstacles.

 

Lee Henson

Lee Henson is a Product Expert and the resident Certified Scrum Trainer at VersionOne. Prior to joining VersionOne, Lee worked hands on as a GUI web developer, quality assurance analyst, automated test engineer, senior product manager, senior project manager, ScrumMaster, agile coach, consultant, and ADDIE training professional. He has worked with hundreds of teams in many different business sectors to assist them in successful implementation of thousands of agile projects.

Lee is one of a handful of Certified Scrum Trainers worldwide and is very actively involved in the Scrum Alliance where he serves as Chair Person for the Certification Advisory Board. He also has been recognized by the National Forensics League for excellence in public speaking and has received a number of accolades for his community involvement and motivational speaking sessions. Lee has a unique ability to convey practical, detailed, and complex topics through the use of real-world experiences and analogies.

 

Paul Culling

Based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Paul is currently on the board of the Agile Alliance and has been on the board of his local user group, Agile Vancouver, for the past four years helping organize monthly Agile events and four successful conferences in the Vancouver area. Paul is a trained innovation games facilitator and experienced in open space facilitation. Paul has worked extensively with Agile community groups at local, regional and international levels and is the founder and editor of the Agile Chronicles newsletter for VersionOne. Paul is a technology marketing professional with 17 years experience in the development and marketing of both packaged and service based offerings. As part of his role as Director of Marketing at VersionOne, Paul also has been working as part of a team using the scrum framework outside of a development environment. Working from Vancouver, BC with the majority of the team in Atlanta, Georgia, Paul also has first-hand experience with distributed Agile practices.