San Francisco AgilePalooza Speaker Bios (May 29, 2009)
David Hussman
David teaches and coaches the adoption and improvement of agility as a delivery tool. His work includes helping companies of all sizes all over the world. Sometimes he is pairing with developers and testers, while other times he is helping to invent, evolve and plan the delivery of all types of products and projects. David also spends a great deal of time helping leaders at all levels find ways to pragmatically use agility as another way to grow and innovate their business.
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. As mentors and practitioners, DevJam focuses on agility as a tool to help people and companies improve their software production skills. DevJam provides seasoned leaders that strive to pragmatically match technology, people, and processes to create better and cooler products in competitive cycles.
Along with teaching and coaching, David participates in conferences around the world. He has continuously publishes and has contributed to several books and many publications. He has helped create agile curriculum for The University of Minnesota and Capella University.
For more information, check out the DevJam website www.devjam.comChris Sterling
Chris Sterling is an Agile Coach, Certified Scrum Trainer, and Technology Consultant for SolutionsIQ. He has been involved in many diverse projects and organizations and has extensive experience with bleeding edge and established technology solutions. He has been a coordinator of multiple Puget Sound area groups including International Association of Software Architects (IASA), Seattle Scrum Users Group, and most recently the Beyond Agile group. He has been a speaker at many conferences and group meetings including Agile 2007 & 2008, SD West, Scrum Gathering, and others. In his consulting and speaking engagements, Chris brings his real world experience and deep passion for software development enabling others to grasp the points and take away something of value. Chris has also contributed to and created multiple open source projects. He is currently teaching the “Advanced Topics in Agile Software Development” class at the University of Washington Agile Developer Certificate extension program and writing a book with publisher Addison-Wesley on software architecture.
Luke Hohmann
Luke is a recognized expert on agile product management of software products and a former senior software product manager at four companies. He is also the author of three books and numerous articles on software product management. He is also a frequent speaker at software and other industry events.
Before founding Enthiosys in 2003, Luke was vice president of business development in the U.S. for Aladdin Knowledge Systems; vice president of engineering and product development at Aurigin Systems Inc.; education technical director at ObjectSpace Inc.; and vice president of systems engineering at EDS Fleet Services.
He loves his job, and is happiest when he’s helping his clients build great products and services. He’s especially enjoys watching clients get excited about creating new products and services as the result of playing Innovation Games® with their customers, integrating these into new product development practices, and creating them through architecturally sustainable Agile methods.
Luke’s counsel is sought far and wide. He is currently a board member of the Agile Alliance, having been involved for more than a decade in the Agile community. He has been a featured presenter at numerous conferences including the Software Development Best Practices 2006 and 2007 conferences, The Spring Experience, and The Better Software Conference & Expo. He has also been a guest lecturer at the University of California at Berkeley’s School of Information. He is a member of the Product Development and Management Association (PDMA), the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), and the IEEE.
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.
Ian Culling
As CTO for VersionOne, Ian brings 20+ years of broad information technology experience, with responsibility for software product management, design & development and enterprise information technology. He has significant practical experience with the introduction, scaling and adaptive execution of agile methods, having initially implemented strict XP with a single team in 2000. Since that time, Ian has progressed to lead & coach both small and large organizations in their transition to agile methods. Most recently prior to joining VersionOne, Ian led the adoption of agile methods at Alogent Corporation as VP, Development, leveraging aspects of Scrum for scaling across multiple teams and products. This, combined with select XP developer practices and approach for planning & tracking, resulted in a Scrum-wrapped XP implementation, now a fairly common model within the agile community today.
Ainsley Nies, Open Space Co-facilitator
Ainsley Nies has been an innovator, synthesizer and leader for more than two decades in the people side of information systems work. As the principal of Acorn Consulting Enterprises, she employs retrospectives and Open Space facilitation in work with groups and organizations who want to perform at their highest level.
Ainsley facilitates project retrospectives, trains retrospective facilitators and helps to develop environments for learning and continuous improvement. She believes that a key factor in her success is acknowledging and addressing the influence of culture, values and individual perceptions on project outcomes.
Ainsley initiated the Agile and Retrospective SIGs at Hewlett Packard and led the groups until corporate life lost its appeal. She is currently on the PMI Formation Steering Committee for creation of the PMI Agile Forum, the Leadership Team of the Bay Area Agile Project Leadership Network (http://www.bayapln.org/), is a founder of Agile Open California, Board President of the Computer Technologies Program in Berkeley (www.ctpberk.org) and President of the Pacifica Branch of the American Assoc. of University Women.
Paul Culling, Open Space Co-facilitator
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 three years helping organize monthly Agile events and three successful conferences in the Vancouver area. Paul is a technology marketing professional with 16 years experience in the development and marketing of both packaged and service based offerings. Paul has worked extensively with Agile community groups at local, regional and international levels as part of his role as Director of Marketing at VersionOne.
