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AgileAdverts
is about creating small video clips promoting agile practices, submitting
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Past Agile Conferences
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Discovery Session
Organizers
Chair: Janet Gregory
Assistant Chair: Carmen Zannier
Important Dates
Submission Deadline: January 26, 2007
Notification of Acceptance: April 2, 2007
Overview
A discovery session is an opportunity for conference attendees to learn from each other about a
relevant topic, generate ideas that expand a new technique or practice, or brainstorm ideas for the
next new "thing". The format might be a workshop, a peer-to-peer session, a goldfish bowl, a think
tank, a simulation, a panel, or whatever creative idea you have to get people thinking and
discussing. In a discovery session, participants learn from each other, as well as from the session
leader. Resulting knowledge is transferred to the larger community.
As a session leader, you provide an understanding of a topic and a structure to help participants
work together and produce deliverables. Results are to be entered into the conference wiki but
leaders will be encouraged to publish them in the November Agile Times to encourage sharing of
results with all Agile Alliance members.
If your intention is mainly to present your hard-won knowledge, then a tutorial or experience report
may be more appropriate.
We encourage you to reach out to the entire diverse agile community, including academia,
practitioners and enthusiasts of Adaptive, Crystal, DSDM, Extreme Programming, FDD, Lean
Development, and Scrum. When suitable, we encourage proposals for novel, highly interactive sessions
that support the learning experience. Topics need to be focused narrowly enough to fit into a
90 minute session or a 180 minute session. The goal of discovery
sessions is not only to provide a helpful experience for the participants during the sessions, but
also to provide deliverables that can help the greater community.
If you want to have a closed session, you may ask or require potential participants to submit a
position paper in advance of the conference to be considered for acceptance into the workshops.
Very few of this type of session will be accepted since it is not the intention of the conference to
limit session participants.
Here are some examples of the types of sessions that could be proposed.
- Workshop
A Workshop is a structured session in which participants explore a topic, guided by the session
leaders. The leaders are not expected to have all the answers, but they should have interesting
questions and a clear process for getting to well-defined results. Examples of outputs would be: a
set of patterns, some proposals for research projects, or taxonomy of team structures.
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Think Tank
In a Think Tank, a small group of people meet to solve a particular problem, brainstorm new ideas or
to determine a position on some issue. Think Tank sessions are intensive, focused, and produce
concrete output. This type of session would be aimed at a more experienced audience.
- Fishbowl
A Fishbowl is a way of structuring a discussion in a large group of people and is suitable for
topics where there will be many people with many different views who want to participate. A small
group, the initiators (the fish in the bowl), typically 4 or 5 people, get things underway.
The audience (the other participants), are seated around the initiators. One or more empty seats are
available, and members of the audience may take these places when they feel they have a contribution
to make. Usually the initiator who has been in the bowl the longest leaves when a new member
arrives, but this can vary. Sometimes participants just want to comment and then leave.
As facilitator, you help with this process.
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Panel Discussions
Panels generally consist of 4 people with different opinions on a topic. Each panel member starts
with an opening statement (maybe 5 minutes) with a moderator keeping time. This is followed by a
question and answer period where the audience may ask questions of a specific member or the panel as
a whole. Questions and discussions are kept within a given time limit.
- Simulations and Games
Simulations and games help us to understand how to work within our organizations, experiment with
new approaches to working, or visualize network protocols. You should provide a clear summary of the
purpose and rules of the game and guidance for reflecting on what it teaches participants about the
real world. The participants should leave the session understanding the intent of the game or
simulation.
Our decision-making process
Each submission will be reviewed by members of the Discovery Session Committee against the guidelines listed
here. If necessary, after reviewing the submissions, we may pursue dialog with submitters to refine the
description of the session to make sure that the session will meet expectations and be a great experience
for everyone involved.
Committee Members:
- Janet Gregory (Chair), Independent Consultant; DragonFire Inc.
- Carmen Zannier (Assistant Chair)
- Lisa Crispin (Past Chair), ePlan Services Inc.
- Alex Pukinskis, Rally Software Development
- Bill Wake
- Brian Marick
- Chet Hendrickson
- Dan Pierce
- Dave Hoover, Obtiva
- David Kane, SRA International
- Hugh R. Beyer
- James Seigel, Avocent - LANDesk Division
- Jeff Grover
- Jennitta Andrea, ClearStream Consulting
- Kay Johansen
- Kevin P. Taylor, Obtiva Corp
- Linda Rising , Independent Consultant
- Zhon Johansen
- Marc Evers, Piecemeal Growth
- Michael Puleio, Microsoft - Patterns & Practices
- Mike Griffiths, Quadrus Development Inc.
- Orit Hazzan, Israel Institute of Technology
- Pam Rostal, Trissential LLC
- Peter-Frank Spierenburg, Pason Systems Corp.
- Rick Mercer, University of Arizona
- Ron Jeffries, XProgramming.com
- Willem van den Ende
- Michael Bolton, DevelopSense
- Barg Upender, Concentric Methods
- Bas Vodde, Odd-e
- Monica Yap, Wireless Data Services Global
- Alicia Yanik, eBags
- Yael Dubinsky, University of Rome "La Sapienza"
Submissions for Discovery Session are now closed.
Discovery Session presenters may distribute the following among two presenters in any way they wish: $500
(for 180 minutes) or $250 (for 90 minutes), one free conference registration. Or, Discovery Session presenters
may distribute the following among two presenters: two free conference registrations (and no honorarium.)
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