Registration + coffee (9:00 - 9:30; Next to Daugava 1+2)

Opening (9:30 - 10:00; Daugava 1+2)

Agility at Scale (10:00 - 10:45; Daugava 1+2)

A common view is that scaling Agile is a change for teams only. Therefore, the focus is primarily on changing development teams, while the system of management, the organisational structure and policies remain the same. At the heart of agile organizations are self-managing teams that solve client needs. This is radically different than the standard way of organizing teams, where teams deliver only a small part of the clients’ needs. Management faces the task to redesign the organization so that agility at scale becomes possible. Typically this means: Organizing around your product to optimize for solving customer needs. Developing teams that are able to deliver products that meet business objectives and market needs. Moving to a management system that values adaptability and learning over control and predictability. Scaling Scrum requires more than improving at the team level, it requires focus to optimize the whole of product development. From my point of view the question organizations should ask is: How can we change and simplify the organizational design to become really Agile instead of putting Agile famethods on top of the current structures?

Coffee break (10:45 - 11:15; Next to Daugava 1+2)

The Language of Outcomes (11:15 - 12:00; Daugava 1)

For the past 20 years, the Agile community has been trying to improve the world of work. However, while working in new ways, we continue to use the old language. For example, we talk about product/sprint backlogs and ceremonies, and “…doing twice the work in half the time”. It is hardly surprising then to hear the people we have been supporting on their change journey say that it’s all the same as before. We should change this perception by learning and using the language of outcomes to consistently remind ourselves, as individuals, teams and organisations, why we are here, what our purpose is and what we are trying to achieve. From our purpose, to outcomes, fresh insights, and back again - we will introduce to you “Wholehearted Delivery”. The model consists of three complementary perspectives: creation of value, enhancing fitness and alignment with purpose. We look forward to your input to help us evolve our model and make it more useful.

Cost Of Delay (11:15 - 12:00; Daugava 2)

Generally we want to control things. We want to know how long things will take and how much effort will be needed. There are ways how to achieve that - we lock architect in a room and he comes with results. He’s the expert! Just for any case we put 20% contingency on top to be safe. And then negotiate down the price to fit the budget. Later PM makes a plan what to do in what order, calls it project and team starts work. Simple, isn’t it? That’s what everyone does, so it should be correct... We’ll look into classical estimation and planning techniques and why they don’t work. We’ll investigate why all projects fail and look into musings of one of Agile fathers, Donald G. Reinertsen, and his approach to so called Cost of Delay. We need to talk about projects versus products as well. Finally, You’ll get a chance to try this out by yourself and have some fun!

Kanban. Feel the spirit of Kaizen - PART #1 (11:15 - 12:00; Casino)

We are faster, even if we are not working at full speed. - We have enough time for work for which we normally never have time. - We become more predictable when we set limits for ourselves. - When everything has priority, then nothing has priority. - The later we start the work, the better it is for the customer. - Local optimization results in global sub-optimization. Sounds interesting and not so intuitive, isn't it? We are waiting for you in our flow experiment. Let's feel the difference between the two work systems: Push vs Pull; discuss how Kanban practices can improve your current system and ways of working ( … even Scrum).

From Confusion to Transparency (12:00 - 12:45; Daugava 1)

Arturs will talk about a case study which vividly illustrates how a software project can fail big-time if wrong approach is used for business transformation and software development and implementation. This story will take you through 2 years of the project life. It all started as a phased Waterfall and transformed into Scrum. Do you want to find out how and why? During this journey you will have a chance to witness confusion, stubbornness, dissatisfaction. It will be topped with a touch of Agile cargo cult. The story will finish with transparency and team happiness, while leaping into beautiful scrum implementation with co-located team and a room full with visualized valuable information for radical transparency.

DevOps Transformations: Tools vs Culture (12:00 - 12:45; Daugava 2)

SysAdmins are obsolete, we need more DevOps engineers! Or do we? In this talk, the author will give several use cases from his personal experience helping organizations to implement DevOps initiatives and automation of software delivery and testing. Why technology X is not what you need right now Why ignoring skills that are already present in the team may be a huge risk Why everything-as-code is an effective approach Why not investing in team member education may be very destructive Why not having time is a bad excuse for not automating Why process improvement effects may not be observable immediately Why cost of automation sometimes is higher than the time invested in writing the scripts

Kanban. Feel the spirit of Kaizen - PART #2 (12:00 - 12:45; Casino)

Workshop from Yehor Kachanov and Zoia Shupletsova continues.

Lunch (12:45 - 13:45; Hotel's restaurant)

Iterating towards Professional Scrum (13:45 - 14:30; Daugava 1+2)

The 2019 Scrum Master Trends Report by scrum.org and the State of Agile 2018 shows numbers that provide insight in the maturity of agile adoptions. More than 80% of the companies claim to be in or below a 'still maturing' level. With Scrum being the industry standard (at least in western Europe it is), these numbers are surprising. In this overview of iterations towards Scrum maturity I describe the characteristics and main challenges to overcome in each maturity stage. This overview might help you as a Scrum Master or leader to assess your current situation and show you a direction in which you might find a solution for the problems you are facing implementing Scrum.

The Wisdom is Inside. Laws of Nature in Team Development (14:30 - 15:15; Daugava 1)

This lecture would be beneficial for everyone who faces the challenge of team development, motivation and high performance. Teams are complicated, complex structures. They are comprised of individuals with different personalities, biases, strengths, and weaknesses. Leaders are constantly attempting to crack the team driving puzzle. What if all the answers already exist inside your team, and you just need to learn how to hear them? NB: Based on theory of Spiral Dynamics.

Back to the Roots (14:30 - 15:15; Daugava 2)

Implementing Scrum might seem to be all fun and games until you get so high where you finally see, that stakes are much higher and there is no connection to the 'ground flight control'. Are you aware of your flying course and destination? Are all passengers aboard? IRPC unit of Tieto Latvia would like to share their own experience of getting down to the solid ground and coming back to the roots of actual values of Agile.

Advanced Communication with Liberating Structures by Chewbacca and Leia - PART #1 (14:30 - 15:15; Casino)

- Did you came across situations when the same people speak majority of the time? - Do you find difficult keeping attention at the constant high level throughout the meeting? - Are you always happy with decision making process and your involvement? Five conventional structures (practices) guide the way we organize routine interactions and how groups work together: presentations, managed discussions, open discussions, status reports and brainstorm sessions. Liberating Structures add 33 more options to the big five conventional approaches. During this interactive workshop we will be trying out these new practices and will be learning with fun! Princess Leia and Chewbacca are coming to Riga! They are coming to liberate us! People are sitting at their computers and are silent, people are sitting at the meetings and majority are silent too. It looks like we are unlearning to talk, agree and communicate... Leia brought us a secret weapon - liberating structures. Let's come together in the after lunch session and get armed to teeth! ...and have some fun :)

Unlocking Business Agility (15:15 - 16:15; Daugava 1)

Holistic transformation in uncertain times.

Stop believing in magic and change your organisation! (15:15 - 16:15; Daugava 2)

Evolution in technology is changing the game in every industry - this is not news to any business. Predicting market demand and satisfying customer expectation is becoming gradually more and more complex task. To improve strategy execution capabilities - to be faster and more adaptive - companies adopt agile frameworks. These transitions are often painful and in many cases lack the desired business impact. This talk is about the 'Elephant in the room' - how we pick the methods that are convenient to adopt and dismiss the change that is really needed to move the needle. Agile is not an IT thing!

Advanced Communication with Liberating Structures by Chewbacca and Leia - PART #2 (15:15 - 16:15; Casino)

Coffee break (16:15 - 16:45; Next to Daugava 1+2)

Past, present and future of Agility from an Integral perspective (16:45 - 17:30; Daugava 1+2)

Understanding context is a key factor to set expectations, define appropriate strategies and achieve results in any kind of initiative. The Agile movement started 18 years ago with a simple sentence 'We are uncovering better ways of developing software by doing it and helping others do it'. Now the Agile movement grew way beyond software offering a new perspective to all kinds of organisations and businesses. To ensure the success of Agile initiatives, is critical for Agile professionals, enthusiasts and curious people to not only explore Agile but understand the Agility phenomenon itself. As a first step, many questions need to be clearly and consistently answered: What’s the difference between Agile software development and Business Agility? Why does it start in software? Why now? What’s next? Why organisations struggle implementing Agile? How can we make Agility happen? What does it really mean? As a result of my more than 13 years of experience helping organisations from more than 30 countries to implement Agile. I’ll give my answer to all this questions from a systemic perspective, based on the Integral theory, in the service of a pragmatic approach to understanding the Agility phenomenon. Furthermore I’ll explain a simple and practical tool for organisational management to design their own strategic planning and goals setting standards and enhance Agility.

Day one wrap-up (17:30 - 17:45; Daugava 1+2)

After party and networking in the inner yard of the conference venue (18:00 - 21:00; Daugava 1+2)

It was a long day, but now it is time to reflect and relax together! You are all welcome to join for a drink or two sponsored by Accenture! We have prepared a fun entertainment programm too. Join us and let's have fun together, network and just enjoy aqulity time.

Morning coffee (9:00 - 9:30; Abava / Amata - 2nd floor)

When inspiration becomes imitation… lessons from the coaching trenches (09:30 - 10:15; Abava / Amata - 2nd floor)

Over the past decade, Evelyn has gained unique and diverse experience coaching organizations large or small, from APAC, to North America, to Europe and to Middle East. She has solid background from product management, project management, people management, software development, system integration, customer support to agile coaching. Her clients range from automotive industry, manufacturing, insurance, banking, e-commerce and of course telecom due to her years of experience in Ericsson. In this talk, she brings insightful messages for organizations which are in their Agile transformation, wondering how to advance, or are about to start. Participants will be able to: - recognize camera-effect transformation and describe alternatives - list the challenges with squads, and tribes; - identify possible 'solving a problem now but creating a problem to be solved in the months to come as a consequence' - explain incorrect understandings and applications of key popular concepts from lean startup, to product discovery, to value flow, to sociocracy, to holacracy. - restate important factors to consider and fine-tune for Agile transformation The session is a talk, with short analysis to enforce learning.

Open Space (10:15 - 12:15; Abava / Amata - 2nd floor)

It is an agenda-less event where people come together, create agenda under specific theme, and then learn from each other in small groups. Items in agenda can be anything: problems, situations, experiences, approaches, lectures, etc. related to the specific theme. Please take a read and watch video below to get you into the mood and ‘be prepared to be surprised’ on June 21!

Stand-up Lunch (12:15 - 13:15; Abava / Amata - 2nd floor)

Biology of Powerful Powerless Leader (13:15 - 14:00; Abava / Amata - 2nd floor)

Agile Leadership has its unique flavour of natural leadership, when power is not given with a title but taken by a person based on his/her inner abilities. We use Servant Leadership or Powerless Leader to emphasise this difference. If we look deeper into the biology and neuroscience of leadership we might find really unexpected things – that Agile leaders are the ones that are recognised by nature and we unconsciously can select these people from the crowd. How to become this type of person? To be an effective Agile leader we need to understand: What makes a leader: Leader-Leader Agile Model; The difference between a leader and dominant behaviour, why leaders look younger and more active (on hormonal level) ; Hormones and neuroscience of a natural leader (with some cases and practice); Leadership differences and similarities of Scrum Master and Product Owner; Simple (4 words) yet powerful mindset change to become a natural leader that people will follow .

Coffee break (14:00 - 14:15; Abava / Amata - 2nd floor)

Open Space sessions - continue (14:15 - 17:00; Abava / Amata - 2nd floor)

It is an agenda-less event where people come together, create agenda under specific theme, and then learn from each other in small groups. Items in agenda can be anything: problems, situations, experiences, approaches, lectures, etc. related to the specific theme. Please take a read and watch video below to get you into the mood and ‘be prepared to be surprised’ on June 21!

Conference closing (17:00 - 17:30; Abava / Amata - 2nd floor)