I just registered online to PDC2008 and will attend the following Pre-Conference session:

Agile Perspectives, Industry and Microsoft

Presenter(s): Mary Poppendieck, Grigori Melnik

Agile development is here! During this all-day agile session Mary Poppendieck, author of “Lean Software Development: An Agile Toolkit” will share profound insights that will optimize your agile processes. The session will focus on best practices and advice to avoid the most common pitfalls for teams practicing or moving towards agile. During the second half of the session, Grigori Melnik, Technical Program Manager in Microsoft Patterns & Practices team, will share the lessons learned his team has acquired over many, many agile projects. The session will close with a panel - including Mary, Grigori, and a few guest speakers - for you to ask your tough questions around agile development.

About the presenter(s):

Mary Poppendieck started her career as a process control programmer, moved on to manage the IT department of a manufacturing plant, and then ended up in product development, where she was both product manager and department manager. After Mary left the corporate world in 1998, she found herself managing a government software project where she first encountered the word “waterfall.” When Mary compared her experience in successful software and product development to the prevailing opinions about how to manage software projects, she decided the time had come for a new paradigm. She wrote the award-winning book “Lean Software Development” to explain how the lean principles from manufacturing offer a better approach to software development. Over the past six years, Mary has found retirement elusive as she lectures and teaches classes with her husband Tom. Based on their on-going learning, they wrote a second book, “Implementing Lean Software Development.” A popular writer and speaker, Mary continues to bring fresh perspectives to the world of software development.

Grigori Melnik is a Senior Product Planner in the patterns & practices group at Microsoft, leading the Process & Engineering focus area. Prior to that, Grigori was a researcher, software engineer, coach and educator with 15+ years of meaningful industrial and research experience. His areas of expertise include agile methods, empirical software engineering, software testing and test automation, and software economics. Prior industrial engagements include Microsoft Canada Money and SmallBiz portals, Pan-Canadian Online Learning Portal, and The Canadian Agile Network - Le Réseau Agile Canadien. Grigori is an agile enthusiast who has been involved with the agile community since 2000. He is a regular contributor and speaker to software engineering conferences and workshops around the world. Grigori is the Program Chair of the Agile 2008 conference and a member of the IEEE Software Advisory board.

Some month ago I was asked at Innoveo Solutions to introduce some agile project management in the form of Scrum.

So I am delighted to have the opportunity to attend such a full day of Pre-Conference with Mary Poppendieck on this topic.