The Agile Advisor: The Hangout (Event Review)

I came into the space being prepped for the event at 10:59am, only one attendee was on ground before the scheduled time which was 11:00am. Since the program is yet to take off, he decided to assist in the setup. I also went ahead to assist my friend in setting up (he's in charge of the media coverage). As at 11:20am, the event is yet to start and three other attendees are around, and I'm beginning to think when it is proper to start. Can we start with 5 people available? Or 10 or 15? Oh... Did I tell you about the venue? It's Best Western Hotel in Victoria Island opposite the Eko Atlantic City, it's a beautiful compact hotel. The security at the gate aren't hostile or defensive and receptionist is available to help, the interior is beautifully standard. The space for the event nice, it gives a view of the Eko Atlantic City that's under construction. The convener of the event has been around before the scheduled time but she came in at around 11:29am, she greeted the people she was familiar with. She walked over to her seat to setup herself. She was dressed in a flowery gown that defines her class and style, she looks calm and seem like someone who will be firm in her decision making process. Because she's been based in Canada for a long while, I was expecting to hear a change in accent (oyinbo accent) but she speaks plain and simple English! I don't know why but I was happy she didn't change her accent. Her first words were; "good afternoon all, I was hoping to say good morning but I couldn't since its 12:30pm". She later apologized for the delay and the program kicked off immediately. She introduced herself and her organization, she then asked that all the participants to introduce themselves which we all did. We delved into the program immediately, we had series of activities to get us into the mood. Below are the activities we went through: 1. Your Agile Knowledge: she asked that we rate ourselves from 0-5 on our knowledge of the agile methodology. Nobody wrote 0 which is being a novice; We had an average of 1, because it's a new methodology to us. 2. Airplane Activity: this was the second activity of the day. There were 2 sides to this activity; first we had to build a paper plane by ourselves without interactions with other participants but she gave us instructions on how to build it but we couldn't build a plane that flies successfully. The other part of the activity was to form a group of three to make the same plane but without instructions and we are allowed to make our own research, this part was more successful than the first because of 'collaboration'. 3. The third activity was to form a group of four people, these groups are given different instructions on achieving the same goal. There was commotion, then we realized that the aim of the exercise was to ensure collaboration with other teams. All these activities are to further prove why project management is outdated and Agile Methodology is the way forward. The activities proved there's a better way of doing things, it also exposed the loopholes in organizations using project management approach (waterfall approach). The Agile methodology is trying to displace Project Management in Nigeria, though in some developed countries, Agile methodology has already displaced Project Management. At 13:50pm, we went on a short tea/coffee break. Coming back from the break she played a video titled: Design Thinking (A crash course from Stanford University), awesome did not finish the video but I can't say why. If I should guess I would say because of time constraint because the video is about 90mins. The program progresses with the topic: Agile Adoption and Transformation. Excerpt from the lecture: "Agile methodology helps business units stay relevant in the new reality - a digital age of technological innovations. "Constant innovation requires constant change in today's world". And innovation is creating something new or finding a new way of using something that has been created before. Why is it so important to be considered 'innovative'? When you're innovative, you create valuable things, pull in new customers and experience growth. There's nothing really overly complex about being Agile. It is a flexible workplace methodology that emphasizes values. How does Agile Methodology work? The agile approach consists of cross functional terms (from both Business and Technology groups) working closely together in a collaborative environment, employing processes that build software incrementally. Traditional methodology (such as waterfall) deliver the pieces all at once, usually towards the end of a project. The result is the same - a successful implementation - it's the delivery that's a little different". Who is the convener of the Agile Advisor Program? She is Abiodun Osoba, a Canadian based agile methodology expert. She started her career in the Information Technology sector as a Business Analyst, Project Manager and grew to where she is now as an Agile Advisor. And she's had over 20 years of experience in the telecommunications and banking sectors in 3 countries. (I need to have your resume here and that if the company). The program ended at 5:05pm. I would say the time expended for this event was worth it. She handled everything well and was able to convince most of the attendees to go Agile. You can see the pictures on their social media pages. Facebook: Twitter: Instagram: Website: www.theagileadvisor.com #TheAgileAdvisor #GoAgile