Call for Speaker Abstracts
ADAPT, the Software Engineering Institute and the Systems Engineering Research Center invite submission of abstracts for presentation.
This event builds on previous ADAPT sessions, and is looking at the practical considerations for employment of agile methods in commercial, Government and highly regulated enterprises.
TOPICS
The theme of the event is Delivering the Right Capability, On-time and On-budget. Presentations will be considered from business and Government that address any of the following:
1. Program Management and Governance
The Agile approach to project execution places demands upon all personnel that differ from other execution environments. The managerial role is uniquely affected by the features of the Agile approach. Presentations discussing differences, techniques to implement those changes and lessons learned that help Program Managers and Program Offices implement governance in an Agile environment are solicited.
2. Contracting for Agile Projects
One of the big challenges for any federal organization in moving toward agile methods is to be able to contract in a way that does not inhibit the use or implementation of agile principles and constructs. Case studies, lesson learned and other supportive information in the arena of agile and contracting are sought for this topic. Presentations are sought on practical lessons learned with contract language, development reviews, deliverables and reporting.
3. Culture and Organizational Change
Every organization has common things that are visible and reflect its basic assumptions, shared values, espoused values, and artifacts. Together these form a view of the organization’s culture. Agile approaches tend to change roles and responsibilities, empowering teams in ways traditional waterfall processes do not.
Therefore one of the key cultural issues is how agile can be inserted successfully into a larger, waterfall-oriented culture, particularly with respect to an organization's reporting artifacts. The question is how does one translate data from what’s generated in agile to what’s reported using traditional formats? We are also discussing other cultural, technical, and political barriers to agile adoption in the enterprise. A sharp focus on culture, people, and products is required for an organization planning on using agile. Lessons learned, case studies and practical examples are solicited.
4. Scaling Agile
In practice, especially in Government, agile methods have tended to be applied by small project teams facing budget and schedule pressures as a means for delivering on project goals. If agile is to deliver on its promise then it must be expanded both horizontally across and enterprise as well as vertically into management and governance structures and processes. Agile at scale is when and enterprise realizes the most benefit from agile in terms of quality, capability and cost. Challenges and practical considerations exist in scaling agile and these must be addressed. Presentations on the challenges to agile at scale and approaches to overcoming them are desired that have specific case studies and real-world examples.
5. Agile Enterprise Architecture
Many believe that Agile methods do not allow for any architecture let alone an enterprise architecture. Those working with Agile methods know this to be a myth. Presentations on Agile Enterprise Architecture, how architecture fits into agile methods, lessons learned, approaches to using enterprise architectures within Agile programs and other applicable information is solicited.
6. Testing, C&A and Information Assurance in Agile
The adoption of Agile lifecycle models within Government poses a challenge for Certification and Accreditation (C&A) and Information Assurance (IA) requirements in systems development. How can we adapt these processes that have historically been serial, stage gated events performed at the end of the build and test phases, and rebuild them to be conducted incrementally and iteratively? How do we meet the documentation requirements and satisfy approval authorities in a modified process model that systems built using Agile have the reliability and security posture necessary to obtain an Authority to Operate? Is there an “Agile IA” model?
7. Performance, Reporting, and Meaningful Metrics
Traditional approaches to project management and software development have incorporated a variety of metrics and reporting tools to determine the performance of the team. Schedule and cost performance are often tracked through Earned Value, Gantt charts, and Percent Complete, while technical metrics have included Lines of Code, Defect Rates, Test Cases Written/Executed, etc. In an Agile development environment, many traditional metrics don’t apply. What are the best measures of performance in Agile, how do we track the essential data elements for Agile reporting, and what can they tell us about our development project?
8. The Role of Agile in Interim DoD Instruction 5000.02
The new interim version of 5000.02 released in November 2013 provides four basic models and two additional hybrid models for program structures. Insights, lessons learned from using the new version of 5000.02 for acquiring systems that are software intensive are solicited. In particular, is there a difference being seen for employing Agile methods?
9. DevOps: Impacts for Government IT Systems
DevOps is a blending of the words Development and Operations. Industry weblogs and published books define DevOps as a balance of development and operation concepts with the ultimate goal of changing cultural mindsets and leveraging technology more efficiently. Presentations on lessons learned and application of DevOps in Government settings are desired. One guiding question to answer is does DevOps have an impact in Government settings.
SUBMISSION
Abstracts must be submitted electronically at the following link.
http://application.ndia.org/abstracts/4a02/
AFEI is an affiliate of the National Defense Industrial Association and this is NDIA’s standard abstract submittal process.
Abstracts should be a minimum of 100 words in length and address proposed subject of the presentation.
DUE DATE
Abstracts are due on April 11, 2014. Abstracts submitted after that date will not be considered.
Submittal instructions: Submitters must complete all required fields for the abstract to be submitted. Once the submission form is complete, click on the Preview button at the bottom of the page to review the submission for correctness, completeness and readability (Note: When cutting and pasting text use this feature to be sure the form has not altered paragraphing or spacing.) When satisfied click the submit button. You should then be taken back to the AFEI event page Http://www.afei.org/events/4A02.
SELECTION and NOTIFICATION
Selection of abstracts for presentation will be made by the program committee. Submitters will be notified by e-mail on May 5. Abstracts not selected for this event may be identified for presentation in either the Fall 2014 or Spring 2015 events.
SPONSORING
A number of sponsorship opportunities are available for this event. Sponsors have logos on materials, display tables and opportunity to speak during Lunchtime Lightning Rounds. For more information contact Tammy Kicker via e-mail at [email protected].
ORGANIZER
This event is organized by the Association for Enterprise Information and its group ADAPT (Agile Defense Adoption Proponents Team), in partnership with the Carnegie Mellon University Software Engineering Institute and the Systems Engineering Research Center operated for the Department of Defense by Stevens Institute.
CONTACT
For more information contact Tammy Kicker via e-mail at [email protected]