2nd Full Day at SEPG

Let’s just start by saying that David Anderson is *way* too generous. His post about me is simply humbling.

So that’s how day 2 started. And it was just as good (or nearly) for the rest of the day.

Right after lunch (mixed blessing) I delivered my session on “Time to Market vs. Process Discipline” to a suprisingly large audience. I guess the topic title alone struck a chord. And, if the number of people coming up to me for updated slides and other discussion are any indication, the material was well-received. I got many “thanks for saying what you said” comments as well as many other nice things from strangers as well as people I know. I value everyone’s thoughtful opinions and feedback. Here and there discussions ensued over the course of the afternoon long after the session. I hope the general session feedback forms provide useful improvement points.

I attended a very fun session on “Behavioral Clues” of process maturity delivered by one of my CMMI mentors, Judah Mogilensky of Process Enhancement Partners. It wasn’t only about “Bottom-Dwelling Mud-Sucking Level 1″ companies(TM)*, but also about behaviors of higher-maturity. Quite informative.

*a non-official term of endearment used around the CMMI community for companies just getting started on improving their processes and who are so lost and clueless you can’t help but think they’re cute… like a puppy or kitten.

The session after that was on Agile implementation in a very data-driven company. I was very happy to see their material because I hope it laid to myth that Agile development doesn’t generate manageable data.

The final session was a break-out session after-hours to discuss in an open forum the being done on creating a CMMI set of practices around organizations that deliver pure services, no products. It was rather lively and I hope to get more involved.

In all, a good day for Agile CMMI. I am continually stunned at how many people agree with my philosophy on Agile development + CMMI and yet how few are out there actually doing it.

Tomorrow is a panel discussion. Looking forward to it.