It is that time of year again where developers like us, who care about getting software development as right as they can, get together to talk about what is happening in the world of Agile and Lean software development. It is Asia’s largest conference on Agile and Lean software development and one of our own, Cara Faye, was there. Welcome to Agile India 2014.
This four day intensive conference is the meeting place for some of the top minds in Agile development and delegates from all over the world make sure they are there to learn what they can from the experts. Some of the deepest thinking about Agile methodology happened in those four days. It goes without saying then that to have the opportunity to speak at the conference is a huge honour. And Cara was invited to speak this year for the second time.
Building creative teams through the retrospective of Agile
Cara spoke on ‘Building creative teams through the retrospective of Agile’, exploring how to get teams to get more creative when facing difficult situations. What does creativity have to do with development? Plenty. The retrospective of Agile helps to keep teams motivated by being able to analyse what went wrong and find a new solution going forward. Add creative rather than analytical thought to the mix and there are bound to be some really good solutions. Agile is about continuous development in the software space using a number of methods. There is a strong focus on using feedback to find the best solutions going forward. This same process can be used to help teams find the solutions they need when facing certain problems.
Cara works at KRS as a Scrum Master working with the team that uses Agile principles to solve problems across a number of products and clients. She is passionate about sharing practices for creating positive work experiences in complex adaptive systems, the core focus of the Agile methodologies. She is currently the chairperson for SUGSA, Scrum Gathering South Africa, through which she hosts talks usually on some aspect of Agile development such as using innovation games to help teams generate ideas. She loves training and development, getting people involved and inspiring them to do more. She says that what she enjoys the most is “when people make small breakthroughs that can take them to a new level of enjoyment.” We love having Cara on our team!