As promised, we have an organisation who will present a case study on the benefits realised with the adoption of Scrum and Agile…

Case Study:

Harry King of Rosami Products & Services, who are contracted to 2Dialog – a company based in Richardson, Texas, will be presenting a case study on how Scrum is assisting them in realising the expected benefits of Agile off-shore development in South Africa…

Book review:

Lionel Bisschoff will again entertain us with a book review

Agile and Scrum Committee Reading List:

The SUGSA Gauteng committee will for the first time reveal what we are reading and a list of subjects and books/articles on those subjects will be handed out.

So far we had overwhelming response and we are looking forward to see everyone… however, please don’t hesitate to bring friends/colleagues and whoever you think might benefit or add to the discussions planned!

Event registration:  http://www.scrum.org.za/resources/event-registration/event-registration-gauteng

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 The previous events were so well attended and using your feedback from this, we have decided to use this event for an open discussion around Agile and Scrum with help from a panel of experts.

Case studies will be presented for discussion, Scrum practitioners and organisations using Scrum will be present to share their ‘war-stories’ with us and to answer your questions.

 Join us for an evening of open discussion – bring your questions, bring your concerns, bring your own ‘war-stories’ and share with all of us… we are all keen to learn!

When: 21 May 2009

Time: 18:00 for 18:30

Where: Momentum Auditorium 1, Centurion, Pretoria (click for map)

Event registration:  http://www.scrum.org.za/resources/event-registration/event-registration-gauteng

Sponsors: Kaizania and Momentum

Refreshments will be served before and after the event.

For any additional information, please contact agile@kaizania.co.za.

This is your official invitation to the next event to be held in Cape Town.

When: Wednesday 13 May, 2009 at 18h00 for 18h30
Where: Great Westerford, 240 Main Rd, Rondebosch (corner of Main and Dean). Click here for a map.

Click here to register for this event

Agile practice: Continuous Integration
Aside from the business challenges of the solution, the process of integrating the various bits and pieces of any reasonably-sized system can itself be time consuming, troublesome and difficult. To make matters worse, it is usually left towards the end of project, when pressure is often the greatest. This means the very integration process itself often introduces further bugs! Continuous Integration attempts to address these concerns.

At its core, Continuous Integration is the process of integrating the disparate components of a software system on a very frequent basis, often many times per day. However, in addition to addressing the actual challenges of integration, CI itself requires various tools and processes to be in place, and each of these is able to bring significant benefit to both the solution and the team. In this session, we will look more closely at the core concepts around both CI and the underpinning processes it relies upon. In order to demonstrate these concepts and keep it practical, we will make use of various well known tools and products.

About our Speaker: Hilton Giesenow
Hilton has been developing software professionally since 1997. Focused primarily on Microsoft tools and technologies, he lives and works in Cape Town, South Africa as a development manager and as a software architect and technical lead on enterprise projects. With experience ranging across a wide variety of platforms, client types and locations, Hilton is a Microsoft MVP, a regional lead for S.A. Developer.net, the national INETA representative, and a regular author and speaker at professional, community and academic events and conferences. His random ramblings can be found at http://hilton.giesenow.com/.

When: Wednesday 13 May, 2009 at 18h00 for 18h30
Where: Great Westerford, 240 Main Rd, Rondebosch (corner of Main and Dean). Click here for a map.

This event is kindly sponsored by Intec Billing which means that attendance, snacks and drinks are free!

Please don’t forget to register by clicking this link.

This is the announcement and your official invitation to our first event in Cape Town for 2009, to be held in just two weeks’ time.

When: Tuesday 24 Feb, 2009 at 18h00 for 18h30

Where: MagmaTec House, Greenford Office Estate, Punters Way, Kenilworth, Cape Town. Go to http://www.magmatec.co.za/ for a map. Parking is available on-site.

We have an interesting programme lined up for our first event of 2009:

* Aimed at Scrum newbies, Carlo Kruger will give a brief overview of Agile principles and the Scrum framework. It should help you with some of the practical questions of what Scrum is and how to get it started in your organisation.

* Chris Tisdall will share some experiences of implementing Scrum at Allan Gray from his perspective as Product Owner.

The event is being kindly sponsored by MagmaTec, which means that attendance, snacks and drinks are free!

Space is limited, so please do confirm your attendance as soon as possible by clicking the following link: http://www.prohmote.com/892ab682. Just fill in your name and how many guests you will bring.

Bio for Carlo Kruger

Starting off in risk management for a financial services provider, at some point Carlo realised he was spending more time involved in software development than managing financial risk, and that it was more fun. Since then he has been actively involved in software development for the past five years. Certified as a ScrumMaster in
2008 he’d like to see Scrum more widely accepted in South African IT. He currently works for Saratoga Software where he is involved in a number of projects. Carlo is a member of the SUGSA team.

Bio for Chris Tisdall

Chris has a background in marketing and has been involved in e-commerce and start-ups since the late 90′s – both as a consultant and business owner. He managed to weather the bursting of the dot-com bubble and has worked across the financial services, telecommunications and retail industries. He was part of the core team
that launched 20twenty as SA’s first pure-play internet bank and currently heads up Allan Gray’s online channel. Chris has learnt technology through osmosis by working with amazing technology teams. He is fascinated by the possibilities of the web and the creative genius that is simplifying the lives of everyday people.

When: Tuesday 24 Feb, 2009 at 18h00 for 18h30

Where: MagmaTec House, Greenford Office Estate, Punters Way,
Kenilworth, Cape Town. Go to http://www.magmatec.co.za/ for a map.
Parking is available on-site.

Please remember to confirm your attendance at: http://www.prohmote.com/892ab682

Kind regards,

Peter Hundermark
SUGSA team chairman
http://www.scrum.org.za