Release 4: The "XP Challenge" session - proposal for discussion

I'll start this post by being controversial ;-)

• Everytime an Agile or XP conference is organised, pretty much the same people turn up, sharing pretty much the same stuff as last time they met (just updated versions of the same stuff).
• There is hardly anybody from outside the technology world coming to these events, and those who do don't come back and it does not seem to generate that much "business"
  
• Conferences are quite restrictive on the format of events (in terms of time, resources, etc...) that they want to propose, which can actually restrict the type of ideas that can be put forward.
  

I have an idea about an event, as part of conferences that could - in my view - really be exciting...

Here is the first draft of this event, please let me know if it does appeal to you, or what you would like to see modified, or any other idea that are not constrained by conference guidelines:

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Basically, over the duration of the XP 2005 conference (http://www.xp2005.org/), I would like to show that it is possible to create Business Value using XP... by actually creating Business Value in 5 days!

To be clearer, in 5 days, I think it is possible to create a software product that has genuine market value, and I am certain that a lot of people that this conference targets would enjoy doing that and would learn quite a few things in the process.

So, my initial idea looks like this:

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Day 1:

• 1.1/ Workshop introduction: The content and goal of the session is explained, schedule is made clear and explicit.Duration: 30 mns max
  

• 1.2/ Idea presentation: Some Attendees come with a company name, an idea about a piece of software that they feel would carry value in the real market place (ideally, these people should be from the Business community as opposed to being from the technical community, although everyone can have an idea ;-). These people with an idea will be referred to as Company CEOs. Duration: 30 mn max

• 1.3/ Business Case preparation: all attendees are asked to join a company for the business case preparation. They are asked to contribute to defining and writing the Business Case for this idea, driven by the CEO vision. A short presentation is produced which outlines the outcome aimed at. Duration: 45 mns max

• - 1.4/ Business Case presentation: CEOs present Business Cases back to the audience for project rating and selection (where we will select project(s) that we will deliver in 4 days) Duration: 30mn max
  

• 1.5/ Enrolment: each attendee is asked to join a company for next days' sessions. Duration: 15 mns max
  

• 1.6/ Team setup: people will have joined companies by now, and a basic organisation needs to be defined: CEO, Customers/Analysts, Coach/Project Manager, developpers, etc...Duration: 15 mns max
  

Total required duration for day 1: 3 hours (includes a 15 mns break)

Day 2:

• 2.1/ Customer stories writing: driven by CEOs, each company has to write the customer stories and acceptance tests in line with the idea, as well as defining each story value in the overall outcome. Everyone is involved.Duration: 1 hour max
  

• 2.2/ Initial planning game: the entire company runs a planning game and sets the team velocity >> that produces the release plan, value release plan, as well as iteration 1 plan.Duration: 30 mns max
  

• 3.3/ Iteration 1: the remaining of this session is for iteration 1 deivery >> stories selected for iteration 1 are delivered using all XP practices!!!Duration: Rest of the session, including 15 mns for iteration retrospective
  

Total required duration for day 2: 3 hours

Day 3:

• 3.1/ Iteration 2: starting with planning game, finishing with retrospective.

Total required duration for day 3: 3 hours

Day 4:

• 4.1/ Iteration 3: starting with planning game, finishing with retrospective.

Total required duration for day 4: 3 hours

Day 5:

• 5.1/ Iteration 4: starting with planning game.Duration: 2 hours max
  

• 5.2/ Project Retrospective, including product demo, expected value generated, product state assessment, next phases.Duration: 1 hour
  

Total required duration for day 5: 3 hours

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This is only the first draft for this idea, but I am sure it could turn up into a major feature of XP conferences (like the "XP Challenge" or something...). Such a session, well marketed and communicated might also bring to the convention some of the target audience that we have problems to reach at the moment (Business Community for instance...).

Let me know what you think, I'll keep refining the idea in the meantime.

Iteration 4: Planning Game

I will focus on promoting eXtreme Analysis for this iteration (at least).

New stories:

Story ID: 4.1

Estimate: 8
Type: SPIKE
Status: Started
Value: 10

Description:
As a member of the XP community, I want to submit a session for XP 2005 conference that will really appeal to xp practitioners as well as a different audience, ie Business type audience in order for the conference organisers to be able to invite new audience type to the conference and start making XP "wanted" as a viable option for more organisations.

Acceptance criteria:

1. A session description must be provided
   
2. Some feed back needs to be received from XP practitioners as well as other targets
   
3. Format needs to be discussed and agreed with XP 2005 organisers

Tasks:

1. Release some ideas on blog for discussion (Estimate 2) (Status: Started)
2. Probe XP 2005 organisers on ideas (Estimate 3) (Status: Started)
3. Formalise session proposal and submit(Estimate 3) (Status: Not Started)

Iteration 3: Retrospective

Outcome:

1 blog entries created on eXtreme Analysis,,, and a lot of discussions outside this blog ;-)))

Measured Velocity: 0.3 points
Measured Value: 10 ++

What worked well:

1. Have managed to make the XA slides available to a big number of potentially interested people
2. Posting the XA presentation and introducing it on http://groups.yahoo.com/group/extremeprogramming/ (post number 100204) generated a lot of discussions
   

What did not work so well:

1. As far as this blog is concerned, I have not managed to update it for at least 1 month!
   
2. not enough time to work on the blog (yahoo groups discussion + day job ;-)
   

Puzzles:

1. Need to be more effective on all communication medias without impacting my day job...
   

Actions:

1. Plan/book time to work on blog more effectively