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AYE 2005 Conference Schedule
Sunday Nov 6, 2005 - Wednesday Nov 9, 2005
This is the preliminary (rev 2) conference schedule for 2005, correct as of June 24, 2005. Questions? Please contact .
Day Time Events 8:00 AM - 1:00 PM 4:00 PM - 7:00 PM 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM
Esther Derby and Johanna Rothman6:00 PM - 9:00 PM Monday 7:00 AM - 8:15 AM 8:15 AM - 8:25 AM Organizational
Team Personal Requirements * 8:30 AM - 11:30 AM S03. Process Mapping S18. Moving toward Agile Project Management S04. E/I E/I Oh! Improving Extrovert / Introvert interactions S23. An Amateur's Guide to Communicating Requirements Reserved for participant contributed session Steve Smith & Jeff McKenna Johanna Rothman Don Gray & Naomi Karten Brian Marick 11:30 AM - 1:30 PM Organizational Team Personal Requirements Tools & Skills 1:30 PM - 4:30 PM S10. Time Machine: How Context Affects Perception of Time S22. Exploring Shared Leaderhip and Self-organization S13. Using Your Yes/No Medallion S24. Another Amateur's Guide to Communicating Requirements S07. The Simplest Thing that Could Possibly Be Effective Bent Adsersen Esther Derby Jerry Weinberg Brian Marick Dwayne Phillips BOFs, Dinner on your own or with others.... Tuesday Buffet Breakfast in hotel restaurant with old and new friends 8:15 AM - 8:25 AM The Morning News Effectiveness Track Organizational Team Personal Testing Tools & Skills 8:30 AM - 11:30 AM S02. Software by the Numbers S19. Conversations with Candidates S15. Satir Coaching S09. Different User, Different View S21. Giving and Receiving Feedback Dave Smith, Steve Smith, & Jeff McKenna Johanna Rothman Jean McLendon Bent Adsersen Esther Derby 11:30 AM - 1:30 PM Effectiveness Track Organizational Team Personal Requirements 1:30 PM - 4:30 PM S12. Organizational Mapping S05. It's déjà vu All Over Again S20. Reinventing Yourself S01. Exploring Tradeoffs: Quality versus Speed Reserved for Participant Contributed Sessions Jerry Weinberg Diane Gibson & Don Gray Johanna Rothman Steve Smith BOFs, Dinner on your own or with others.... Wednesday 8:15 AM - 8:25 AM Effectiveness Track Organizational * Personal Requirements Tool & Skills 8:30 AM - 11:30 AM S14. Satir Coaching Reserved for Participant Contributed Sessions S06. Do You See What I See: An Observational Experience S07. Derived Requirements and Their Effects S16. Building Writing Skill and Confidence: A Writing Workshop Jean McLendon Don Gray Dwayne Phillips Naomi Karten & Johanna Rothman 11:30 AM - 1:30 PM Effectiveness Track Organizational Team Personal * * 1:30 PM - 4:30 PM S25. Building a Strong Foundation S17. Management Behind Closed Doors S11. Transforming Rules into Guides Reserved for Participant Contributed Sessions Reserved for Participant Contributed Sessions Naomi Karten Johanna Rothman & Esther Derby Jerry Weinberg Thursday All day Thursday is a free, all-day session for all members of Jerry Weinberg's Shape Forum who are staying over Warm Up Tutorial
Esther Derby and Johanna Rothman
At the first AYE conference, some people commented that a pre-conference tutorial, introducing some of this material, might be useful not only to those who had not encountered it before, but also to those who had. Consequently, in 2001, 2002, & 2003, we offered the "AYE Warm-Up" to make it easier for everyone to participate from a shared understanding of the basics. It was a big hit.
One thing that makes the AYE conference different is session design. At many conferences, the basic format is one or two presenters talking from the front of the room, to rows full of people seated in chairs. While there might be some of that at this conference, the emphasis is more on simulation and experience. We believe that this approach can be especially effective for this kind of learning, and we'll use it in this tutorial too. That means that you'll have a chance to participate in the session, determining what happens to a very great extent, and having a lot of fun doing it.
We'll introduce the Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) and several of the tools, techniques and concepts of Virginia Satir, possibly including items from this menu: triads, the five freedoms, the self-esteem tool kit, the communication stances, the change model, the interaction model, safety & feedback.
S01. Exploring Tradeoffs: Quality versus Speed
Steve Smith
We will explore the situation in which a product is designed and built to solve a problem. Parts of the product work as designed while other parts are defective. To improve the quality of the product, the defects must be removed, but if you spend too much time removing defects, your product will have little value in the market. You will be a member of a team whose job is to get a clean product to market quickly in order to beat your competition.
Objectives
- Experience how teams make tradeoffs
- Contrast different approaches to making tradeoffs
- Formulate strategies for changing traditional approaches
- Experience the interplay of logic and emotion in making tradeoff decisions
S02. Software by the Numbers
Jeff McKenna, Dave Smith and Steve Smith
There are many ways to measure in a project, and many ways to measure them. Possible measurements include both product parameters, process parameters, and people. We need to measure so that we can plan, track, and adjust. Yet measurement programs often fail to achieve their intended effect, frequently create new problems, and leave teams and people feeling poorly used.
This session explores the pitfalls of "objectively" measuring creative work. We will explore the balance between measuring people and measuring outcomes.
S03. Process Mapping
Jeff McKenna and Steve Smith
You can't improve what you can't see. That's a simple process improvement fact. The more visible a process, the more it can be analyzed and improved. But visible process models for teams are similar to sightings of endangered species -- they are rare.
We can and should do better. During this workshop, everyone will have the opportunity to participate in a process. Each participant will create a picture of the process from their point of view. We will debrief each participant to better understand what is happening from their perspective. We will take careful note parts of the process that are working well so they can be preserved rather than lost. And we will also take careful notes about the parts of the process that aren't working and thus need to be improved.
The individual views will be integrated in a step-by-step process. Our objective will be to create a useful, integrated picture of the process that can be used to frame discussions about improving the process.
Objectives
- Experience working in a process
- Create a picture of the process from your perspective
- See and learn from other people's perspectives
- Integrate individual process picture to create a group view
S04. E/I, E/I, Oh! Improving Extrovert / Introvert interactions
Don Gray and Naomi Karten
The introvert/extrovert dynamic is complex. Introverts and extroverts exhibit significant differences in behavior, interaction preferences and work style. They differ in what, when, and how they communicate. Such differences often lead to frayed nerves and ruffled feathers. Worse, they can create misunderstandings, reduced productivity and flawed results.
This session is for everyone who would like to learn how to work effectively with their more introverted or extroverted colleagues. We'll take both a serious and a light-hearted look at the introvert/extrovert dynamic, so as to:
- broaden the understanding each has of the other
- dispel misconceptions and stereotypes
- understand the positive and negative perceptions each has of the other
- determine what each would most appreciate from the other
- examine tools and techniques for working together productively
S05. It's Deja Vu All Over Again: Applying Systems Archetypes to Problem Solving
Diane Gibson and Don Gray
"What goes around, comes around, if you stick around long enough."
Ever have the feeling that you're "experiencing deja vu" in your projects? This happens when external events, interactions and our feelings are similar to situations in which we've been before. Why do we find ourselves in these repeating situations? What can we do to prevent these recurring events?
Systems archetypes are common patterns of behavior -- mostly, of problems or failures -- which are seen repeatedly in projects. The archetypes have been developed using systems tools: graphs of behavior over time and causal loop diagrams. They can be useful in identifying sources of common problems and sometimes counterintuitive ways to resolve them. There are examples in many different areas and types of projects.
In this session we will explore systems archetypes as they apply to common and recurring problems in software development projects.
Objectives
- Review Systems Archetypes
- Relate the archetypes to difficulties commonly found in projects
- Practice recognizing and drawing archetypes
- Develop an action plan to deal with the problem
S06. Do You See What I See? - An Observational Excursion
Don Gray
"You can observe a whole lot just by watching" - Yogi Berra
The first step in the Satir Interaction Model is Intake. If we don't make the correct observations we have a flawed intake. The following steps, Meaning, Significance and Response become off centered.
In this session we'll explore:
- What influences observations?
- How do we decide what to observe?
- What biases exist in our observations?
- Can we improve our observation abilities?
- What models can we use as a framework?
Objectives
- An understanding of our preferred intake modality.
- Explore what influences observations.
- How to improve our observations.
S07. The Simplest Things Can Amplify Effectiveness
Dwayne Phillips
In my work as a project manager, I've used many simple techniques that make a large difference in how well people work together. Taking notes, capturing important information on a white board, using 3X5 cards to capture tasks are all simple things that can transform a aimless meeting into a productive working session. It seems, however, that I neglect many of these simple things day to day. In this session, we'll collect examples of simple things that amplify effectiveness. We'll look into the reasons we fail to use them, and develop strategies to remind ourselves to use the simple things that are always at our disposal.
- There are many simple things that can amplify our effectiveness.
- Nothing is too simple to use - even with (especially with) adults.
- There are simple things that help us remember to use simple things.
S08. Derived Requirements and Their Effect
Dwayne Phillips
A derived requirement is something that the customer doesn't state explicitly, but to meet one of the customer's requirements we have to derive or state a requirement ourselves. For example, the customer wants new software to run on his current Dell computer. A derived requirement is that the software must run on a Microsoft operating system. Sometimes we derive too many requirements and forget that they don't come directly from the customer. We turn something that we infer into something that the customer wants. Our assumptions about derived requirements can take the project in a direction the customer didn't really want to go.
We also can derive too many things in other parts of our lives. We tend to assume or infer something for a given situation. Pretty soon, what we inferred or derived becomes a rule written in stone. Our personal derived requirements end up running our lives.
- We derive requirements from the requirements given to us by a customer.
- Derived and customer requirements are different and should be treated differently.
- We often forget this point.
- Derived requirements often run our personal lives as well as our projects.
S09. Different User, Different View
Bent Adsersen
What you see depends on where you stand; and what you want from a software system depends not only on how you will use it in your job, but on personal preferences and points of view. As a developer, working with a subset of users, how do you account for these preferences and build a system that will work for different types of people?
In this session define our needs for an actual system, then look at how our differences lead to different requirements. We'll explore how to account for differences when we work with real users and develop tactics to accommodate points of view."
Objectives
- see how different views impact actual system use
- new ideas for developing proper requirements
- new ideas for testing
- seeing the difference between usability test and testing by users
S10. Time Machine: How Context Effects Perceptions of Time
Bent Adsersen
Time is a context issue that may stress the balance between self, other and context. No time, too little time, a deadline coming up or even too much time? How we relate to time can to lead to stress or a sustainable pace. In this session, we'll examine how we relate to time in different situations. Then we'll look at how other cultures deal with time to find wisdom that we can apply to gain the time we want for ourselves in today's high-speed, tumultuous environment.
Objectives
- learning about the big secrets of time
- exploring how your perception of time control your actions
- getting ideas for making better use of your time
- enjoying a good time
S11. Transforming Rules into Guides
Jerry Weinberg
Our survival rules and rules about commenting are central to the way we participate in interactions. Rules are not to be thought of as bad; on the contrary, we should honor our rules for helping us to survive this long in a difficult world. Then we can acknowledge that our rules may need to be updated to fit the changing world--what was good for us at age four may not fit perfectly at age forty.
By transforming a rule into a guide, we keep the old possibility and add a few new ones. For instance, take the common rule, I must always do a perfect job. Analytically, we can see that this is impossible, but emotionally we may keep trying to be perfect all the time. When the rule is transformed, we can try to be perfect some of the time, when it is appropriate, and be free to settle for good enough when that is more fitting.
In this session, we'll demonstrate the technique for transforming a rule into a guide, while giving each participant a chance to surface some rules to be transformed.
S12. Organizational Mapping
Jerry Weinberg
Organizational mapping is an adaptation of Virginia Satir's approach to family system sculpting. It's a powerful technique that can be used in several situations:
- to help an organization understand and diagnose its own interpersonal or intergroup dynamics
- to help a group from similar organizations understand typical dynamics
- to help a group understand the dynamics of its relationship to outside groups
- to provide consultation in a training context to a consultant engaged in a change effort with a client system.
In this session, we'll learn the technique by giving each person a chance to map an organization of interest, with consulting from other participants
S13. Using Your Yes/No Medallion
Jerry Weinberg
If you can't say NO, your YES has no meaning. In this session, we'll work on participants' problems of saying YES and NO where appropriate, how to say it so it sticks, and how to feel good about saying it and sticking with it.
S14. Satir Coaching
Jean McLendon
All of us are learners seeking to be more effective. Sometimes we need help. It can and has come to us from various directions: parents, friends, partners, clergy, therapists, consultants, supervisors, teachers, mentors, managers, owners, coaches etc. The form and quality of help available is equally wide ranging.
Jean McLendon, coach, friend, mentor, consultant, to many of the AYE community, has over 30 years of professional experience in helping people deal with change, conflict, and connection. Utilizing the methods and models of Virginia Satir, she explores both the inner and outer dynamics of her client's challenges. This session allows individuals, partnerships and teams an opportunity to seek Jean's guidance.
S15. Satir Coaching
Jean McLendon
All of us are learners seeking to be more effective. Sometimes we need help. It can and has come to us from various directions: parents, friends, partners, clergy, therapists, consultants, supervisors, teachers, mentors, managers, owners, coaches etc. The form and quality of help available is equally wide ranging.
Jean McLendon, coach, friend, mentor, consultant, to many of the AYE community, has over 30 years of professional experience in helping people deal with change, conflict, and connection. Utilizing the methods and models of Virginia Satir, she explores both the inner and outer dynamics of her client's challenges. This session allows individuals, partnerships and teams an opportunity to seek Jean's guidance.
S16. Building Writing Skill and Confidence: A Writing Workshop
Naomi Karten and Johanna Rothman
Do you ever get stuck trying to put words on paper? Would you like writing to be more fun and less drudgery? Could your writing benefit by becoming livelier? Would you like to know some of the tricks and techniques used by experienced writers? Have you thought about writing as a way to build credibility and create name recognition? Whether you're interested in becoming more skilled in writing memos, reports, articles, books -- or email messages -- you'll get lots of tips, coaching and practice in this workshop given by wordmeisters Naomi and Johanna.
This workshop will offer ideas on what constitutes good writing, how to get past writer's block, techniques for critiquing your own writing, traps to avoid, editing do's and don'ts, ways to get the ideas to flow, and more. Whether you have yet to write your first complete sentence, or you are an experienced writer who wants to become better at critiquing your own work, this writing workshop is for you. Writing activities will be included, so bring paper, pen -- and your questions. Come prepared to take your writing to the next level.
S17. Management Behind Closed Doors
Esther Derby and Johanna Rothman
Great management happens one interaction at a time. Many of those interactions happen behind closed doors – in one-to-one meetings. So if great management happens in private, how do people learn how to be great managers?
Great managers consistently apply a handful of simple--but not necessarily easy-- practices. In this session, management coaches Johanna and Esther will reveal management practices we (and our clients) have found useful, and explain how to perform them.
Objectives
- How to conduct an effective one-on-one meeting to learn status, develop capability, and uncover obstacles.
- When and how to coach.
S18. Moving Towards Agile Project Management
Johanna Rothman
Your project's ship date seems short for the necessary work. Your requirements are sure to change. Everyone's pounding on you for even more features. So, you realize that a conventional waterfall lifecycle is unlikely to solve your problems. You'd like to try an Agile lifecycle, but your organization is suspicious of Agile techniques, or doesn't know how to cope with out the false assurance of a detailed Gantt chart. What can you do?
Without completely changing everything you do in your projects, you can take some steps to become more agile -- providing business value to your stakeholders and customers.
In this session, through practice, we'll develop a framework--based on the kinds of risks you typically encounter--for integrating selected agile practices into different types of projects.
Objectives
- Illuminate key Agile practices.
- Practice these Agile practices
- Learn about frameworks based on project risk
- Develop a framework project managers can use to select agile practices that fit their projects
- Have fun working on projects
S19. Conversations with Candidates
Johanna Rothman
Does your job require that you interview candidates? Do you feel you could use a little guidance for this difficult but essential task? If so, this session is for you.
Johanna will start by explaining a variety of interview techniques for technical staff and managers alike. Then she'll show how these techniques can be applied to both phone screens and in-person. And then, we'll practice, practice, practice.
Objectives
- Practice building rapport with a candidate
- Learn and practice different types of questions
- Learn about auditions, and if we're lucky, practice them
S20. Reinventing Yourself
Johanna Rothman
Do you ever wonder what to do next? You're not ready for a coach, but you'd like some guidance on how to reinvent yourself and your career? Join us in exploring what you've particularly enjoyed in your career, what you haven't, and creating an action plan to move from where you are to where you'd like to be.
Objectives
- Learn and practice a self-assessment technique
- Analyze your self-assessment
- Develop an action plan
- Learn how to ask your colleagues for help
- Form an ongoing self-coaching group.
S21. Giving and Receiving Feedback
Esther Derby
I recently spoke with a colleague who was distressed that her office mate picked his nose throughout the day. "Have you told him his habit distresses you?" I asked. "No, I didn't want to hurt his feelings," she said. "I just avoid him as much as I can."
Even if you've never been in this exact situation, chances are you've been in a similar one--one where a co-worker was doing something that made it hard for you to work with him or her.
In this session we'll explore and practice the art of giving and receiving feedback peer-to-peer.
We'll learn some helpful guidelines about giving feedback and then practice giving and receiving feedback.
Objectives
- Learn a simple format for giving feedback
- Recognize feedback traps and learn how to avoid them
- Collect some of the most difficult and distressing feedback situations
- Take home at least one new tactic for dealing with each difficult situation
- Practice giving and receiving feedback
S22. Exploring Shared Leadership and Self-Organization
Esther Derby
In self-organizing teams, members take on much of the responsibility for leading and managing themselves. This doesn't mean that leaderless teams don't need leadership; it does change what leadership looks like. In this session, we'll look at how team members share leadership without the formal title of leader.
Objectives
- Learn that Leadership is a set of behaviors, not a role.
- Recognize leadership behaviors.
- Consciously choose an appropriate leadership behaviors based on the context of the team, e.g., when a team is floundering, when a new member is added, to keep the team healthy.
S23. An Amateur's Guide to Communicating Requirements
Brian Marick
We're all familiar with traditional requirements gathering: interview and observe a subset of users, then try to write clear, unambiguous, complete, and testable statements of their requirements. Many of us have tried hard to do that and failed. From that, some of us conclude that we should try harder and smarter. I conclude that the whole idea is broken. You not only can't write precise statements in /here/ that represent the world out /there/, you can't even come close enough.
In this session, I hope to convince you that my claim is at least plausible. The next question is: "And then what?" We'll start to explore ways of putting ourselves in situations where we can create better systems without being able to specify requirements.
Objectives
- Flaws with the default model.
- At least one technique that doesn't depend on the default model.
- The merits of practice vs. observation.
S24. Another Amateur's Guide to Communicating Requirements
Brian Marick
Since Plato, at least, we've been talking about creating mental models of the world. We usually think of them as like pictures, where everything you can point to in the picture matches something in the world. What if that kind of mental mode is mostly beside the point?
Using exercises, we'll ask two questions: What if the power of a mental model isn't inherent in the model itself, but in the way you explain it to someone else? And what if model-building is powerful when it builds on our expertise, as social animals, at predicting what actions will make someone smile?
This session is related to An Amateur's Guide to Communicating Requirements. It's not necessary to attend both sessions.
Key points:
- Not a whole lot beyond examples is required to explain many things.
- We extrapolate better about specific people than about abstractions.
S25. Building a Strong Foundation
Naomi Karten
Why don't we all just get along? If only it were that easy. But we stand a much better chance of getting along -- and successfully carrying out projects together -- if we build a foundation of trust, respect, and understanding. A strong foundation makes it easier to persist and triumph amid uncertainties, complexities, and changing priorities. Although some amount of conflict is to be expected in any relationship, conflict is more likely to occur and more difficult to resolve in the absence of that foundation. Difficult as it is to believe when deadlines loom large and the ticking of the clock sounds like a jackhammer, developing a foundation takes far less time than repairing relationships damaged by its absence.
In this session, we'll explore the notion of a strong foundation and we'll compare views on what that foundation entails. We'll examine when to build a foundation and how to go about building it (as well as how not to). We'll use simulations and group activities to gain experience with techniques that can help to build a strong foundation.
Closing Session
Johanna Rothman, Esther Derby
Hopefully, our three days together have been marked not just by the ideas we've exchanged and the experiences we've shared, but also by the friendships we've made, the relationships we've begun, and the opportunities we've had to reconnect with those we already knew.
Let us join together to enjoy and appreciate our final moments together in this wonderful community that we - all of us - have created.
We'll connect with friends and colleagues, reflect on our conference experience, have a few laughs, and say our au revoirs.
This page last updated June 24, 2005.