Agile in a waterfall world

With all the folks using "Agile" to mean "what I'm doing", it's good to see an actual functional definition, and talk about steps to get there. Thanks for this talk. Very helpful.

Jason did an excellent job in providing insight into Agile development, reinforcing my personal beliefs in the effectiveness of its implementation.

This talk gave an interesting "case study" in adopting agile methods in a environment where the waterfall cycle was the norm.

The speaking style was informal and highly informative, and the speaker did a great job engaging the audience, and in getting people to share their own story. The case study seems close to the mark for my situation, so the talk was well worth the time invested -- at least for me.

If I had never heard of agile methodologies before, I don't know if I would have walked out knowing much about "what is an agile methodology?". On the other hand, I've done plenty of reading about agile methods (particularly XP), so the lack of definition wasn't a problem for me. All-in-all, I enjoyed the presentation and got a lot out of it.

This was an excellent discussion with plenty of real world examples. We currently implement an agile development style, but that is mostly because of our clients. I think we could definitely use some of these methods as an internal development standard.

Informative talk, useful perspective.

Excellent and informative talk on agile development methods and I really appreciate that it was more informal than most talks at the conference. What I think hurt the talk more than anything was the audience, rather than the speaker or the slides. The talk was obviously planned to take cues from agile methods, but at times it felt like audience participation was lacking to hold up that aspect of the talk. It felt like some people there were more interested in being handed the "right" way to implement and use Agile methodologies, when there truly is no 100% "right" way.

Jason brought a lot of first hand experience to the table, both from the perspective of a long time agile manager, and the perspective of moving from waterfall to agile methods for the first time. There were great discussions as to what does and does not work, and where problems can arrise. I came away being much more comfortable with the methods my workplace has put into use and better understanding how agile helps a small development group.