I have a couple of announcements to make. First, there is a meeting scheduled to take place in March, and second, it appears that it is time for a change in leadership of this group. This may be a bit of a log post, so please read through the whole message.
First, I finally got around to scheduling a new meeting for MXPE. As you know from a couple posts in the fall, I was trying to organize something in October, but that fell through. Then some other posts from Tom Gagne and James Goebel a couple weeks ago finally got my rear in gear to set something up. So here’s the scoop. The meeting will be held on Tuesday, March 13th at the new Menlo Innovations headquarters in the Kerrytown district of downtown Ann Arbor. The address is 410 N. Fourth St., Godfrey Building, 3rd Floor. Here is a link to their map on the company web site: http://www.menloinnovations.com/mapandparking.htm. The meeting will run from 5:30 - 7:30 PM. James Goebel has been gracious enough to not only host the event, but also be the evening’s presenter. He will be giving an early preview of one of his upcoming conference talks titled, “XP Estimating without Story Cards.” Here’s what he has to say about the topic:
How can an XP team estimate a project that does not yet have storycards?
Telling a project sponsor that their project cannot be estimated until they have a full set of storycards, would be a lot like a custom home builder refusing to estimate a project for you until you draw up blue prints. Would you want to pay an architect thousands of dollars for blue prints, only to have the builder review them and tell you that your project plans are unrealistic given your budget. Most real world projects need to have early quick estimates in order to establish budgets and to allow business sponsors to choose which projects warrant further investment.
Participants will work through several exercises to learn how one Extreme Programming team provides early project budgets, estimates weekly tasks, and how the team handles expanding estimates and/or scope creep. To help participants explain how these processes align with formal project management methods, these exercises are compared to the process of estimating commercial construction projects.
I think everyone faces this reality of having to provide an estimate before having the full picture. This talk sounds like it will contain some great ideas for dealing with that situation in an Agile Development environment. I hope everyone can attend.
Now for the other business at hand. As one of the founding members of MXPE in the summer of 2000, it has been my pleasure to be a part of bringing this group together. We always had a lot of interest from the members and community and I want see that interest rekindled. However, in the last year or so I will be the first to admit I have not been doing a very good job of sustaining the motivation to coordinate meetings and make sure the group stayed active. In addition to myself, Don Wells (the other founding member and Technology Officer) and Kevin Bradtke (Vice President) have also expressed interest in stepping down from their posts. Gratefully, Roger Valade (Treasurer) has agreed to stay on in that role to provide continuity during this time of change. I would like to take this opportunity to thank each of them for their support and enthusiasm over the years. I could not have continued as long as I did without their help.
That being said, I think an infusion of new blood will help re-energize the group. MXPE has been a 100% volunteer organization from the start. To continue in that vein we are looking for volunteers to fill the 3 vacated officer positions. If you have interest in becoming an officer of MXPE, please send an e-mail directly to me at tomkubit@yahoo.com indicating your preferred position (if you have one). Please submit your name for consideration by Monday, March 12th. You do not need to be a current member to become an officer, just the enthusiasm for XP and Agile Development and the willingness to organize the group functions. Based on the responses I receive, we will then decide on a course of action. If we have more than 3 candidates, or multiple candidates for one post, we will hold a vote to select the officers. If you have any questions you want to ask about the available positions before volunteering, feel free to e-mail me. I know that there is plenty of enthusiasm in the membership to be able to continue meeting the needs of the Agile Development community and look forward to watching the group provide a great forum for discussion for a long time to come.
Hopefully you made it all the way through this message, and I apologize for the length. Again, I want to express my gratitude for everyone who has participated in this group and helped make it one of the largest and best attended Agile Development user groups in the country. I will definitely continue to participate in this organization. It’s been a lot of fun.
Thank you.
Tom
MXPE President
Website: http://www.extremeprogramming.org/mxpe.html