We are people who love Agile. We want to share experiences and unite like-minded people. For us this is the only natural way to think, work and sometimes to live.

Posts by Julia Vastrik

Meet The Speakers – Giuseppe De Simone

Meet our first keynote speaker, Giuseppe De Simone, with a talk “Leadership in today’s world”!

Topic: Leadership in today’s world

About the talk:
In an era of global challenges, volatile markets and exponentially faster changes, it is impossible to rely on the ability of a few people to be able to take all the necessary decisions at a time suitable for the business needs. Therefore, leadership can not be seen just as a skill or trait of a limited number of roles: it must be seen as an organizational capability to grow. 
The empirical evidence agile42 got from multiple client engagements, supports the model that there are no leadership behaviors that are inherently positive or negative. Rather, there are leadership behaviors which are more or less appropriate within a certain context and a given group of people.
Therefore building agility into leadership is key: the ability to make sense of the circumstances and flexibly adopt behaviors which are coherent with what coworkers feel comfortable with. Instead incoherent behaviors are those that are not helpful within a specific situation and might be perceived negatively in the given context. 
In this talk we will explore how an effective leader in today’s world can adopt a multi-dimensional adaptable leadership approach and use the appropriate leadership behavior which fits the specific situation as well as creates the least “motivational debt”. We will also introduce some practical tools for self-reflection and improvement of personal leadership behaviors and skills.

About Giuseppe:
Giuseppe De Simone is an engineer, leader, coach and trainer, passionate about helping leaders, teams and organizations become more productive and resilient. Being a Certified Scrum Trainer, Agile Coach and Leadership Educator, Giuseppe is one of the very few in the world holding all the guide level certifications from Scrum Alliance. Currently he leads the agile42 branch in Sweden. He has been working for almost 25 years in product development with different roles and in the last 12 years he has helped companies in various industries to create more human and skillful work environments. He has embarked on a mission to democratize leadership skills for everyone. Giuseppe has spoken at several conferences, regularly writes articles and holds webinars about agility, change management, culture, leadership and coaching.


Previous sessions:

  • Building agility into an international bank, while making employees happier. UniCredit Bank Agile Gathering 2022, Milan, December 2022
  • The ideal company culture: is there one?. HR Dagen 2022, Stockholm, November 2022
  • Sustainable solutions for learning organizations. Personal & Chef 2022, Stockholm, September 2022
  • How (and why) your Agile transition will fail. Global Scrum Gathering, Vienna, October 2019
  • Training young agile minds. XP 2018, Porto, May 2018
  • Managing in the Century of Networked Society. Agile Greece Summit, Athens, September 2016
  • Amplify Agile. XP 2016, Edinburgh, May 2016
  • Managing in the Century of Networked Society. agile42 Connect Conference Berlin, November 2015
  • The Mango Tree – How to make your company Agile, Agile Tour Vilnius, October 2015
  • How to make your company Agile. Lean Tribe Gathering Stockholm, December 2013
  • The 12 ingredients of a successful Agile transformation. Agile Prague 2013 Conference, Prague September 2013
  • Learning to be a manager in the age of Agile. LESS 2012 Conference, Tallinn November 2012
  • Behavior Driven Development…from the trenches. Ericsson Agile Conference China, Shanghai June 2012
  • Learning to be a manager in the age of Agile. Agile Croatia Conference, Zadar May 2012
  • Driving Agile Transformation by encouraging right behaviors. Ericsson Agile Conference, Helsinki October 2011

Meet the organisers!

Meet the team of Agile Saturday XVI organisers! 

Here we are, in the hall of the future conference venue, Hestia Hotel Europa, from left to right:

  • Tatjana Fadejeva, Team Manager  at Riverty
  • Einar Koltsanov, ScrumMaster/Agile Coach at Eesti Energia
  • Lauri Greenbaum, Agile Coach at SEB Baltics
  • Julia Västrik, Agile Coach at Scoro
  • Svitlana Korjus, Scrum Master at Swedbank

Not in the picture:

  • Stanislav Vasiljev, Director of Engineering at Eurora
  • Helen Koltšanov, Designer at Dojo OÜ

Except Stanislav, a co-founder of Agile Estonia MTÜ,  who has been Agile Saturday organiser since 2009, the rest of us are new team members. However, with all that great heritage from previous 15 conferences, Stanislav’s wisdom and our enthusiasm, we are more than confident that Agile Saturday XVI  is going to be again a wonderful experience for all the participants and speakers!

Agile Saturday XVI

Agile Saturday XVI will take place 15th of April 2023 in Hestia Hotel Europa (Paadi 5, Tallinn), 10:00-18:00. It is free of charge and we will open the registration soon.

We are expecting really great speakers and we will start presenting them shortly.

So save the date and plan your time for afterparty as well.
Stay tuned!

Agile Saturday XVI is coming!

Save the date 15th of April 2023 as we are restarting Agile Saturday events!

Agile Saturday is an Agile Conference free for the participants and it exists on sponsors support. Willing to be a sponsor? Check Sponsorship page.

Agile Saturday XV – Heldin Rikk and Kaspar Eding

“Agile Organization” Track (16:15) – Heldin Rikk and Kaspar Eding 

With topic:

“Stop believing magic and face your fears – change your organization”

Short introduction about speaker:

Heldin and Kaspar have more than a decade of experience in adopting agile methodologies in finance, banking, logistics, hardware manufacturing and communication industries. They have taken several organisations through an agile transition, built new agile organisations and most importantly delivered several successful products on the way.

In search for know-how on implementation challenges, Heldin and Kaspar have found themselves in organizing management trainings and presenting the challenges in conferences. They claim to have found a cultural offset that holds organisations back from harnessing the benefits of agile. Their story is based on engineering success, but they talk about why organisations often still consider agile frameworks to be not suitable for them.

Topic abstract:

Evolution in technology is changing the game in every industry – this is not news to any business. Predicting market demand and satisfying customer expectation is becoming gradually more and more complex task. To improve strategy execution capabilities – to be faster and more adaptive – companies adopt agile frameworks. These transitions are often painful and in many cases lack the desired business impact. This talk is about the “Elephant in the room” – how we pick the methods that are convenient to adopt and dismiss the change that is really needed to move the needle.

 

Agile Saturday XV – Jüri Tomingas (Swedbank)

“General” Track (11:10) – Jüri Tomingas (Swedbank)

With topic:

“Positive irritations while trying to be agile”

Jüri Tomingas

 

Short introduction about speaker:

Product Owner.
35+ years of extensive experience in life, somehow surviving.

 

Topic abstract:

What starts to happen in a big company while development teams are trying to live according to the agile values?

This is based purely on my personal bits and pieces I have noticed for the last year working as a Product Owner of the mobile development teams delivering a new generation mobile app.

I will be sharing 5 major irritations that have caught my eye and what in my opinion have had triggered a great outcome for the company!

 

Agile Saturday XV – Ari Tanninen (Zulia Oy)

“Workshop” Track (15:15) – Ari Tanninen  (Zulia Oy)

With workshop:

“Take ownership of your life”

Ari Tanninen

Short introduction about speaker:

Ari is a trainer at Zulia Oy, a product development consultant at Lempea Oy, and a Recognized Practitioner in The Leadership Gift. He spends his days helping companies develop software that fit customer and user needs, and enjoys lighting the spark in people’s eyes by training them in self-knowledge and responsibility.


Workshop Abstract:

Are you stuck or facing problems in life?
Would you like to learn to lead yourself and others better?
Are you wondering how to get your sub-ordinates to take more responsibility?
Would you like to live a life of freedom?

Then join this workshop, and learn about Christopher Avery’s Responsibility Process. It is a psychological process, that explains how we all naturally react to problems, and how our brains create obstacles for us in taking responsibility. And thus living a life of freedom, power, and choice.
Understanding and practicing Responsibility may help in:
– Leading yourself and others
– Building teams
– Understanding organizations
– Breaking through problems
– Understanding behaviors such as blaming and shaming
– Living a life of freedom, power, and choice

This is an interactive 2-3 hour workshop with exercises and discussions, and no slides. You will learn about the responsibility process, learn to recognize it, and get tools for practicing and taking responsibility in your life.

Agile Saturday XV – Roman Zahharov (Lean Digital)

“Workshop” Track (11:10) – Roman Zahharov  (Lean Digital)

With workshop:

“LEAN analysis – universal tool to align people to really understand processes”

Roman Zahharov

Short introduction about speaker:

Senior Consultant and Partner LEAN DIGITAL, partner Lean Shanghai Co. Ltd. Roman is managing and developing business processes for 15 years. Has portfolio of clients from family businesses to Fortune Global 500 companies. Worked with multiple ERP systems SAP, Movex, NAV, DAX, Monitor, etc. I especially enjoy to introduce tools and methodologies between industries, like implement Scrum for non-IT businesses.

2003 – 2011 went from technologist to director
2011 – 2013 launch of manufacturing company in Shanghai, China
2010 – … executed dozens of LEAN and DIGITALISATION projects in Estonia, Russia, Lithuania, Sweden and China
2009 – 2016 lecturer at Tallinn Technical University “Project Management” “IT systems for Business Management”

Workshop Abstract:

Agile, LEAN, Value – very popular words and very powerful concepts, but not many really know how to “see” value and waste in business processes.

At this workshop you will learn practical way how to clearly define process, how to see value and waste in process and how to identify improvement options. You will get skills how to structurally visualize any process – from team work to landscapes of entire businesses. and all above with easy tools only.

Agile Saturday XV – Dmitri Lebedev (Citadele Bank)

“Agile Organization” Track (15:15) – Dmitri Lebedev (Citadele Bank)

With topic:

“Conway’s Law or How Your Agile Organization Supports Your Agile Architecture”

Dmitri Lebedev

Short introduction about speaker:

Dmitri started his job as a software engineer more than 20 years ago, has delivered many software projects, failed a few, learned a lot of things from other people and now he is willing to share his stories of success and failures with broader audience. The ultimate goal of his activities is that software could be developed pragmatically, based on an engineering approach and mutual respect between all involved parts.


Topic Abstract:

According to Melvin Conway the organizational structures manifest themselves in org’s software product structure. In other words, dysfunctional organization would produce dysfunctional software architecture. Let’s try to reverse engineer organizational structures from a robust and agile modern architectural principles, and see how agile org should look like. I am going to review modern architectural and devops practices like micro-services, feature toggling, continuous delivery and etc and examine which org structures support that kind of architecture and which structures are making this nearly impossible to work. Talk is based on my personal experience and on some good known examples like Spotify.

Agile Saturday XV – Alek Kozlov (scrum.ee)

“Agile Organization” Track (12:10) – Alek Kozlov (scrum.ee)

With topic:

“Building organisational strategy for taming dynamically changing situation”

Alek Kozlov

Short introduction about speaker:

Organisational coach, agile strategist and service designer.


Topic Abstract:

In the world of high complexity and dynamic changes, managers tend to lose the awareness of the organisational situation. Mapping organisation strategical services, products, systems and components create an opportunity to tame situation and agree on an actionable and focused strategy to own the future.

In my talk, we will go through the complexity theory practicalities. What are the differences in management approaches, org structures and skills for different stages of your plethora of systems, services, products and components? How evolution and competition are influencing your business? How to use simple tools to co-create and unify organisational view to the organisational strategy and let the future to catch-up with your organisation.