Getting Ready
As I didn’t have any outdoor activity scheduled for 16 Jan weekend, I decided to check on Thursday which meetup I can attend this weekend, and came across “Visualization – The unsung hero in your Agile journey (http://www.meetup.com/Pune-Agile-Professionals/events/227327401/ )” meetup from “Pune Agile Professionals” scheduled for Saturday morning at 9 A.M. As I worked on Agile/Scrum projects previously for 5 years so this meetup sounded good to me, checked the details and thought to do RSVP but then decided to do it later or thought may decide to join it Saturday morning as it would take me 1 hour to travel to the venue (Mastek, Kalyani Nagar). Also it was the first time I was going to attend meetup from this group so was bit skeptical. On Saturday morning, once I got up, I was confused to join about meetup but finally decided to leave at 8.30 A.M., thought if I didn’t like the session will make a move after an hour or so, Besides I had to reach Pune Camp by 11 A.M. for another work so thought to first go to this session and them move from there. I had to rush to reach venue as I just wanted to ride fast to make sure that I reach by 9.30 at-least by the time 1st session starts (Skipping the registration and snacks was not a problem for me)
The Start: Setting the right tempo
Fortunately I reached at exactly 9:30 am to venue and was in session by 9:35 A.M., I quickly joined one of the group. We started with “Mind map” exercise to get familiar with the Agile Manifesto and the 12 agile principles, interacting with other group members. Next, was small presentation and interactive session by Vineet on what and why of Visualization? We discussed why we need visibility & visualization and how it helps in Agile based projects to highlight the problems beforehand. By 10:45 A.M. we had our first break and I went to have snacks (a kind gesture by facilitators) finally. Even though I had to leave by now but I ended up postponing my other appointment.
The Workshop: Visualization exercises
After 15 minutes break started with Visualization exercises, few more members joined us who reached by this time, it was nice interactive session, very well facilitated by Ankit Tandon with all the participants ranging from junior level to senior level. I thoroughly enjoyed participating in these exercises like:
- Identifying visual indicators we usually come across in day to day life.
- Understanding from given chart, what can we visualize from it.
- Draw a chart based on problem statement (eg. Prepare a daily stand up board which helps team to start and end daily stand-up on time).
The END: A real experience sharing
The last section was worth appreciating where Kiran from Mastek explained the learning lessons in Agile journey and how their organization culture supported them.
The SURPRISE
Finally there was surprise where groups were judged based on voting (from all the participants ) and winning group got the first chance to choose from set of books to read and share the learning experience with other group members– A initiative to start “Book Reading club” by “Pune Agile Professionals”.
My top take-away: What I liked most about meetup:
- Each activity was time bound to start/end on time which we usually don’t see in informal meetups.
- Participants ranging from junior level to senior level.
- Interactive session with short exercises.
- To the point content (short sentences and less no. of presentation slides).
All in all, Saturday morning worth spent & travelling to venue for 20 kms one way paid off. My friend Prashant, who accidentally joined this meetup as per my suggestion liked the interaction and learning and ended up drawing sketches in one group exerciseJ.? ? I’ll surely recommend Agile/Scrum professionals to join upcoming meetups and looking forward similar meetups from “Pune Agile Professionals group (http://www.meetup.com/Pune-Agile-Professionals/ ).
A special thanks to ? meetup? facilitators ? (Vineet? Patni? and Ankit Tandon) for making it interactive and worth attending .