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Sep 2nd, 2016

17. What is Agile, anyway?

Jasmine Merchant & Robert Ouellette

Cuba Libre, Maker's Mark

  • A good piece of software, whether it's procedural or object oriented, it has a form, it has a rhythm, it has a pulse. Everybody talks about the event loop, that's your pulse.
  • The term 'agile', implies to a business owner or a product owner that well, you are agile so you can change whenever I want you to change, and in reality it's meant to be the exact opposite.
  • Estimation is hard to get right because everybody has competing interests when they go into an estimation session.
  • I have met so many people that are exceptionally capable of doing anything that they want to do, but they limit themselves because their family wants them to do something or the society they come from expects them to do something. That should not be the case.
  • Agile, in simple words, is immunity to change. It means consistently changing to a better way of improving people with the process.

About the Guest

  • Jasmine is a Scrum Master at MasterCard for multiple teams focusing on Masterpass chameleon web project.
  • Before coming to software development she was an architect.
  • She worked for the famous billionaire David Walentas, a.k.a the man who redesigned and rebuilt Dumbo. She was in charge of implementing his designs for multiple projects in New York City.
  • In her own words: She has never not delivered a product on time.
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  • Bob is a Business Leader, Digital payments Technologies at MasterCard which is equivalent to Sr. Director of Technology.
  • He was a Director of Technology, Ads & Reporting at Viacom.
  • Before that he was at AOL for 14 years, moving from Software Engineer to Tech Manager.
  • He is also a singer, both classical and musical theater.
  • He was a professional musician for 7 years before becoming a software engineer, including choral/orchestral conductor.
  • He is a member of the Bergen County Players.
  • He is scarily into Liverpool.
  • Bob on LinkedIn