— planning poker, improving estimate accuracy

Speaker: Kevin Thompson, Ph.D., Senior Instructor & Consultant at cPrime Inc.
Meeting Date: Thursday, March 4, 2010
Time: 6:00 pm Networking; 6:30 pm Management Forum/Guided Networking; 7:00 pm dinner; 7:30 pm Presentation
Location: Ramada, Sunnyvale

Summary:
Management Forum / Guided Networking: Bring Your Management Challenge; Arrive by 6:30 PM to join this exciting Management Forum. Following informal networking is a guided discussion typically related to the topic of the evening’s after dinner talk, or of general Technology Management interest.
Light Dinner: This month we’re continuing with our light dinner format — typically sandwiches, salad, drinks, and cookie or similar light dinner.

Presentation: Wideband Delphi (Agile) Estimation for Project Managers
Projects take time to complete. Their duration directly impacts the cost and schedule, which means that the ability to estimate accurately is important. As project managers, many of us find estimation to be difficult and imprecise. It can also be confusing — many techniques are available but without a clear guide about which to use we’re often tempted to throw up our hands and pick a rough guess out of the air. Sound familiar?

This presentation will teach you a better way by describing the “Wideband Delphi” estimation method first pioneered by the Rand Corporation in the 1940s. The modern incarnation of this method is “Planning Poker.” It is the dominant estimation technique in Agile and Scrum-based software projects but it can be used for any kind of project.

This presentation will cover:
   – Origins of the Wideband Delphi Technique
   – Reasons for using it on Scrum Projects
   – The level of granularity appropriate for the technique
   – What to do with the numbers afterwards

Bio:
Kevin Thompson, Ph.D., specializes in training individuals, teams, and organization in Agile development. Dr. Thompson has Project Management Professional (PMP), ScrumMaster (CSM), and Scrum Practitioner (CSP) certifications. He holds a doctorate in Physics from Princeton University and has extensive experience managing software development projects.

Dr. Thompson is a Senior Instructor and consultant at cPrime, Inc. A leader in application project management. cPrime provides Training for project management and agile development, including PMP and Scrum certification classes, Staffing for project teams, including project managers and technical experts, and Consulting for PMO development, project management, and transitions to agile development.