Agile Day 2019: A celebration and appreciation of Agile capabilities at Persistent

Persistent Systems is truly a global organization with a presence in 18 countries and development centers at 20+ cities.

Agile CoP, in collaboration with regional leadership teams, conducted the 3rd edition of Persistent Agile Day that was held at Canada (Ontario), France (Grenoble), India (Bengaluru, Goa, Hyderabad, Nagpur, Pune), Malaysia (Kuala lumpur), Mexico (Guadalajara), Sri Lanka (Colombo), UK (Edinburgh) and USA (Bellevue, Irvine, Littleton, Morrisville, Santa Clara) covering 16 locations across the globe. The primary objective of this event was to emphasize the agile mind-set, principles and practices and celebrate excellence in agile adoption.

As a curtain-raiser to the Agile Day 2019, a series of activities were conducted globally covering all 16 locations

• Best Practice Sharing: We had 34 entries across the globe competing to showcase best practices from Agile that they follow in their teams. The top 5 that emerged showcased practices around Value Stream Mapping, Flash Retrospection, Story Slicing, Scrum Ceremonies done the right way, Automation and team motivation in an Agile team
• Lightning Talks: Coaches from our organization gave lightning talks on different aspects such as Kanban, Architecture in Agile, Anti-patterns in Agile, Coaching and BDD
• Quiz: There were an overwhelming 1000+ responses from across the globe within 24 hours, for the online quiz

The Agile Day 2019 theme that was evident across all locations was:

“Fortify Agile Mindset in teams through gamification and leveraging DevOps in projects keeping in mind the end user experience”.

All locations echoed this feedback:

“This was an innovative way to ingrain Agile mindset within the organization.”

Read on to know more details across each Persistent location and their unique ideas celebrating “AGILE”

Canada (Ontario):

The Agile mindset and culture were augmented by team Ontario using “Marshmallow, Human Knot, Ball point and Paper Plane” game.

France (Grenoble):

Four workshops – “Marshmallow Challenge”, “Broken Squares”, “Airplane Game”, “Chocolate and Lego” were conducted at France, re-emphasizing the key aspects of integration, team goals, theory of constraints and DevOps respectively.

India (Bengaluru):

Bengaluru location conducted few Agile Games such as White Elephant Estimation, Airplane game and Kanban pizza game before the Agile Day. The main event kicked off with the Senior leadership Panel discussion followed by Spot quiz on Agile to strengthen Agile values and principles amongst participants.

India (Goa):

The event at Goa spanned 3 days. On day one, Goa teams reinforced Agile principles through the Airplane game (Prepare to fly). Day two saw teams participating in “Sprint Painting” game which helped them understand Kanban. For the finale on Day three, there was a panel discussion and spot quiz.

India (Hyderabad):

Hyderabad location conducted 3 weekly Agile quiz contests before the Agile Day. Airplane and Kanban pizza games were played across teams. This was followed by project presentations and knowledge sharing sessions.

India (Nagpur):

Agile Day at Nagpur Center started with a keynote session on how Agile is being incorporated in the HR function in its evolution journey. The keynote was followed by a panel discussion with senior leaders at Nagpur, post which there were 7 presentations on various topics by agile practitioners at the center. To end the Agile Day, there was a spot quiz and ball point game played with the audience.

India (Pune):

Team Pune celebrated Agile Day at Hinjawadi and Aryabhata–Pingala locations over 2 days. This included project demos and panel discussions with senior leadership of the organization who shared their learnings and Agile best practices.

At both locations teams witnessed a different way of showcasing the Agile journey through an entertaining skit ‘Bhai Ka Ghoda (Gangster’s Horse)’.

Malaysia (Kuala Lumpur):

Team Malaysia did a recap of Agile principles and practices using “Airplane and Marshmallow” games. Overall, it was an informative session understanding Agile and how it can be applied in the daily work routine as a team.

Mexico (Guadalajara):

The team opened the Agile Day with an informative session on scrum. It was followed by the “Marshmallow Challenge” game and 2 workshops on “Work in Progress” and “Airplane factory”.

Sri Lanka (Colombo):

Niroshan Madampitige an International Keynote speaker and Agile SME conducted a 4-hour interactive session with the Colombo team reinforcing Agile principles through the “Airplane Game”. Towards the end a questionnaire was shared with the participants and those who answered this quickly and correctly were given some goodies.

UK (Edinburgh):

UK teams performed a role play on stand-up meetings demonstrating Agile anti-patterns. The team also played the “Marshmallow Game” over 3 simulated sprints. In the end, the team discussed how some of the situations in the game relate to real life experiences and how best to deal with them in a project setting.

USA (Bellevue):

Agile day at Bellevue was celebrated by brushing up Agile concepts and then sharing stories of Agile transformations. Each team member shared their experience and learning about Agile in prior or current engagements which they discussed.

USA (Irvine):

The Irvine team played an Agile quiz followed by the “Marshmallow Challenge” game to reemphasize an Agile mindset.

USA (Littleton):

The Littleton Center had the “Hawaiian Pizza Challenge” as part of Agile Day. This helped the team understand important aspects on workflow, communication and product improvement.

USA (Morrisville):

Team Morrisville promoted Agile practices through a series of educational videos as part of their Agile Day celebration.

USA (Santa Clara):

The Santa Clara office ran an Agile quiz for 5 days across US locations which tested the Agile knowledge of participants.