Technically Speaking

Paul's Bio:

Paul started his career as a software developer in 2001 developing client/server enterprise solutions. An innovative problem solver, Paul uses in-depth analysis, deep consultation and the latest software development practices to serve his clients. In 2014 Paul started his company Lunamark, where he leverages his years of experience to help companies improve their software development team's efficiency using techniques such as clean coding practices, code reviews, pair programming, and kanban. Although Paul still does Kanban training and coaching under Lunamark, in February 2017, Paul joined the Aristotle Labs team as Chief Technology Officer where he leads their development and also works with the leadership team to improve their flow efficiency using agile and lean principles. Paul is also a certified Kanban Management Professional and is constantly learning new ways to improve flow efficiency.

PRESENTATION: There's More To Kanban Than Trello Boards

Peter's Bio:

As Director of Developer Engagement at Veracode, Pete provides customers with practical advice on how to successfully roll out developer-centric application security programs. Relying on more than 10 years of direct AppSec practitioner experience as both a developer and development leader, Pete provides information on best practices amassed from personal experience in addition to working with Veracode’s 1,000+ global customers. From his experience as both a practitioner and consultant, Pete has spoken internationally at both Security and Developer conferences on the topics of Application Security (AppSec), Agile and DevOps.

Pete joined Veracode in 2006 as a software developer and was instrumental in delivering the first version of Veracode’s service to customers. Later, as Director of Platform Engineering, Pete built and managed the Agile teams responsible for delivering Veracode’s SaaS platform. He also built the first DevOps team to deliver microservices. He is a certified product owner and scrum master. Pete also spearheaded Veracode’s initiative to automate the use of Veracode products into the company’s development processes called project Purina. Using this experience, he has spoken with hundreds of Veracode customers to help them set up similar programs.

PRESENTATION: Full Spectrum Engineering - The new Full-Stack (Std)

Jon's Bio:

Jon has worked in many different capacities in delivering software to end users: developer, team member, team leader, architect, scrum master, and manager. He currently works for Enterprise Holdings in a group that is in the midst of an agile transformation. Jon is a collaboration fiend. He enjoys pair programming, TDD, and challenging teams to never stop improving. In his free time, Jon is a taxi driver for his 4 children, plays soccer, and enjoys attending concerts and St. Louis Cardinals games.

PRESENTATION: Satisfying your Automation Appetite

John's Bio:

I'm not a player, I just Scrum a lot.

Thomas' Bio:

A process-oriented software development executive with demonstrated success in shepherding products through all stages of development, building and motivating teams, technical problem solving, and agile development. I specialize in building the right product, growing engaged, efficient teams and process improvement for the full software development life-cycle.

PRESENTATION: Where all my teammates at? Managing remote and distributed teams in an agile environment.

Colleen's Bio:

Colleen Johnson is the Practice Director of Adaptive Agile at ImagineX Consulting. Colleen applies a systems thinking approach to aligning agile methodologies across the enterprise and works with clients to apply the right cultural and context-driven practices to create sustainable agility. She is an expert in Lean/Kanban methods of software delivery and advocates for LeanStartup principles using scientific methods of customer-centered discovery. She is active in the agile community locally as a member of Agile Denver Board of Directors and Chairwoman of the 2016 & 2017 Mile High Agile Conference and nationally as a member of the Agile Uprising Board of Directors. She is the CoFounder of ScatterSpoke.com, a free tool for more effective team retrospectives. In her free time she enjoys running and yoga as well as camping and hiking with her two kids.

PRESENTATION: End to End Kanban for the Whole Organization

Shahzad's Bio:

Shahzad Zafar is an Engineering Manager at Cerner Corporation. He is also an Agile Coach, facilitates several Agile trainings and has been leading Agile development teams since 2009 at Cerner.

Shahzad has a degree in Computer Engineering from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor in 2005 and also received his Masters in Business Administration from the University of Kansas in 2009. He joined Cerner in 2005 as a software developer, working on C++ and Java. He got the benefit of seeing projects being run in a waterfall methodology before transitioning to Agile development. As an Agile Champion and Coach, Shahzad gets the opportunity to work with other teams to offer support and guidance to setup productive and successful teams by leveraging Lean/Agile methodologies. Shahzad is also a board member for AgilehoodKC and speaks regularly at meetups and conferences such as LeanAgileKC, KCPMI PDD and KCDC. Last year, he was the keynote for LeanAgileKC, speaking on the "The Future is Here!"

Currently, Shahzad is leading cloud services development business unit and also leads the Agile Center of Excellence at Cerner. He is also leading the effort to continuously improve the development and operations processes, to enable Continuous Delivery within the organization.

PRESENTATION: Creating a Culture of Learning & Experimentation; Succeeding in a world of CD & DevOps

Danielle's Bio:

Danielle Cooley knows the things we use should make life easier, not harder. Her work has been applied to websites, web applications, desktop software, touchscreen kiosks, mobile tools, speech recognition and touchtone telephone systems, credit card statements, and promotional materials in such industries as financial services, pharmaceuticals, food service, healthcare, car rental, and consumer products. Danielle runs a bespoke consulting practice and tweets @dgcooley.

PRESENTATION: The Business Case for UX

Gary's Bio:

I am an agile software development trainer, coach, and practitioner, as well as a curriculum developer, application architect, and software craftsman.

I am a strong believer in the “See One, Do One, Teach One” (SODOTO) road to craft and mastery, which led me to become a Professional Scrum Trainer for Scrum.org and to start my own consultancy, Sodoto Solutions. Over the past five years, I have trained thousands of students on Scrum, Agile, and DevOps - coders, testers, UX specialists, BAs, DBAs, PMs, managers, and C-suite executives - using experiential, immersive courses.

I have also spoken at numerous conferences and user groups, including Agile 2013, Agile 2015, O'Reilly Software Architecture Conference, Toronto Agile, Agile and Beyond, ALM Chicago, and Chicago Code Camp.

PRESENTATION: Automating Your Test Suite: Incrementally Eating the Elephant

Heidi's Bio:

Heidi is a developer advocate and widely experienced technical writer working in the intersection of cutting-edge technology, usability, and chaos.

She speaks on topics like search-led writing, starting new documentation for products, common mistakes in software development, and whistleblowing as a technical writer.

PRESENTATION - Choose Your Own Deployment: Interactive Feature Flag Adventure