When software VP Engineering Ron Lichty queries developers about their agile experience, they often tell him not that they’re doing Agile, but that they’re working somewhere that says it’s doing Agile. The word ‘agile-ish’ comes up frequently.

When Ron talks with product managers about Agile, they often say that their development teams are doing Agile, but our business is not Agile, which diminishes the benefits of agile product development.

Agile practices do, in fact, help teams deliver better products more effectively. But there’s often a mishmash of practices at play. What's more, teams are seldom aligned about what they mean when they use the word “Agile.”

There’s so much more to Agile, and so much more value to be gained from actually being Agile.

According to the Agile Alliance, “Agile is the ability to create and respond to change. It is a way of dealing with, and ultimately succeeding in, an uncertain and turbulent environment.” But business leaders set rules and processes that inhibit a company’s ability to adapt to change.

There is tremendous value to be gained from being truly Agile. During our session, Ron will explore what being truly “Agile” looks like, for your product development as well as your business teams. He'll cover what's in it for products, customers, and your organization as a whole, and what you can do to spark the best outcomes from your teams.

Ron Lichty has, for 30-plus years, championed delighting customers. He believes that strong product/engineering collaboration is essential to achieving that goal. Ron co-authored the Addison-Wesley book Managing the Unmanageable: Rules, Tools, and Insights for Managing Software People and Teams (http://www.ManagingTheUnmanageable.net) and annually coauthors the Study of Product Team Performance (http://www.ronlichty.com/study.html).

Ron spent seven years as a programmer, two years as a product manager, and 25 years managing product and development organizations at all levels – at companies ranging in size from tiny startups to Charles Schwab, Stanford and Apple – to VP of engineering, VP of product and CTO.

He now consults in making software development and product development “hum”, taking on interim VP Engineering roles, advising executive leaders how to untangle the knots in their product development organizations, training teams in agile, training managers in managing software people and teams, and coaching development teams and executives in untangling their software development knots. (http://www.ronlichty.com)

Ron has long been a popular speaker at product, development and agile meetups and conferences.