08.00
Registration
desk opens
09.15
Evolving a Legacy System with Architecture for Flow
Legacy systems are often double-edged: They contain years of accumulated business knowledge and value and they pay your salaries. But at the same time, they can feel like a burden, slowing down innovation and making organizations less adaptive to change.
A full rewrite or big-bang reorganization is rarely an option. So how do we evolve a legacy system incrementally without breaking what works?
This talk explores a pragmatic approach to optimizing legacy systems for flow. It introduces Architecture for Flow, a structured yet flexible approach that integrates Wardley Mapping, Domain-Driven Design (DDD), and Team Topologies. This approach focuses on identifying suitable streams of change, modularizing step by step, and evolving teams alongside the system; ensuring sustainable, low-risk transition from the status quo to an envisioned future.
09.55
Navigating Uncertainty in Complex Software Systems
In software, uncertainty isn’t a bug, it’s a feature. Understanding how to navigate it is key to making better decisions and avoiding costly mistakes.
This talk explores how understanding uncertainty helps us navigate change, especially in complex software systems. We’ll draw lessons from industry transformations, ranging from 19th-century cotton mills to Nokia’s decline, to explore how uncertainty shapes decision-making, triggers fear responses, and leads to counterproductive behaviours.
We’ll unpack why software complexity makes uncertainty unavoidable and how common testing practices often fail to manage it. Leading teams to waste effort ‘doing more’. Instead, we’ll reframe testing as uncertainty reduction, fostering curiosity and adaptability. Drawing on the Cynefin framework, we’ll explore practical ways to probe, sense, and respond to help software teams and leaders work through uncertainty rather than fight against it.
11.05
Agile Sustainability, Evolving Our Practice
As Agile practitioners product & organisation sustainability is our responsibility. In this session we will delve from the business case for Sustainability (& debunking top excuses) right into the responsibility in shaping efficient, modular and natural-capital aware products and systems. Not just by the mantra of “less is more” (simplifying & optimizing), we’ll explore the concept of Circular Economy and how can be applied to our daily practices. Skill up for what’s on-demand and what we ought to achieve within the next 6 years: The legally binding Paris Agreement. Not long!
11.45
Safe Enough Spaces
Creating psychological safety is important; safe spaces allow people to explore and make mistakes. But what if psychological safety isn't the same for everyone? How can we still create a meaningful, equitable experience for participants?
During my session, I'm going to answer that question. I'll be talking about how safe-enough spaces will allow you to make work more inclusive, equitable and fun. We will:
- Explore why we can't just think in terms of "safe spaces" when different people experience the world in different ways
- Look at different dimensions of safety you can use to create experiences of safe-enough
- Share ideas about how put these ideas into practice
This talk is for anyone who is interested in how to facilitate meetings, events, and even conversations in a more open, inclusive way.
14.15
Get where you want to go - a forward focussed approach to coaching
This talk introduces the concepts behind Solution Focus Coaching. A simple, effective approach to facilitating individual and team thinking and getting things done. The concept works as well for getting unstuck in spontaneous conversations as it does scheduled meetings and workshops.
It enables you to direct more towards achieving goals, be they personal, professional or organisational, and you can use the techniques immediately. No training or certification required.
The concept has nothing to do with jumping to solutions and solutionizing. Grounded in positive psychology, the emphasis is deciding what to go towards and discovery of new, sometimes unexpected, often quicker, ways to get there.
It is characterised by an experimental, forward looking nature, a recognition that every individual, team and organisation is unique and resourceful enough to find better ways to do and think.
In this session we’ll take a look at the tenets of Solution Focus, hear how it works in harmony with agile approaches and makes our coaching conversations more productive.
14.55
Navigating Workplace Dynamics with Nonviolent Communication
Workplace stress remains a pervasive challenge, often fuelled by dynamics like 'office politics' and a lack of genuine connection. For organisations and their employees to truly flourish, individuals must feel supported and engaged in high-quality social relationships. To achieve this, we need to address psychological hazards and actively cultivate understanding and compassion.
This session will delve into Nonviolent Communication (NVC), a powerful and transformative approach developed by Marshall Rosenberg. NVC is designed to foster genuine connection, deep understanding, and profound compassion, enabling us to remain human even under the most trying circumstances. Recent research highlights NVC's effectiveness in improving empathy, interpersonal relationships, and communication competency in professional settings. It offers unique insights into language and communication skills that move us beyond blame and judgement, creating environments of psychological safety where individuals are heard and can truly flourish.
Join Jenny to discover how embracing the principles of Nonviolent Communication can revolutionise your professional interactions, helping you build trust, develop stronger relationships, and effectively resolve conflicts with kindness and authenticity.
16.05
Future-Proofing Your Process for the Pace of AI
AI is accelerating everything...customer expectations, development speed, and the consequences of getting it wrong. Unfortunately, most delivery processes weren’t designed for this level of change. Let's explore the practical capabilities your process needs to stay competitive in an AI-driven world. Create real-time visibility into change, use flow metrics to expose bottlenecks early, and establish clear governance policies without slowing teams down. We’ll explore how to create traceability that links day-to-day work with strategic goals in a way that supports real-time decisions. Whether you’re responsible for guiding teams, shaping product direction, or improving delivery practices, this session will offer practical tools to adapt your process for the demands of AI-driven change.
16.45
Panel Discussion
Q+A with a selection of the day's speakers.
