With Agile adoption steadily on the rise and organizations continuously seeking better ways to bring products to market, many software development organizations are taking a closer look at Agile and how to leverage it to their advantage. The transition to Agile is not easy for any organization, particularly large, distributed enterprises. Adopting a new methodology is one thing, but changing culture and mindset is even more involved and complex. This panel will provide various perspectives on how IT shops have incorporated Agile methods into existing environments. Panelists will share their insights into what factors motivated change, the challenges they faced during enterprise-level transformations, and the valuable lessons they learned along the way. Join this session to get real-world advice from enterprises that have turned the corner on Agile and are realizing significant benefits.

• This panel will provide various perspectives on how IT shops have incorporated Agile methods into existing environments.
• Panelists will share their insights into what factors motivated change, the challenges they faced during enterprise-level transformations, and the valuable lessons they learned along the way.
• Join this session to get real-world advice from enterprises that have turned the corner on Agile and are realizing significant benefits.

Moderated by:

Holly Bourquin
Vice President of Publishing for Software Quality Engineering

Holly Bourquin oversees the publication of Better Software magazine and StickyMinds.com. Her experience includes more than 12 years in technical writing, editing, and publishing. Holly’s previous roles have included software documentation, Web editing, Web-based training, and teaching. She holds a master’s in English with a concentration in technical and professional communication and is currently serving on the Florida Magazine Association board of directors.



Panelists include:

Bob Hartman
Founder, Agile for All

Bob has over 30 years of experience developing software. His logic-based approach to software development and quality was honed early in his career when he obtained both Bachelors and Masters degrees in Computer Science from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Since that time he has broadened his industry knowledge by serving in almost every role in the software industry including developer, tester, documentation writer, trainer, product manager, project manager, business analyst, senior software engineer, development manager and executive. His experience includes 8 years running his own consulting firm and over 15 years of experience as the Vice President of Engineering at a publicly traded company.

Over the past 10 years he has grown from being an early adopter of agile to his current status as a Certified Scrum Master (CSM) and Certified Scrum Practitioner (CSP) who has done significant training, coaching and mentoring in all areas of agile development. He founded Agile For All to continue to promote the use of agile development methods. He has been a speaker at numerous conferences, seminars and workshops where his engaging style, holistic view of development, and personal anecdotes are always well received by attendees.


Vatsal Patel
Senior Systems and Programming Manager, Fidelity National Information Services

Vatsal Patel (PMP, CSM) is the Senior Systems and Programming Manager for Fidelity National Information Services (FNIS) where he served for the last two years.  Determined to introduce a more efficient and effective development methodology, Vatsal was the Change Agent who introduced Agile to FNIS earlier this year, overcoming 20+ years of Waterfall history.  While change has not been easy, his vision for Agile within FNIS is in the process of coming to reality. Prior to joining FNIS, Vatsal led high priority software projects for a number of other companies in a variety of industries, including Security Pacific Bank, Barclays Bank of London, ICL Northern America, and Shell International Chemical among others.  After graduating from London Polytechnic, he did “real work,” programming C on UNIX.  Since then, he has gained over 10 years of management experience leading teams on Agile and Waterfall Methodology.


Dale Schumacher
Agile Process Evangelist & Program Manager, Borland Software

Dale Schumacher is an Agile Process Evangelist for Borland Software working with several development teams in Austin, TX.  He has experience as a consultant, coach and a contributing team member on several software development teams using mostly Scrum and Extreme Programming (XP) practices.  He is a Certified Scrum Master, a member of the Agile Alliance, and serves on the Board of Directors for Agile Austin.  His background includes consulting and mentoring on Object-Oriented Analysis and Design, Model Driven Development, UML, Test-Driven Development and software architecture for distributed enterprise and embedded systems.