Declan Whelan

Delivering better software.

Upcoming Events

Agile Vancouver 2010 - Much Ado About Agile V
November 1-5, 2010

The session will be about nurturing a learning culture on Agile Teams. I plan to add more information on dispelling learning myths and using informal learning environments and language.

TesTrek Toronto 2010
October 18-21, 2010

This session will be on using executable specifications or automated acceptance test to help ensure you're building the right thing. I'll talking about the value proposition of executable specifications and introducing tools and technique for getting it going.

Agile Tour Toronto 2010
October 20, 2010

This session is called Reforming Billy the Kid Programmer - How the Best was Done and promises to be a hoot. I will be teamed up with Bryan Beecham, aka Bill, and Alistair McKinnell in helping Billy overcome his coding cowboy ways and adapt to a new agile reality.

Waterloo Agile User Group
Third Tuesday of each month, 4:30 to 6:00 PM

Together with Communitech I have founded an agile user group. We meet on the third Tuesday of each month in Waterloo. We plan to rotate the location using the Accelerator Centre as our home base.

Past Events

Agile 2010 - Orlando
August 9-13, 2010

I spoke about building a learning culture on Agile Teams. I have now added five interactive exercises in the session that make it a lot more fun. You can download the presentation here.

Agile Tour Toronto 2009
October 20, 2009

This was similar to the building a learning culture with the addition of a simulation game for some hand-ons learning.

Agile Testing Days - Berlin Germany
October 12-14, 2009

I will be speaking about learning on Agile Teams with specific emphasis on learning from an tester's perspective.

Agile 2009 - Chicago
August 24-28, 2009

I spoke about building a learning culture on Agile Teams. You can read the abstract here and download the presentation here.

User Experience Group of Waterloo Region
November 20, 2008

I spoke about User Experience Practices an Agile Teams. The presentation will focused on using and adapting user experience practices for effective UX design within an agile iterative development model.

Toronto QUEST 2008
September 26, 2008

I spoke about Agile Testing and the Role of a Tester on an Agile Team. The emphasis in this presentation was on building teams of specialized generalists where testers need to be fully engaged team members infusing quality throughout the agile project life cycle. There is some good introductory information on agility and agile testing in the presentation.

I also participated in a panel discussion on Quality Opportunities and Challenges with Agile with Lawrence Ludlow and Alistair McKinnell.

Agile Product Design and Development Workshop
September 10, 2008

In this one-day hands-on workshop Jeff Patton and I provided practical insights and practices for delivering valuable products in a fast, agile environment. Attendees learnt how to combine the best of agile, user experience, and product design practices. They learned how to build story maps that clarify the product vision and help teams plan and deliver incremental releases that deliver value to both stakeholders and users.

Communitech Agile Series: Jeff Patton
September 9, 2008
Embrace Uncertainty: Strategies for an on-time delivery in an uncertain world

I organized this session with Communitech and other local industry partners. In this talk Jeff explored the common misconceptions about incremental and iterative development that lead Agile practitioners to focus more on building required scope on time and less on the value they're delivering. Modevation media captured a video of the event..
Agile Coach Camp 2008
May 30th - June 1st, 2008

This was an Open Space conferences and the depth and breadth of the attendees was absolutely amazing. I convened a session on the intersection of Web 2.0 and Agility and you can read about it in my blog.

Communitech Agile Series: Mishkin Berteig
May 21, 2008
Delivering Successful Agile Projects - a Team Approach

Mishkin provided a great introduction to Agile development; particularly Scrum. He then went into some deeper issues when he tackled some of the "softer" side of software development - namely truthfulness. You can download his presentation.
Software Quality Assurance Conference 2008
April 23, 2008

I presented on Agile Testing and the Role of a Tester on an Agile Team. You can download my presentation here.

Simple Design and Testing Conference 2007
November 30 - December 2, 2007

This was the first Open Space conference that I had attended. I led a session on the role of testers on agile teams and you can read the results here.
Communitech Agile Series: Scott Ambler
December 17, 2007

I had the pleasure of both organizing this session with Communitech and introducing Scott Ambler. Scott's presentation, Agile Software Development - The Full Story, was wonderful as he traced an irreverent path through his experiences with agile development. His message is all the more compelling given his involvement with RUP and more traditional development processes. Modevation media captured a video of the event.
Communitech Agile Series: Seminar for Technology Leaders
November 8, 2007

I delivered a presentation on aligning business goals and operational excellence through agile practices. The presentation was targeted at CEOs, CTOs and other technology leaders in SMEs. The presentation focused on the bottom-line impact that agile practices, and frequent delivery of software in particular, can have.
The 7-Minute Soapbox on User Experience Design
June 14, 2007

I presented a lightning talk on the intersection of user experience design and agile software development. I attempted to burn through 55 slides in the allotted 7 minutes but didn't quite make it. You can see a video of the presentation. I do believe that the two communities have much to learn from each other and I provide some advice based on experience working with a UX designer on an agile team. For more on agile UX you may want to check out Jeff Patton.