Tracking Agile Development In Africa 14 Years Since Its Release

The second annual Agile Africa conference will take place on 11th and 12th August 2014 as part of Wits University’s “Fak’ugesi:  Digital Africa Festival”.  The event will be held at the Protea Parktonian Hotel in Braamfontein, Johannesburg.  Hosted by Wits University’s Joburg Centre for Software Engineering (JCSE), this year’s agile conference will review the impact of agile methodologies on software development.

Prof Barry Dwolatzky, Director of the JCSE, says Agile Africa 2014 will revisit the Agile Manifesto and debate the impact that it has had over the past 14 years: “This is our second Agile Africa. In hosting the conference the JCSE is keen to review actual examples of the successes and failures of Agile development in Africa since the release of the Agile Manifesto in 2000.  We are inviting African developers and managers to tell their stories and share their agile experiences.”

He says that Agile Africa 2014 will review issues such as whether agile development has impacted the way people work? Has it impacted the way an organisation is run?  Has it impacted customers and stakeholders? How has its impact been felt? Has it been positive or negative?

Agile Africa 2014 will focus on participation, collaboration and information sharing. It will include keynote addresses and panel discussions.  Authorities will present keynote addresses on a range of relevant topics: David Hussman, agility coach/instructor and practitioner; Daniel Vacanti, Kanban CEO and founder, Bennet Vallet: Director of product development, Siemens Healthcare, Philadelphia, PA, USA and Enyonam Kumahor – the Regional Managing Director of Pan-Africa for ThoughtWorks.

In addition, there will be a number of parallel streams featuring talks from invited speakers. One stream will cover topics of interest to executives responsible for managing agile development. Another stream will be of specific interest to developers, while other streams may be presented covering other relevant themes. Several other great speakers, both local and international, will be announced soon.

Image credit UGO