Agile Oursourcing: Opportunities and Challenges in Eastern Europe, Russia, and Beyond

It is fairly hard to imagine IT industry apart from software outsourcing these days. At the same time with agile development becoming industry mainstream methodology many argue that moving core values like self-dedication, feedback and communication to outsourcing paradigm can be very painful if at all possible. But what if there is a way of addressing the challenge and succeeding with agile while still
benefiting from off-shore economy model?

What is software development outsourcing today and why Agile had become #1 buzzword in the outsourcing world? What kind of expectations we may have when giving away a part of workload to outsourcing service provider? What makes outsourcing companies competitive in the eyes of potential customers? How agile impacts contractual agreements? How to scale agile outsourcing model? – In our discussion we will touch all these important questions and much more.

On real life examples we will see what kind of challenges vendors and customers encounter when they deploy agile teams. We will consider anti-patterns of agile adoption and scaling as well as solutions that actually work well. And most importantly: whether it is possible to achieve equivalent or even higher productivity with outsourcing rather than with in-house teams.

We will talk about outsourcing in Eastern European countries such as Russia, Ukraine, Belarus,
Poland, and Romania considering different geo-political, cultural, economical and other nuances that
may influence success of outsourcing engagements.

About the speaker:

Having worked in IT industry for over a decade Alex Yakima dealt with outsourcing companies in all possible capacities - as an employee, customer and a consultant. As agile master and consequently program manager and department manager built a number of successful agile teams in Ukrainian and Russian outsourcing companies. In the role of director of software development for startup company in San Diego, CA established distributed agile development taking advantage of outsourcing model. Currently working as a consultant, helping outsourcing teams become agile.

Agenda:
6:00-7:00 - food and networking
6:30-7:00 - open space discussion
7:00-8:30 - Alex Yakima presentation

Location:
Tivoli Student Union at Auraria Campus
900 Auraria Parkway, room 320C
Denver CO 80204