I continue with my feedback reports from Agile conferences in France. This time, we're tackling a VERY big piece, since it's Agile Grenoble. Considered by some as the most important and cutting-edge Agile conference in France. In terms of attendance, I learned that Grenoble is no longer in first place, but quantity does not make quality. So let's dive right into the heart of the matter with my experience of this year. « Choisir, c'est renoncer » ("To choose is to give up"), and with 87 sessions, the choice is hard. Even attending as many sessions as possible, at best you can see 7 per day (keynote included), i.e. barely 16% of what is offered 😱.

Day 1

Morning

We start with the opening keynote delivered by the pioneer Claude Aubry. For those who might not know him, he is one of the forerunners of agility in France, the author of the book « Scrum », now in its 6th edition, but also of «L'art de devenir une équipe Agile», more didactic and illustrated, blogger of « Scrum, Agilité & rock'n roll » since 2006. His title was « L'agilité de la décroissance ». I was really intrigued by such a title and unfortunately, I did not get a good surprise. He gave us a very nice plea for the necessity of degrowth, with a fairly pronounced (conscious or not) promotion of the book « Ralentir ou périr », while trying to draw parallels with the Agile manifesto or Agile practices that felt a bit far-fetched to me. It furiously reminded me of a discussion about a survey on including moral/ecological notions in the Scrum Guide. Setting aside the substance of the subject, whether one agrees or not, I was not the only one wondering whether a speech on this theme was relevant in this kind of conference.

Then, I was quickly caught up by a frustrating side of Grenoble… talks fill up fast in the rooms and you sometimes find yourself facing a closed door. That was the case for Kervin Kueny's talk « Les questions pour préparer demain », which forced me to head back to the amphitheatre to see Simon Jaillais and « Le besoin de mon client au cœur de tout ». And frankly, I don't regret this choice at all. He walked us through the practice differences between Lean Startup, Design Thinking and Agility. Which, in the end, all share the same goal: satisfying the user. He reminded us of the importance of not only talking about problems with users, but ALSO thinking about solutions with them. A short tour of the value pyramid and the extended trade-off matrix. I left with two recommendations: the book « Jobs to be done » and the feedback video « le pull de la grand mère ». A very interesting talk for me, as I want to dig into the product side of Agility.

Then I continued on my streak of product conferences and went to see Vincent Feugier, Frédéric Drogo and Fabien Joseph, who presented « PO : Évitez la feuille blanche ! ». I found the beginning of their presentation a bit long, between everyone's CV and their whole methodology for building their result. The heart of the matter was slow to come. The result and presentation support was a [magnificent flowchart](PO, évitez la feuille blanche - OpenGroupe.pdf) to follow for a beginner PO. It reviewed all the key points and the appropriate answers/tools. A flowchart so extensive that they displayed a QR code so everyone could view it on their phone.

The lunch break is a chance to chat more calmly with the many acquaintances you can run into at this event. What's great is that some people travel from far away to come, which, together with the Agile Game France, makes it one of my favourite events.

Afternoon

The afternoon keynote was delivered by Catherine Pamphile on « Un attribut prédictif de succès des transformations : la sécurité psychologique » ("A predictive attribute of transformation success: psychological safety"). An interesting viewpoint on using this indicator as a way of divining the success of a transformation.

Not wanting to be caught out a second time by the limited number of seats in the rooms, I headed fairly quickly to the talk by Mario Espositio and Rémi Seraillon on « L'extinction des dinosaures : Entre comportement toxique et manque de sens, que faire ? ». Well, I got caught up chatting in the hall, which meant I had to sit on the floor to attend. Beyond the good dose of laughter, the advice and recommendations distilled in their presentation were absolutely relevant and very well illustrated.

With a big smile on my face, I went to see a slightly more serious topic with Maxime Bonnet and « L'agilité à l'échelle simplement avec Scrum@Scale ». A topic I know a little about, having given quick presentations of this framework, but I wanted to go a bit further without necessarily reading all the documentation. As a bonus, I got a feedback report on an implementation within Groupama, a client I know well. All of it against a backdrop of mouth-watering images, because, well, that's the speaker's choice 😋

Then I played the originality card with Eric Bortzmeyer and Halldor Kvale-Skattebo, whose topic was « Approche de l'agilité en Norvège ». They set the context well with the particularities of this country (6 million inhabitants), their working environments (they have collaborated with Dave Snoden & Cynefin), but in the end, I was left hungry. I was expecting more points of comparison between the 2 cultures and the practices of each country. In the end, it was during the Q&A that it was most interesting, precisely because it focused on those differences. I still salute their presence and their presentation; it's not every day we get the chance to have foreign speakers coming from so far away.

Evening

So, end of the first day… of conferences. But the evening was only just beginning! This year, a games evening was planned! We made the most of the caterer to eat in the evening, so no time lost between the beer served, as usual, by Zenika and this moment of relaxation.

Day 2

Morning

This second day opens with a plenary that is very much of its time, since it's about AI. Ari Kouts gives us a fine demonstration of current capabilities and made us think about the societal stakes of this technology. The tone was very optimistic about the technology taking off, but it clashes with Claude Aubry's speech from the first day. A strong contrast, but a very interesting one.

I take a quick stroll through the common area to get back to the front row of the amphitheatre. I definitely don't want to miss the talk that's about to take place there. It's the last one by the esteemed Alexandre Boutin! I'll be able to say "I was there!". He gave us a relevant reminder of the history of Agility to better raise the question of its current implementation and its future. He also brought the interest and advantages of Agility back to the centre. The whole front row was in on it and had prepared surprises for him. One of them was fake moustaches for everyone. But he too had a surprise in store for us: he offered everyone present a bar of chocolate! (there's a photo at the bottom of the article)

To close this morning, I went (again) to see a friend, namely Elyzer Ducros with his « Le produit dont vous êtes fier ». He tackles the environmental and societal topics of our profession, but also the biases that slow us down or divert us from our objective. All of this in order to explain his F.I.E.R. acronym, which helps him ask himself the right questions about the relevance of his role. So FIER means:

• Fondamentale
• Inclusif
• Efficient
• Responsable

I'll let you ask him in detail what hides behind these notions.

Afternoon

The day resumes with a very moving keynote by Benjamin Cabanne, who, with his Toulouse accent, opened up to us and shared his experience. It was very personal, human, empathetic.

Then, and she's probably my favourite speaker of this conference, Caroline Le Lay talked to us about « Et si demain, contractualiser l'agilité dans une relation gagnant/gagnant, devenait possible ! » ("What if tomorrow, contracting agility in a win/win relationship became possible!"). Despite her stress and her worries, she did very well. She told us about her experience with Agile project contracting, about what makes it work now, but also about the pitfalls she has experienced and that must be avoided. Her parallel with buying a custom bunch of flowers from a florist is quite well found. The 3 keys to success she shared with us are:

• Trust between the parties (client / supplier)
• Mastery of the context
• Mastery of the budget

I'm looking forward to seeing what she will present at the next edition of PIAF 😅

I followed on with a more technical presentation (which is unfortunately becoming rare) by Fontaine Emeric & Imen Bouhamed and their « Trunck based, TDD, devops avec des ops, ... Découvrez un Mob de fonctionnement hors norme ».

And to finish off the talks, I let myself be tempted by Pierrick Boyer's presentation with his « De l'innovation pour rebooster ses équipes », where he reaffirms the importance of knowing how to lift your head from the handlebars and to leave time and resources for innovation. He explains how discreetly putting this practice in place re-energised his team with NO loss of productivity, and quite the opposite in fact.

Day 3

And yes, many people are only there for the first 2 days, but the third day is one of the most interesting ones for me. It's the open forum day (forum ouvert), facilitated by Sarah & Léa from SCOP Sémawé. No programme defined in advance, just topics brought by the participants themselves. And as a bonus (again) chocolate bars from Alex, whom I suspect of having planned a few too many for his talk 😋

The nice surprise of this day was Alex's participation as a workshop facilitator! Wasn't he supposed to retire as a participant? Well yes, but only from keynotes and presentations. For workshops and games, he's leaving a door open, to our great delight 🤩

Conclusion

You'll tell me: "But you didn't present anything yourself?". Well, no. Not for lack of having submitted proposals. But it seems I still have a bit of trouble making them attractive enough to get selected. But it's only a postponeable miss. In the end, the spectator position is also very comfortable. No preparation stress, no need to give up one or several time slots. You actually enjoy the event more that way.

I'm very satisfied with this edition. I always fear not finding enough to feed myself with new ideas or material, but with such an abundance of topics and people, that fear is unfounded. On top of learning loads of things, I also meet many friends and acquaintances again, with whom exchanges are often very instructive and pleasant. I can only urge you to come to this great gathering of Agility if you are interested in the subject, closely or remotely.

Again, a big thank you to all the organisers, speakers and participants. It's thanks to everyone that Agile Grenoble is what it is today and that we ask for it again every year.