Moderator: Stevie Borne, Sr. Project Manager - Agile Coach, Thomson Reuters

Stevie has almost 15 years of software development experience.  For the past 7 years she’s combined her development experience with agile coaching.  She often works side-by-side next to members of the teams she coaches, including business users, testers, and developers.  She has the unique ability to speak the language of business owners as well the technical language of developers.  Her passion for mentoring teams toward agile adoption enables her to lead teams to understand and often exceed customer expectations.  Stevie is a Certified ScrumMaster, and her interests include Java UI development, automated testing, and always looking to how a team can improve their processes.   Prior to joining Thomson Reuters 2 years ago as a full time employee, Stevie spent most of her career as a consultant in the Twin Cities, working on agile projects at companies such as 3M, United Health Group, and HealthPartners.  She is now a full time agile coach at Thomson.

Panelists:

Kevin Burns

Sage Software Consulting, Inc.

After Kevin’s service with Peace Corps in 1995, he became fascinated by the internet and how it liberated information. Since his return from Paraguay with the Peace Corps, he has been analyzing business models, business processes, and software development methodologies opportunities for Fingerhut, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Wells Fargo Home Mortgage, United Healthcare, and Carol.com. Kevin has received 3rd mastered degrees from the University of St Thomas in: Software Systems, International Management, and Business Administration. Kevin’s current passion is fixing the healthcare industry with Carol.com.

Paul Ellarby

Paul has over twenty years of experience in delivering IT and business improvement solutions to the manufacturing, retail, distribution, engineering, and financial industries, first developing software in 1977. He is mechanical engineer, and has many years of practical experience in the manufacturing and distribution of several types of products. Between 1992 and 1998, he worked extensively on developing a production model based on the Toyota Production System for several General Motors facilities, implementing such techniques as just-in-time materials management, kan-ban methods, distribution center automation, warehouse management solutions, and e-commerce solutions in this arena. He has visited Toyota and Kabota production facilities in Japan and Thailand, leading to his work on Lean Software Development techniques. Paul has taught, coached, and used Agile techniques with many clients, including 3M, SafetyCall International, Home Depot, GE Financial, Moneygram, and many other companies, large and small. Over the last 4 years, he has been increasingly in demand to coach Agile software development methods, working with many organizations to help them overcome the political, organizational, and logistic barriers to moving to an Agile model.

Shanu Srinivasan, Lead Business Systems Analyst - West PMO, Thomson Reuter

Shanu as been a BA for 7 years and has been at Thomson for the last 3 years. He currently serves as Lead Business Analyst with Thomson Reuters.  The BA group is a part of the PMO. They work primarily with the Business unit to flush out requirements and manage the requirements through the project lifecycle. Most recently, Shanu had the opportunity to work as the BA for a project identified to be a pilot project to test-drive Agile methodology within Thomson Reuter.