What is the most impactful experience you have had on your Agile journey?
When you are considering that question, do you find yourself thinking about a story? If so, we want to hear from you. Humans have been learning from one another through storytelling for eons. The Agile 2020 Experience Report track is focused on collecting and sharing stories from the Agile community.
The Experience Report track is different from the other tracks in the conference in a number of ways.
- The presentations are shorter, just 30 minutes. We have found this is a good length for the format. It is long enough to tell a good story but not so long that it is hard to fill the time.
- Accompanying the presentation is a 6-to-8-page paper that is written before the conference. The papers are archived on the Agile Alliance site so that the stories can continue to be retold in the community in years to come.
One of the things we strive for in the Experience Report track is to create a space for new voices to be heard. You don’t need to be an established expert to provide a compelling Experience Report, just a witness to the story. Experience reports are not prescriptive, but reflective of what you observed, the dilemmas encountered, and how they were resolved. Unlike a case study, the point of view of the author is important and part of the narrative. The story of the Experience Report does not need to be one of triumph; some of the best Experience Reports describe failures and what was learned from them. We value stories from different contexts and different aspects of the Agile experience. As Cass Van Gelder (Experience Report writer at Agile2017 and Agile2018) puts it, “Dare yourself to talk about something no one else will. You’ll be amazed by the outcome.”
It can be intimidating submitting to a conference, especially a flagship conference like Agile 2020, but we provide help throughout the process. As with other tracks, when you propose your idea you can ask for and receive feedback on the proposal so that you can improve upon it before the track reviewers make their recommendations.
Once your proposal is accepted, we pair each Experience Report author with a shepherd to provide feedback as you write your paper. The shepherd can also provide feedback on the presentation itself. Avraham Poupko (Experience Report writer for Agile2018 and the XP conference, experienced reviewer, and shepherd) says, “This is a great place to get published the first time. The shepherds are all really passionate about their work and you can learn a great deal from them.”
Throughout the process, from proposal to presentation, we look to draw out the best story you can tell by encouraging authors to consider questions such as: What happened? Why did it happen? Who did it happen to? Why should we care?
If you have a compelling story to tell, we would like to hear from you.
Draft a proposal and set the status to Feedback Requested State to begin a conversation with the Experience Report track team. Begin the submission process here.
