How to use the deck

People have been asking how to best use the cards in their teams.

We've had several notes via twitter or email about teams reading and discussing them at retrospectives or standup, and even using them in lightning talks at conferences.  We are happy to see them used in this way.

But people have been asking how normal, individual, non-coach team members can use the cards. Jeff provides our recipe for use of Agile in a Flash:

• Pick a card that's relevant and read its front
• Read the back
• Re-read the front to help ingrain the short list
• Consider tacking the card up, so that it's in your face, helping you ingrain the concepts
• Seek and re-read related cards to get a more complete picture of the topic
• Visit the corresponding post here on the blog site if you seek more detail on the topic and why we said some of the things we did
• Visit the links located on many of the cards and at the blog site if needed

Don't forget to google the subject matter, because there is more written than we could fit in either the deck or the blog. Other opinions and recommendations are equally valid.

Please share and discuss the cards with your community, starting with the local software team and its neighbors but extending to conferences, user groups, or any other willing listeners. New insights can come from anywhere.

Javaranch Event

The Big Moose Saloon welcomes writing team Ottinger and Langr to a special event:

This week, we're delighted to have Jeff Langr & Tim Ottinger helping to answer questions about the new book Agile in a Flash. See this page for a description of the book.

The promotion starts Tuesday, February 22th 2011 and will end on Friday, February 25th 2011.

We'll be selecting four random posters in this forum to win a free copy of the book provided by the publisher, Pragmatic.

Please see the Book Promotion page to ensure your best chances at winning!

Sit in, ask or answer some questions, see if you can't win your free Agile In A Flash deck. If you don't win one, don't worry. We still have a few left for sale.

Sighting Report

From an undisclosed location in Des Moines, Iowa, comes this sighting report. It is likely a book store, judging by intact plastic wrap and "Alphabetical By Author" sticker on shelf. It also looks like they're down to their last copy. Snag it now, before their supply is totally exhausted!

Card-Carrying Mad Railer

David van Leeuwen, Card-carrying Mad Railer, shows off the new deck of Agile In A Flash that he won in a drawing at the Madison, WI conference.

Lisa Crispin and Courage at Belgium Testing Days

Our deck of cards makes a surprise appearance at Belgium Testing Days 2011 thanks to Lisa Crispin and her experience with the Courage card.

It is pleasing to see the cards having a supporting role in the lives of respected professionals, and to see them appear in a testing conference instead of a more predictable place like an Agile or programming conference. Markus Gärtner provides descriptions of several talks in this blog.

Card-Carrying agile author

Jeff Langr, programmer geek and computer addict shows off his Agile in a Flash deck in front of a warm fire in Colorado Springs. Look, Ma, no shrink-wrap! Tim, have you opened yours yet???

Card-Carrying Embedded Software Engineer

Card-carrying embedded-software engineer James Grenning, fellow-author, fellow-ex-ObjectMentor consultant, owner of Renaissance Software, great guy.  Here James shows off his deck of cards at a Starbucks near Mundelein, IL.  Doing embedded software, but don't know how to do it test-first? See James Grenning (and buy his book Test Driven Development for Embedded C to be released very soon).

Card-carrying Rocketeers

Card-carrying Hash Rocket team members show off their deck of Agile In A Flash cards gifted to them at their office in Chicago.  They are a really great, kind, competent group of people worthy of your business. Tim loves their open workspace and open hearts.

Card-carrying Django Developer

Card-carrying Django developer, Cezar Jenkins, shows off the autographed deck he won at the Chicago Python users group meeting. His superior memory allowed him to edge out the other attendees and seize the prize!

Card-carrying Agile Author

Card-carrying agile author and programmer, Tim Ottinger, smugly shows his plastic-wrapped Agile In A Flash deck at home.  Tim is the originator of the Agile In A Flash concept, and co-author of the deck with Jeff Langr (without whom this project would have died on the vine). Feeling smug? You betcha.