Where do you go to stay up to date?


#1

What are currently the best places to stay up to date with new thoughts and practices in the agile world? The first thing that pops into my mind are conferences. On this website I mainly see American conferences. I am based in the Netherlands, so maybe other websites list global conferences.

Other than conferences, are there websites that are considered “must-reads”. Are there magazines or other subscription based literature that are helpful for practitioners?

The Recommended reading Section seems to focus mainly on books. I am looking for information sources that I can follow.


#2

I believe lanyard.com may be a good place to find some local conferences. But do your research. About half of the conferences that are out there suck, so be sure to find ones that have track/talk/speakers that resonate with what you are looking to learn. I tend to favor the conferences that are run by actual practitioners over the ones that are “thought leaders”, trainers or people trying to sell me consulting services.

I tend to find some good articles shared on twitter by the people I respect and reshare when they impact me (selfish plug, follow me @AgilePHL)

I heavily favor reading books. I used to average one a week, but have a lot of side-projects going currently - so one a month is now a good month :frowning: . Choosing what to read for me is more personal. What am I pissed off at now and want to learn more about? What do I know I need more understanding of? What makes organizations more efficient? These are the themes of what pushes me to learn.

And Podcasts are great. I know you listen to ours, thanks for that :-). I also think Agile for Humans, the Happy Melly podcast and This Agile Life are almost as good as Agile Uprising :stuck_out_tongue:


#3

Apart from your podcast, I listen to “the meta-cast” and “to be continuous”. I have added your suggestions to my playlist.


#4

Twitter has been a boon for me, that’s honestly where I find most of my new content. There’s some real brilliant people in the field and I’ve found that’s where they share most of their work. If you follow the right 2 people you’ll be overwhelmed in no time.

We’re working on some ideas inside the Coalition around content aggregation, look for more of that in the new year.

Conferences do help but Ryan’s caveat is correct. You want to make sure the conference is filled with people who are in the trenches vs. someone trying to sell you something.


#5

I use Feedly, which curates content from websites that I choose. The search feature is nice as well. I like it b/c it gives me literally hundreds of articles on agile that I can quickly scan through for ones that interest me. It also breaks them out by source, so I can see when Mike Cohn (for example) publishes something new.


#6

I cycle thru different info sources. No single one stands out at the moment as “the best” for me.

I tried Feedly for a bit, but honestly felt overwhelmed, and couldn’t “keep up” with the info coming in. I guess I added way too much as input. If I pruned my feed, I might do myself a favor. I think I’ll do that this weekend :slight_smile:

Similar happened with podcasts. I kept adding “interesting, I’ll listen some day”, but didn’t keep up. My unplayed list got too long. I am partial to short podcasts. 15-20 minutes.

I’ve got a few magazine subscriptions (how old school, right?) HBR, Smithsonian. For me they provide a cross fertilization of ideas that feed my journey.

I read a lot of books, similar to @ryan 's approach - “what’s important to me now? What do i want to become more knowledgeable/fluent in.”

Good conferences also really “charge my batteries” - and finding those can be a struggle.

There’s a very large, vibrant, agile community within HappyMelly.com - with a big presence in Europe. Might be a place for you to investigate:


#7

#8

Yes, please give Ryan another follower. His head isn’t big enough yet.

@Joris_Slob my personal thoughts are to read blogs and watch videos for sure, but don’t let that be the end point. Find a few folks who’s perspective you appreciate and then seek them out. Ask if you can Skype with them, or meet up at a conference, call them, interview for your blog, you name it. Seek her or him out and watch the magic happen.

Ryan is right there are some not great conferences, and by the time it’s presented at a conference it’s old news. New trends happen in real time so you have to find the conversation.

Hope that makes sense.


#9

Hater :stuck_out_tongue:


#10

I’m almost 1000 behind you…it’s not fair. I’m just as pretty.