Agile practices are popular because they work, but getting people to take that first step can be tricky.

We'll look at how continuous integration was successfully introduced to a very large, established software shop and used to introduce other Agile practices. Let's see what lessons we can draw from this example that you can take back to your shop.

How do you keep a team scattered across time zones in sync?

It's difficult to keep a local team coordinated. When we add geographical distance to the equation, problems are immediately magnified. We'll talk about techniques that you can use to be sure everyone is sharing information and on the same page whether they're in the same office or in different time zones.

An overview of the Agile software approach from the book Ship It! A Practical Guide to Successful Software Projects.

This book provides a comprehensive look at the software life cycle and can be used to retool the way you, and your team, builds software. While we can't cover the entire book in nintey minutes, we can look how a holistic view of the software life cycle helps you improve your projects and makes your life easier.

Throughout our software careers we learn habits from our coworkers, from books we've read, and occasionally, from conferences we attend. Much of our competence comes from the tips and tricks we pick up as we go.

In this session, learn five of the techniques I've borrowed along the way. We'll discuss The List, code reviews, code change notifications, daily meetings, and tech leads. These techniques are often abused, but when used properly they can make a huge difference in how you develop software. Take this opportunity to add these practices to your toolkit.

A great team builds great software, but how do you build a great team?

Let's move beyond getting lucky and look at some key practices that will help you build your scattered cats into a well-oiled machine.