Do you have an interesting Agile project experience that you would like to share with fellow agile professionals? If so, we invite you to share your knowledge by submitting an Experience Report for the 2004 Agile Development Conference.

Experience reports contain first-hand information and reflection: "We saw this, did that, and consider this-and-that about our experiences." Experience reports serve two purposes: as raw data for researchers, and as an exchange vehicle for practitioners.

We encourage submissions from specialists outside software development (ethnographers, sociologists, managers), as well as programming staff.

Experience reports will be selected for their general interest, diversity, new or novel slant, and willingness of the presenters to share their experiences. Experience reports may describe internal applications or commercial product developments. However, it is inappropriate for an experience report to have any commercial sales content.

We are particularly interested in techniques you have employed to push the envelope of current agile thinking.

Successful experience reports will be published in the IEEE conference proceedings. You will also be expected to give a 30-minute presentation at the conference.

A shepherding process is in place to provide assistance and support to presenters.

If you have questions regarding the Experience Reports sessions, please contact us at experience@agiledevelopmentconference.com.

Submit

The submission process has the following steps:

Step1: Submit a proposal

Submissions are closed. Submitters can access the submission system here.

Authors are invited to submit a proposal by the February 15, 2004. Please do not email submissions, only web submissions will be considered.

We are looking for a brief proposal that will whet our appetite. Identify two or three key observations that represent the valuable contribution that you will present if the submission is accepted. We do not want a full paper at this stage.

Please refer to Kent Beck’s tips on how to get a paper published at a conference.

Please do not submit previously published material or material that has been or will be submitted to other venues.

Step 2: Phone Interview

Each submitter will be interviewed by phone by a member of the review committee. We use this to pick the experience reports we will invite to the conference.

Step 3: Acceptance emails are sent out

Acceptance emails will be sent out on March 15, 2004. Experience reports will be selected for their general interest, diversity, new or novel slant, and willingness of the presenters to share their experiences. Experience reports may describe internal applications or commercial product developments. However, it is inappropriate for an experience report to have any commercial sales content.

Step 4: Write the paper and presentation

A committee member will be assigned to you to help shepherd you through the writing of the experience report and conference presentation.

Papers should be 5 to 10 pages in length. Work on the principle that these may go through several iterations. It is a good idea to get work colleagues and friends to act as local reviewers to help smooth out the process.

Experience reports should be brief but to the point. The report must:

• Describe your situation (the problem you faced)
• What you did about it
• And what happened next
• Finally, reflect on your experiences. What do you feel about what happened, what would you repeat and what would you do differently on future projects?

You will have a 30-minute presentation slot at the conference. Our experience suggests the following format for presentations to help keep the presentation focused and easy to understand to the casual reader after the event. Our reviewers will expect presentations formatted as follows:

• Each slide heading must be a complete sentence of the point you are trying to make. The collection of titles should read as a narrative.
• You should include an introductory slide.
• You should include a reflection slide.
• You work on the principle of having around 8 slides to explain your points (based on 3 minutes per slide).

Completed paper and presentation are due on May 15, 2004.

Key Dates

Proposals due: February 15, 2004
Notification of acceptance: March 15, 2004
Completed reports for entry into conference proceedings due: May 15, 2004

Experience Report Compensation

Research paper presenters get a highly discounted conference rate for up to two people at $350 per person.

Example Experience Reports

• Jeff Patton’s paper (pdf) and slides (ppt) from ADC2003.
• Kay Johansen and Anthony Perkins' paper (pdf) and slides (ppt) from XP/Agile Universe 2003.

Reviewer Committee

• Peter Brown, Tristram Software Limited
• Alistair Cockburn, Humans and Technology
• Rebecca Parsons, Thoughtworks
• Jeff Patton, Tomax
• Andy Pols, Pols Consulting Limited
• Linda Rising, Independent Consultant
• Rebecca Wirfs-Brock, Wirfs-Brock Associates
• Debbie Utley, Borland