South Africa Journal #3 – IIBA Meeting – Aug 4, 2011

Our visit coincided with the South African chapter of IIBA’s Annual General Meeting. Steve Erlank, our host, is also the President of the chapter, and he gave a lightning-fast review of the past year. They have found it more beneficial to have one national chapter, with satellite chapters in the major cities of Johannesburg, Cape Town, Durban, etc. They face the same challenges as IIBA chapters around the world – membership, volunteers, meeting locations, etc. We took a photo opp with some of the current and future board members.

Elizabeth presented to the chapter while we were there, and talked on “Is Your Organization Agile-Ready?” It was a lively session with much discussion about how to successfully adopt Agile – and how not to.  Attendees agreed their organizations were in various stages of being Agile-ready, and said they had good take-aways to bring back to the job with them.

It was cool that we had our food after the presentation, and not before it like chapters in the US normally do. It struck me as similar to having dinner after a theater play vs. before a play like in the US.  I think I prefer the food after the event! We posed with some of the board members of the chapter to mark the occasion.