Michael Vax

Agile Alliance, Agile Vancouver

Presentation(s): Agile Practices in a Distributed Environment

I have spent more than 20 years in software development, and during my career, I have worked as a developer, an architect, a Development Manager, a VP of Development, and a CTO. In addition to being a member of the Agile Alliance and a certified SCRUM Master, I am one of the organizers of Agile Vancouver (www.agilevancouver.ca ). As part of the Agile community in Vancouver, I have taken an active role in organizing monthly presentations by guest and local speakers to promote the Agile development process. In November 2006, I was a member of the organization committee for the first Agile conference in Vancouver, where I also presented my experience with introducing Agile in a large distributed organization. I am currently the CEO of Luxoft Canada, which specializes in Agile projects distributed between a nearshore team in Vancouver, an offshore team in Russia, and customer teams in North America. Luxoft is a global software development company, and is headquartered in Russia, with additional offices in the US, Canada, the UK, and Ukraine. Its clients include world leaders in the IT, manufacturing, energy, financial services, and aerospace industries, as well as smaller independent software vendors and product houses. Prior to joining Luxoft, I was the Vice President of Product Development at WebCT - one of the world's leading providers of e-learning systems, which are used by thousands of colleges and universities in more than 70 countries worldwide. At WebCT, I managed a 100+ person product development department, with offices in Vancouver and Boston. I successfully led the transition from WebCT original plan-driven process to SCRUM.