Judy Neher

Founding Partner, Sticky Agile LLC

Session Title

Agile Design Defined: Applying Lean and Scrum to Interior Design and Construction

Abstract

Conventional thinking assumes that designing and building any facility must follow a defined (waterfall-like) approach. Designing and building a home, a hospital or other commercial facility is a complex problem, requiring an iterative and incremental approach to delivering the best possible value to the client.


Construction professionals and interior designers solve complex problems daily. Iterative and incremental approaches (i.e. agile approaches) are necessary to allow teams to experiment, test ideas, iterate, and innovate to provide the best possible value for the customers and clients. Scrum is an agile framework that enables self-managing, cross-functional teams.


This session will examine how lean practices are being applied to hospital design at an increasing rate and the benefits being derived from the application of those practices. We will look deeper into how Scrum can be applied to both interior design and construction projects of all types to gain even deeper benefits including providing greater value to the client.


From the perspective of an Interior Designer and Certified Scrum Trainer® (Scrum Alliance®), participants will learn how Scrum can be leveraged in construction and interior design to derive similar benefits that other industries have achieved including:


  • Shifting to a more agile mindset
  • Increased team collaboration
  • The importance of creating cross-functional teams
  • Providing greater visibility and transparency of the work
  • Utilizing iterative and incremental development approaches to promote innovation
  • Building high-performing teams

Bio

Judy Neher is a Certified Scrum Trainer (CST®), Certified Professional Co-Active Coach (CPCC) agile and leadership coach, author, and international speaker. Judy is passionate about transforming teams and organization through the application of agile principles and values, and has positively impacted the culture, values and productivity of hundreds of teams and organizations, large and small.


Judy’s long history with the Federal Government, as mathematician, computer scientist, and traditional software manager, has provided her with a keen perspective on how agility works in regulated industries. She has been able to leverage that expertise in private sector organizations as well and has had the privilege of helping shape major agile transformations in both the public and private sector.


Judy is also an educated interior designer and is passionate about guiding agile transformation in the interior design and construction industry.


Judy is a Founding Partner of Sticky Agile LLC, a small woman-owned agile training and coaching firm based in Florida. She holds a BS in Mathematics from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, an MS in Computer Science from The Johns Hopkins University and an MS in Interior Design from Ball State University.