The Agile Jedi: Stoic Principles for Complex Engineering Problems

Software teams face constant pressure. Deadlines, unclear requirements, failing integrations, and fast-changing priorities create noise that can slow down even experienced engineers. This talk introduces a practical way to stay focused and make clear decisions by combining engineering practice, Scrum values, and Stoic principles. You will see how calm reasoning, clear responsibility, and controlled reactions help teams solve difficult problems without escalating stress. The session includes examples from real development work. Legacy code cleanups, performance firefighting, and cross-team communication serve as the basis for simple tools you can apply immediately. Attendees leave with a mindset and set of habits that improve daily engineering work and strengthen collaboration.

Systems Thinking for Performance: How to Diagnose and Fix Slow Systems without Guessing

Modern systems fail in ways that are hard to trace. Slow queries, blocked sessions, memory pressure, unstable integrations, and reporting workloads often overlap. Many teams respond with guesswork, which leads to partial fixes and more confusion. This session shows a structured way to diagnose performance problems using Systems Thinking and proven engineering practices. You will see how to read the signals from SQL Server, how to track production bottlenecks, how to separate workloads that compete for resources, and how to connect symptoms across services. Real examples from ERP, APIs, and reporting systems illustrate common patterns and failure modes. Attendees walk away with a repeatable process to find root causes faster, improve stability, and reduce stress during incidents.

Scrum, Stoicism, and Systems Thinking: Finding Order in Complexity

How do we navigate complexity and find clarity in challenging projects? This session dives into the synergy between Scrum, Stoicism, and Systems Thinking to uncover a framework for overcoming obstacles and driving success in Business Central implementations. Explore how Stoic virtues like wisdom and discipline align with Scrum principles such as adaptability and focus. Learn how Systems Thinking helps manage interconnected processes and dependencies in ERP systems. By blending philosophy, agile practices, and technical expertise, this session offers actionable insights to bring order to even the most complex projects.

Get Your Gloves On: Lean into Agile with Ivan & Sarah

Agile and Lean Six Sigma are often treated as opponents in a boxing match. Round by round, sprint by sprint, phase by phase – at odds with each other in a fundamental way with one focused on speed, the other on process stability and precision.

In reality, both share a common goal: continuous improvement and delivering tangible business value. Agile dons its satin robe through adaptability and feedback loops, while Lean Six Sigma brings to the ring structured problem-solving, waste reduction, and data-driven decisions. Together, they form a powerful foundation for resilient, high-performing teams delivering the KO in business value.

Attendees will not just learn the fundamental tenets of Lean Six Sigma and Agile, but also walk away with an understanding of how both approaches can work together to create stronger teams, smarter processes, and better technical and business outcomes. As we look to the future, how teams can, should, and would ethically leverage AI in a discussion of real world use case retrospective what-ifs.

Get out your gloves, and ring the bell! Round one starts now!

This session is co-presented Sarah F. Wimberley: https://sessionize.com/sarahfwimberley

Shaping the Future of AI: Ethics in a World of Constant Change

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is at the center of nearly every conversation about innovation today from promise and opportunity, to the acceleration and organizational transformation. With every step forward on the path, we must also consider the paths not travelled as well as those above, beyond, and alongside us.
As the use of AI continues to evolve at an unprecedented pace in every facet of society, we have to balance the drive for innovation with the need to maintain trust, transparency, and accountability. Traditional ethical frameworks still apply, and by combining virtue ethics with contextual integrity, leaders can better navigate the complex challenges that arise when AI is integrated into business processes, decision-making, and customer experiences.
Through the discussion of real world case studies, we'll explore both the successes and failures of AI across industries. We’ll discuss how AI is reshaping the way we work, communicate, and make decisions, while identifying practical approaches for anyone, regardless of title, to design, govern, and influence AI.
The future of AI will not be determined by technology alone - it will be shaped by the intentional choices we make today. As a result of this discussion, participants will understand the opportunities, risks, and responsibilities associated with AI, as well as how they can play a meaningful role in creating a future where innovation and ethics advance together.

This session is co-presented Sarah F. Wimberley: https://sessionize.com/sarahfwimberley

From Firefighting to Mojo. Performance Lessons from On-Prem BC That Still Apply in the Cloud

Performance problems in Business Central rarely come from infrastructure alone. They usually emerge from design decisions, mixed workloads, and limited visibility into system behavior. This session shares real-world lessons from stabilizing a heavily loaded on-prem Business Central environment that struggled with recurring performance incidents over a long period.

Rather than focusing on deep SQL internals, the talk distills transferable performance patterns that remain relevant for Business Central SaaS. Topics include identifying early warning signals, separating reporting and operational workloads, designing batch processes responsibly, and improving observability before users feel the pain.

Each lesson is mapped from an on-prem symptom to its SaaS equivalent, helping cloud teams avoid repeating familiar mistakes under a different hosting model. The session also touches on the human side of performance work. How engineering decisions, prioritization, and ownership models influence whether teams stay stuck in reactive mode or move toward predictable delivery and stability.

This is a practical experience report aimed at users, partners, and ISVs who want fewer incidents and a calmer operating model.

What attendees will learn

Common root causes behind recurring Business Central performance issues

Which on-prem performance lessons still apply to SaaS environments

How to recognize reporting and batch workload risks early

How team decisions affect system stability and response times