A collection of incredibly impressive thinkers and leaders from around the world has converged in Boston for the Lean Software & Systems Conference. This issue covers some of the many takeaways ….
News
Sunday’s Lean Camp (facilitated by Jim Benson) provided some amazing eye openers. First, an opportunity to study two large Kanban implementations and discuss why one saw viral spread and the other didn’t. Next, we played Russell Healy’s new Kanban system design game for Operations teams. Lastly, Jason Yip facilitated a well attended session on learning. Takeaway - put yourself in uncomfortable settings to learn - else you risk falling back into your comfort zone.
Day 1
The opening keynote with Steven Spear focused on achieving greatness through learning.
Spear suggests, “Find out what’s wrong with what you are doing and go tell a friend.” An appealing storyteller, he demonstrates the need for senior leaders to demonstrate their need for more knowledge to motivate people to learn.
David Joyce kicked off the Kanban track Monday morning with a talk on moving beyond the traditional PMO to 21st century portfolio management. Takeaway – Include a “Study” column at the beginning of the board.
Lightening and Ignite talks enlightened us all quickly! Simon Marcus, @lycaonmarcus voiced his concern on the current trend of management bashing. Between @stevenspear’s keynote and Simon’s lightening talk, my interpretation is the following if then statement:
if management is asking why
and not dictating
then don’t bash
Videos from talks will be available through lssc. In the meantime, slides from some talks have been posted on slideshare
Day 2 Troy Magennis incited discussions on how teams can work with upper management to get reliable estimates using the monte carlo simulation. Takeaway – The average is the worst value to use.
Mary Poppendieck’s talk on continuous feedback included an engaging and interactive discussion followed on set-based decision making versus Multiple Viable Product and a/b experiments.
Takeaway – These are not mutually exclusive, we just know when to do one or the other.
Day 3 Don Reinertsen rocked the main stage with his talk on decentralizing control. Taking examples from the US military and the forest fire service, there are too many takeaways to list, but here are my top three:
The important communication is lateral, and not from the top.
You have a duty to disagree if you believe otherwise.
If you think you can eliminate uncertainty, you’re delusional.
Next week the Lean Software and Systems conference in Boston will undoubtedly supply a plethora of buzz. Until then, here’s a series of blog posts from some prolific writers.
Four, yes that’s 4, new blog posts by David J Anderson on topics ranging from extending core Kanban practices to lack of roles to “certifying” trainers. Check them out. http://agilemanagement.net/index.php
Podcasts are a great forum for learning. One can replay the important bits as much as one wants to. This week’s kanban roundup includes two podcasts in addition to thoughtful articles on working with the Feds, variation and standups. Enjoy!
News
A thoughtful blog post titled, “Bringing Kanban to the Federal market space” looks at the challenges kanban practitioners face when working in the federal space and provides suggestions on how to make progress. I found the advice to, “save your political capital for a later day” insightful. http://blog.leankitkanban.com/2012/04/bringing-kanban-to-the-federal-market-space/#more-1315
I’m proud to be the opening key note speaker at the first Lean Kanban Southern Europe Conference in Madrid, Spain next month. This small event is an attempt to emulate the first Lean Kanban conference in Miami in 2009 and catalyze the emergence of a strong community in Spain and Portugal. It’s a 2 day event with a single track of top quality international speakers the first day with 2 tracks on the 2nd day, one offering a full day of Spanish presentations with speakers from Spain, USA, Peru and Argentina. The pricing makes the event accessible for Spanish and Portuguese attendees in these tough economic times and makes this a truly low cost opportunity to learn Kanban and meet some of the leading practitioners from around Europe and further afield. There is still time to register. Pricing starts at 445 euros + VAT. Register now! Come enjoy Madrid and build your network of Limited WIP Society members
I’m particularly proud of the program we’ve put together for a smaller regional event. We’re working with the assumption that much of the audience will be new to Lean thinking in software product development and IT services and learning about Kanban for the first time. The first day is a single track designed to give attendees an overview and basic understanding of Kanban and how and where it is being used. This first day includes a presentation of the award winning Kanban implementation at BBVA by Atos Origin consultants, Oscar Garrido and Erika Weiss that earned them a Brickell Key Award nomination at the Lean Software & Systems Conference in Boston the following week.
The speaker lineup in Madrid is also very impressive as well as the quality of the businesses represented. Brickell Key award winner, David Joyce, on his way from Australia to Boston, will break his travel to give the 2nd key note. David is always an entertaining, informative speaker with beautiful presentations. As well as the BBVA case study from Spain, Angel Diaz, will present his experiences at ING Direct. Sticking with the financial industry, Eileen Shuter will tell the story of Vanguard, an American pensions firm, and their 3 year story of large scale Kanban adoption. From the media industry, we have Leopoldo Simini from Thomson Reuters in Argentina. Kevin Ryan will talk about portfolio level Kanban pioneered with the Financial Times. And at the other end of the scale, Nina Schwab from mobile search app startup, Tupalo in Vienna, will tell their Kanban story.
Explore the whole speaker line up for yourself. This is the truly unique opportunity to meet and share Lean and Kanban experience around Europe this spring. While a regional event, Greenlight PM have put together a high quality program and offer superb value for money. Don’t miss out. Register now! See you in Madrid!
SEP Teamworks launched a two minute video demonstrating the new Kanban features available for Team Foundation Server. http://www.sep.com/labs/teamworks/
