Redefining Lean

 Report from Lean Kanban 2009

Kanban is an emerging practice in Lean software development. Founded on solid principles of flow and utilization theory, it seems to address many of the issues people have had with Agile approaches. Over the next few years, Lean Kanban is going to become an important part of the software professional's toolkit.

The Lean Kanban Conference 2009, May 6-9, 2009 in Miame, brought together practitioners and thought leaders to discuss how to help the community go forward. This podcast is a report by Alan Shalloway about what he, Guy Beaver, and Alan Chedalawada (all from Net Objectives) learned from this special event.

Over the next few weeks, Alan will be posting some blogs about what he learned at the conference. See blogs.netobjectives.com. It will be the topic of several upcoming podcasts on Lean-Agile Straight Talk. 

You can learn more about this conference at www.leankanbanconference.com/

And make your plans now to attend the UK Lean Kanban conference in September. For information, see www.ukleanconference.com

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 Three Things You Gotta Know

Lean is a pragmatic framework for absorbing principles and practices that other people have learned and putting them to work in large organizations. It can feel overwhelming. It is rich and there are many, many techniques and practices. It is always growing as it absorbs more good practices. That's why people can make careers out of Lean.

But you don't have to know all of Lean before you can get started. And you don't have to even be committed to becoming Lean to get the benefit from using Lean a little. In this show, Alan Shalloway discusses some of the essentials that you do need to know in order to get started.

 Getting to the Benefits

It has been estimated that 75% of companies undertaking Scrum are not experiencing the benefits they expected. Why do you suppose this is? Why don't we take time to stop, observe, and improve our processes? Why is lean perhaps a more natural starting point for the enterprise?

These are some of the questions explored by Alan Shalloway in today's podcast.

But first, Alan invites you to come to the Lean Kanban 2009 conference in Miami May 6-8, 2009. Join David Anderson, Josh Kerievski, Peter Middleton, Alan Shalloway, and other industry thought leaders as we consider together the next wave of software management and leadership. It offers the chance to interact in a small attendee/speaker ratio.

 Understanding Why Scrum Works (audio of the webinar)

Scrum# is an extension to Scrum that was developed by Net Objectives to solve challenges that were being encountered by many teams adopting Scrum. Read about more about the issues which Scrum# was created to solve.

A webinar on September 02, 2008 presented by Alan Shalloway discusses why Scrum works and how Lean's metaphor of Fast-Flexible-Flow can be used to modify standard Scrum practices as needed. Additionally, Scrum#'s enterprise view and Lean Management philosophy will be the basis for creating an Enterprise/Organization wide team to manage dependencies across teams without command and control.

 Database Agility

Databases are central to almost any software development project of any size. Developers have been gaining big improvements as they adopt Agile approaches: higher quality, more satisfaction, delivering more value to customers. It seems time for database developers to begin to experience the same gains!

But database development is special. It is not like just copying new bits into the environment. Databases need to retain their identity and the data that are in them. They have history and investment and must survive. Transitioning change is much harder and requires more care.

Is it possible to use iterative, Agile approaches with databases?

Yes it is. This podcast describes the landscape for doing so. Early adopters of this approach have learned the key principles involved and tools for testing and transition management are now available. Training is also available to equip teams with the new skills and ways of thinking that are required in order to be successful.

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 The Present and the Possible

There is a gap between what is possible and what is present - what is done - in the software industry. How much time and effort is wasted, how much re-inventing and re-discovery is done because we don't always understand the hard won insights from the past about what is required to create quality, sustainable product? How many companies have not realized the success of process improvements, like Agile, because they have not really understood its principles?

This gap, and the pain and waste it causes, is frustrating. Closing the gap involves a little re-orientation, becoming intentional to learn and try and adjust, to improve continually. To become more professional.

Professionals strive to build on the learnings of others. They avoid taking unnecessary shortcuts, especially when that could harm the product over the long term (imagine what would happen to the civil engineer who kludges together something for the last 2 feet of a bridge just to get it finished up or just to try some new, cool idea). They follow the best practices in how we develop and manage people, in the processes and methods we use, and in the proper way to use tools and technologies. 

 Avoiding Over- and Under-Design in Agile Projects (audio of the webinar)

Scrum# is an extension to Scrum that was developed by Net Objectives to solve challenges that were being encountered by many teams adopting Scrum. Read about more about the issues which Scrum# was created to solve.

A webinar on August 18, 2008 presented by Alan Shalloway focuses on what developers must attend to when building systems with Agile methods. It discusses an alternative to the choices of:  read more »

 Managing Requirements in Agile Projects with Scrum Sharp (audio of the webinar)

Scrum# is an extension to Scrum that was developed by Net Objectives to solve challenges that were being encountered by many teams adopting Scrum. Read about more about the issues which Scrum# was created to solve.

A webinar on August 18, 2008 presented by Alan Shalloway discusses how Scrum#'s enterprise and product focus improves on the standard method of managing with Epics and User Stories. By stepping back to include product portfolio management, Scrum# facilitates working on the right product features across the enterprise, not just working on the right stories in a project. Topics discussed include:  read more »

 Lean-Agile in Tough Times

In times of economic slowdown, you have many choices to make about how to allocate scarce time and people and money. Is it at all relevant to invest in Lean-Agile software development? Why? What would you say? Alan Shalloway believes it is more important than ever. And it is why he places so much emphasis on Lean for those who need to become more Agile.

Focusing on local team efficiency is good... teams become more able to create product with a minimum of wasted effort. But the more important objective - and even more so now - has to be ensuring that the organization is delivering true value to customers as quickly as possible. This requires the entire stream of product creation to working effectively. 

The goal is not really to speed up software development. The goal is to speed up delivery of software that customers can use. To be faster now and faster in the future. Perhaps you would call this Enterprise Agility.