March 2, Lean-Agile Newsletter |
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| Hi Subscriber: It’s been a busy month again. I’ve been traveling a lot, doing quite a few webinars (some of them internal to clients) and working with lots of teams. I am more convinced that Lean-Agile methods at the business and management team are absolutely necessary for organizations of more than 50 people and that using Kanban or Scrumban is virtually always better than Scrum. Some people consider this almost sacrilegious. But is it really surprising that a better team process than one that was invented 15 years ago has been created? I’ve been in this industry and few things in it have had a lifespan of more than 5 years.
I’ve got quite a few blogs and two more podcasts about our book. While there is no silver bullet, this book represents a significant advance over standard agile methods. We’re so confident of its potential impact to the industry that we’re giving away 100 copies a select few (see the Business & Management Related section to see if you qualify).
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| Business & Management Related If you are really serious about transitioning to Business Agility, I invite you to join our webinar series on Business Driven Software Development. If you are making a transition to agile methods and have 100 or more people reporting to you, please see how to get a free copy of our book Lean-Agile Software Development: Achieving Enterprise Agility. BTW: You can get your manager (or manager’s manager) to get a copy from us and have you read it for him/her. Blog: How to Affect Change by Alan Shalloway
I’ve been working with several organizations and notice several patterns in many of them. Here’s some insights I have about how attempting change affects people. Read more... |
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| Team Agility Blog: Scrumbutters to Scrumdamentalists - We're Mad as Hell and Aren't Going to Take it Anymore by Alan Shalloway
I keep hearing Scrum Alliance leaders saying that people who are doing Scrum But... or who are not successful with Scrum are not motivated or disciplined. I think this is incredibly disrespectful and ignores the fact that perhaps, shortcomings of Scrum may be at cause. Before you read on, let me give a disclaimer. This is not intended to be read by anyone who provides Scrum training or consulting. If you are a Scrum trainer or coach, please stop reading now. This is for those of you who have been trying to implement Scrum and are having challenges in doing so. This is especially to those of you who call yourselves (or are called by others) “Scrum Butters” (that is, those who do Scrum But...). If you are in this latter category, please read on. My message has three parts. Read more... |
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| Podcast: Going Beyond Scrum, Part 1 by Alan Shalloway and Jim Trott
Chapter 5 of the new book, Lean-Agile Software Development: Achieving Enterprise Agility, discusses "Going beyond Scrum." This is a big chapter, so we are going to take it in two parts. First, we want to consider the implications of the maturing and segmentation of the Scrum community and two key factors required for being able to scale Scrum to an enterprise: taking a systemic approach and looking at the team holistically, how it fits with and must work within the organization. Next time, we will look at Kanban, managing the flow of work, and using the Scrum clinic to (reusing) good practices learned by others. Read more...
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| Podcast: Reflections on a New Year: Part 2 by Alan Shalloway and Jim Trott
We continue reflecting about the trends in 2010 and areas in which Net Objectives will be investing some of its energy and thought as we help to serve our partners and customers. In this podcast, we talk more about transitions: the team that is involved, how it helps to think about the entire value stream. Read more... |
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| Blog: Why a Kanban Board is a Value Stream Map but a Scrum Board Isn't - and What This Tells Us by Alan Shalloway
I had an interesting conversation with Masa Maeda of Shojiki Solutions a few days ago. Somewhere in the conversation the observation that a kanban board was a value stream map (VSM) was mentioned. A value stream map shows your workflow as well as the time it takes to do the work. Read more... |
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| Blog: The Importance of Going Top-Down With Agile Requirements by Alan Shalloway
It is essential that teams understand what the business value of the stories they are working on is. We must always remember that the software we are developing is useless, in and of itself. What is useful is what it enables – either by our customers (if we are a product company) or by our own staff using it (if we are in IT). Stories always need to be pieces of the business solutions – either providing it or creating the infrastructure to provide it. We call the visibility of this relationship between stories and the business value they create "Line of Sight." Read more... |
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| Technical Agility Webinar: Avoiding Over and Under Design In Agile Projects by Alan Shalloway
I’ve submitted this seminar for the Agile 2010 conference. This is not a new concept but is an essential one for agile developers. This webinar focuses on what developers must attend to when building systems with Agile methods. It discusses an alternative to the choices of: - Design for the future which often results in overdesign
- Not designing at all which often makes code difficult to change
Read more...
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| Hope you find this valuable. Please let me know if we can be of any assistance.
Regards,
Alan Shalloway
CEO, Net Objectives
Achieving Enterprise and Team Agility |
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