Welcome to the Net Objectives Resources and Support

This resources page has been set up for several reasons. If you are new to Net Objectives, it’ll give you small taste of some of the things we do. Guests get access to a few things on each of the resource pages. We group our resources by topic (see the toolbar on the left). If you register (simple and quick) you’ll get access to a lot more information. We only send Agile news and training notices twice a month to you and other Agile practitioners worldwide, and we never sell or rent your information to anyone.

On these pages you’ll find lots of good information. We’ve written many original papers which you can find classified as Articles. Tagged as Webinars are many of our recorded webinars as well as our self-running PowerPoint training videos with audio (also dubbed streamzines). There are literally days of free training available on these pages if you register.

If you have questions, please click on "User Groups" at the bottom of the toolbar and you’ll see a couple of groups we lurk on. We love for people to ask us questions and we’ll be sure to answer them in a reasonable amount of time.

Virtually every Net Objectives consultant is a thought leader in the industry.  We've included some of the articles written by them in a variety of journals to provide both a good start as well as a demonstration of the range of materials provided. I've included them in an order that would be good for someone new to Lean and/or Agile methods.

Where to Begin Your Transition to Lean-Agile. Alan Shalloway. 12/09.  Too many organizations assume that the place to start their Agile transition is at the team. It often is not.  This article discusses what to consider when starting a transition to Agile methods.

An Overview of Lean-Agile Methods. Alan Shalloway. 9/10. This article provides an overview of the more popular Lean-Agile methods of the last decade, including XP, Scrum, Kanban and Lean.

Becoming Lean - The Why, What and How.   Alan Shalloway. 12/10. This article presents a different way of looking at Lean Software Development - one that is independent of Lean's manufacturing heritage. It begins by presenting Lean as a collection of a body of knowledge applying Lean principles to software development. It then shows how this creates a new paradigm of management, one that does not inevitably lead to micro-management or chaos. Finally, it concludes with a discussion about how organizations can use Lean to improve their ability to learn.

Using Lean-Agile to Provide the Real Value of ALM. Alan Shalloway. 10/10. This article discusses how to use Lean-Thinking to guide Agile transitions.

Using Product Portfolio Management to Improve the Efficiency of Teams. Alan Shalloway.4/10. Many organizations fail in rolling out Agile methods to the organization because they never truly address the real impediment their development organization is facing - too many, too large, poorly understood, projects.

Demystifying Kanban. This article describes Kanban as a systems approach to software development that affects many different types of behaviors.  It also mentions a few of the common misconceptions people have about Kanban in order to help clarify what Kanban is and is not.

Challenging Why (Not if) Scrum Works. Alan Shalloway. 9/07. Why does Scrum work? The answer may surprise you.  It also opens up why you must always go beyond practices and look at the principles on which they are built.

Lean Anti-Patterns and What to do About Them. Alan Shalloway. 8/07. In this article, we will discuss a few common Lean Anti-Patterns. Anti-Patterns are commonly recurring practices that are counterproductive.  We call them "Lean" Anti-Patterns because these anti-patterns result from violating Lean principles.  Lean principles form the basis for Scrum practices.  Looking at how Lean Anti-Patterns violate lean principles gives us insight into how we need to modify our practices to be more effective.

Driving Enterprise Agility from the Program Management Office. Kelley Horton & Guy Beaver. 7/10. This is an experience report from one of our clients that discusses how they improved their IT effectiveness by focusing on the Program Management Office. Kelley is from Premier while Guy is the Net Objectives consultant who assisted them.

Agile Conversations. Guy Beaver, Alan Chedalawada. 3/08. This article is a collection of conversations that demonstrates some of the tangible and intangible benefits of a successful Agile implementation. 

An Introductory Acceptance Test. Ken Pugh. 3/10. This article is an excerpt from Ken Pugh's upcoming book - "Lean-Agile Acceptance Test Driven Development."