Go to Net Objectives Lean-Kanban Conference 2012 Denver page

Lean Software Development Comes of Age - Alan Shalloway
9:00am-10:00am.
Keynote
Lean Software Development has deep roots. Lean jumped into the software world about a decade ago but has still mostly been considered an extension of the main body of Lean, which is rooted in manufacturing. This has presented challenges both in explaining what lean is (software development is not manufacturing or even physical product development) and in ignoring the differences software has to the physical world. The addition of Kanban as a team transition and management method has vastly expanded our set of principles and practices avaiiable to software development organizations (IT and product). This, along with our years of experience teaching and coaching with Lean, have had us come to the conclusion that it is better to have Lean Software stand on tis own. Much like physics was created by Newton, it is not owned by Newton, Lean may have sprang up from Toyota, but now Toyota is merely an excellent example of it in the domain of cars. This presentation will discuss Lean as a combination os system and people dynamics organized around science, management and education.

An Executive's View of Lean-Agile - Alan Shalloway
10:30am-11:30am.
Executive & Business Track
This tutorial answers the questions many executives have about Agile. It discusses why incremental delivery of business value is critical. It shows how Agile, in conjunction with Lean Software Development can help them with issues most executives hold dear to their heart - improving time to market, increased visibility, predictability, quality and metrics. By taking a business approach, executives are shown how Agile is not just for teams, but is something that can make their job more effective as well.

• The difference between scaling Agile (going from bottom up) to Agile at Scale (the enterprise can respond quickly)
• Why Enterprise Agility and Team Agility are different things
• Why building in stages increases profit, raises quality, lowers risk, increases market share.
• What a Minimal Marketable Feature is
• Why one must balance one’s portfolio between projects with different types of returns
• Why improving visibility at the business, management and team levels is essential for successful Agile at the enterprise
• Why Agile can improve one’s ability to predict the productivity of the organization
• What are the metrics for success
• How Scrum, XP and Lean have different scopes in the enterprise
• Why more value is achieved by eliminating delays between work than in doing the work faster
• Why it is important to get the right people to work on the right things at the right time
• Why matrixed organizations are very unproductive
• How to manage multiple teams with multiple projects
• How to do Enterprise Release Planning by focusing on the release of the most important features
• What checklist for going Agile one should follow
• How to get a partner in going Agile and what to look for

Introduction to Kanban in 8 Steps - Ken Pugh
10:30am-11:30am.
Kanban & Developer Track
This workshop walks the attendees through the concepts that may be new to them as they learn about the Kanban method for knowledge work. It presents Kanban in a step-wise manner, creating an understanding of each step before proceeding to the next for a complete picture of the Kanban Method.

The Role of the Product Owner and Development of Minimal Marketable Features (MMFs) - Alan Shalloway
12:30pm-1:30pm.
Executive & Business Track
Description:
We will present an overview of how to define, prioritize, and sequence releasable increments of business value for Projects.
Topics include:

• Business Product Owner responsibilities
• Business evolution vs. System evolution
• Using Business value to define increments
• Ensuring ‘readiness’ of defined increments for teams to work on
• Managing Discovery
• Using Visual Controls / Reports to Drive and manage what teams are delivering

Acceptance Test-Driven Development - Ken Pugh
12:30pm-1:30pm.
Kanban & Developer Track
One of the major challenges facing any development organization, large and small, enterprise to startup, is to satisfy their customers. All too often software is delivered and does not meet the customer’s needs. The effects of defects negatively impact the customers, developers, management and their relationships. The solution is surprisingly simple – Acceptance Test Driven Development. ATDD is a process for achieving consensus across all pertinent stakeholders before work commences. By practicing ATDD the organization can ensure that the implemented software delivers what needs to be delivered, no more, no less leading to increased satisfaction and reduced waste. In this presentation we will introduce ATDD, who partakes in it, and how to commence with the rollout in the organization.

Lean Product Management From Business Stakeholders to the Team - Alan Shalloway
2:15pm-3:15pm.
Executive & Business Track
Agile and Lean take two different approaches to product management. Agile has historically concerned itself with team based approaches and then scaled them to the enterprise. Hence, the role of the product owner to tell the team what to do. Lean has always suggested starting with the entire value stream in mind. This affords a different approach – one starting from the beginning of the value stream.

While the product owner approach works fine for a company where each team is associated with one product, it falls short in organizations where there are multiple product lines associated with multiple teams in a many-to-many manner. Many product owners attempt to overcome this complexity via heroic efforts, but a better set of roles, responsibilities and communication is required for effectiveness, efficiency and sustainability.

This talk presents a structure for coordinating multiple business stakeholders across multiple development teams. It discusses the roles of the business stakeholder, product manager, product owner and teams in the flow of information from concept through consumption by the customer. The concepts are based on the principles of lean-product flow and have been successfully demonstrated at several large organizations. In addition, the seminar will discuss how coordinating the backlog of features provided to different teams can lower the amount of coordination required between the teams themselves.

TDD & Refactoring - Ken Pugh
2:15pm-3:15pm.
Kanban & Developer Track
Test-Driven Development has gained a strong foothold among many development teams, but as popular as it has often become, many organizations struggle to keep the testing effort sustainable over a long period of time. As test suites become large, they tend to become significantly difficult and time consuming to maintain, which is required to keep the TDD effort alive. Similarly, disciplined refactoring skills have become, for many, an essential part of a development team's toolkit, espcecially when confronted with large amounts of legacy code. However, the effort it can take to refactor a system can be difficult to weigh against the business value of new development; spending time on one would seem to limit the time spent on the other. The purpose of this presentation is to create a context for TDD and refactoring focusing on those specific elements that allow them to be conducted in a sustainable way.

Transitioning your Organization to Lean-Agile - Alan Shalloway
4:00pm-5:00pm.
Executive & Business|Kanban & Developer Tracks
Description:
This talk provides an overview of the topics, effort and areas impacted when implementing Lean-Agile across your organization.
Topics include:

• Introducing and evangelizing Lean-Agile
• Establishing a roadmap and plan
• Identifying responsibilities and setting expectations
• Introducing Lean-agile Principles and Practices
• Establishing internal competencies
• Managing Rollout and expansion
• Achieving sustainability