This blog is somewhat of a response to a comment on my JIT posting.

I really like The Goal and think the Theory of Constraints (TOC) is brilliant.   I believe it can be applied to software development in two ways.  One is very valuable and the other must be dealt with with great care.  First, the one to be careful.

This blog entry describes how a solid understanding of Just-In-Time (JIT) can give great insights into the differences between Waterfall and Agile methods.  I want to acknowledge the Poppendieck’s work for giving me the insights I am sharing today. Any failings, are mine, however. I highly recommend their latest Implementing Lean Software Development: From Concept to Cash.  It incorporates not only their earlier Lean Software Development Principles, but also the thoughts of Taichi Ohno and Womack and Jones – two consistent, but different ways of looking at what Lean is. 

Hi all.  I’m on “vacation” in San Diego this week.  I’m kind of splitting time between vacation, reflecting on business and writing my Lean-Agile Anti-Patterns book. Today,  I wanted to discuss the difference between what I think are normal Scrum practices and what could be called “Lean-Scrum”, or what we, at Net Objectives, call Lean-Agile. I hope to write a blog entry each day of this week, so please stay tuned.

Post-Agile Scrum (audio of the webinar)

The Agile Manifesto and the Agile movement have ushered in a new way of developing software. Today, many practitioners are discovering limitations to the usual approach to Agile which focuses mostly on local teams and projects. This limited focus developed as a reaction to heavy processes and teams' inability to make their own commitments. This resulted in many leading Agile practitioners to advocate an approach to "let the team figure it out," going so far as to state that the beauty of the Agile approach (such as Scrum) is that it avoids any kind of prescriptive formula. Yes, prescriptive formulas can be dangerous; however, having a set of principles to guide Agile practices can be extremely useful. Moreover, incorporating Lean management practices are critical for extending the capabilities of an organization using Agile methods.

Today, what is required is helping the entire enterprise become Agile. What is an Agile enterprise? An enterprise that can respond quickly to customer, environment and internal changes to create a competitive advantage. This requires much more than merely trying to apply practices that work for local teams to the entire enterprise - that approach is too simplistic. This Agile Enterprise-perspective is one of the biggest differences between current Agile practitioners and those going beyond Scrum.

These and other questions are pondered by Alan Shalloway in a webinar on Post-Agile Scrum, presented January 24, 2008. The webinar is available to registered users of the Net Objectives website for 30 days and to Net Objectives customers always. However,  read more »

While I usually don't use the blog for cross-promotion, this webinar is probably something you want to listen to if you are at all interested in Lean Software Development. This is the basic 60 minute seminar that Alan Shalloway gives all around the country on Lean Thinking. Definitely worth a listen. Find it at www.netobjectives.com/webinars/aligning-with-lean This webinar is available to all registered users of the website until December 9, 2007 and then to Net Objectives customers after that.

After Action Reviews are one of the primary methods for learning-while-doing. One can think of the Scrum Retrospection as one type of AAR. I have implemented the AAR widely in organizations, both technical and business, both small team and larger organizations. It is a simple technique that you should consider using in your organization in your journey toward lean.

Now, Quality Press, the publishing arm of the American Society for Quality, has published a new book on this powerful technique called How Organizations Learn: Investigate, Identify, Institutionalize by Patrick Townsend and Joan Gebhardt. It is certainly recommended reading.

Note: If you are a member of ASQ, you can get the book for a 40% discount.

If you have any questions about AAR, I would be more than happy to talk with you!

 read more »

Michael Kennedy is a leading expert on Lean and Product Development. He is the author of Product Development for the Lean Enterprise: Why Toyota's System Is Four Times More Productive and How You Can Implement It, a book you definitely want on your bookshelf if you are interested in Lean Product Development.

Recently, I was coaching a team that was relatively new to Agile. We were in a planning session and it was obvious to me that something was bothering one of the members of the team. During a break, I went up to this person, told her my observations and asked her if everything was ok . She responded simply by saying, "I can't wait to get back to my real work."

Enterprise Agility

Often, organizations invite us in to help them think about how to bring Agile into their development practices. The initial focus is often at the local team level. Our experience is that this is not the best place to start. Instead, we prefer to look for pain points that the organization is feeling in their development work, and we talk with local teams to get indicators of these points.

• What is stopping you from delivering the value to customers that you feel you should?
• What opportunities do you see and what waste is there?

We can predict some of the answers depending on whether it is an IT organization or a product organization. IT organizations tend to have people working on more than one project at a time whereas in product organizations, people usually focus on one project. This means that IT organizations often have less connection to the business and have more contention for resources. These are all opportunities for improvement that may or may not involve changes at the local team level.

Enterprise Agility, Systems Thinking

“Enterprise Agility” focuses on helping the overall development organization be more able to respond to the needs of the business. It starts by looking at what needs to be done and then on how to do it. Probably, this will involve Agile at the local team level, but that might not be the best place to start.  read more »

Alan Shalloway has started a regular series of webinars on Lean and Agile topics. The recordings of these webinars are available to registered users of the www.netobjectives.com website in the Resources Page for 30-days and to students and customers after that.

Here are some webinar recordings on these topics: