Lean-Agile Software Development for Directors and Managers

Course Tabs

Course Overview

Summary:

This two-day course is intended to be taken by management and leads either in preparation for transitioning their organization to Lean-Agile methods or just to learn more about Lean Software Development. This course is heavy on interaction and discussing how lean can be introduced successfully in the organization. The course teaches the basics of Lean Software Development by presenting an integration of several different Lean viewpoints. It covers detailed principles of Lean Software Development as well as Value Stream Mapping. Participants create a Value Stream Map of one of their current processes near the start of the course and complete the course by doing a value stream map of the improved process they would create as a result of the course. Using Lean principles to manage product portfolios is also discussed. A brief overview of Agile methods is also included.

Attendees will learn both the importance of using Lean-Thinking as a way to drive their business as well as what is needed to help their development groups manifest the lean principles in undertaking agile development. The material covered in this course is similar to our Lean-Agile Software Development for Executives and Managers but has more time to go more deeply into the issues.

Note: This course is a slightly abbreviated version of our Transitioning Your Organization to Lean-Agile Software Development . It is intended for larger organizations' higher management where the actual transition is being undertaken by mid-management and teams.

Course Objectives:

To enable executives and directors understand how to use lean principles to transform their organization
To provide the context for developing software faster, with higher quality and lower cost
To create a new paradigm of software development that integrates people and process
To enable participants to see the cost of poor quality in the software development cycle
To improve the awareness of the importance of fast-flexible flow
To underscore the importance of using process as a baseline for change.

Target Audience:

Business and Strategy Development

Management

Lean Implementation

Transitioning to Agile

Agile

Lean-Agile

Primary Audience:

Executives, directors, managers, team leaders, architects, business analysts, product managers, project managers.

Secondary Audience:

Any member of the development team

Learning Objectives:

How to develop a value stream map for a software development organization and what to do once you have the map.
How to reorganize the software development process around workcells and simplify project management.
How to assess the state of the basic disciplines which determine your software development process capability.
How to organize a visual workplace so that everyone knows the most important thing to do next without being told.
To design a decision-making process which simultaneously delivers high speed, high quality and low cost.
To integrate your QA team to improve the development process, not just attempt quality in at the end.
To gauge the capacity of your software development organization and limit work to match that capacity.

Course Outline

Business Agility
- Business Case for Agility
- Delivering value quickly
  - Agile Planning
  - Annual Vs Quarterly Planning
- Fast-Flexible Flow
  - Value
  - Value Stream
  - Flow
  - Pull
  - Perfection
- The Current Value Stream exercise
- Principles of Lean Software Development
  - Eliminate Waste
  - Amplify Learning
  - Delay Commitment
  - Deliver Fast
  - Build Integrity In
  - Empower the Team
  - See the Whole
Management's Role in Agile
Team Agility
- The Lean-Agile Connection
- Key metrics
- Products Vs. Projects
- Future Value Stream exercise
- Impediments to Lean
- Transitioning to Lean
Summary

Full Description

Our Lean Enterprise model targets three essential areas: Business (Principals and End Users), Management, and Development teams. This course prepares the organization for the application of Lean-Agile methods and processes so that rapid delivery of business value is achieved. The approach presented is based around the Lean model of flow designed to achieve Enterprise Agility (that is, the ability for the enterprise to respond quickly to both internal and external changes). This ‘flow’ model is represented in the following figure where ideas come from customers (internal and external), are selected by business and developed by teams. Management’s role is to create the proper organizational structure and methods that maximizes the speed and quality of development while lowering costs.

value stream

The responsibilities of the different areas are as follows:

Business
- Prioritize features by highest end user value
- 'Drive’ the development efforts to incrementally deliver
- Portfolio Management

Development Teams
- Focus on speed in delivering software functionality
- Must include functionality, maintainability, and extensibility
- Requires excellent engineering practices

Management
- Focus on the value stream (cycle time—idea to implementation)
- 'Drive' Continuous Standards Improvement
- Organizational guiding principles, impediment removal

The course centers on how to create a fast, flexible flow of customer value-add. Principles of Lean that facilitate this are:

Eliminate Waste
Create Knowledge
Respect People
Build Quality In
Defer Commitment
Deliver Fast
Optimize the Whole

The course teaches how to manifest these principles within the context of software development as product development. This is one of the distinctions of this course over mere Agile training. Agile Project Management focuses on managing a single project and perhaps coordinating several projects together. However, true software development should be focused on the products these projects relate to. Selecting products, scheduling projects for the products, balancing product loads, are business perspectives that Lean addresses while Agile methods do not. The focus of this course is on the mindset of Lean and the Lean-Agile Software Development process. The issues of architecture and how to evolve designs is only dealt with at a superficial level.

Some topics that are particular to Lean are:

Value stream maps
Utilization theory
Think products, not projects
Using QA to improve process
A focus on people and process – how to use process as a baseline for change
Work cells and how they can improve a process
How focusing on time can eliminate waste and improve value

Prerequisites

Recommended Prerequisites:

Experience in any aspect of software development, including management

Ready to Enroll?

If you don't see a scheduled public course in your area don't worry! We specialize in providing in-house training to meet your particular needs, or we can arrange a Public Course in your local area if you have 6 or more team members committed to attend.

View Full Course Schedule or Fill Out Our Inquiry Form