I just returned from the Lean Software and Systems conference in Boston. There was a definite common thread around learning cultures and a focus on treating our industry as a set of scientific experiments. The heavy influence from the Lean Startup movement was prevalent. Here are some of my takeaways for those that were not able to attend.
Steven Spear
- Greatness is achieved by increasing the pace of learning
David Anderson
- Kanban Principles
Start with what you do now
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Agree to pursue incremental evolutionary change
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Initially respect current roles responsibilities and job titles
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Encourage acts of leadership at all levels from individual contributor to senior management
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Implement feedback mechanisms added
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Steps for converting to Kanban
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Understand sources of dissatisfaction
From viewpoint of internal and external
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Source of variability that cause dissatisfaction
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Demand and capability analysis
By work item type and class of service
- Model workflow
Understand the knowledge discovery process by type
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Kanban system design
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Visualization
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Roll out plan
Steven Denning
- Dude's Law - David Hussman
Value - Why/How
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Focus on the Outcome
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The only valid purpose of a firm is to create a customer
Not create shareholder value
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Switch your focus from Outputs to Outcomes
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Customer Delight = Providing a continuous stream of value to customers and delivering it sooner
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The goal is to delight the customer. Everything else is a means to getting there
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Less is more. Aim for the simplest thing.
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Costs will come down because you will only focus on things that delight your customer
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Commands kill conversation
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Money kills inspiration
Dominica DeGrandis - Kanban for IT Operations
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Need to get visibility to dependencies because they carry risk
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Design your SLA's into your board. Create timeline like tick marks across your in progress column and move items each day.
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Problems with board where there are names for swimlanes
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Standups are focused on individuals
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Perception of poor performance
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Limits Collaboration
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Focus on utilization
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Pigeon hole folks
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Bring visibility to skill levels of different skills required on team
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Make interrupts visible
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Institute the Goalie.
Handles small interrupts
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Rotates Weekly
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Expands Knowledge base
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Gain flexibility in team
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Make a policy on when the team should create a ticket for something (i.e. takes more than 4 hours)
Jeff Patton
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Focus on Value
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Don't focus on maximizing the output, focus on maximizing the impact of the outcomes
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Think beyond the edges of the Kanban board
Arne Roock and Markus Andrezak
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"Projects" are like waterfall containers that have planning, time constraints, focus, budget and purpose
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Replace projects with epics that align to strategic goal/ outcomes. Let the team work to achieve those outcomes
Don Reinertsen
- Compared Software to Firefighting, "You don't just say this is a complex adaptive problem so we can't create a plan"
Jim Benson
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Change happens in evolutionary leaps
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Kaizen is a status quo monster
Misc
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Can run simulations through board http://www.focusedobjective.com/
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"Standard" is just the status quo written down
