Karl Scotland – Using Agile to Deliver Value
Archive for February, 2010
Systems Thinking, The Vanguard Method and Software Development
Feb 25th
I’ve recently read John Seddon’s “Freedom from Command and Control“, which introduces his approach to Systems Thinking – the Vanguard Method. A few key points really struck home with me and helped clarify my thoughts on some of the challenges I’ve come across recently.
First is the following simple diagram, which shows that Management is responsible for defining the System, which is ultimately what defines Performance. Management’s role should be to analyse Performance, and change the System to improve it.
Agile initiatives are usually begun in order to improve performance. Seddon says that in order to analyse Performance, we first need to understand the Purpose of the System. Then we should create Measures to provide knowledge of how well we are meeting that Purpose, before finally applying a Method which meets that Purpose, using the Measures to help refine the Method.
Finally, Seddon says that understanding Purpose involves understanding Demand, and in particular, Seddon introduces the concepts of Value Demand and Failure Demand. Value Demand is what do our customers ask us to do because it add value, and Failure Demand is what our customers ask us to do because we failed to something, or do something right in the first place.
I’m increasingly aware of Lean and Agile methods being used for the sake of it. While Scrum, XP and Kanban will generally serve common software delivery Purposes, such as delivering real benefits and in short timescales, using them without recognising the Purpose will often result in no real improvement in Performance. Lean and Agile methods are often used just as alternative delivery approaches within an existing System, rather than as means to change the System itself. These organisations can be thought of as “wall-dwellers”, using a method within existing boundaries, rather than “wall-movers”, moving the boundaries to help create a System which helps meet the Purpose. To quote (or paraphrase) Russell Ackoff, this is “doing the wrong thing righter, rather than doing the right thing”.
Do you know what the Purpose of your software development process is? Do you have Measures about capability against that Purpose? Do you know what your Value and Failure Demand is?
LeanSSC Atlanta 2010 and other Conferences
Feb 24th
I’ve just updated my Calendar page with where I’m speaking this year so far (or hoping to), and thought it would be worth adding some more details in a post.
The conference I’m most looking forward to is the inaugural LeanSSC Conference in Atlanta in April (21-23) which is the place to find out about “the next wave of process innovation”: Lean, Pull Systems and Kanban.
If you are interested in applying Lean concepts to software and systems development then this is the conference to attend. It will have the best people in Lean and Kanban, and the best and largest quantity of Lean content. A significant number of the speakers are not part of the regular Agile community so this is your chance to see them. Here’s some other reasons why you might want to go:
- Learn lean development approaches with a focus on scientific, model based solutions.
- See how to tailor lean methods to your unique work situation.
- Find proven approaches that let development and management work together on a system design level.
- Get pragmatic, actionable advice, delivered by people with field experience presenting metrics and data.
I’ll be giving a new talk on “A Kanban Multiverse”. Here’s the abstract:
Wikipedia defines a Multiverse as the hypothetical set of multiple possible universes that together comprise everything that physically exists: the entirety of space and time, all forms of matter, energy and momentum, and the physical laws and constants that govern them. A Kanban Multiverse can be defined as the hypothetical set of multiple possible Kanban Boards that together comprise everything that physically could be visualised: the entirety of scope and time, all forms of work type, status and flow, and the organisational laws and constants that govern them. This talk will explore how a single Kanban Board might visualise these multiple aspects in a limited and constrained space.
The other exciting conference for me is going to be the Scrum Gathering in Orlando next month (match 8-10). I’m really honoured to have invited to run a deep dive workshop on Kanban. Its going to be structured round what I refer to as the Five Primary Practices (see here and here), with exercises and discussion to explore how Kanban Systems are compatible with Scrum.
The other two confirmed conferences are ACCU 2010 and SPA 2010 where I’ll be talking about Five Steps to Kanban and running a Kanban Game respectively.
Finally, its the Agile2010 submission process at the moment. I have two submissions in, and am a panel member on a third. If you have a user account (why wouldn’t you? 
) please give them feedback to help them get accepted!
