Early on, Simon suggested the name CALM, and it stuck almost immediately. I like it for a couple of reasons. Mashups invokes the idea of “a creative combination or mixing of content from different sources”. That’s exactly what we want to do, and its the creative aspect that particularly appeals to me. A Cynefin, Agile and Lean Mashup will inevitably be created contextually. CALM also subtly counterbalances the XP extreme notion. While that’s not an intentional focus, I find it a mildly amusing reference.

My interest in Cynefin began back in around 2004 when Dave first spoke at XPDays London, and while back then I wasn’t smart enough to realise the full implications, fortunately others like Steve and Joseph were. I met Dave again at ScanAgile in 2009 and last year at the LeanSSC and ALE conferences. Simon also gave a great talk linking Scrum and Complexity more concretely at Agile2011, and I that’s when I finally figured out how Cynefin could match my interest in exploring the underlying theories behind Agile and Lean, and more specifically Kanban Thinking.

My personal goal for being involved in the meeting was to move Cynefin, and complexity science, from being something which is used as a justification, to something which provides meaningful explanation, and ultimately to new application. To keep the industry advancing, and to be able to apply Agile and Lean principles in increasingly challenging organisations, we need theory informed practices, as well as learning from our current success by evolving practice informed theory. In other words we need to take a scientific approach, which ties in nicely with my recent presentations on the Science of Kanban, which should make it to a blog post soon.

The primary outcome of the CALM meeting was the creation of CALMalpha. This is a two day residential conference to be held on the 16th and 17th of February 2012 at Wokefield Park in the United Kingdom. The alpha represents the notion that this is an initial safe-to-fail experiment where we hope to explore the subject in more detail, as we seek to find coherence, coalescence and convergence around what we do in the future.

More detail, including prices and booking information, can be found on the eventbrite page. I hope to see you there!

Flow Games

• When: Wednesday 10th August, 11:00-12:00
• Stage: Hands-on Learning
• Venue: LA Olympus
• Session Type: Workshop
• Audience: Introductory
• URL: http://program2011.agilealliance.org/event/a29c520db5d7bf4649bb9538adc6d1cf

Designing a Kanban System for the Enterprise

• When: Thursday 11th August , 13.30-15.00
• Stage: Enterprise Agile
• Venue: GA: Imperial Ballroom C
• Session Type: Tutorial
• Audience: Introductory
• URL: http://program2011.agilealliance.org/event/fad223cfed25bd3ad1a69cc0bbfad301

Note that while the program page for “Flow Games” suggests that we will play a selection of games, the final time constraint of 1 hour means that Eric and I will probably only be able to play one game, which will be the Ball Flow Game. Fortunately, there is another similar session (Lean Fundamentals with Michael Sahota) which will run the other games we had in mind, so we encourage you to go along to that if you want more!

Here are the details of the conferences. If you are in Europe, or fancy a trip, please consider submitting or registering. I hope to see you there.

Lean & Kanban 2011 Benelux

• October 03 – October 04, Antwerp, Belgium
• http://lkbe11.leanssc.org

Call for Papers

• Closed

Speakers

• Including Don Reinersten, David Anderson, Alan Shalloway, John Seddon, Dave Snowden, Michael Kennedy

Registration

Prices exclusive of VAT

• 2 Day Conference Pass: 700 Eur until Aug 15 (then 800 Eur)
• 2 Day Conference Pass + Dinner: 750 Eur until Aug 15 (then 850 Eur)
• 2 Day Conference Pass + Dinner + Hotel (3 nights): 1150 Eur (then 1250 Eur)

Lean & Kanban 2011 Central Europe

• October 17 – October 18, Munich, Germany
• http://lkce11.leanssc.org

Call for Papers

• Currently open. Closes June 28th.

Speakers

• Including David Anderson, Kent Beck, Jim Benson, David Joyce and John Seddon

Registration

Prices exclusive of VAT

Individuals:

• One day, Regular 520 EUR until Aug 17 (then 580 EUR)
• Both days, Regular 985 EUR until Aug 17 (then 1095 EUR)

Two or more colleagues from the same company:

• One day, Regular 465 EUR until Aug 17 (then 520 EUR)
• Both days, Regular 885 EUR until Aug 17 (then 985 EUR)

LESS2011

• October 30 – November 02, Stockholm, Sweden
• http://less2011.leanssc.org/

Call for Papers

• Currently open. Closes July 18th.

Tracks

• Lean & Agile Product Development, Complexity & Systems Thinking, Beyond Budgeting, Transforming Organisations

Keynotes

• Peter Middleton, Jim Sutton, Steve Denning, Bjarte Bogsnes

Tutorials

• Alan Shalloway, Jean Tabaka, Benjamin Mitchell

Registration

Prices exclusive of VAT

• Early registration EUR 595 until July 31
• Regular registration EUR 695 until October 29
• On-site registration EUR 795

Many organisational challenges are a result of systemic issues, where cause and effect are not directly connected, but are separated by time and involve feedback loops and delays. Given that Kanban is a method for designing a software and systems development system, and systems thinking includes the idea of system archetypes which describe common patterns of behaviour, we can use system archetypes to guide our visualisations and help us identify opportunities for improvement. This session will introduce how to understand system archetypes, describe a number of common and relevant archetypes, and discuss patterns which can visualise and thus help break those archetypes.

Agile Israel

As the adoption of Agile concepts becomes more and more mainstream, it’s time to climb to the next level!

Agile Israel 2011 is your chance to hear about next level ideas and practices such as Agile Testing, Kanban, Lean Product Management, Agile Project Management, Scaling Agile into the Enterprise level, Metrics and Dashboards, and more, and to meet practitioners from the Israeli Agile community and learn from experience reports and experts.

Agile Israel 2011 is the 4th annual Agile event in Israel, starting at 2008, and as always will include the presence of prominent speakers alongside experts from Israel and case studies from Israeli companies (view photos and lectures from Agile Israel 2010).

This year Henrik Kniberg will be the keynote speaker. Among the other international lecturers and guests will be Jurgen Appelo, Hillel Glazer, and the ScrumAlliance MD Donna Farmer.

The event will take place on April 11th 2011 and Avenue congress centre near Tel Aviv.

Register today http://agileisrael2011-ral.eventbrite.com. An early bird of 20% is currently available until March 15, and I have 5 speaker discount codes giving 5%. Ask me for details.

LSSC11

This year’s Lean Software and Systems Consortium conference (Long Beach, California, May 3-6) is bigger with many more tracks and world-class speakers. In addition, the Software Engineering Institute (SEI) is part of the conference cooperation with the Lean Software and Systems Consortium.

This year’s theme is the synthesis of other models, going beyond lean: LSSC11 will show how vertical markets are embracing lean, how it is applied in large-scale initiatives, and how it is succeeding around the world. 

Anyone considering lean methods like Kanban will want to be at LSSC11 to build on their knowledge and connect with like-minded business people.  Companies represented include Lonely Planet, Goodyear Tires, JP Morgan Chase, Hewlett Packard, Deloitte, GoDaddy, Microsoft and many other organizations worldwide that are actively using lean software and systems thinking to succeed.

Do not miss the excitement, the learning, the networking, and the once-in-a-lifetime moments at LSSC11. Enjoy extended early bird pricing until midnight on March 13, 2011. Ask me about speaker discount codes as well for further discount. Register today at http://lssc11.leanssc.org.

I’m was really pleased to be asked to host a Lean & Kanban track on Thursday March 10 at QCon London, and have used the opportunity to (selfishly) create a track of talks I really want to see around ideas related Systems Thinking and Learning. I am increasingly finding these ideas core to the way that I talk about Kanban Systems.

The track abstract is:

Lean and Kanban: Learning Through Systems Thinking
It is often said that the heart of Lean is about thinking for yourself in your context. Kanban provides a model for thinking about process within a context and Systems Thinking provides a focus on purpose and outcomes within a context. Together, they enable knowledge acquisition and learning about value creation. The talks in this track will explore these various topics and show how to use the ideas and approaches to create evolutionary, continuous and sustainable improvement.

As well as giving a talk on Kanban System Design, I’m really grateful to be able to have the following line-up:

• Katherine Kirk – When the pressure is really on: A “rough and ready” application of Lean and Kanban at the BBC

How a small IPTV team at BBC iPlayer used Lean principles and elements of Kanban for their rapid and successful response to a fast paced, very demanding live release schedule for the v2 device customisation programme.

• Benjamin Mitchell – Can the Kanban Method avoid becoming another Management Fad

The Kanban Method has been shown to provide efficiency gains in many organisations. However, this talk will argue that those improvements have generally come through doing things righter, rather than doing the right thing. Doing more of the right thing requires challenging and testing underlying assumptions about the design and management of work, which will often lead to situations of embarrassment or threat. For the Kanban Method’s approach to evolutionary increment change to become more than a fad, it needs to either provide guidance or advice about how to overcome issues that generate embarrassment or threat, or provide a more balanced view of it’s potential impact. The talk will cover approaches that could increase the chances that the Kanban Method could deal with questioning assumptions around issues that could create defensiveness.

• Jurgen Appelo – Complexity vs. Lean: The Big Showdown

Agile software development is (in part) based on the idea that software teams are complex adaptive systems. And Lean software development is (in part) based on systems thinking. Many Agile and Lean experts have borrowed terms from complexity theory (like “self organization” and “emergence”). But what is the difference between complexity theory and systems thinking? And how does complexity thinking compare to Lean software development? Are they different, or aligned? Can we use one to better understand the other?

• Jeff Patton – Using design thinking to stop building worthless software

Delivering software fast isn’t the same as delivering value fast. The value we’ll get from that software is generally assumed. The real risks are almost always unknown. It’s because every piece of software we design and build is unique. It’s not designed then mass-produced like a car or piece furniture. Lean thinking and tactics that focus on speeding re-production of the same thing over and over doesn’t easily apply to the design and invention of new software. It takes design thinking. In this talk, Jeff describes the simple concepts that characterize design thinking: clear problem definition, ideation, iteration, and execution plans that emphasize continuous learning. You’ll learn how integrating these concepts into a design and delivery process shortens the cycle time from opportunity identification to acquiring real benefit from the use of the software. Jeff will give specific examples of the practices used by today’s successful software design and development companies that effectively integrate design thinking into their development approach. You’ll leave with a toolbox of simple proven practices you can add to your current process to improve the rate you deliver benefit from software.

I’m really looking forward to this. If you’d like to come along, the sooner you register the cheaper it is, and if you use the promotion code SCOT100 you can save a further £100 and a donation of £100 will be made to Crisis.

I’ve spent the last few days busy on final preparations for the LESS2010 – the International Conference on Lean Software and Systems, which is being held in partnership with the LeanSSC.

Tickets for LESS2010 are selling well, but we’d really like it to be a sell out. If you’re not already coming, please take a look, sign up and bring your friends and colleagues!

The website is http://less2010.leanssc.org/ and the full program and details are now available at http://less2010.leanssc.org/program/. There is also an executive day if you know anyone who you think would be interested in that. http://less2010.leanssc.org/program/executives/. If you book a group of 5 or more, we can also offer a discounted rate – let me know if you’re interested in that option.

We have a couple of flyers for helping with promotion:

• http://less2010.leanssc.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/lessflyer.pdf
• http://less2010.leanssc.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/LESS2010-for-Executives.pdf

If I were to pick 3 main reasons for attending the conference, they would be:

• The Beyond Budgeting track and links with that community
• The Academic content and links with that community
• The great line-up of speakers

I hope I see you there!

1. Firstly, I’m really excited that I’m going to be joining the Rally team in the UK. I’ve had a good couple of years with Conchango / EMC Consulting, but its time to move on, and I believe Rally are doing some great things in the Lean and Kanban space, especially with the recent acquisition of AgileZen. I’m really looking forward to working with Ryan Martens, Jean Tabaka and the rest of the Agile Coaching team.
2. Next, I’m going to be at Agile2010 and will be running a workshop Exploring the Kanban Multiverse with Xavier Quesada Allue. Its an evolution of Xavier’s Visual Management workshop from last year’s conference, with some updates that have been used at XP Day London and the Orlando Scrum Gathering. I’m also going to helping out with the bag packing on the Sunday before the conference. This is a repeat of something we did last year where we applied Lean and Kanban thinking to bag packing process and learned a load and had lots of fun in the process. If you’re around the hotel, come and find us and join in!
3. Finally, the LeanSSC 2010 UK conference was a success and the materials and videos can be found on the Limited WIP Society.

Alternatively, there is now an html version available.

LESS2010 is the International Conference on Lean Enterprise Software and Systems, in collaboration with the Lean Software and Systems Consortium (LeanSSC), to be held October 17-20, Helsinki, Finland. CfP details can be found at http://less2010.leanssc.org/call_for_papers/ with submission details at http://less2010.leanssc.org/submit/.

Note that we have clarified the submission requirements. The instructions should be used as a guide. However, content is more important than style initially, so submit whatever is best to give us a good idea of your proposal. Any accepted submissions will need to eventually be expanded and conform to Springer’s LNBIP format for publication.