A Kanban Multiverse – not from LeanSSC Atlanta

I should have been at the LeanSSC Conference in Atlanta this week, but unfortunately Eyjafjallajokull intervened. This is the Prezi I was going to use. It may not make much sense on its own but hopefully gives a flavour of what sort of things I was going to talk about. I’m hoping to put together a post together to flesh …

Defining the Last Responsible Moment

I was involved in a recent twitter discussion with Chris Matts about Lean’s “Last Responsible Moment”, and he set a challenge to come up with a usable definition. Chris’s opinion is that there isn’t one, compared to the Real Options equivalent. This then, is my response to that challenge. I will define the Last Responsible Moment (LRM) in terms of …

Facilitating A Kanban Konversation

As I mentioned in my Scrum Gathering Musings, I came up with a twist on the Goldfish Bowl format which I used during the Kanban Exploration Deep Dive.  Here are some more details. The Goldfish Bowl format works really well for facilitating a focussed discussion with a large number of people. It keeps the active voices to a manageable number, …

Did I Mention The LeanSSC?

I’ve just posted an entry on the LeanSSC blog, introducing myself, and talking about my involvement with the group. Its the first of what I hope will be a series of posts introducing a number of the founder members of the Lean Software & Systems Consortium. The goal is to create some more visibility and transparency of who the LeanSSC …

Scrum Gathering Musings

I came away from the Scrum Gathering last week feeling surprisingly positive about the future of the Scrum Alliance. All in all it was a very enjoyable conference, and my overall impression was of a community which is more open and inclusive than I have perceived it to be for a long time. Talking to Tobias Mayer at the end …

Systems Thinking, The Vanguard Method and Software Development

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, …

LeanSSC Atlanta 2010 and other Conferences

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 …

Scrum Anti-Pattern: NOT Prioritising Stories Within Sprints

Craig Dickson has published an article on Agile DZone claiming that prioritising Stories with a Sprint is an anti-pattern. He blogged this in December last year, when I noticed it and grumbled on twitter, but no more. Now that its re-appeared on DZone I feel compelled to say something, and that it warrants a blog post of my own rather …

Process Safeguards and Ski Slopes

One of the joys of working as a coach for EMC Consulting are the regular opportunities to have deep conversations on various topics with my colleagues when we are in the office together. For example, earlier this week myself and Simon Bennett began to discuss way of talking to our clients about process such that we can guide them towards …

Fidelity – The Lost Dimension of the Iron Triangle

One the topics that I find a lot of people find particularly interesting and useful is that of Fidelity in software. This generally comes up while I’m talking about incrementing and iterating, and the difference between the two. I’ve already touched on this when discussed whether a Kanban System eschews iteration. This post will build on that, and describe what …