Karl Scotland – Using Agility Strategically
Karl Scotland – Using Agility Strategically
Browsing Category
I was out in the garden this weekend raking up leaves. Having read Geoff Watts recent post about using Scrum to clear his leaves – and as someone who can’t do anything without thinking about work (see Kanban and Quad Biking!) – my mind turned to how I would use Kanban Thinking to approach the work at hand. Surely I …
At the Scrum Gathering in London this October, I had a bit of a flash-back to the last time the Gathering was in London. At that event, during the Open Space, I announced a Kanban session with words along the lines of “My team recently stopped using Scrum and our productivity has improved”. As I recall it, there was an …
In an earlier article I wrote on Visual Management, I described how kanban boards can be viewed as multi-variant displays, visualising multiple possible dimensions of a kanban system. To visualize all these variants we can use a number of techniques to create multi-functioning graphical elements which can achieve a high data density. The techniques, when categorized and combined, create a …
Once again, I helped out with the volunteer bag packing at the Agile2011 conference, and as usual we had great fun and broke records. This year we completed 1600 bags in just under 4 hours packing time, with an hour preparation/breakfast and an hour for lunch. Christopher Avery took some video footage and interviews, which I hope to be able …
On the flight out to the Kanban Leadership retreat in Iceland last month, Katherine Kirk and I were chatting about Kanban failure modes that we’ve seen out in the field (e.g. quirky command and control interpretations by people who had not had experience in Agile first), and played with the idea of combining Kanban with Crystal (kind of in the …
I previously wrote about the Ball Flow Game I ran at the Scrum Gathering in Amsterdam. I’ve updated the game quite a bit since then and its stabilised into something I’m finding very useful when I work with Kanban teams to help them understand some of the concepts behind Kanban Thinking. I hope this write-up enables others to use and …
I’ve recently been using a newer language to describe the model I apply when introducing Kanban to teams, which has been generally working well. I now talk about: Studying – understanding the current system structure Envisioning – creating a common mental model of the system Limiting – bringing the system under control Sensing – having an awareness of the system’s …
After Limits to Success and Shifting the Burden, we now come to Tragedy of the Commons. I live in the seaside town of Brighton in the UK. On the rare weekends when we have hot weather it is popular to go down to the beach. Everyone gets in their cars and drives into Brighton expecting a quiet, relaxing day on …
Following on from a look at the Limits to Success system archetype, lets now look at the Shifting the Burden archetype. I like my coffee in the morning. In fact I usually need a good cup of coffee before I start to feel human. Some days I like a coffee to start the afternoon as well, and occasionally I’ll have …
In a previous post I introduced the idea that Kanban can play a role in Systems Thinking and understanding System Archetypes. In this post I’ll describe system archetypes in some more detail, and describe the Limits to Success archetype. Balancing Feedback Balancing feedback will stabilise a system’s behaviour. For example a thermostat is a balancing feedback system where the temperature …