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David J. Anderson's Agile Management Blog - The agile manager's recipe for success: focus on quality; reduce work-in-progress; balance demand against throughput; prioritize!

Agile Management Blog

— Lean Software & Systems Conference Program Announced

(Saturday, 20 February 2010 00:00)

The Lean Software & Systems Conference program has been announced. Each of the 3 days is packed with great content describing how Lean is being adopted and leveraged to generate real business benefits. As with the Miami conference in 2009, the focus is on practitioners telling real stories from the field describing why, what and how changes were implemented along with the tangible business benefits. This is by far the best ever conference focused solely on Lean (including kanban systems) applied to the field of software development, IT and systems engineering.

The program is so packed with quality it is impossible to single people out. Some folks you'll have heard of... Donald Reinertsen, Mary Poppendieck, Jim Shore, Arlo Belshee, Karl Scotland, Alan Shalloway, Joshua Kerievsky, David Laribee, Simon Baker and Gus Power, and Richard Turner. There are four Gordon Pask Award winners on that list alone! And some folks you might not have heard of but really need to check out because their stuff is amazing... Robert Charette, Richard Hensley, Bo Oppenheim, Benjamin Mitchell, Christoph Louvion, Ryan Martens and Yuval Yevet!

Many of the presentations are new and have not been presented at previous conferences and many of the speakers will not be appearing at other agile community events in North America in 2010. If you believe that Lean (and Kanban) are the way forward for your organization then you simply have to register and come down to Atlanta in April. You won't find better value anywhere else! Don't miss out! Bring a colleague to insure you get full coverage. Register now!

Use the Twitter search tag #lssc10 to filter tweets about the event. Follow @lssc10 on Twitter for news from the organizing team.

If you are speaking or attending the conference you might like to tell people about it by adding these buttons to your web site design. If you want to use these assets on your site just paste the HTML code provided straight into your web source code or content management system.

Source: <a href="/http://atlanta2010.leanssc.org/"><img alt="Atlanta 2010 Attendee" src="/http://www.agilemanagement.net/lssc10/Atlanta2010Attendee.png" border="0" /></a>

Source: <a href="/http://atlanta2010.leanssc.org/"><img alt="Atlanta 2010 Speaker" src="/http://www.agilemanagement.net/lssc10/Atlanta2010Speaker.png" border="0" /></a>

Conference Chair: David J. Anderson

Track Chairs: Alan Shalloway, Joshua Kerievsky, James Sutton, Eric Willeke, Chris Shinkle, David Anderson
Open Space: Jean Tabaka and Aaron Sanders
Lightning Talks: Eric Landes

Event Planner: Kelly Wilson
Organizing Sponsor: Software Engineering Professionals (SEP)
Title Sponsor: NetObjectives
Event Team: Dennis Stevens, Janice Linden-Reed, Aaron Sanders, Eric Landes

Sponsorship opportunities email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
— Kanban Coaching Workshop Chicago in May Announced

(Saturday, 20 February 2010 00:00)

I've just announced my third public Kanban Coaching workshop in the United States for May of this year to be held in downtown Chicago.

I've been collecting some useful blog posts from people who've attended previous sessions...

Rachel Davies who attended the first public workshop in London in October 2009, Kanban Coaching Insights

David Draper who also attended in London, Kanban Coaching Workshop, Why Kanban, Lean Decision Making

Karen Graves who attended the public workshop in Cape Town, South Africa in February, Kanban Evolution

Armond Mehrabian, who attended a private workshop held in Seattle in January, Part 1, Part 2, Part 3

These sessions are designed to be intensive knowledge transfer for agile, project management and process coaches and consultants keen to learn how to lead Lean transformations using kanban systems and an evolutionary approach to change management. For more details visit my business web site.
Technorati tag: Agile, Lean, Kanban, Software+Engineering, Project+Management
— New Site for Kanban Beginners

(Thursday, 10 December 2009 00:00)

Janice Linden-Reed has launched a new web site to fill what she sees is a gap in the market. Kanban101.com will provide the beginners guide - just the basics and plain language, no frills explanations of all the jargon, terms and mechanisms in Kanban applied to software development and related IT activities. Add it to your blog roll! Link it and boost its Google ranking! Technorati tag: Agile, Lean, Kanban, Software+Engineering, Project+Management
— 2010 Kanban Coaching Workshops

(Tuesday, 08 December 2009 00:00)

In February, March and April I'll be repeating my highly successful Kanban Coaching Workshop from London this October. These coaching workshops are designed for experienced agile, project management or process coaches and consultants who are looking to add Kanban skills to their toolbox of offerings. This intensive 3 day collaborative workshop is designed to enable participants to go out in the field and successful implement Kanban and Lean with their teams and client firms. Attendees will receive a recommendation from me that they can use with clients and will be listed on my (yet to be published) "trusted Kanban coach" web page.

You can't learn everything about Kanban in 3 days but those attended in London learned lots of ideas and gained the benefit of lots of experience that will enable them to make significant and valuable progress with clients.

Read what Rachel Davies had to say after attending the London workshop.

In February I'll be facilitating two workshops. The first in Cape Town, South Africa with Scrum Sense, Feb 5-7, and the other at the Conrad Hotel in Miami, Florida February 22-24.

In March, I'm holding an open workshop in Sao Paulo, Brazil in association with Heptagon, March 3-5. Later in the month, March 29-31, I'll be repeating this in Stockholm with Crisp. Kanban Coaching in Sweden.

In April, I'll be facilitating another North American workshop in Orange County, California, April 14-16, and again in May in Chicago, May 17-19.

Attendance at my own events in the United States is strictly limited to 8 participants to maximize the quality of the discussion and learning opportunity. So far we have 4 confirmed attendees in Miami, 4 others tentative but uncommitted. So there are 4 places open. Please book soon if want to attend this event. The Orange County workshop has some more possibilities with 3 confirmed attendees and 3 others currently tentative. Please email if you are interested but not ready to sign up immediately.

In addition to these 6 open workshops, I am also holding a closed private client workshop in Seattle in January 2010. If you'd like a closed Kanban coaching workshop at your firm, please get in touch via email. Technorati tag: David+Anderson, Agile+Management, Agile, Lean, Kanban, Project+Management, Software+Engineering, Process+Improvement, Change+Management
— Forthcoming Kanban Classes

(Tuesday, 08 December 2009 00:00)

I'm teaching a few Kanban classes over the next two months in Europe and South
Africa.

[December]
The first of the 2 day classes in Stockholm with Crisp next week

[January]
Followed by a class in Krakow, Poland and another in Paris, France with Octo

[February]
I'm then heading down to South Africa from Paris in early February for a class with Scrum Sense in Cape Town.

[May]
Week of May 3rd class in Israel to be announced soon. Email for more details.

These 2 day events are aimed at Kanban beginners and team members from companies
trying to adopt Kanban or thinking about alternatives to existing agile or
traditional approaches to change and improvement. Technorati tag: David+Anderson, Agile+Management, Agile, Lean, Kanban, Project+Management, Software+Engineering, Process+Improvement, Change+Management
— Announcing Lean Software & Systems 2010

(Sunday, 15 November 2009 00:00)

The first Lean Software & Systems Conference will be held in Atlanta, Georgia, USA between April 21st and 23rd 2010.

Registration and the Call for Papers is now open at atlanta2010.leanssc.org

The first 50 registrants enjoy a super early discount rate of $800 plus entry to the exclusive speaker luncheon and a special limited edition Ltd WIP Society t-shirt, sponsored by David J. Anderson & Associates.

The Call for papers closes on December 14th.

Use the Twitter search tag #lssc10 to filter tweets about the event. Follow @lssc10 on Twitter for news from the organizing team.

If you are speaking or attending the conference you might like to tell people about it by adding these buttons to your web site design. If you want to use these assets on your site just paste the HTML code provided straight into your web source code or content management system.

Source: <a href="/http://atlanta2010.leanssc.org/"><img alt="Atlanta 2010 Attendee" src="/http://www.agilemanagement.net/lssc10/Atlanta2010Attendee.png" border="0" /></a>

Source: <a href="/http://atlanta2010.leanssc.org/"><img alt="Atlanta 2010 Speaker" src="/http://www.agilemanagement.net/lssc10/Atlanta2010Speaker.png" border="0" /></a>

Conference Chair: David J. Anderson

Track Chairs: Alan Shalloway, Joshua Kerievsky, James Sutton, Eric Willeke, Chris Shinkle, Richard Turner & David Anderson

Event Planner: Kelly Wilson
Organizing Sponsor: Software Engineering Professionals (SEP)
Event Team: Dennis Stevens, Janice Linden-Reed, Aaron Sanders, Eric Landes

Sponsorship opportunities email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
— New Ltd WIP Society Supporter Button

(Saturday, 14 November 2009 00:00)

This week at QCon I am launching a new Limited WIP Society supporter T-shirt design. The new design is also available as a button that you can place on your web site to show support for the adoption of Kanban.

If you want to use these assets on your site just paste the HTML code provided straight into your web source code or content management system.

Source: <a href="/http://www.limitedwipsociety.org/"><img alt="Go Lean Limit WIP" src="/http://www.agilemanagement.net/ltdwip/GoLeanLimitWIPOrange.png" border="0" /></a>

Source: <a href="/http://www.limitedwipsociety.org/"><img alt="Go Lean Limit WIP" src="/http://www.agilemanagement.net/ltdwip/GoLeanLimitWIPGreen.png" border="0" /></a>

Source: <a href="/http://www.limitedwipsociety.org/"><img alt="Go Lean Limit WIP" src="/http://www.agilemanagement.net/ltdwip/GoLeanLimitWIPBrown.png" border="0" /></a>

Technorati tag: David+Anderson, Agile+Management, Agile, Lean, Kanban, Software+Engineering, Project+Management
— QCon Kanban Track Nov 18

(Sunday, 01 November 2009 00:00)

I'll be chairing the Kanban Track at QCon in San Francisco on November 18th. We've got a good list of speakers lined up including Jeff Patton (reprising his presentation from the UK Lean 2009 conference) and Henrik Kniberg with his Kanban vs Scrum - A Practical Guide (from The Future of Agile, Stockholm) and Chris Shinkle and David Laribee (reprising their presentations from the Lean & Kanban 2009 in Miami). I'll be reprising my Agile 2009 presentation New Approaches to Managing Risk which features some more advanced ideas that have emerged from the Kanban community. This line up should serve to provide a good broad sweep of what Kanban is, how to use it and what its benefits are.

There is still time to register!
— Still Time For Only Kanban Class in USA 2009

(Sunday, 01 November 2009 00:00)

We've had a robust registration for the Kanban class I am giving in San Francisco on November 16th and 17th. We've got quite a few international attendees. Perhaps they are coming into town for QCon later that week? As well as a handful of locals. We still have room for about 6 more. So don't miss out. This is the only Kanban class I am teaching in the United States this year.

Register now for 2 Day Kanban Class in San Francisco, Nov 16-17! Each attendee will receive an exclusive new Limited WIP Society T-shirt or Tank Top. Be the first to wear one of the new designs and colors. Or choose the popular "Yes We Kanban" shirt from Agile 2009 as modeled here by Bernd Schiffer.
— Kanban Drives Culture and Organizational Maturity Changes

(Saturday, 24 October 2009 00:00)

David Joyce has posted a quite remarkable blog summarizing the results at BBC Worldwide since they introduced the use of Kanban, to drive process improvements, one year ago.

Improved Predictability as well as Business Agility

Many people will review this post and look only at the data. As David himself summarizes, the average lead time fell by 8 days from 22 to 14. This does demonstrate improved business agility, a 33% drop in lead time is not to be sneazed at. However, the more careful viewer will observe the dramatic drop in the spread of variation. The upper control limit drops from 70+ to well under 40, almost a 50% drop in spread. What this means is that the team is much more predictable in delivery of new functionality. David is also verifiying that the newer data shows genuine special cause variations outside the limits. While he isn't stating categorically that the system is stable, in an SPC sense, as there may be some special cause variations hiding inside the limits, the performance shows a dramatic improvement in stability since Kanban was introduce. This is further evidence that the team is performing in a much more predictable fashion. It also implies that the team ought to be experiencing a much smoother working environment with far fewer events that randomize their schedule and distract their attention away from immediate customer-valued work.

Evidence of Little's Law Cause and Effect

The chart for development cycle time shows direct evidence that Little's Law is true and that the quantity of WIP has a direct causal relationship with cycle time. The mean drops from 9 days to 3 days but again the spread of variation drops even more dramtically from 31 days to 7 days. Again this is evidence that the team has much greater predictability. Reducing WIP not only reduces cycle time but it dramatically reduces variability too.

The Engineering cycle time chart simply reflects more of the same. Reducing WIP and the policies of Kanban and its expectation that blocking issues will be escalated and resolved quickly has a dramatic effect on both lead time and variability and shows significant measurable gains in both business agility and predictability as a result.

Improved Configuration Management Discipline and Reduced Deployment Transaction Costs

The Throughput chart doesn't tell us how much value is being delivered but it does show a dramatic increase in the number of releases to production. This rises from one every one or two weeks before Kanban to one almost every working day since Kanban was introduced. To make this possible there must have been an improvement in configuration management discipline and capability and an equal reduction in the transaction and coordination costs associated with a release. This is all indicative of an organization that is maturing and improving in capability as well as an organization that is considerably more "Lean" than it was a year ago, as waste associated with making a release has dramatically reduced.

Bugs decrease with less WIP and Improved Organizational Maturity

The final chart showing defects per week shows that quality did not suffer as a result of introducing Kanban and limiting WIP and that after some time for changes to kick-in that might be associated with an organization growing in maturity and capability the variability in the defect rate dropped dramatically with a small decrease in the mean number of bugs per week. Again this indicative of an organization that is much more predictable.

Conclusions

David is using the SPC charts as report cards. In Donald Wheeler's scale of adoption of SPC, this is the lowest level of maturity, and SPC as report cards doesn't fully qualify as quantitative management associated with level 4 in the CMMI model. However, we can conclude that this team exhibits significantly improved performance. They exhibit significantly lower variability and greater predictability and any use of SPC indicates a leadership that is determined to drive process improvement in a quantitative fashion. There is significant evidence of behaviors associated with CMMI model level 4 and this growth in maturity has been achieved in only 12 months.

This seems to be further evidence to back up my claims from my SEPG North America 2009 presentation that Kanban is proving to be a method that leads to accelerated organizational maturity and catalyst of organizational process improvement. We've now seen two teams at two significant companies in London adopt statistical process control and show significant progress towards higher maturity behaviors and performance. Perhaps it isn't a coincidence? Hopefully we'll see more like this emerge from the Kanban community over the next 12 months.