NEW RECORDING – What They Forgot to Tell You About Agile
Do Agile without sprints? Stop using Story Points? Create a Microsoft project plan for my sprint?
This webinar covers numerous uncommon ways of being Agile, without conforming to the most common Agile practices. You will learn what seasoned Agile teams know – that Agile principles can be supported in numerous ways, not strictly by the practices we usually associate with Agile.
DURATION: 1 hour
Earn PDU’s: 1
SPEAKER: Greg Smith is a seasoned Agile coach and the founder of GS Solutions Group. He is a Certified Scrum Master, Certified Agile Project Manager, and a PMI Agile Certified Practitioner. Read more
SAFe Program Consultant Certification – Washington, DC (4/16-19)
On April 16-19, there is a 4-day Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) Program Consultant (SPC) Certification course in Washington, DC. Taught by Colin O’Neill and Alex Yakyma, the course consists of: Leading SAFe, Implementing SAFe, and an optional SPC certification exam.
The course provides the knowledge to lead an enterprise agile transformation by leveraging SAFe and its underlying principles of lean thinking and product development flow. You will understand how the principles and practices of the framework support Agile Teams, Agile Programs, Agile Program Portfolio Management and Agile Architecture.
- Apply lean, agile & product development flow principles to improve productivity, employee engagement, time to market & quality
- Apply SAFe based on lecture, real-world examples & expert insights
- Gain insight into the leadership skill most effective in unlocking the intrinsic motivation of software development knowledge workers & begin applying them in your context
- Implement continuous program improvement
- Introduce the organization to the principles of program portfolio management & agile architecture
- Grow the leadership skills necessary to support the transformation
WHEN: Tuesday, April 16 to Friday, April, 19 from 8:00 am to 5:00 pm
LOCATION: Donovan House, a KIMPTON Hotel, 1155 14th Street NW, Washington, DC 20005, (202) 737-1200
** SAVE $100 & register to win an iPad mini using code: BMC100_ONLY_SPC_DC_APR13_1
** Presented by Scaled Agile Academy, Blue Mercury Consulting & Genesis Consulting
RECORDING – Kanbanomics: Different Models for Thinking about Kanban
Most introductions to the Kanban method for knowledge work focus on the application of arcane manufacturing theory and the use of obscure Japanese words. This interactive talk, however, will take a different approach. By drawing analogies to everyday, well-understood economic concepts like the law of supply and demand (amongst others), you’ll discover how the practices of Kanban can help you be more successful in managing your work.
- A brief overview of Kanban (including the 5 practices of Kanban)
- Why it is important to Limit Work in Progress
- A brief overview of Little’s Law
- An introduction to some basic principles of flow
PDU: 1
COST: Free
Speaker: Daniel Vacanti is a 17-year software industry veteran. In 2007, he helped to create the Kanban Method for software development with David Anderson. He managed the world’s first project implementation of Kanban that year, and has been conducting Kanban training, coaching, and consulting ever since. He counts several Fortune 100 companies as some of his current and past clients. In 2011 he founded Corporate Kanban, Inc., which provides world-class training and consulting to companies all over the globe. Daniel holds a Masters in Business Administration and regularly teaches a class on lean principles for software management at the University of California Berkeley.
Get a copy of Daniel’s Slides used here
Improve Estimates by Studying Kanban Card Flow
You don’t have to use fancy tools to analyze what is going on with your projects. keeping work visible tot he team can in itselft help the team to see what is working or not — and can help them adjust to improve.
It is the job of the Agile PM to keep an eye on how work is actually getting done (or not)!
…so they can work with the team to make improvements on delivering results as quickly as possible.
Analyzing Kanban cards allow us to see where estimates can be improved as we compare actual time vs. estimated tim
Ben Mitchell shares a few of the ways his team does this by using kanban cards during the daily standup and asking good questions. A few of those questions that I’ve use all the time include:
- What kinds of work take us longer?
- Where is the time taken?
- Are there any patterns around which columns (steps) in our workflow take time?
- Where do we see delays?
- Is a step in our process adding a burden to the time it takes us to complete work?
Creating a Kaizen Culture for a High Maturity Agile Organization
Everyone I know working to help organizations to become Agile agree that…
Becoming Agile is a Process
I know teams that have been maturing for 3+ years and they will tell you they still have room for growth. That tells me from first hand experience as well as talking to organizations that have committed to this journey so they can be more responsive to their customers and business, that not only do you have to be committed to being patient with the growth process – you can help the process by creating a Kaizen Culture.
What is Kaizen?
Kaizen is a Japanese word for “improvement”, or “change for the better”. It refers to philosophy or practices that focus upon continuous improvement of processes.
Kaizen is a daily process, the purpose of which goes beyond simple productivity improvement. It is also a process that, that can humanize the workplace, helps people work smarter, not harder; and teaches people how to spot and eliminate waste in their own work and business processes. It covers five main areas: Read more
Deming’s 14 Points
W. Edwards Deming’s 14 points are the basis for transformation of industry. Adoption and action on the 14 points are a signal that the management intend to stay in business. aim to protect investors and jobs. Such a system formed the basis for lessons for top management in Japan in 1950 and in subsequent years.
The 14 points apply anywhere, to small organisations as well as to large ones, to the service industry as well as to manufacturing. They equally apply to any division within a company and to it’s suppliers.
As you read through each of the 14 points below, ask yourself if they still apply today, either within your current organisation, or within organisations you have recently worked for. The answers may be surprising.
1. Constancy of purpose:
Create constancy of purpose toward continual improvement of product and service, with a plan to become competitive and to stay in business.
Management have two concerns. One deals with running the business on a day to day basis. The other deals with the future of the business.
RECORDING – Scaled Agile Framework – Q&A RoundTable with Dean Leffingwell
Listen to a great Q&A Session on the Scaled Agile Framework™ answered by the Scaled Agile Partner team of Dean Leffingwell, Drew Jemilo and Colin O’Neill who are the founders of SAFe. They have been using the framework to scale Agile at clients like BMC, John Deer -while leveraging Scrum, Kanban and XP practices. They explain how you too can leverage SAFe at your organizatino as well.
Questions discussed include:
- Provide an example of how Agile was successfully scaled, size of org, and keys to your success
- Pricing models prevalent in the industry of large Agile transformations
- How to use estimations to build up roadmaps
- Delivering on time without imposing due dates on teams
- Managing teams that are not co-located or even in the same timezone (offshore resources)
- How SAFe enhances quality
- How can scaled Agile be used effectiely with limited resources
- What is the role of PMO and Project Manager in the Scaled Agile Framework?
- and much more….
SPEAKERS: Dean Leffingwell – entrepreneur, executive, author and consulting methodologist who provides agile transformation consulting services to large software enterprises. Dean was the chief methodologist to Rally Software where he focused on the application of agile development methods to large scale software development. Dean also served as Sr. Vice President to Rational Software (now IBM’s Rational Division), where his responsibilities included development and commercialization of the Rational Unified Process (RUP), ClearQuest, RequisitePro and the company’s methodology and product training courses. Dean is the author of several books, Agile Requirements: Lean Requirements Practices for Teams, Programs, and the Enterprise ; Scaling Software Agility: Best Practices for Large Enterprises , and Managing Software Requirements: First and Second Editions.
Drew Jemilo has over 20 years of experience using Agile, Lean, and traditional methodologies in companies ranging from lean startups to global corporations. He has worked in the US and Europe applying technical and leadership experience in Agile program and portfolio management, change management, organizational design, coaching, and training. He has worked with Dean Leffingwell on a large global client to synchronize distributed teams in the US, India and Eastern and Western Europe, with a significant number of mostly independent, yet necessarily cooperative, Agile Release Trains.
Colin O’Neill has been a successful IT consultant for 26 years. He has led and coached numerous organizations in enterprise Agile and Unified Process (UP) systems development and integration efforts, business process re-engineering and improvement, requirements definition, data modeling, object modeling, enterprise architecture, risk management, quality assurance, testing, change & configuration management, system deployment, training, and mentoring. Colin has worked hands-on in every lifecycle phase and discipline. He is known for quickly increasing technical organization efficiency and speeding product delivery.
PDU: 1 *** PDU info is provided in recording ***
COST: Free
NEW RECORDING – Scaling Agile Requirements: User Stories to Agile Portfolio Management
In Dean Leffingwell’s recent webinar on scaling Lean|Agile development, he introduced the Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) <click here for Dean’s recording>. SAFe is a public-facing set of practices which have been used to successfully scale Lean|Agile development to hundreds — and even thousands — of practitioners at companies like BMC Corporation and John Deere.
In this webinar, Drew Jemilo takes you further into the SAFe Enterprise Backlog Model. With more projects starting under Agile than Waterfall, you’ll be managing requirements to quickly and efficiently align strategic business objectives and customer needs with software delivery.
You will gain these valuable insights as we cover the following topics…
- What are best practices for writing team-based User Stories and non-functional Agile requirements?
- How do these scale to the program and portfolio levels?
- How can you work more strategically with upper management to achieve the highest business value for your company and customers?
SPEAKER: Drew Jemilo has over 20 years of experience using Agile, Lean, and traditional methodologies in companies ranging from lean startups to global corporations. He has worked in the US and Europe applying technical and leadership experience in Agile program and portfolio management, change management, organizational design, coaching, and training. He has worked with Dean Leffingwell on a large global client to synchronize distributed teams in the US, India and Eastern and Western Europe, with a significant number of mostly independent, yet necessarily cooperative, Agile Release Trains.
PDU: 1
COST: Free… *** PDU info is provided in the recording ***
** DOWNLOAD SLIDES here
NEW RECORDING – Scaling Lean|Agile Development: Common Myths and Ideologies
Meet the Scaled Agile Framework™
by Dean Leffingwell
Are you tired of the myth that Scrum, XP and Kanban do not scale to the needs of the larger software enterprise? Are you tired of the ideologies that prevent your enterprise from even trying to apply them? If the answer to either of the above is yes, this presentation is for you.
In this presentation, Dean Leffingwell will finally dispel these myths and ideologies by describing the Scaled Agile Framework™, a public-facing set of practices which have been used to successfully scale Lean|Agile development to hundreds—and even thousands—of practitioners at companies like BMC Corporation, John Deere and others.
He’ll describe five key scaling mechanisms:
• SCALING VALUE: Not everything is a User Story
• SCALING DESIGN: Complex systems require intentional architecture.
• SCALING TEAM AND TIMEBOX: Aligning teams to a common mission with the Agile Release Train
• SCALING PORTFOLIO MANAGEMENT: Addressing legacy mindsets
• SCALING LEADERSHIP: Your enterprise can be no leaner than your executives thinking.
However, since simply making Agile things bigger does not necessarily keep a system lean, Leffingwell will describe how the framework…
a) keeps work in process visible and limited,
b) keeps backlogs and queues short,
c) uses cadence and synchronization to manage variability and align teams to a common mission, and
d) applies system-level continuous integration to facilitate fast customer feedback.
SPEAKER: Dean Leffingwell is an entrepreneur, executive, author and consulting methodologist who provides agile transformation consulting services to large software enterprises. Dean was the chief methodologist to Rally Software where he focused on the application of agile development methods to large scale software development. Dean also served as Sr. Vice President to Rational Software (now IBM’s Rational Division), where his responsibilities included development and commercialization of the Rational Unified Process (RUP), ClearQuest, RequisitePro and the company’s methodology and product training courses. Dean is the author of several books, Agile Requirements: Lean Requirements Practices for Teams, Programs, and the Enterprise ; Scaling Software Agility: Best Practices for Large Enterprises , and Managing Software Requirements: First and Second Editions.
PDU: 1 *** PDU info is provided in the recording ***
COST: Free
To play recording Click Here
CERTIFICATION: Lean-Agile Project Management
This course incorporates all of the latest lean-agile methods to ensure your success!
- Participants will learn how to effectively implement Lean practices, Scrum, Enterprise Scrum, Kanban, and hybrids driven by lean thinking
- Designed for those looking to start an Agile initiative, mature their current Agile process, or to extend their Agile initiative beyond their teams
- Addresses which Agile method is best for your company’s culture.
** $100 discount for The Agilista PM readers (Code = AgilistaPM).
*** Earn 21 PDU’s for an early-bird price of $695 – that is only $33 per PDU !!!
Let’s Connect!
My Speaking Engagements …..
-Feb 28: PMI Agile CoP: Agile Estimation 102
-Apr 18: TOYOTA HQ: Start Using Agile|Lean in your Projects Today
-Nov 10: HOW TO PLAN, MANAGE, and TRACK ITERATIONS (ProjectTimes)
-Dec 16: DEALING WITH THE TOP 10 ISSUES DURING & AFTER AN ITERATION (ProjectTimes)
-Jan 13: AGILE REQUIREMENT GATHERING & DOCUMENTATION - BEYOND USER STORIES (ProjectTimes)
-Feb 10: DEALING WITH THE TOP 10 ISSUES IN AGILE ADOPTION (ProjectTimes)
Some Agile User-Groups and Links…
