Michelin’s Agile Journey

January 24, 2020

Kevin Cosgrove, a great Canadian guy, made a wonderful presentation at Agile Carolinas last Wednesday night.

I have three big takeaways, although it includes many great ideas. (Others might have different take-aways.)

1. Team’s should be 100% dedicated. And (mostly) Michelin was NOT doing this at one time, but NOW is doing this. And a lot of smaller related changes had to happen to make it happen.

2. Team’s must be stable over a longer-term (ie, years). Again, was not happening, now (usually?) is happening. Lots of change.

3. Implement the change to agile iteratively and incrementally. That is, teach values, principles and practices. Mind-set is key. And then, when you get to practices, each one practice at a time, in depth. Get them “really” started with about 40% of your defined patterns. And then add patterns to that. Maybe in a year or so, each Team is getting close to all the identified patterns.

There were MANY other great ideas. Some well-known (although still not done much or not done well). Some a bit surprising.

Below is a PDF of his slide deck, which some may find useful.

Agile Carolinas – Michelin Lean and Agile Journey

Enjoy!