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Leaders, Managers, Bosses, and Administrators

This is another blog post inspired by the Poppendiecks, their books and their interest in Lean. In their book “Implementing Lean Software Development: From Concept to Cash,” the Poppendiecks talk, as one of their topics, about leadership. They raise several excellent points. A team needs leadership. Which is to say, vision. Someone to inspire and […]

A fourth Google video (Lean-Agile)

Thanks to Artem Marchenko for mentioning the Poppendieck’s talk at Google, titled Competing on the basis of Speed.  

Google, Agile and Business Value

Google announced on 4/20/2007 that it earned $1.002 billion in the first quarter. The Net was up 69% from 2006. The sales increase was not too shabby either. Maybe it’s a company we can learn from. (Or maybe they are just lucky.) Google uses Agile. As I hear, Agile isn’t forced on anyone, and many […]

Three Google/Agile videos

Google is doing Agile, and four people have come to talk at the Googleplex about Agile. (Maybe more.) One is Ken Schwaber, who talked to them for about an hour, mostly about Scrum. The excellent video of his talk is here. The nuances of Scrum become clearer when you hear Ken explain it. His website […]

Carnival of the Agilists for Apr 20

Mark Levison, a friendly Canadian (I am working with a bunch of those Canadians lately) has the controls for the Carnival of the Agilists this time. Again, we are honored to have been selected, this time for Adopting Agile and similar posts related to Lean. Check it out. And check out the Agile Tangents group […]

Adopting Agile (Lean Software Development – 4)

Brad Appleton, whom I mentioned in my last short post, also had this post linking to Agile Adoption as reported in the Agile Journal. This issue is talking about top-down Agile Adoption. My own view is generally that the workers deliver to the customers, and the managers support the workers. So, in line with that, […]

Lean Resources

Brad Appleton had this post with a LOT of Lean resources. I have not reviewed them all. I will endeavor to annotate them later.

Little’s Law – Lean Software Development – 3

Again, another post that was inspired by the Poppendieck’s.  This one is a particular favorite of mine: Little’s Law. (No, not me.) This is from John Little, a professor at MIT’s Sloan School, and it’s about queuing theory. We believe (and in fact experience has shown) that we should satisfy the customer as quickly as […]

Do we have to use the F-word?

OK, it’s a provocative title. I like to talk about two F-words: Feelings and Failure. This post is about failure and how to use it. I was working inside a firm recently and someone said: “We can’t talk about failure around here. That would hurt our careers.” Ummm. First, let me (apparently) change subjects completely. […]

The Elements of Agile Style – 2

Apparently my recent post about this new draft handbook was buried in the March posts. If you are interested in this handbook, please see that post.  Subscribe in a reader