NetObjectives blogs

Differences in Beliefs Results in Differences in Approach

jim.trott@netobjectives.com — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 12:40:58 -0600

This blog is a synopsis of my thoughts resulting from a “conversation” Paul Oldfield and I had on the Lean-Agile Yahoo group recently. I have added other things than were not in the original thread. Thanks Paul, for a very interesting dialog. And thanks to Bob Marshall (twitter ID: flowchainsensei) for suggesting I write something like this up. I’ve been thinking about the differences in...

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Kayaking: How Rationale Aids Experience

jim.trott@netobjectives.com — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 07:08:00 -0600

I have been espousing an understanding of principles for quite some time now. While I do believe that one typically does not truly understand something until they do it, I believe we often look in the wrong area for things and that being told what to look at (in the form of principles or rationale) can steer us into better action quickly. I recently had an experience of not being told...

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Uncle Bob Weighs In

jim.trott@netobjectives.com — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 13:53:52 -0600

Recently at the Rails conference, Bob Martin served up a very provocative talk: "What killed Smalltalk could also kill Ruby." There has been a fair amount of controversy about this particular presentation, most notably from the Smalltalk community who consider themselves to be not-at-all-dead. They point out, for instance, that Smalltalk was not free "back in the day" and...

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Patterns are not always discovered

jim.trott@netobjectives.com — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 21:33:42 -0600

I have heard it said many times that patterns have to be discovered. Years ago, after reading Christopher Alexander's "Timeless Way of Building" I felt that this wasn't really true - since patterns are not really just "solutions to recurring problems in a context" but rather an exposition of the forces present in the context including the relationships between these...

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Language Matters

jim.trott@netobjectives.com — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 11:41:46 -0600

Last year I was diagnosed with a "nodule" on the right side of my thyroid (this is the word they use when you have a tumor and they don't want to freak you out). My doctor told me that the nature of the thing (soft, large) meant that it was unlikely to be cancerous, but that we might want to remove it anyway because it might turn cancerous later. I asked "would I have to stay...

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What is the difference between first generation Agile (XP/Scrum) and Lean/Kanban?

jim.trott@netobjectives.com — Sun, 31 May 2009 10:32:09 -0600

This blog is based entirely on a recent post I made on the Kanban Dev group. I have slightly extended it here for clarity. I get a lot of comments from Agilists who have not done Lean or Kanban suggesting that there is little difference between all of these things (XP, Scrum, Lean, Kanban). They tend to think the differences are just a few practices which you could do anywhere. I do not agree -...

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Let's be civil. If you don't like my message, discuss the message, not me.

jim.trott@netobjectives.com — Wed, 27 May 2009 08:10:04 -0600

I have been telling a message that people who do Scrum can be more effective supplementing Scrum with Lean-Thinking. I do not think this is any more being negative than someone telling a newbie driver a regular car does better on the road, or you need an SUV if you want to drive off the road. As a person with a mathematical and scientific background, I believe it always makes sense to...

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Redefining Lean

jim.trott@netobjectives.com — Fri, 22 May 2009 14:48:24 -0600

Redefining Lean Lean Software Development is founded on Lean. But what is "Lean"? Some have said that "lean is just what Toyota does." That is not much of a definition and is not even accurate, although Toyota does do Lean. It is also not accurate to say that Lean is focused on manufacturing, although Lean is now widely used in manufacturing.Lean is not even principally...

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Challenging Why (not if) Scrum Fails

jim.trott@netobjectives.com — Sun, 17 May 2009 23:14:35 -0600

Virtually 2 years ago I wrote a blog called Challenging Why (not if) Scrum Works. Basically, I was looking to see why Scrum worked so I would be able to best take advantage of Scrum. I believe Scrum works very much due to the structure of the team, the iterative nature of development and the proper context within which the team works. In this prior blog, I reported my experience with teams that...

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Lean Kanban 2009 - Wow!

jim.trott@netobjectives.com — Mon, 11 May 2009 20:24:19 -0600

I just attended the Lean Kanban Conference in Miami. I have been going to conferences for 12 years. My mainstays of the last few years have been regional open conferences, SD West, SD Best, Agile Alliance, SQE’s Better Software, SQE’s Agile Development Practices and APLN regional conferences. I’ve had to redefine my 1-10 scale. What was formerly a 10 has to be moved down to 7 to make room for...

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Report from Lean Kanban 2009

jim.trott@netobjectives.com — Mon, 11 May 2009 16:07:03 -0600

Report from Lean Kanban 2009 Kanban is an emerging practice in Lean software development. Founded on solid principles of flow and utilization theory, it seems to address many of the issues people have had with Agile approaches. Over the next few years, Lean Kanban is going to become an important part of the software professional's toolkit. The Lean Kanban Conference 2009, May 6-9, 2009...

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A Tale of Two Communities

jim.trott@netobjectives.com — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 07:05:34 -0600

I've been active in many different software development communities and user groups over the last 10 years. Some include eXtreme Programming, Design Patterns, Lean, Lean-Agile, Scrum Development and any number of local user groups. I most recently have begun to be active in the Kanban Software Development user group. I have been a member of it for quite some time and know many of the...

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Emerging Windmills, Part 2 of 2

jim.trott@netobjectives.com — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 11:43:56 -0600

Tilting at Clouds From my previous posting: "When you have an idea you think may be a hit, like the next Twitter, how much capacity should you invest in? Do you buy one server, or a hundred? Do you invest in a DSL line, or buy direct access to the backbone? How much disk space will you need for your customer load? " If you base your decisions on prediction, you'd better hope...

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Emerging Windmills, Part 1 of 2

jim.trott@netobjectives.com — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 11:42:59 -0600

The Half-Way House When I was a kid, I spent some of my summertime vacations at the rural home of a friend of my parents. The home had a history; it had been the "stopover" spot for stage coaches, at the top of a long, steep hill that would wear out the horses. People would stop there, rest and water the horses, and eat a meal before going down the other side of the hill. When I visited...

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Three Things You Gotta Know

jim.trott@netobjectives.com — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 23:18:26 -0600

Three Things You Gotta Know Lean is a pragmatic framework for absorbing principles and practices that other people have learned and putting them to work in large organizations. It can feel overwhelming. It is rich and there are many, many techniques and practices. It is always growing as it absorbs more good practices. That's why people can make careers out of Lean. But you don't have...

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Don’t do more with less, do less with more

jim.trott@netobjectives.com — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 06:19:48 -0600

Do “more with less.” This is a common mantra in business. But it’s actually not the best advice. At least, not as advice on what to do. It’s what you should achieve, however, if you use Lean-Thinking and do less with more.This is a fundamental paradigmatic difference between Lean and other methods. It is not about directly improving what you do as much as it is about removing waste. These are...

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Getting to the Benefit

jim.trott@netobjectives.com — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 13:43:11 -0600

Getting to the Benefits It has been estimated that 75% of companies undertaking Scrum are not experiencing the benefits they expected. Why do you suppose this is? Why don't we take time to stop, observe, and improve our processes? Why is lean perhaps a more natural starting point for the enterprise? These are some of the questions explored by Alan Shalloway in today's podcast. But...

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Questioning Large Scrum Failure Rates

jim.trott@netobjectives.com — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 14:24:39 -0600

In an interview in February 2008 (http://www.agilecollab.com/interview-with-ken-schwaber), Ken Schwaber said “I estimate that 75% of those organizations using Scrum will not succeed in getting the benefits that they hope for from it.” He continued to say “Scrum is a very simple framework within which the ‘game’ of complex product development is played. Scrum exposes every inadequacy or...

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The Case for One-Piece Flow (Part 2/3)

jim.trott@netobjectives.com — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 15:27:17 -0600

Part 2: How organizational focus and visual controls that limit work-in-process (WIP) can make large enterprises much more productive and easier to manage In this 3-part series, I'll cover how too much work-in-process leads to hidden waste at the individual, release, and enterprise levels. Lean Principles suggest that visual controls that are guided by the value stream help eliminate waste....

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What's After Lean?

jim.trott@netobjectives.com — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 11:59:31 -0700

Over the last 20 years we’ve seen quite a lot process and technology come to the forefront: object-orientation, design patterns, extreme programming, Scrum, Agile, Lean to mention a few. While I don’t believe any of these are fads, one has to wonder what’ll be next? At Net Objectives we’ve had a history of embracing new methods as we’re always looking for new ways to help our customers. Given...

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