It’s widely recognized that just strict adherence to agile methodologies such as Sprint huddles, Backlog grooming, Sprint planning, and Sprint retrospectives doesn’t automatically ensure agility. The first step involves conducting a simple statistical analysis of your Cycle Time data. Once obtained, basic statistical calculations can help establish a baseline.
Unlocking the secret to accurately forecast product releases
Are you using Monte Carlo analysis to project deliverables? At its core, forecasting represents a sophisticated optimization challenge, one that seeks to minimize schedule subject to budgetary constraints. This equation is subject to myriad of variables including understanding and prioritization of work, order of execution, allocation of skilled personnel, and the ever present spectre of risks. Agile, while attempting to be nimble, often side-steps the intricate dance of optimization in favour of adaptability and speed. Practiced well, organizations have benefited strategically from this speed and adaptability as is evidenced by modern technology organizations. Enterprise ITs, however, in an attempt to reinvent themselves are failing miserably at becoming good at either.
Implementing Kanban
While implementing Kanban is easy, teams struggle with its implementation. It is important to start slowly when implementing it and eventually make adjustments to the way you practice Kanban. Reaching mastery takes time and there is plenty to be learned and experienced beforehand so take your time and be patient in advancing.
The agile mindset – what does it mean?
“Developing a product takes time. The only way to do it is to experiment. Build a prototype or a sample and show it around. Let people kick the tires, touch it, feel it. Let them get a taste of the product. Get their feedback and incorporate it into the next prototype you build. Do it fast.” Sounds like something a Lean Startup practitioner would advocate, doesn’t it? But, you see, I got this from someone who worked in manufacturing all his life and never heard the term “Lean Startup”. He went on to say, “You’ve got to listen to the people doing the work. They do this day in and day out. If you want improvement ideas, listen to them. Solve their pain points and see productivity increase.” Sounds like agile thinking, right? With the right attitude, one can adapt the learnings across industries.
The value of value stream mapping in software engineering
Specifically, for every work type send me what date it was changed to each stage in your workflow. I can help with some data analysis to figure out your team’s cycle time. Second – take the value stream map as we’ve drawn it and share it with the team. Validate if we’ve mapped the flow accurately and adjust where necessary. Then find out the information required at each step to minimize the wait times. Also, think about this – what impact will you achieve, if the team sets a goal to minimize the wait time at each step? Is there a better alternative?
Journey to becoming a lean & agile family
Having been a student of Lean and Agile for a number of years now, we started adopting it in bits and pieces within our family. Here’s some examples of lean and agile in action in our personal lives.