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.
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.
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.
Blend the principles of flow, queues, theory of constraints, Lean, and Six Sigma to concoct a very powerful message that I have come to believe over the years: ‘You’ve got more capacity than you think! ™ Use existing capacity to do more The Kanban Way. Blend the principles of flow, queues, theory of constraints, Lean, and Six Sigma to concoct
“We are Agile. We don’t need to follow a process”, declared Chris. Tina was aghast. “How do you think we deliver solutions, Chris?” “What do you mean? We do Agile. We follow Scrum. We don’t follow processes like the Waterfall guys do. We neither need a whole lot of planning nor documentation. We don’t do BDUF (big design upfront). We love
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.