Lean & Kanban
Lean thinking focuses on giving customers what they want, when and where the want it, without a wasted motion or wasted minute.
As global competitiveness comes to the software development industry, the search is on for a better way to create first-class software rapidly, repeatedly, and reliably. Lean initiatives in manufacturing, logistics, and services have led to dramatic improvements in cost, quality and delivery time; can they do the same for software development? The short answer is «Absolutely!»
Of the many methods that have arisen to improve software development, Lean is emerging as one that is grounded in decades of work understanding how to make processes better.
This intensive two day workshop aimed at leaders will help you apply lean principles such as Rapid Response, Constant Learning, Built-in Quality, Local Responsibility and Global Optimization to software development.
You will learn:
- How to look at your process from a customer's point of view and identify waste.
- What's wrong with software testing and what you have to do to fix it.
- How to frame risk and rethink scheduling to permit confident promise-dating and reliable delivery.
- The traits of people who work in the most effective system development organizations.
- The leadership roles that support the lean framework.
- Tools for solving problems that everyone in the organization can use.
- How to start and sustain a lean initiative over time.
Learn first hand from Lean thought-leaders Mary and Tom Poppendieck how to apply Lean Principles to your organization. Mary and Tom have pioneered the application of Lean Thinking to software development and documented their principles in the following three books.
- Results are not the point
- Concept to Cash
- An agile toolkit
Kanban delivers tremendous benefits through continuous improvement and accelerates software maturity.
Kanban is a change management method that uses established industrial engineering theory and develops a different approach to striking agreements between IT and the business.
In Japanese manufacturing Kanban introduces better process control to support "Just In Time" methods. It is based on a visual system of cards, Kanban in Japanese means billboard or sign, and signals a continuous process flow while limiting WIP (work in progress) and therefore reduces waste in the process. Given the visual nature of Kanban the flow is visible to the workers involved, and stimulates Kaizen (Continuous Improvement).
In this way the manufacturing system shares many of the principles of Lean software development and in this workshop you will learn how to define the policies that constrain the collaborative game of software development. You’ll also learn how to use those policies to manage risk, to reset negotiations and recast them as collaborative problem solving.