Alex Ferguson
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Business/Technology The Missing Link in the Evolution of Kanban — From Its Roots in Agile David J. Anderson developed the Kanban Method over years spent managing and coaching Agile development teams at companies such as Sprint and Microsoft by integrating Lean thinking with Agile principles and practices. This compendium of anecdotes and epiphanies shares his journey on the road to Kanban, now a popular method for improving predictability while managing change and risk in organizations worldwide. Topics include: Leadership The role of the manager in Agile development Agile Transitions Tribal Behavior Challenges with Human Resources Understanding Agile Values and Principles Flow and Variability Managing Bottlenecks David J. Anderson leads a Estimation and Metrics consulting, training, and publishing business dedicated Lean Software Development to sustainable evolutionary approaches for management of knowledge workers. “If you are a manager trying to lead a Lean/Agile organization, you He is the author of Kanban – will greatly enjoy this book.” Successful Evolutionary Change — Yuval Yeret, Agile/Kanban Consultant, AgileSparks for your Technology Business and Agile Management for “Contains anecdotes guaranteed to educate, enlighten, and even amuse those knowledge workers seeking better organizational Business Results. agility.” David is a founder of Lean- Kanban University, a business dedicated to assuring quality of training in Lean and Kanban throughout the world. and Six Sigma to concoct a very powerful message. —Charan Atreya, PMP, Kanban Way Praise for Lessons in Agile Management “David J. Anderson’s work has proven to be foundational in helping my clients walk the road of continuous improvement. David’s latest book contains anecdotes that are guaranteed to educate, enlighten, and even amuse those knowledge workers seeking better organizational agility.” –Jeff Anderson, Service Offering Lead, Deloitte LEAN “In an anecdotic, analytic, and easy-to-digest way, David explains all the evolving thinking behind such a simple and powerful method [Kanban], from Deming, Goldratt, and beyond. David challenges both conventional and traditional Agile mindsets by thinking in terms of the best economical outcomes, value, flow, and the capability of the system and the humans working as part of it.” —Manuel Mazán, MBA, CSP, Lean-Agile Coach, Agiland “David’s writing has inspired many software managers and leaders over the last ten years. These collected and annotated articles provide a fresh perspective on many of his best posts, articles, and insights. I highly recommend Lessons in Agile Management for those who seek an under- standing of both the current best practice and the evolution of software management. Neither stands without the other.” —Eric Willeke, Agile Coach, Rally Software Development “I have been following David’s work with Kanban for the last 3 years. His work has helped shape the Kanban implementation within our matrix organization. Lessons in Agile Management: On the Road to Kanban joins my required reading list on this subject. The plethora of experiences out- lined in the book will provide insight and help you avoid the pitfalls as you transform your organization for breakthrough performance. David successfully blends 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!’” —Charan Atreya, PMP, Kanban Way “It’s a great book. If the number of pages that now have underlines is an indication of the book’s impact, this is a real winner . David Anderson ranks in the top few authors whose writing is always a must-read. He has done it again with Lessons in Agile Management. This latest book brings together diverse bodies of knowledge from queuing theory, cycle times, and flow to the nature of knowledge work, leading knowledge workers, and improving the effectiveness of teams.” —Greg Cohen CPM CPMM, Senior Principal Consultant, The 280 Group “This is the book on leadership we have been waiting for. It is even relevant outside of software development.” —Kurt Häusler, CSP, Agile & Lean Consultant, Kegon AG “David is a great storyteller, and here he manages to drive home key, underlying principles of Lean/Agile management as well as some cool tips and practices. If you are a manager trying to lead a Lean/Agile organization, you will greatly enjoy this book. Lean/Agile industry insiders will also appreciate the fresh perspective on David’s journey and the birth of the Kanban Method.” — Yuval Yeret, Agile/Kanban Consultant, AgileSparks “This book is an interesting meander through the mind of an agile manager—both current thought and records of the journey in older blog posts. A thought-provoking read.” —Erik Petersen, Senior Consultant, Emprove “I expected to learn about Kanban in a theoretical way: I did not expect to learn so much about practical communication in management. David Anderson has shaped this book around his crisp blog posts over the years, and has been generous in sharing his own learning. This is the first book I’ve read about Kanban, and I’m hooked.” Bob Corrick, Developer, Virgin Money Lessons in Agile Management On the Road to Kanban David J. Anderson BLUE HOLE PRESS Sequim, Washington Blue Hole Press Sequim, WA 98382 BLUE HOLE www.blueholepress.com PRESS Copyright 2012 by David J. Anderson All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. Printed in the United States of America. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data applied for; available at www.loc.gov 978-0-9853051-2-3 Paperback 978-0-9853051-3-0 Kindle 978-0-9853051-4-7 ePub 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Cover design: Terry Kluytmans Interior design: Vicki Rowland In loving memory of my father, William E. Anderson Contents Foreword by Alan Shalloway . xiii Foreword by Stephen Denning . .xvii Preface . xix Happy Groundhog Day . .xxiii CHAPTER 1 On Leadership . 1 New Rules for Old Geeks . .2 Prairie Chickens . .4 Failure to Manage to the Values . .6 Lead People, Manage Things! . .8 To Code or Not to Code? . 10 Compensate for Uncertainty with Leadership . 12 Management by Reality—Fired on the Asphalt . 14 Some Military Lessons . 16 Staff Ride . 18 Handy on Failure Tolerance . 21 Leadership Heroes #1: Alex Ferguson . 23 Emotional Elizabeth . 26 CHAPTER 2 On Management . 29 Manager as Permission Giver . 31 Management Misdirection . 33 How to Destroy Morale: Lesson 1 . 34 The Line Manager Squeeze . 36 Why Aren’t Managers Paid More? . 37 Why Good Managers Still Matter to Agile Development . 39 Policies: You’ve Got the Power! . 40 vii Flipping Metrics . 41 Why Individual Measurement is Bad . 43 Language Lawyers and Performance Reviews . 45 Gardeners . 47 Attitudinals . 49 How to Communicate with Me! . 51 The Defective Paper Towel . 53 CHAPTER 3 What Would Drucker Do? . 55 The Next Great Challenge . 57 Drucker on Effectiveness . 59 Drucker on Refactoring . 61 Drucker on Adaptive versus Plan-Driven Processes . 63 Drucker on Teamwork . 64 Developer As Executive . 65 Personal Hedgehog Concept . 67 CHAPTER 4 Inspired by Deming . 69 What’s Wrong with Conformance to Specification? . 71 Reduce Variation, Reduce Cost . 72 Lightning Strikes Twice . 74 Don’t Apologize, Be on Time! . 76 Drive Out Fear! . 78 Quality as a Competitive Weapon . 81 Adapting Deming’s Work to Explain Agile to a Traditional Audience . 84 R.E.S.P.E.C.T . 99 CHAPTER 5 Goldratt and His Theory of Constraints . 101 Lessons Learned from Eli, #1: Small Batches . 103 Lessons Learned from Eli, #2: Resistance to Change . 105 Lessons Learned from Eli, #3: Don’t Assign Blame . 107 Conformant Quality throughout the Workflow . 109 Lessons Learned from Eli, #4: Lean and Six Sigma . 111 Socratic Method: Considered Dangerous When . 113 When Policies Move the Bottleneck . 116 Variability and Drum-Buffer-Rope . 118 viii Contents Geeks and the Road Runner . 120 Improving a Constraint . 123 Stop Estimating . 126 Drive Variability out of Your Bottleneck . 128 Process Batch and Transfer Batch . 130 Throughput and America’s Dentists . 132 Reflections on the Passing of Eli Goldratt . 133 Some Holiday Constraints . ..