Kanban in Action: Thoughtfully Observing Flow, by Trent Hone and Mark Grove

ABSTRACT

Imagine you were hired to provide consulting assistance for a new team just starting out with Kanban. The team has been struggling with their implementation and is looking forward to your expert guidance, support, and advice. It’s your first day and you just walked into the team room to look at their board. You want to make smart observations and thoughtful interpretations so you can have meaningful conversations with the team members. The team starts assembling in the team room for the daily standup and you plan on making some comments afterwards.

What comments would you make? What thoughtful questions would you ask?

This interactive presentation provides a detailed look at how to interpret and thoughtfully observe Kanban Boards to better understand the work of your teams. We will start with an overview of the Lean Kanban Method and then proceed through a series of interactive exercises that give you an opportunity to review and interpret various Kanban boards. The exercises will increase your understanding of Kanban systems and provide opportunities to practice interpreting various board setups so you can have thoughtful and meaningful conversations with your teams.

ABOUT THE SPEAKERS

Trent Hone is a Managing Consultant with Excella Consulting and an award-winning naval historian. He works with organizations to improve their art of practice, increase effectiveness, and accelerate learning. He has helped dozens of government and commercial teams around the world in Asia, Oceania, Europe, and North America. Trent regularly writes and speaks about organizational learning, Agile methods, and naval history. He has been awarded the U.S. Naval War College’s Edward S. Miller Prize and the Naval History and Heritage Command’s Ernest M. Eller Prize. He has presented at the Annual Agile Conference, Lean Kanban North America, Lean Agile Scotland, the Society of Military History's Annual Meeting, the McMullen Naval History Symposium, and other conferences. His latest book, Learning War: The Evolution of Fighting Doctrine in the U.S. Navy, 1898–1945, will be published in June 2018. Mark Grove is an Agile Coach and Management Consultant with Excella Consulting. Mark has over 20 years in the IT profession with the last eight years focusing on coaching individuals and teams to embrace the Agile mindset, deliver end-user value, and delight the customer while being open and welcoming to change. He is an ardent believer of incremental delivery, an advocate of frequent feedback, and a champion of continuous improvement. He provides coaching, training, and facilitation expertise on a variety of Agile topics. Mark has a Master’s degree in Information Systems and holds agile certifications from ScrumAlliance, ICAgile, LeanKanban University, and the Project Management Institute. He is an amateur photographer and astronomer who witnessed firsthand the great American eclipse in Hopkinsville, KY.

AGENDA

6:00 – 6:30 Arrive, mingle, pizza, network

6:30 – 8:00 Presentation/Discussion/Game/Workshop

8:00 – 8:30 Q&A & Agile book raffle

SPONSOR

DCSUG is free, thanks to our sponsor, Excella Consulting. Excella (http://www.excella.com) is hiring! Check out the open job opportunities page (https://www.excella.com/careers). Excella offers DCSUG members a discount for upcoming Agile training classes (https://www.excella.com/training). Please contact us for the code.

CAN'T MAKE IT?

We meet monthly. So if you can't make it this month, hopefully we'll see you at the next meetup. Also, if you have an idea, game, workshop, or story to share with the group, then please contact the organizer to setup a presentation for a future meeting.