Integrating Agile 2009: A Retrospective
Thursday, 18 June 2009
What Went Well
- Henrik Kniberg‘s opening keynote on ‘The Thinking Tool Called Agile’ reminds us that Agile is a tool and therefore a means to an end. It shouldn’t be a goal in itself.
- Rob Westgeest promoting XP Days Benelux 2009, the most fun-filled and educational Agile conference I know.
- Pair poetry writing with Pascal – we wrote a haiku to capture the lifelong journey towards achieving Flow.
- Rob Thomsett‘s curious and entertaining closing keynote about IT teams from the perspective of Management which made me laugh out loud lots!
- Co-presenting a session on The Toyota Way and how to make Lean and Agile endure with Pascal Van Cauwenberghe, featuring Snow White and the Seven Dwarves implementing a kanban system and applying Pull!
What Went Wrong
- Only session titles were available on the programme – there weren’t any full session descriptions to provide details on what the sessions were about.
- The nightclub setting and poor lighting made it difficult for participants to focus during presentations.
- The programme didn’t cater for interactive or experiential sessions to promote active learning.
- One day conferences are too short when there are so many folks to meet and learn from!
- Pascal and I didn’t attend any sessions because we wanted to rehearse our session some more, face-to-face.
Puzzles
- Is the Toyota Way easier to implement in Japan because of the hierarchical nature of Japanese culture?
- And so what if this is the case? Is it reason enough to not practice the Toyota Way simply because it’s harder if you’re not Japanese?
Lessons (Re-)Learnt
- The Toyota Way in a nutshell: Think ‘Long-term’, Respect for people, Continuous Improvement.
- The Agile (XP) Values complement the principles of Lean and enable us to make a mindset shift based on long-term philosophy.
- Continuous Improvement is about being better than you were yesterday everyday.
- The importance of taking responsibility for our behaviour and what we do.
- Miyamoto Musashi, a famous seventeenth century warrior who lived to a ripe old age, says the secret of his success is: “Do not develop an attachment to any one weapon or any one school of fighting’ – it’s about mixing and matching your tools according to the context. There is no one tool that fits all. Magic bullets don’t exist.
- I have much to (re-)learn.
Appreciations
- Many thanks to the organisers for looking after us during our brief stay in Amsterdam!
- To the enthusiastic participants who attended The Toyota Way session and their subsequent conversations about how we can help teams grow.
No. 1 — November 23rd, 2009 at 12:55 am
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