Please Help to Create the Most Awesome Lean Kanban Conference in Australia

by Bernd Schiffer Posted on 14/05/2013
Lean Kanban Australia/New Zealand 2013
Lean Kanban Australia/New Zealand 2013

Dear Lean Kanban Aficionado,

With any luck there’s a conference coming up later this year: Lean Kanban Australia/New Zealand, or LKANZ if you like, (pronounced el-cance, rimes with bell dance). It’s the southern hemisphere extension of the famous Lean Kanban conference series. This year the series consists of 10 conferences, well, 9 actually, and we want to make the 10th happen in Melbourne, Australia, on 12th-13th September – with crowdfunding. We need you for this, so please read on! Continue reading →

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The Agile Onion – 4 Fundamental Aspects of the Agile Universe

by Bernd Schiffer Posted on 07/02/2013
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My Agile Onion (in a bottling jar)

Whenever I give an overview of Agile, e.g., in classes or to clients, I use an onion to describe it. My Agile Onion consists of a core, has two layers, and it rests in a bottling jar. The Agile Onion represents the Agile Developer Skills, Scrum, Kanban and Agile Management Innovations. For me, the Agile Onion represents the 4 fundamental aspects of the Agile universe out there. Continue reading →

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140 Second Presentation: Inspire with AMIs

by Bernd Schiffer Posted on 25/01/2013
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It’s all about inspiration!

A few decades ago, writer and poet Antoine de Saint-Exupery wrote: “If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up the men to gather wood, divide the work and give orders. Instead, teach them to yearn for the vast and endless sea.”

In my opinion it’s not actions what people are looking for, but inspiration. That’s what I like about Stoos Connect: it inspires people all over the world to yearn for new management ideas.

Therefore we came up with the term Agile Management Innovations, or short AMI (which sounds like the name Amy, like Amy Winehouse or Amy Farrah Fowler, which means “The beloved one”, which I find kinda nice). Continue reading →

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99 Second Presentation: Kanban Values or How I Almost Attacked a Manager With Hot Coffee

by Bernd Schiffer Posted on 22/01/2013
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Kanban Values by Mike Burrows

Once there was this day when I almost attacked a manager with hot coffee. I had booth duty at a conference in 2009, and a manager came by and asked about Kanban. I grabbed my coffee mug and explained Kanban by refering to the practices, like “Visualize” and “Limit WIP”, and to the principles, like “Start with what you know”, etc. As I explained, the manager’s face went from sceptical over interested to pleased – actually it was more like an evil grin. So I asked him what he thinks about it, and he said: “This is awesome! That’s exactly the kind of method I was looking for to finally get more control over my lazy employees!” Continue reading →

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Global Day of Code Retreat 2012 – Report from Melbourne

by Bernd Schiffer Posted on 08/12/2012

Code Retreat at the GDCR in Melbourne

I was at the Global Day of Code Retreat (GDCR) event in Melbourne on 8 Dec 2012. A code retreat is a great way for software developers to practice their coding skills. Since I was merely an observer on this event, I could have a good view from the outside in. Lot’s of energy there everywhere! Here’s what I saw. Continue reading →

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Agile Management Innovations – a Primer

by Bernd Schiffer Posted on 08/11/2012

Agile Teams within Organisations – An Organisation’s View

My colleagues and I, we work as Agile coaches. Every now and then new clients invite us to take a look at their Agile teams. These clients typically introduced Agile software development several months before, and they usually say that it was, in general, a good decision. They release more often with fewer bugs, changes to the products are made much more easily, customer happiness is increased, and so on. Yet we see also another picture: the client’s organisation and the client’s team are bull riding together. Continue reading →

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