New(s)

I’m enjoying lots of tweets from the Lean/Kanban conference yesterday and today. It’s new and fun to “attend” a conference from a twitter-remove, and I still wish I could have attended in person. From all reports, it's a wonderful conference. Following the #lkconf thread, I’ve read much discussion about the new Lean Software & Systems Consortium (LSCC) and the organizers' intention to provide a certification. I’ve read that Lean is a “mindset” shift, not a methodology. [Hmmm, where have I heard that before?] "Unlike Agile" is the sotto voce subtext I surmise. In one tweet, Aaron Sanders (@aremsan) quotes Karl Scotland (@kjscotland), “Instead of being Agile which may lead to success, Kanban focuses on being successful which may lead to Agile.” Clearly a perception has arisen that Agile (a value-driven category of software development methods) focuses on “being Agile” more than it focuses on developing running, tested, accepted software that delivers value to customers. I don’t think the perception comes from the Agile Alliance or the seventeen men who crafted the Agile Manifesto. I see it emerging from a marketplace that wants a silver bullet, no matter how often we tell it that one doesn’t exist. So, I’m going out on a limb. Here’s my prediction: With the success of the LSSC, about five years from now, we’ll read about companies wanting to “be Lean” or “be Kanban” more than they want to deliver value to customers or success to the business. It’s inevitable. I can say this because after 40 years in the business world I’ve watched the pattern evolve with too many smart initiatives created by smart people who focused on the grand triad of delivery of value, quality of work and quality of work life – e.g., quality circles, TQM, high performance organizations, Theory Z, and more. Each initiative has its own flaws and blindspots, and each one puts forward critical new thinking on the subjects, then “the moving finger writes and having writ, moves on; nor all your piety nor wit shall lure it back to cancel half a line, nor all your tears wash out a word of it." (with appreciation to Omar Khayyam) Then the marketplace decides it's a silver bullet and goes after the marketability value while rejecting the mindset change. I'm pre-emptively introducing you to your five-years-from-now "silver bullet": Lean/Kanban. May you live long and prosper.