Jean Tabaka, TweetExpert on team dynamics and lean thinking

Biography: Jean Tabaka

Jean Tabaka, Agile Fellow with Rally Software, is continuing on her 30 year path of learning about software development principles, processes, and practices for people. She seeks a humane approach to bringing high value to our communities of creators and consumers. This has led her to move into Kanban and Lean approaches that reach beyond traditional Agile frameworks. She has also continued work in systems thinking and complexity theory. Jean holds a Masters in Computer Science from Johns Hopkins University. She is the author of Collaboration Explained: Facilitation Skills for Software Project Leaders and a variety of articles on Agile, organizational change, team dynamics, Lean thinking, and other associated topics. Jean blogs at www.rallydev.com/agileblog and can be followed on twitter as @jeantabaka. When home in Boulder, CO, she’d invite you over for some wine and some music while gazing across her backyard over a Flat Iron Mountains sunset. Meanwhile, you can find her at jean.tabaka@rallydev.com

Presentation: TweetTell Me Why: The Golden Circle of Agile Transformation

Track: Agile at mid-life / Time: Tuesday 11:30 - 12:20 / Location: Store Sal, Musikhuset

In this session using Simon Sinek's "Golden Circle" model, I guide participants to challenge their Agile adoption and transformation approaches. We first look at WHAT practices we've engaged in that tell us, "Yes, we are doing AGILE." We then investigate, "But HOW do we know which practices to choose or how to improve upon them?" That is where we engage in the notion of guiding principles. Finally, we challenge ourselves to dig deep into the truth of, "But WHY have our organizations chosen to engage in an Agile transformation at all?" Practices are not enough. From this session, participants will be able to go back to their organizations and guide dialogue about the real WHY, HOW, and WHAT of their Agile world. They will be able to create better Agile adoption plans and more robust Agile transformations.

Keywords: Agile, Lean, Systems Thinking, Agile adoption, Agile practices, Complex systems, Simon Sinek

Target Audience: People currently engaged in Agile adoptions or preparing to start an Agile transformation. This can be team members, Agile Coaches, Managers, and Directors.

Presentation: TweetKeynote: Applying Design Thinking and Complexity Theory in Agile Organizations

Time: Wednesday 09:00 - 09:50 / Location: To be announced

Design thinking is emerging as a way to guide organizations in how to accept mystery and move through heuristics before moving to an algorithmic view of business. Complexity theory asks us to be intentional about the systems in which we find ourselves. By combining these two disciplines, you can begin to balance exploration and exploitation in how you create and sustain Agile adoptions in your teams, groups, and organizations.

Workshop: Using Games for Learning Design Thinking and Systems Thinking Tweet

Track: Training: Architecture / Time: Sunday 09:00 - 12:00 / Location: 1, University of Aarhus, Building 1421

In this interactive workshop, participants learn how to use games for helping teams engage in new ways of thinking. Two of the games, Belief Release and Group Juggle, emphasize different archetypes in systems thinking. The other two games, Gift Experience and Empathy Mapping, teach concepts of the various modes of design thinking.

Workshop: Kanban Tweet

Track: Training: Project and Process / Time: Sunday 13:00 - 16:00 / Location: 1, University of Aarhus, Building 1421

It doesn’t matter what you’re producing—physical goods, software, or other products. When efficiency and workers’ time utilization become more important than the value of the work product, the production system is optimized for the wrong thing. The Kanban approach to product development explicitly recognizes this and instead amplifies the advantages of establishing flow—an idea inherent in most Agile processes though often not emphasized. Through presentation, games, simulation, and discussion, attendees of this workshop will learn about the “Why,” “How,” and “What” of Kanban. You’ll learn about Kanban basics: the Kanban board, the cumulative flow diagram, classes of service, and collaborative process design. And you’ll earn about the impact of sub-optimization and the sometimes deadly costs of delay common in many teams—even those that profess to be Agile. Once you understand the effects of workflows, queues, visualization, and limiting work in progress, you will make decisions about how to improve your team's processes by applying Kanban basics.