Description

Comprehensive, coherent, and practical, The Scrumban [R]Evolution will help students learn to apply proven lean/agile principles to get pragmatic, bottom-line results. Pioneering Scrumban coach Ajay Reddy clarifies Scrumban’s core concepts and principles, and illuminates their application through real-life examples. He takes readers from the absolute basics through rapid adoption, and from choosing metrics to advanced forecasting and adaptive management.

Features

• Clarifies crucial relationships between purpose, values, and performance
• Teaches how to use Scrumban to promote greater personal satisfaction and performance
• How to use metrics to gain insight, track progress, and improve forecasting
• Teaches to take advantage of Scrumban’s advanced capabilities as you gain experience

Table of Contents

Foreword by David J. Anderson    xv

Foreword by Jim Benson    xix

Preface    xxiii

Acknowledgments    xxvii

About the Author    xxix

 

Part I: Introduction    1

Chapter 1: Manifestations: Scrumban Demystified    3

A Helpful Perspective   3

A Framework for [R]Evolution   4

Stop Drinking the Kool-Aid   8

Let’s Get Started   9

 

Part II: Foundations–Starting with the End in Mind   11

Chapter 2: The Matrix and the Mess: Where It All Begins 13

Part 1: The Matrix (Scrumban’s Origins)   14

Part 2: The Mess (Reasons Scrumban Is Needed)   28

Tying It All Together   39

 

Chapter 3: The Mission: Clarifying the Relationship between Purpose, Values, and Performance    41

Why We’re Paid to Work   41

The Importance of Shared Purpose   42

The Importance of Adaptive Capabilities   43

Tying It All Together   51

 

Chapter 4: Motivations: Why Scrumban Works    53

Where It All Began   53

Layering the Kanban Method   57

The Significance of Complementary Values   64

Scrumban’s Relationship to Agile Thinking   66

Other Frameworks and Models   66

Some Final Thoughts on Systems Thinking   68

Tying It All Together   69

 

Part III: Execution–Putting Scrumban into Practice    71

Chapter 5: Mobilize: Rolling Out Scrumban    73

Your Starting Condition   73

The Kickstart Process   74

The Kickstart Event   86

Some Final Thoughts   98

Tying It All Together   101

 

Chapter 6: Method: Working under the Hood    103

Managing Uncertainty and Risk 103

How Scrumban Improves Management of Risk   106

Releases and Sprints   119

Feedback Loops   144

Design Thinking   147

Ticket Design   149

Board Design   150

Tying It All Together   153

 

Chapter 7: Measurements: Gaining Insights and Tracking Progress    155

Why Measure?   155

How to Measure   158

Constructing Histograms   161

Scrumban Measurements   161

Productivity Metrics   161

Quality Metrics   169

Risk Metrics   172

Extending Scrumban beyond IT: The Balanced Scorecard   178

Tying It All Together   182

 

Part IV: Improving–Advanced Topics and Practices    185

Chapter 8: Management: Management Is Doing Things Right–Leadership Is Doing the Right Things    187

Convictional Leadership   188

Servant Leadership   190

Good Leaders Recognize Knowledge Work Is Different   191

Reinforcing Leadership through Management   194

Facilitating Evolving Roles   199

Tying It All Together   204

 

Chapter 9: Maturing: Like a Fine Wine, Scrumban Can Get Better with Age    205

Prioritizing and Managing Change   206

Evolving Your Core Capabilities   214

Further Evolving the Understanding and Management of Risk   221

Scaling beyond IT   229

Tying It All Together   235

 

Chapter 10: Modeling: To Boldly Go Where Few Have Gone Before    237

Why Model?   237

Starting with Metrics and Distribution Patterns   238

What Is Modeling?   239

A Sample “What If ” Experiment   255

Bootstrapping   258

Some Final Words   258

 

Appendix: More: For the Stout of Heart 259

Scrum in a Nutshell   259

Scrum and Scrumban: Some Quick Comparisons   262

Scrumban Roadmap: A Quick Reference for Getting Started   267

Using Scrumban to Introduce Scrum   273

Scrumban and SAFe   277

Scrumban Stories: The Full Case Studies   278

Supplemental Information and Resources   315

 

Index   335

 

Author

Ajay Reddy has spent more than a decade helping teams and organizations improve how they work. His engagements emphasize a hands-on approach, collaborative experimentation, verified business outcomes, and improved team satisfaction. After discovering Agile approaches as a software engineer, he transitioned to coaching others in adopting Agile. Reddy founded CodeGenesys, the Lean-Agile consulting boutique. In 2010, he co-founded ScrumDo.com, which provides cloud-based project management tools to facilitate better Scrum and Kanban implementations. As its managing partner and product owner he helps teams in 145 countries realize Scrumban’s benefits. He recently co-created the GetScrumban.com game to help people discover Scrumban’s capabilities.