I have been quoting my grandma in Agile workshops recently.
She probably thought that “lean” was fat free meat and that “kanban” was probably a type of cake. But she did understand one of key concepts in successful projects:
“Never mistake activity for progress”.
In other words, writing and deploying a lot of code quickly is not the same as solving business problems or improving the assets and capabilities of the organisation. So I am basing my talk on her insight when I speak at the Software Development Conference.
I believe that on many projects there is often a gap around:
- Handing over knowledge at the end of the project
- Maintaining knowledge during the project
- Linking the overall solution into the existing business culture, strategy and processes
Having found these gaps, I also think it is relatively easy for members of the team (particularly testers and business analsysts) to step up and fill them.
I will probably test some of my theories in blog articles in the meantime. So please let me know what you think of them – not just for me but for the poor audience who will be expecting more from the talk than just my Grandma’s favourite Date loaf recipe.
James King 