Jun
11

Integrating the Toyota Way with Agile

Integrating Agile

I’m looking forward to next week’s Integrating Agile conference in Amsterdam. On the program, a nice mix of local and international speakers. A keynote by Henrik Kniberg is bound to be interesting. I heard Rob Thomsett at the London Agile Business Conference, so I expect to be challenged and entertained. Some other sessions look interesting too, but it’s hard to tell without further session descriptions on the site. Recommendation to the organisers: TO decide if I want to go to the conference and which sessions I’ll attend I NEED to know what each session will be about.

Toyota Way

The program also features a new version of the Toyota Way session, most recently presented in Paris. I’ve presented about this topic since 2005 and the presentation keeps changing as I learn more. This time it will change more than usual, as I’m co-presenting it for the first time with Portia. As usual when working with Portia, we have more new ideas than can fit in one session.

So, what is the session about?

We present the principles and practices of the Toyota Way and Lean Management. We explain how we apply them by giving examples from our experience. We show how each of the principles does not stand alone but forms a system that brings enduring improvements.

What’s in it for you?

  • See how the Lean Management principles of the Toyota Way have made Toyota a learning and improving organisation.
  • Understand how Lean and Agile relate to each other.
  • Learn how to apply this in your own organisation to make Agile and Lean transformations endure.

Lots of material

To give you an idea of what we talk about in 45 minutes.

Lean books

All of the wisdom in those books! Plus several years of experience applying these ideas in the real world.

It’s a bit harder to take a picture of experience. Although there are some wrinkles and gray hairs I could trace

Jun
01

XP Days France 2009 – a retrospective

What went well

  • Running “Miroir, gentil miroir…” for the first time in French with about 45 eager and open-minded agilistas. A great way to open the conference.
  • Meeting and talking with participants about their struggles and successes trying to become more effective.
  • The wonderful location of “La Porte Jaune” and the opportunity to go out for a bit of rowing or running.
  • Running the BusinessValue Game in French with Portia and Laurent Morisseau. Watch out for BVG v2.0 soon with French and English cards.
  • Seeing Héloise, Caroline, Didier, Laurent and Olivier from Atos Worldline presenting the good and bad experiences when we introduced Agile in their teams. Loved the “Little Red Riding Hood” fairytale theme of the “Legacy People” session.
  • The retrospective cards and the game by the “Agile Alchimists“, Jacques and François.
  • The session cards we made to describe our games. We’ll publish them soon on the Agile Coach website.
  • Relaxing before and after the conference in Vincennes and the Champs Elysées.

What went wrong

  • Missing Dominc Williams’s presentation about “Le développement hédoniste”. I’d already seen the first part of this mixture of philosophy and agility at XP Days Switzerland and I want to know how it ends. Dominic, won’t you submit this session for XP Days Benelux?
  • Except for the large auditorium the rooms were too small for such a large number of people. Luckily, we could do part of our Mirror Mirror session outside and we got a part of the dinner space to run the Business Value Game.
  • Attending too few sessions to work on our own sessions.

Puzzles

  • What was the message of the keynote “La longue défaite…” ?
  • Second-hand conflicting message about Lean vs Agile.

Lessons Learnt

  • We need to explain more during our sessions, give more context.
  • We need to limit the number of players we accept in our sessions or find a way to scale the game to more players.

Appreciations

  • To Sara Lewis and Raphaël Pierquin for helping to translate ‘Mirror, Mirror on the Wall… Why Me?’ en français
  • To Laurent Morriseau for helping to translate The Business Value Game en français
  • To the organisers for finding a great location, a smooth organisation and providing us with all we needed to run our sessions.
  • To the location staff for setting up the large room to play the Business Value Game in.

More feedback from participants and other bloggers on the Agile Coach site.

May
31

Another review of the Toyota Way in Paris

François Wauquier describes the Toyota Way presentation I gave in Paris in Janruary.

Merci François!

Portia and I will present an updated version of this presentation at the Integrating Agile conference on June 18th in Amsterdam. See you there.

May
28

Miroir, gentil miroir… à Paris

Retrospective of “Mirror, Mirror… Why Me?” published

Portia and I have enjoyed taking part in XP Days France 2009. We’ll publish a full retrospective with pictures soon.

Meanwhile, you can already read the participant retrospectives of the “Mirror, Mirror…” session. Portia has just published version 1.2 which includes both English and French versions. We’ll improve the game and our delivery by taking into account this feedback.

A big thank you to the organisers and participants of XP Days France. A l’année prochaine!

Rétrospective “Miroir, gentil miroir…” publiée

Portia et moi avons beaucoup aimé participer aux XP Days France 2009. Nous publierons des retrospectives plus complètes avec des photos dans quelques jours.

Entre temps, vous pouvez déjà lire les retours des participants sur la session “Miroir, gentil miroir…“. Portia vient de publier la version 1.2 qui inclut la traduction française. Nous allons prendre en compte les remarques pour améliorer le jeu et la façon de présenter la session.

En tout cas, merci aux organisateurs et participants des XP Days France. A l’année prochaine!

May
15

The Toyota Way at Integrating Agile Conference

Portia and I present “The Toyota Way” at the Integrating Agile Conference in Amsterdam, organised by the Agile Consortium Benelux and Agile Holland.