Session Title

Predictably Agile

Abstract

What does it mean for an agile team to be predictable? How could you tell how predictable an agile team is or whether they are becoming more or less predictable? Is improving predictability even desirable for an agile team? This talk will explore these questions and more and introduce different ways of answering them. Attendees will go away with some new approaches and techniques they might use as part of an agile transformation to assess their success.

You'll hear about the following:

• An overview of flow metrics
• Defining predictability in terms of flow metrics (i.e. lead time and throughput)
• The pros and cons of flow metrics and say/do measures
• Predictability, stability and consistency
• Aging WIP
• Blockers

The key takeaways will be:

• Measuring flow
• Measure predictability in terms of consistency
• Focussing on WIP ageing and blockers

Bio

Karl leads the TEKsystems Global Services, Agile Transformation Services Practice in EMEA and is passionate about helping businesses become learning organisations.

Over the last 20 years, he has been a vocal advocate of lean and agile approaches to achieve this, working with companies including the BBC, Yahoo!, EMC Consulting, Rally Software, Cisco, SDL, Legal & General, Bank of America and HSBC.

Karl has been a pioneer in using kanban systems and strategy deployment for product development, a founding member of both the Lean Systems Society and Limited WIP Society, as well as being active in the community and a regular conference speaker.

He was awarded the honorary Brickell Key Community Contribution Award at the 2013 Lean Kanban North America conference.