Application ServicesSoftware DevelopmentDigital
Article • • 2 minute read

Check out the "Lean Agile ABCs" from Lean Kanban St. Louis...

Learn how well-structured games can improve team communication, collaboration, brainstorming and trust.

WWT helped to sponsor the August 2015 meeting of Lean Kanban St. Louis (www.meetup.com/Lean-Kanban-St-Louis/) where the group gathered to talk about the science of prediction intervals which enables forecasting of software delivery projects using Monte Carlo techniques.

The meetup began with an ice breaker where those present played a quick "improv" game entitled "Alphabet Conversation" where each person had to share a sentence or phrase about lean & agile practices that started with the next sequential letter of the alphabet (A, B, C, etc) - the intent of the game was to challenge those present to think through all the various agile & lean practices and see if they could come up with a unique sentence or statement using each letter.

For more information about "Alphabet Conversation" or other "Improv" games that can be used for team communication, collaboration, brainstorming and/or trust - check out www.teamfirstdevelopment.com for a list of 50 such quick games.

And now we present the "Lean Kanban ABCs":

  • A = Always limit your WIP
  • B = Backlogs should be short
  • C = Create great stories
  • D = Demo your work
  • E = Empower Team Decisions
  • F = Failures are reduced through frequent iterations
  • G = Graph Metrics
  • H = Have simple solutions
  • I = "I'm not sure can I get back to you"
  • J = Just in time
  • K = "Kanban" by David Anderson is a good book to read
  • L = Lean keeps things light and flowing
  • M = Make time for team building
  • N = Not enough knowledge for may to say anything intelligent about lean - Bonus for N = #NOESTIMATES
  • O = Only focus on one thing at a time
  • P = Post it notes solve all the world's problems
  • Q = Quickly deliver
  • R = Retrospectives help identify and solve problems
  • S = Satisfy stakeholder requirements
  • T = Test test test
  • U = Unit test should be automated
  • V = Value stream mapping - Bonus for "V" = #NOVELOCITY
  • W = What's with all the tests
  • X = XP Matters (XP = eXtreme Programming)
  • Y = You don't need all that work in progress
  • Z = Zeus (and Thor) loves Kanban