Presentation: "Using Kanban to help dysfunctional agile teams"

Time: Wednesday 10:30 - 11:30

Location: Metropolitan Ballroom

Abstract: In this short talk Jeff reviews some common agile team dysfunctions such as teams struggling with estimation, planning, poor communication and collaboration, and general resistance to agile development. Given these sorts of problems who wouldn't be resistant? Kanban style development is often positioned as at odds with common agile time-boxed development. But, in fact Kanban's Lean thinking folds quite well into an agile culture and what's more helps deal with some of the common problems agile teams struggle with. In this short talk Jeff will review some real world examples of common dysfunctions and how moving to a Kanban approach helped teams right themselves and get back to the agile ideals they'd originally strived for.

Jeff Patton, Agile Product Design Expert

 Jeff  Patton

Jeff Patton has designed and developed software for the past 15 years on a wide variety of products from on-line aircraft parts ordering to electronic medical records. Jeff has focused on Agile approaches since working on an early Extreme Programming team in 2000. In particular Jeff has specialized in the application of user experience design practice to improve Agile requirements, planning, and products. Since 2007, Jeff has been applying Lean thinking and Kanban-style development practices to agile development and Scrum to help teams focus on the throughput of value.

Jeff's current articles, essays, and presentations can be found at www.AgileProductDesign.com and in Alistair Cockburn's Crystal Clear. Jeff works currently as an independent coach, consultant, and instructor. Jeff is founder and list moderator of the agile-usability Yahoo discussion group, a columnist with StickyMinds.com and IEEE Software, a Certified Scrum Trainer, and winner of the Agile Alliance's 2007 Gordon Pask Award for contributions to Agile Development.