Uncategorized

Modus is pleased to invite everyone interested in lean thinking to Lean Coffee Seattle. These happen every Wednesday at 8:30 to 10:30 am at Uptown Espresso at Westlake and Republican.  See you there!

Jim Benson will be speaking at the Social Media Breakfast in Bellevue, Washington, on March 16, 2010.

The topic will be: Lean Organizations, Social Media and the CIA.

Tonight Jim Benson will be Speaking at SeaSpin.

This talk goes through a project his team did in early 2007 that used a hybrid XP / Personal Kanban approach to managing a widely distributed team and what they learned in “the early days.” Here is the write up from the SeaSPIN site.

February 2 Meeting

Construx Software, 10900 NE 8th St Suite 1350, Bellevue, WA

Food & networking from 5:45 to 6:45 (pizza, salad, soda )
Announcements from 6:45 to 6:55
Presentation from 6:55 to 7:55
Doors close at 8:30

Personal Kanban and Kanban for Distributed Teams
presented by Jim Benson

Kanban is rapidly gaining popularity in software development. How are teams and programmers migrating from straight agile to Kanban, or to hybrids like Scrumban or Scrow? How has this worked in the past? How do distributed teams make this more challenging? How can managers and teams best apply these new methodologies?

Jim Benson describes introducing both Agile and Kanban to development teams, focusing on a team he led in 2007 which built a complex transportation management prototype using nascent technologies and a team of cowboys – none of whom had used agile or been particularly collaborative before. How did he do this?

The answer: Subversion!

Let Jim take you on a journey of mystery and intrigue as he tells you how he fooled a bunch of programming malcontents into being a Lean, collaborative, highly effective work force.  It’s like the A-Team, but with Skype.

The Food and Agricultural Office of the United Nations (Photo by FAO)

Modus Cooperandi has begun a project to help the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) create on-line training courses in distributed collaboration.  Modus joins thought leaders and experts from around the world in building a curriculum that will help workers from FAO and other organizations collaborate from a distance.  The project’s aim is to provide knowledge of patterns, practices and tools that facilitate distributed collaboration and knowledge sharing – making remote locations no longer isolated , and providing expertise more quickly and at much lower cost. The resulting materials will be made available in seven languages and is scheduled for public use by the Summer of 2010.

When: November 17, 2009

Where: Twitter

Hashtag: #pkflow

Modus and personalkanban.com are hosting a “Tweet-a-ban.” Whether you’re a Personal Kanban practitioner or just have an interest in improving your productivity, join in on the asynchronous, 24 hour long global conversation. For details click here.

This is the first in a series of Modus Cooperandi’s InfoPaks. They are downloadable, and work like a narrative whitepaper. Think of them like graphic novels for business.

In InfoPak One: Personal Kanban at the World Bank, we discuss the experience we had leading a rapid development project at the World Bank, specifically, how visual controls work with small groups, and why they are preferable to traditional team management.

This InfoPak is best read by clicking the “Full” button above. It’s also designed to be downloaded to distribute to others. Over the next few weeks, we will post more InfoPaks on Personal Kanban. Please feel free to comment and let us know what you think.