Modus Cooperandi

Lean Coffee Seattle – Every Wednesday Morning

Jim Benson — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 17:54:58 +0000

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 to Speak at Social Media Breakfast March 2010

Jim Benson — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 17:51:59 +0000

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.

Jim Benson to Speak Feb 2, 2010 at SeaSPIN on Personal Kanban and Software Development

Jim Benson — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 15:52:40 +0000

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.

Collaborating with the United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)

Jim Benson — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 16:03:11 +0000

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.

Save the Date…for a Tweet-a-ban!

Jim Benson — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 20:37:18 +0000

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.

InfoPak 2 – Personal Kanban 101: How to Build Your First Personal Kanban

Jim Benson — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 21:21:40 +0000

Personal Kanban 101

View more presentations from Jim Benson.

Modus Cooperandi is pleased to announce the release of its second Personal Kanban InfoPak. In Personal Kanban 101: Achieving Focus & Clarity with Your First Personal Kanban we discuss the essentials for getting your board started. Topics addressed include how to establish value stream, backlog and WIP, and why there are only two hard rules to implementing this productivity tool.

As always, please feel free to download, distribute, comment and let us know what you think.

Personal Kanban at the World Bank: Modus Cooperandi Info Pak 1 Released

Jim Benson — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 08:46:34 +0000

Personal Kanban at the World Bank – Small Team Rapid Development

View more documents from ourfounder.

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.

Gov 2.0 University Launches in Washington, DC

Jim Benson — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 20:39:46 +0000

Launched Sept 2009

Gov 2.0 University begins on September 29th & 30th at LMI in Tyson’s Corner, Virginia. Modus Cooperandi has been working with Hinchcliffe & Company and LMI to create a cutting-edge curriculum that focuses on how to employ 2.0 technologies, patterns, and practices. Courses are already scheduled into 2010. The university includes personal briefings for high ranking officials, two day managers’ seminars, and five day practitioner courses.

Personal Kanban and the World Bank

Jim Benson — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 19:55:59 +0000

World Bank in Washington DC

Modus Cooperandi is excited to announce our upcoming personal kanban project, where we will use our Personal Kanban techniques in a directed exercise with knowledge workers from around the world. From the 21st through the 25th of September, Jim Benson and Tonianne DeMaria Barry will be working with The World Agroforestry Centre and the World Bank to lead their Capacity Building Program on the Opportunity Costs of Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Land Use Change (OpCost) Writeshop, at the World Bank Institute in Washington D.C. The intent of this directed exercise is to create a comprehensive technical document. As small working groups and as a unified team, participants will use personal kanban to maintain project coherence and track completion. The project is expected to achieve rapid release of a highly technical product by knowledge workers from around the world. The multi-lingual, multi-disciplinary group will benefit from personal kanban’s visual controls and work flow.

We will be blogging and tweeting about the event as it unfolds.

Photo: Brixton

Jim Benson to Teach Enterprise 2.0 in Zurich – Nov 2, 2009

Jim Benson — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 19:08:24 +0000

Enterprise 2.0 in Zurich

On the 2nd of November, 2009, Jim Benson will be teaching Enterprise 2.0 as part of Somesso’s Leveraging Corporate Social Media in the Finance Sector event in Zurich, Switzerland. The Enterprise 2.0 track is part of our on-going strategic partnership with Dion Hinchcliffe and Web 2.0 University. Using Dion’s courseware, Jim will be teaming with a German counterpart to tailor the materials to the European financial community.

Photo: BeatKüng