Agile projects embrace uncertainty and welcome changing requirements over the course of development, so it's no wonder that even experienced teams struggle to make accurate project forecasts. How do you get a sense of your project timeline when you know the least you ever will about it? You can't eliminate the unknowns in a new project, but by using the Monte Carlo method of forecasting, you can work with them. This talk will introduce the Monte Carlo method and how it works. Attendees will learn how to use it to create a project forecast and how to apply it to their work. The talk will address some of the limitations and assumptions built into the method and some techniques for working with (or around) them. Attendees will also get an opportunity to try out the technique themselves using a spreadsheet they can then apply to their real-life projects.

Leading an organization's Agile transformation comes with challenges for all parties. Management needs to learn what changes are necessary and how best to implement them. Teams may struggle to make the case for change and to adopt changes while still meeting their other obligations. And coaches can face the challenge of leading a change as outsiders, neither part of the team nor invested with any formal power. Using the true story of a project at a non-profit client, this talk will illustrate how Kanban encourages leadership in all three roles, empowering the whole team to play a part in designing organizational change. Kanban helps coaches and consultants act as partners, creating a lasting solution tailored to the organization's context.

It’s hard to overstate Benjamin Franklin’s contributions to the world. A true polymath, Franklin is best known for his statesmanship and diplomacy, his scientific insight, and his creation of the Scrum software development methodology.

Wait, what?

Okay, Franklin was ahead of his time, but he wasn’t telling us how to build software more than 200 years ago. Yet like the founders of Scrum, Franklin was obsessed with finding better ways to work and shared his productivity strategy in his autobiography. His to-do list is one of the first in the historical record, but the way he used it anticipates Scrum – and Agile principles in general – in many ways.

Limiting work-in-progress, or WIP, is a core principle of Kanban, and is a common recommendation to teams using Scrum or other frameworks as well. Yet the idea that working on less can lead you to get more done seems to defy common sense. Even those who understand the reasons for limiting WIP can struggle with resistance from team members or leaders when putting the theory to practice. This talk will review the concept of WIP and explore in depth the reasons for limiting WIP: enhancing focus, reducing cycle time, optimizing flow and making bottlenecks visible. We will give strategies for starting out with WIP limits and suggestions for what to do when a limit is reached. Attendees will also participate in a short simulation that will illustrate the concepts in practice, and that attendees can use on their own projects to help overcome skepticism of WIP limits in their organizations.

Does your Scrum team start all its stories on Day 1 of the Sprint? Do stories sometime carry over into the next Sprint? Or perhaps testing always gets crammed in on the last day of the Sprint? If any of these sound familiar, your team may benefit from improving its flow.

Flow metrics are common with Kanban, but can provide tremendous value to any team, including those using Scrum. In this session, we’ll start by exploring the value of achieving a smooth flow of work (versus simply achieving maximum utilization) and give simple ways for your team to measure its flow. We’ll look at examples of metrics including lead and cycle time, throughput, and the cumulative flow diagram (CFD), reviewing what each represents, easy ways to collect them, and how they can be used in both a Kanban and Scrum context. You’ll leave the session knowing how to interpret and capture all these valuable metrics, so your agile team can measure and improve its flow.