Next Limited WIP Society Session Announced

A survey of attendees at our last meeting revealed that 80% of people were curious about the basics and how-to's of Kanban.  With that in mind the December 4th meeting will be a hands on introduction to Kanban by Mike Edwards.

Need to speed up?  Then slow down! A practical introduction to Kanban.

December 4th, 2012. 5:30 p.m. - 7:30 p.m. at Communitech

If the title grabbed your attention it’s likely because ‘slowing down to speed up’ is counter intuitive to what we learn in school, business, and life in general. Many managers believe the best way to get more work from their people is to speed up, or push more work into the system. I’ve seen many managers add work to the pile “to ensure they don’t run out of work to do”. Unfortunately this is the worst thing you can do, as much like cars merging at a bottleneck of the highway during rush hour the high volume actually causes significant back-ups. 

During this workshop we will start with a simulation game where a development team will be creating a product according to customer specs! Through a refinement of the exercise we will demonstrate the impact of too much work in the system, identifying the bottlenecks, and strategies for improving the flow of work. Participants will come away with an understanding of the basic mechanics and concepts behind Kanban. Most importantly participants will come away with a better understanding of the nature of work, and the impact our behaviours have on the outcome.

Too many teams do not make great decisions regarding the work they agree to take on.   Unfortunately this can often result in poor performance, which is often not talked about.  In fact many people claim to be Agile, when all they’ve done is adopted the Scrum methodology.  Most management methodologies focus on process or product.  Kanban focuses on the flow of work, making it visible and providing a platform for organizational improvement. Through the use of these very simple tools you can significantly improve the results on your projects! Even if you don’t adopt Kanban you will find the concepts useful in guiding you in any project, and how you manage the work you and others do.   

Mike Edwards started his career 25 years ago as a software developer. In the past 15 years his career has gone down the path of leading and managing IT. Mike has recently carved a new path through the wilderness and is now an independent consultant.

A few years ago Mike started incorporating Lean & Agile into his world dominated by PMI. It didn't take long for Mike to figure out how this shift was going to rock his world! Mike has had success bringing together Lean & Agile to help teams transform their world! Although he works with the whole team, his specialty is helping the project management office increase their value. Mike's true passion surfaces when he has an opportunity to speak or teach at events across Canada each year. 

You can follow Mike on Twitter , LinkedIn: and on his new blog.