Kanban and Scrum – a practical guide

Here the the slides from my presentation "Kanban and Scrum – a practical guide" from QCon in San Francisco today. The presentation is mostly pictures. If you are curious about what I was saying, check out the free online book “Kanban and Scrum – making the most of both”.

Great feedback! 77 green notes, 7 yellow, 0 red. Someone even wrote "there should have been a greener one!" Always fun with an enthusiastic audience, thanks everyone :o)

Kanban board

Take-away points:

  • Know your goal
    • Hint: Agile/Lean/Kanban/Scrum isn’t it.
  • Never blame the tool
    • Tools don’t fail or succeed. People do.
    • There is no such thing as a good or bad tool. Only good or bad decisions about when, where, how, and why to use which tool.
  • Don’t limit yourself to one tool
    • Learn as many as possible.
    • Compare for understanding, not judgement.
  • Experiment & enjoy the ride
    • Don’t worry about getting it right from start; you won’t.
    • The only real failure is the failure to learn from failure.

Here is some of my other stuff that was referenced during the presentation:

4 responses on “Kanban and Scrum – a practical guide

  1. Hi Henrik,

    I would caution you in saying “Learn as many tools as possible”. Yes, more than one, several. But of tools there is no end, and much study is a weariness of the flesh. To paraphrase the Bible.

    As you suggest, tools are not the goal…doing something for real people is.

    I rather think I waste my time in making this suggestion to you, who do not need it. But maybe one or two of your readers do.

    Much agree with your point: getting obsessed with “scrum” or “kanban” or any thing is silly. As you say, remember the goal. Man was not made for the sabbath, but the sabbath was made for man. As a famous teacher said to those who had become obsessed with purity. Regards, Joe

  2. Good point Joe, I’ll see if I can come up with a better way to phrase that. I guess that’s the problem with putting slides online – there’s always the risk that people who see the slides without hearing the presentation will misunderstand.

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