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Ten Practices for Applying Agile/Lean Software Management Principles to Other Knowledge Work

Aug 11, 2009

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Ten Practices for Applying Agile/Lean Software Management Principles to Other Knowledge Work
Ten Suggested Lean and Agile Practices for Knowledge Work
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Based on this background in Agile and Lean development, I suggest the following 10 practices that can be applied directly to knowledge work development:

Develop and empower self-organizing, self-managing teams. Energize with vision, mission, and time pressures. Provide the requisite creative chaos, care, and support.
Plan work in short (one- or two-week) iterations. Teams plan together and commit to value delivery objectives in these increments.
Focus on value delivery. To help assure value delivery, apply a user story form. ("As a <user role>, I can <do something> so that I can <business value>.")
Develop a single prioritized work backlog for the team. Establish product owner roles (or product-owner team equivalents) to manage and prioritize the backlog.
Apply daily 15-minute standup meetings as a primary form of communication and commitment. What I did yesterday, what I'm doing today, whether I'm blocked.
Minimize work in process to increase productivity. Develop work-in-process limits to task and stories. Minimize multiplexing within time boxes.
Plan for delivery of larger enterprise initiatives in larger (release) time boxes. Engage stakeholders in periodically (approximately quarterly) planning, visioning, and setting commitments. Make the vision, objectives, and commitments visible and public.
Provide total, real-time visibility. Build a big, visible chart to show work in process and individual and team responsibilities. Speak directly to facts and issues. Publish your iteration and release objectives.
Develop shared knowledge. Institutionalize knowledge by pairing on tasks, projects, and stories. Avoid over-specialization so your workforce can flex to backlog and resource bottlenecks.
Apply work physics and Agile planning. Estimate and track time and effort of completion for each story or task. Establish and apply team velocity (capacity of work achievable in a time box).

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