Standardized work versus checklists

2011.01.27 – 9:36

Some Lean consultants use standardized work in service organizations. Here are my arguments in favor of using checklists instead: http://www.coregroup.no/2011/01/standardized-work-versus-checklists/

Systems thinking and agile

2010.12.13 – 20:48

Here is my take on the link between systems thinking and agile: Three perspectives on better software (http://www.coregroup.no/2010/12/three-perspectives-on-better-software/)

The power of differentiators

2010.09.06 – 20:44

In a much discussed blog entry Don Norman argues that customers prefer complex products to simple ones. He makes some compelling arguments but also misses an important aspect. Faced with two similar products, users will often choose the product with the greatest number of features. This would seem to lead ...

Leanway is now part of Core group

2010.05.26 – 10:00

Leanway was devoted to the professionalizing of the agile customer. In Core group I will be working on a broader range of issues. Core group has the pretty ambitious goal of not only helping customers, but actually transforming them. I am pretty sure that agile and lean approaches will be ...

The Deification of Deming

2010.03.15 – 11:56

I am a great admirer of Lean thinking in general and Deming's work as a foundational part of it. In an age where everyone is talking about how ideas spread in seconds, his ideas were so subtle and counterintuitive that they are still being discovered many ...

The obsolete idea of requirements

2010.02.02 – 11:50

The writing of requirements is one of the core practices in software development. Most people hate the job but they see it as something that is fundamentally necessary. But what if the whole idea of requirements is wrong? What would software development look like without requirements? I ...

The curse of replacement projects

2010.01.26 – 21:01

I was at a Meetup the other day with Eric Evans. I liked the talk even if it was very similar to the one he gave at the last JavaZone. Eric makes the same point as I do in respect to replacement projects. They are more expensive than ...

Software 2010

2010.01.19 – 11:57

This year I am honored to be speaking twice at the Software2010 conference. This is one of the oldest and largest IT conferences in Norway as far as I know. The first talk is Hvordan lykkes som kunde i et smidig prosjekt?. For those of you that have trouble with ...

Do you have the wrong product owner?

2009.12.15 – 13:45

Developers in agile projects often tell me the greatest challenges in they face are in relation to the product owner. The specific issues vary but a couple of things usually come up: The product owner does not have enough time and is often not available The product owner is not able to ...

The value of value

2009.11.03 – 13:51

This week Kai Gilb published the first two posts in a series criticizing the current state of agile and Scrum. On principle I would have welcomed this since I think there are a number of serious problems in the way agile and Scrum are being adopted. Agile is in the ...