Kanban for Software Development

Last Wednesday I got a full scale indoctrination into the agile software development methodology called Kanban, loosly based on the Toyota Production System (TPS) mechanism with the same name.  Toyota uses the kanban as a mechanism to allow for just the right amount of parts to be ordered and to be delivered just in time (JIT) in order to avoid overproduction and waste in the production line.  Kanban Software Development Methodology (KSDM) brings the same lean ideas to a development team.

Devaluing Email Addresses

Attacking back at the Spammers

Some of my friends and acquaintances know that I am have been experimenting with a new scheme to control spam email.  Like many people, I have had to abandon email addresses in the past due to over-abundance of spam.  When you open a new email address, there is no spam.  But as you continue to use the box, eventually the knowledge that you are actually using a particular email address gets out.  Once your email address becomes known to the spammers there is no sure way to get them to forget it.

Cloud Contracts

Down-to-Earth Contracts that Keep the Cloud Aloft – A look at the basic interoperability requirements when communicating with the Cloud,  Keith Swenson & Jacques Durand, Nov 2009

Working together with Jacques Durand, a colleague and expert in the B2B exchange standards space, we put together this article exploring how many of the same standards and agreements necessary today will also be necessary for applications deployed to the cloud.  Just published!

Interstage BPM Version 11 & Cloud

Fujitsu made a couple of press releases last week, announcing two things: a new release of Interstage BPM, Version 11, and our Cloud BPM offering.  This post just contains links to articles on the subject of these announcements.

• Product Review: Interstage BPM V11 – Column 2
• Fujitsu Interstage BPM in the Cloud – Column 2
• Fujitsu BPM Cloud Challenges IBM, Oracle in Cloud Computing – Channel Insider
• Fujitsu fields BPM on cloud computing platform – Search SOA
• Fujitsu Announces Free Access to Enhanced Cloud BPM Platform – Enterprise Systems
• Fujitsu Cracks BPM Auto Discovery Code – CTO Edge
• Auto-Discovery Comes to BPM – IT Business Edge
• Fujitsu releases new version of Interstage BPM Captures hybrid collaborative process patterns – CBR
• Fujitsu Interstage BPM Version 11, Lets Businesses Proactively “Sense and Respond” to Change – SOA World
• Fujitsu Announces Free Access to its Enhanced Cloud BPM Platform for Solution Providers and Enterprise Teams – EBizQ
• Process intelligence tools reduce guesswork, increase payout of BPM – Search CIO Midmarket
• Process intelligence tools reduce guesswork, increase payout of BPM – a writeup on the use of Process Discovery at ESI.

While there are many small features in the Version 11 release, the two main ones are a significantly extended capabilities in Dynamic BPM and extended tenant management capabilities.  The latter feature helps to support the extended cloud BPM offering which includes a complete BPM design, development, and run-time capability which is free for small teams.

Errors & Learning Opportunities

This button in this situation produces an error report … therefor the button should be disabled.

I question this line of reasoning.  I have observed this reasoning used at all levels, from programmers, to UI designers, to Product managers, and even to customers (users) themselves.  The goal seems to be “protect the user from error messages”.   Some people naively think

Taiichi Ohno Reinterpreted

Taiichi Ohno is credited with the creation of the Toyota just-in-time production system, and his book “Toyota Production System: Beyond Large Scale Production”  is a surprisingly good read even today when many of these principles are considered well established.

My interest was in understanding how this philosophy applies to Agile/Lean Software Development. 

Putting Your Toys Away

You know that book on how everything important is learned in Kindergarten?  Along that same line, before I got into Kindergarten, my mother taught me to that if I put my toys away, I will be able to find them again later.  I am sure there was a lot of crying and whining involved, but like most people I eventually got the point.

Fast forward to the adult world.  How many times have you heard these questions:

• Where is the latest spreadsheet?
• Does this document have the latest changes in it?
• Are your changes in this document?
• Can you send the copy of the file that contains all the latest updates?

This situation is caused by the worst scourge of our time: the addiction to email. 

Process Improvement: Informed & Lean

I could call this post “Removing the Risk from Lean Process Improvement” because it starts with the assumption that you want to improve your processes using Lean principles, but you want guidance on how to apply those principles most effectively.

Soooo much discussion of Lean last week at the Forrester Forum and the Gartner BPM Summit.  Who can argue against Lean?  It is after all a focus on providing more value with less waste.  Lean is a focus on eliminating waste, the original sevens wastes identified by Toyota, as well as elimination of anything that does not provide value to the customer.  We all want to get rid of waste and inefficiency.

How do you identify the waste in your business process? This is harder than you might think. 

Human BPM vs. Case Management, Summit Nov 3

There might be three distinct kinds of process support necessary:

1) System Centric Processes
2) Human Centric Processes
3) Knowledge Worker Processes

26 Hints for Agile Software Development

I collect nuggets of wisdom on various topics. Recently I have been going over the topic of Agile software development; what really matters?  Below is a list of 26 key principles to guide an agile software development team.

• Get case 1 fully working before starting case 2. Another way of saying this to use a kitchen metaphor is: “Serve the current meal before starting to cook the next“.