The backlog is a beautiful, powerful, and delightfully simple tool for managing variability and uncertainty in modern agile organizations. Unfortunately, the backlog can also be a major impediment to flow and break the value stream with substantial economic loss. This happens because our traditional model of backlog management presents the backlog as a stack of plates reservoir for the development team.

Agile grew up, and now so does our model of the backlog. This tutorial introduces the Rock Crusher, a flow-based model for backlog management.

Participants will explore the Rock Crusher and design their own implementation of the model for use in their own context.

The tutorial works through the 8 steps of creating a rock crusher using a canvas:

1. Form a Rock Crusher Hypothesis. (What problem are you trying to solve through adoption of the Rock Crusher approach?)

2. Choose a value stream. (Where will the Rock Crusher reside?)

3. Identify your village. (Who will play the various Rock Crusher roles?)

4. Visualize your Rock Crusher. (How will you visualize the rocks flowing through the Rock Crusher?)

5. Establish your intake policies. (Where are the front and back doors into the Rock Crusher?)

6. Establish your Waste Gate policy. (What are your policies for disposing of or managing the rocks ejected through the waste gate?)

7. Schedule the ceremonies. (What is the cadence and attendance list for the various Rock Crusher ceremonies?)

8. Continuously improve your Rock Crusher. (How will you apply continuous improvement concepts to the Rock Crusher you are implementing?) Goto 1

Date:

Friday 16 February 2024

Speakers Bio - Shane Hastie

Over the last 35+ years Shane has been a practitioner and leader of developers, testers, trainers, project managers and business analysts, helping teams to deliver results that align with overall business objectives.

He spent nearly five years with ICAgile as the Director of Agile Learning Programs and then Director of Community Development. Before joining ICAgile he spent 15 years as a professional trainer, coach and consultant specialising in Agile practices, business analysis, project management, requirements, testing and methodologies for SoftEd in Australia, New Zealand and around the world.

In February 2022 he re-joined Softed as Global Delivery Lead.

He has worked with large and small organisations, from individual teams to large transformations all around the world. He draws on over 35 years of practical experience across all levels of Information Technology and software intensive product development. He has extensive experience implementing and applying design thinking, service design and user experience design in a wide range of organisations.

Shane is a TBR certified Trainer for both the in-person and virtual versions of the course and is authorized to teach the Facilitating Exceptional Remote Learning class from Judy Rees. Shane was a director of the Agile Alliance from 2011 to 2016 and was the founding Chair of Agile Alliance New Zealand. He leads the Culture and Methods editorial team for InfoQ.com where he hosts the weekly InfoQ Culture Podcast.

He is an ICF registered professional coach. He was one of the authors for both versions of the Agile Extension to the Business Analysis Body of Knowledge and a member of the core team for BABOK V3. He is co-chair of the Agile Alliance Agile Coaching Ethics initiative, working to produce a code of ethical conduct for agile coaching. He is an ICF registered Professional Coach.

He is co-author of the books #noprojects – a culture of continuous value, available on Amazon and from InfoQ and The Rock Crusher – a flow-based model for backlog management , available from IIBA Press and on Amazon.

“I firmly believe that humanistic way of working and the agile mindset are desperately needed in organisations all around the globe today. Taking agile values and principles beyond software is important and making sure they are properly embedded is absolutely crucial for success – we’re in an industry that touches every aspect of people’s lives and massively influences society as a whole and I want to be a part of making sure that industry is both ethical and sustainable."

Please note, the Workshop requires a minimum of 5 people to proceed with a maximum of 30 people per workshop.

REGISTER HERE