"Rolling Rocks Downhill - Accelerate AGILE with Goldratt's TOC" - Conference by Clarke Ching

How to accelerate AGILE with Theory Of Constraints' approach?

• Tuesday 14^th of April 2015, from 6pm to 8pm

• Marris Consulting, Montparnasse Tower, Central Paris 75015

• The conference was in English

Clarke delivers the goods with this business novel. You can see how Steve, our hero, learns about small batches, reducing work in progress, and bottlenecks. You can see how management’s typical “motivations,” such as management by objectives, doesn’t work in a team-based complex adaptive system, such as a software project.

Steve, a middle manager, who is part of the dysfunctional system learns what they do wrong. He makes changes slowly—just as you would in real life. The teams learn how to change slowly, just as they would in real life.

His management doesn’t understand what’s going on. They alternately threaten and reinforce his efforts. I see this occur all the time. The teams are so tired of working the old way, they are ready to try anything, because they can’t stand the idea of another death march project and being blamed for failure.

And, because you see all of this, you will root for the team’s success, as I did. You’ll understand the mutiny, when the project manager pushes the team one too many times. And, if you have not seen the magic of how agile, lean and Theory of Constraints can actually work in organizations, you might be surprised when the team pulls off the “impossible.”

You might think this is impossible, or because it’s a business novel, this is fiction. It’s not. I’ve seen and coached normal people, on normal teams, working normal hours, as they transition to working in this way, complete projects again and again. Clarke shows you the secret sauce.

Do you want a way out of your insanity? Is it time for you to learn how to take control of your projects, and learn how you can release a product your customers want, when you want to release it, a product that works?

You can. Read Clarke’s Rolling Rocks Downhill. You will have many “aha” moments. You will say, “Now I get it!” This book will change how you look at projects and what you think you can do about the predicament you are in.

Use the ideas here. Don’t start another death march project. If you find yourself in another impossible project, where your management wants it “faster, better, cheaper,” use this book. You will limit your work in progress, make your chunks of work small, and find your bottlenecks (to name just three of the tools) to make your project possible, instead of impossible. You don’t need to be extraordinary. You need to be diligent.

Clarke Ching Rolls Rock

About the speaker: CLARKE CHING

Clarke Ching is an Agile and Theory of Constraints expert. Born in New Zealand, he now lives in Scotland with his wife, Winnie, and their two children, Aisling and Alice.  Clarke is chairperson of the Agile Scotland group and the Agile Leader within the Royal London Group.