Introducing the Rock Crusher: A Flow-Based Model for Backlog Management
Nearly 40 years ago, Fred Brooks wrote, “The single hardest part of building a software system is deciding precisely what to build.” In the early days of agile software development, the value stream may have begun and ended with the product owner. It was just the product owner who decided precisely what to build. However, over 20 years, Agile has grown up from just “...uncovering better ways of developing software” to uncovering better ways to create the agile enterprise. Deciding precisely what to build is a complex enterprise process. Our traditional simple models of backlog management have not kept up. The result is broken value streams that impede flow. As agile grew up, so did the need for how we manage the backlog. We can no longer hide the “hardest part” behind the backlog and product owner if we want to be an agile organization and compete in the digital age.
While many organizations struggle with backlog management, others effectively use their backlog to flow value creation. The Rock Crusher is a model that captures these success patterns. The Rock Crusher shifts us from thinking of the backlog as a passive reservoir of work feeding a development team to a flow-based model for actively managing value creation.
During this session, you will learn the following:
How our traditional model of the backlog breaks the value stream and the economic consequences of a broken value stream.
How the Rock Crusher makes the hardest part of building a software system flow
How the Rock Crusher creates value by stabilizing and throttling turbulent flow and keeps teams focused on value creation
Explain why only superhumans need to apply for the product owner role and how it takes a village to manage a backlog effectively
Date and Time
Location
Hosts
Registration
- Date: 21 Sep 2023
- Time: 05:00 PM to 06:00 PM
- All times are (UTC-07:00) Pacific Time (US & Canada)
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- Co-sponsored by Computer Society
- Starts 18 August 2023 09:46 PM
- Ends 20 September 2023 11:59 PM
- All times are (UTC-07:00) Pacific Time (US & Canada)
- No Admission Charge
Speakers
Steve Adolph of cprime
Flow-Based Model for Backlog Management
Biography:
Steve is an Agile Coach at cprime, where he is passionate about helping improve people's working lives.
Steve has been in this industry longer than he cares to think about. If you remember Fortran, TTL, and 8-bit logic, then you’re probably in his demographic. Steve started his career doing engineering and building cool things like telephone switches and railway signaling systems. Around the late 90s, he was seduced by the dark side of a greater salary plus an office with a door that could close and moved into management. There he became interested in how ways of working and organizational culture influence enterprise outcomes.
Steve got into what we call agile today when they started hanging out with a strange bunch of Pattern Language aficionados at the so-called PLoP conferences. He became interested early in Agile at Scale and collaborated with like-minded individuals imagining agile frameworks for large engineering initiatives. One memorable opportunity for Steve was working with Dean Leffingwell at John Deere using a new framework Dean called the Scaled Agile Delivery Method.
Education-wise, Steve has a Ph.D. in electrical and computer engineering and is SAFe SPCT. But despite that, he is still an OK guy. In his spare time (what’s that?) Steve enjoys the usual Pacific Northwest lifestyle of cycling, skiing, and kayaking. There is an ugly rumour floating around that he is an opera fan.