Leaning into an Agile Mindset with Mary and Tom Poppendieck
About this webinar:
Agile and Lean methodologies revolutionized manufacturing and IT. Is it possible they can do the same for the post-pandemic workplace? How might leaning into an Agile mindset help us create a comprehensive approach to the workplace of the future that encompasses strategy, structure, people, process, and technology?
We interviewd Mary and Tom Poppendieck, Agile pioneers, renowned speakers and educators in the software development world, and co-authors of several books related to Agile and Lean including their award-winning books, Lean Software Development: An Agile Toolkit and The Lean Mindset: Ask the Right Questions.
Michael Loughlean, Associate Director at Accenture, Alistair Shepherd-Cross, Teamit’s President & Co-Founder and Candance Giesbrecht, Teamit's Director of the Remote Performance Academy, chatted with Mary and Tom to get their perspectives on:
- How Lean and Agile methodologies can begin to address the change in the workplace.
- What it means to have a lean mindset.
- How adopting this way of thinking is crucial to thriving.
For further reading, check out the resources Mary Poppendieck mentioned in the discussion:
👉 Rob Brigham DevOps at Amazon, AWS Reinvent 2015
👉 Amazon Working Backwards book especially chapter 3- Single-Threaded Leaders
About the speakers:
Mary Poppendieck
Co-Author, Speaker & Educator
Mary started her career as a process control programmer, moved on to manage the IT department of a manufacturing plant, and then ended up in product development, where she was both a product champion and department manager.
Mary considered retirement in 1998, but instead found herself managing a government software project where she first encountered the word "waterfall." When Mary compared her experience in successful software and product development to the prevailing opinions about how to manage software projects, she decided the time had come for a new paradigm. She wrote the award-winning book Lean Software Development: An Agile Toolkit in 2003 to explain how the lean principles from manufacturing offer a better approach to software development.
Over the past several years, Mary has found retirement elusive as she lectures and teaches classes with her husband Tom. Based on their ongoing learning, they wrote a second book, Implementing Lean Software Development: From Concept to Cash in 2006, a third, Leading Lean Software Development: Results are Not the Point in 2009, and a fourth book, The Lean Mindset: Ask the Right Questions in 2013. A popular writer and speaker, Mary continues to bring fresh perspectives to the world of software development.
Tom Poppendieck
Co-Author, Speaker & Educator
Tom has 25 years of experience in computing including eight years of work with object technology. His modeling and mentoring skills are rooted in his experience as a physics professor. His early work was in IT infrastructure, product development, and manufacturing support, and evolved to consulting project assignments in healthcare, logistics, mortgage banking, and travel services.
He led the development of a world-class product data management practice for a major commercial avionics manufacturer that reduced design to production transition efforts from 6 months to 6 weeks. He also led the technical architecture team for very large national and international Baan and SAP implementations.
Tom is an enterprise analyst and architect, and an agile process mentor. He focuses on identifying real business value and enabling product teams to realize that value. Tom specializes in understanding customer processes and ineffective collaboration of customer, development, and support specialists to maximize development efficiency, system flexibility, and business value.
Tom is also co-author of the book Lean Software Development: An Agile Toolkit, published in 2003, its sequel, Implementing Lean Software Development: From Concept to Cash, published in 2006, Leading Lean Software Development: Results are Not the Point in 2009, and The Lean Mindset: Ask the Right Questions in 2013.
Michael Loughlean
Associate Director
Accenture
Michael is an Associate Director with 30+ years of oil and gas technology experience, beginning in field operations and then moving into technology. He possesses an international context, which has taken him to numerous countries and operations around the world. His experience has included both producing and service companies and across all facets of these firms including the roles of Director of IT and Chief Enterprise Architect.
Michael’s roles have included the development of strategy, innovation, operating models, organizational redesign, and transformations. His focus has brought him in contact with the complex challenges that are faced within the resources sector that is driving its need to adopt new ways of working and new operating models that leverage technology.
Alistair Shepherd-Cross
President & Co-Founder
Teamit Inc.
For the last 20 years, Alistair has had a front-row seat to the tech industry's ups and downs as a trusted advisor to some of the tech industry's most successful businesses in both Canada and the U.S. As a tech recruiting specialist, he has connected Canada's top tech talent with companies as they scale, and has a unique perspective on the challenges and opportunities for leaders pursuing high-performing teams in challenging times.
The Remote Performance Academy
How is your organization planning for the return to the office? Do you have the support and tools you need to grow and maintain your modern workforce?
Teamit's Remote Performance Academy can help you prepare your leaders and teams with the skills they need to be successful in a hybrid, distributed or remote workplace. Backed by years of research and a team of organizational psychologists, the Remote Performance Academy is a series of assessments, action planning and coaching designed to cultivate and sustain high-performing remote teams.