New Scrum Guide 2013

http://scrumguides.squarespace.com/2013-scrum-guide-changes-video/

Gamikanbanation

The benefits of Kanban are very clear and have been proven on organizations of diverse kinds and all sizes, and so are the benefits of Personal Kanban. Personal Kanban has resonated so well that people of all ages benefit from it, and this includes kids.

The benefits of gamification, when done properly (and not abused to become more of a Skinner-style conditioning practice, which doesn't work on the long run) are also being proven.

A Chilean couple, Luis and Natalia, came up with an awesome and very clever idea that combines Kanban and gamification to help improve their daughter Micaela's behavior. Micaela is a 3-year old fantastic girl with a great personality and very active. She also has a tendency to get distracted and to let her behavior be influenced by peers. Her parents haven trying different approaches to help her out. What finally worked for them was a very clever combination of Personal Kanban and Gamification. Let's call it Gamikanation.

The fotos show how this works. Luis and Natalia used a combination of Kanban and gamification. To make it easy on Micaela, the board has implicit wip and being a personal Kanban some tasks are in progress throughout the day such as wearing her shoes and behaving well; and some are immediate action such as eating her food and brushing her teeth. The gamification aspect is using pink hearts (for a boy they could be cars or sports balls or other that agrees with the kid’s interests) and using icons instead of words (which works better independently of whether the person is already able to read or not).

Positive results were immediate and significantly better than anything they have tried in the past. Even the school staff noticed Micaela’s change and amazed asked Luis and Natalia what they did. 

For those interested on some guidance the book Agile Kids by Shirly Ronen-Harel and Danny Kovatch, translated into Spanish by our own Angel Agueda, is a great help.

Addendum: unos días después de publicar éste blog recibí email de Ivonne, cuyo hijo Alex, de 6 años de edad comenzó a utilizar Kanban. Para evitar interpretaciones a continuación está parte del email que recibí, verbatim:
"Alex está muy emocionado con esto, todos los días está pendiente de actualizar su Kanban, apenas termina una actividad se ocupa de cambiarla a terminada. Me sorprende que ha mejorado su actitud y se esfuerza en terminar y hacer aquellas cosas que hasta el sábado no hací,a más que nada por no tener la disposición o motivación suficiente para ello.
La familia y el colegio ha notado estos cambios positivos y motivación por participar y terminar aquellas cosas que antes no hacía por iniciativa propia.

Muchas gracias por todos los conocimientos y aportes que nos has entregado, sin duda para mí en términos personales y profesionales Lean Agile ha sido un crecimiento muy positivo y beneficioso."

Valueinnova Kanban Certifications

Valueinnova started offering three Kanban Certifications at the beginning of 2013.

• The Kanban Methodologist Certification is the entry level one. It certifies the professional is capable of applying the Kanban system and method successfully to obtain it is necessary to take the 2 day course, dedicate some extra hours of education attending related events such as webinars, conferences or other training, a certain amount of time actively practicing Kaban on a real project, and presenting and passing an exam.
• The Kanban Leader Certification is for those interested on leading kanban teams. Requirements are to have a Methodologist certification and go through a series of actions similar to those for Methodologist but focused on Leadership.
• The Kanban Mentor Certification is for those interested on Mentoring Kanban adoptions. It requires the previous two and also has similar requirements but at a higher level

At this point there are six Kanban Methodologists worldwide:

• Marco Salas de la Paz: Panama
• Angel Agueda Barrero: Spain
• Matías Carrasco: Chile
• Luis Horacio Díaz Stoffel: Chile
• Gabriel Humberto Bracho Soto: Chile
• Ivonne Mienert C: Chile

Demystifying Kanban talk at Yahoo! headquarters in Sunnyvale California, USA

I had the privilege of giving a talk for the Silicon Valley Agile Leadership Network at Yahoo! headquarters in Sunnyvale California, and at 86 people the fortune of this having been the largest-attendance meeting the SVALN has had so far.

The meeting started with a gentle 10-minute introduction on what Kanban is and isn't (it is for managing improvement and not for managing projects) and some basics of Systems and Lean thinking. Then 65 minutes of fun, workshop style introduction to the Kanban system and method. The audience was divided in 4-people temas (that is 21 teams) doing a series of time-boxed exercises, which with the help of several volunteers Masa managed to pull off successfully. Attendants had a lot of fun and it was a learning experience to all. The last five minutes masa wrapped things up and commented that comparing Kanban with Scrum doesn't make sense because they have different purposes. Scrum is to manage software projects and Kanban is to manage continuous improvement.

Yahoo!'s meeting room was just perfect for the event and the food they provided was great. SVALN did a fantastic job organizing the event and setting up the meeting room. Volunteers were key to the event's success.