Abstract: Going agile in the government is easy to say and hard to do. Teams and individuals prefer to stay apart and work on their own for weeks or months at a time. Documentation can quickly become more important than working software. Addressing the demands brought on by a change in administration, policy, or executive direction requires teams and individuals to start working together in order to succeed in their overall mission.
This lessons learned session will discuss the benefits, challenges, and outcomes when implementing Kanban in a traditional waterfall and silo working environment. Techniques for creating a continuous change towards an agile way of working will be shared. Performance data from a two year Kanban initiative at the Department of Labor will be reviewed and discussed. Participants will walk away with a clear understanding of how Kanban can break down silos, improve the agility of a traditional waterfall and silo focused organization, and noticeably improve performance.
Lessons Learned from Your Experience: - Start simple to support adoption
- It's easy to overload your process with policies and then fail to respect your process
- Using games can speed up the adoption
- Leadership matters in a government or bureaucratic environment
- Measuring sooner rather than later can really help everyone (especially the team) to see the forest from the trees
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