June 7, 2012, 6:00 pm - 9:00 pm,  Constant Contact , Waltham, MA: REGISTRATION IS REQUIRED

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Topic:

No, this is not a talk about how Little’s Law—which most lean practitioners define as a relationship among work in progress, cycle time, and throughput—is incorrect. Quite the opposite, in fact. The problem with Little’s Law is not that it is inexact (it is very exact); the problem is in its misapplication by those who do not understand the assumptions behind the law (and blindly use it as a justification for all things lean). This talk will be an investigation into those assumptions. We will start off with a brief history of Little’s Law and then quickly jump into the conditions that must be in place in order for the law to hold. What will follow is a brief look at how—assuming all conditions are met—Little’s Law can be used as a good predictor for software schedules.

About the speakers:

Daniel Vacanti is a 17-year software industry veteran who got his start as a Java Developer/Architect and who has spent most of the last 12 years focusing on Lean and Agile practices. In 2007, he helped to create the Kanban Method for software development with David Anderson. He managed the world’s first project implementation of Kanban that year, and has been conducting Kanban training, coaching, and consulting ever since. In 2011 he founded Corporate Kanban, Inc., which provides world-class Lean training and consulting to clients all over the globe—including several Fortune 100 companies. Daniel holds a Masters in Business Administration and regularly teaches a class on lean principles for software management at the University of California Berkeley.

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