Agile Process Innovation: Hacking Lean Six Sigma to Maximize Results
Agile Process Innovation: Hacking Lean Six Sigma to Maximize Results

Author: Jay Arthur

Publisher: Lifestar Publishing

Published: 2019-06-05

Total Pages: 132

ISBN-13: 9781884180705

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This book is about how to hack Lean Six Sigma to get better understanding, retention and results in hours or days, not months or years.Faced with continuous, accelerating, disruptive change, businesses have had to find ways to respond. Surprisingly, they found a faster, better, cheaper path in Information Technologies (IT) of all places. Yet Lean Six Sigma is anything but agile. Spending months training Black and Green Belts and then waiting months or years for results is no longer acceptable. This might have been possible in the last century, but it won't work for 21st Century quality. We need to adapt Agile to Lean Six Sigma.Unfortunately, the old trial-and-error, gut-feel approaches to improving performance are too slow and error-prone to deliver anything close to perfection. The only hope any business has is to adopt the methods and tools of Lean Six Sigma to simplify, streamline and optimize performance.Lean Six Sigma can be fast, affordable and flawless, maximizing results while minimizing costs. Agile Process Innovation will focus on the Magnificent Seven "Money Belt" Tools necessary to achieve stunning, breakthrough results. Training doesn't have to take weeks or months; it can be done in a matter of hours. Projects don't have to take months or years to complete; Jay has done million-dollar projects in five days or less. The actual analysis can be done in a matter of hours, but sometimes implementation can take longer.Companies don't need more Green Belts or Black Belts. They need more Money Belts-people who can quickly find ways to save time and money to boost productivity and profitability. They can learn how to eliminate the Three Silent Killers of productivity and profitability: Delay, Defects and Deviation.Lean Six Sigma needs to pivot to a new way of achieving desired results. Integrating Agile into Lean Six Sigma is an easy way to do it. What is Agile? A method that "is characterized by the division of tasks into short phrases of work and frequent reassessment and adaptation of plans." Agile focuses on speed and adaptability, not rigid adherence to archaic methods.Is it possible to accelerate the adoption and use of Lean Six Sigma by hacking how it's implemented? Absolutely.

The Lean Startup
The Lean Startup

Author: Eric Ries

Publisher: Crown Currency

Published: 2011-09-13

Total Pages: 337

ISBN-13: 0307887898

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Most startups fail. But many of those failures are preventable. The Lean Startup is a new approach being adopted across the globe, changing the way companies are built and new products are launched. Eric Ries defines a startup as an organization dedicated to creating something new under conditions of extreme uncertainty. This is just as true for one person in a garage or a group of seasoned professionals in a Fortune 500 boardroom. What they have in common is a mission to penetrate that fog of uncertainty to discover a successful path to a sustainable business. The Lean Startup approach fosters companies that are both more capital efficient and that leverage human creativity more effectively. Inspired by lessons from lean manufacturing, it relies on “validated learning,” rapid scientific experimentation, as well as a number of counter-intuitive practices that shorten product development cycles, measure actual progress without resorting to vanity metrics, and learn what customers really want. It enables a company to shift directions with agility, altering plans inch by inch, minute by minute. Rather than wasting time creating elaborate business plans, The Lean Startup offers entrepreneurs—in companies of all sizes—a way to test their vision continuously, to adapt and adjust before it’s too late. Ries provides a scientific approach to creating and managing successful startups in a age when companies need to innovate more than ever.

The ASQ Certified Six Sigma Yellow Belt Handbook
The ASQ Certified Six Sigma Yellow Belt Handbook

Author: Govindarajan Ramu

Publisher: Quality Press

Published: 2022-06-30

Total Pages: 249

ISBN-13: 1952236207

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This handbook is a helpful guide to Six Sigma process improvement and variation reduction. Individuals studying to pass the ASQ Certified Six Sigma Yellow Belt (CSSYB) exam will find this comprehensive text invaluable for preparation, and it is also a handy reference for those already working in the field. The handbook offers a comprehensive understanding of the Body of Knowledge (BoK), which will allow readers to support real Six Sigma projects in their current or future roles. This handbook, updated to reflect the 2022 BoK, includes: - A detailed explanation of each section of the CSSYB BoK - Essay-type questions in each chapter to test reading comprehension - Numerous appendices, a comprehensive list of abbreviations, and a glossary of useful terms - Online contents, including practice exam questions - Source lists, which include webinars, tools and templates, and helpful publications

The Lean Approach to Digital Transformation
The Lean Approach to Digital Transformation

Author: Yves Caseau

Publisher: CRC Press

Published: 2022-05-01

Total Pages: 257

ISBN-13: 1000552829

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The Lean Approach to Digital Transformation: From Customer to Code and From Code to Customer is organized into three parts that expose and develop the three capabilities that are essential for a successful digital transformation: 1. Understanding how to co-create digital services with users, whether they are customers or future customers. This ability combines observation, dialogue, and iterative experimentation. The approach proposed in this book is based on the Lean Startup approach, according to an extended vision that combines Design Thinking and Growth Hacking. Companies must become truly "customer-centric", from observation and listening to co-development. The revolution of the digital age of the 21st century is that customer orientation is more imperative -- the era of abundance, usages rate of change, complexity of experiences, and shift of power towards communities -- are easier, using digital tools and digital communities. 2. Developing an information system (IS) that is the backbone of the digital transformation – called “exponential information system” to designate an open IS (in particular on its borders), capable of interfacing and combining with external services, positioned as a player in software ecosystems and built for processing scalable and dynamic data flows. The exponential information system is constantly changing and it continuously absorbs the best of information processing technology, such as Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning. 3. Building software “micro-factories” that produce service platforms, which are called “Lean software factories.” This “software factory” concept covers the integration of agile methods, tooling and continuous integration and deployment practices, a customer-oriented product approach, and a platform approach based on modularity, as well as API-based architecture and openness to external stakeholders. This software micro-factory is the foundation that continuously produces and provides constantly evolving services. These three capabilities are not unique or specific to this book, they are linked to other concepts such as agile methods, product development according to lean principles, software production approaches such as CICD (continuous integration and deployment) or DevOps. This book weaves a common frame of reference for all these approaches to derive more value from the digital transformation and to facilitate its implementation. The title of the book refers to the “lean approach to digital transformation” because the two underlying frameworks, Lean Startup and Lean Software Factory, are directly inspired by Lean, in the sense of the Toyota Way. The Lean approach is present from the beginning to the end of this book -- it provides the framework for customer orientation and the love of a job well done, which are the conditions for the success of a digital transformation.

Results
Results

Author: Bruce A. Pasternack

Publisher: Crown Business

Published: 2005-10-18

Total Pages: 256

ISBN-13: 0307337316

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Every company has a personality. Does yours help or hinder your results? Does it make you fit for growth? Find out by taking the quiz that’s helped 50,000 people better understand their organizations at OrgDNA.com and to learn more about Organizational DNA. Just as you can understand an individual’s personality, so too can you understand a company’s type—what makes it tick, what’s good and bad about it. Results explains why some organizations bob and weave and roll with the punches to consistently deliver on commitments and produce great results, while others can’t leave their corner of the ring without tripping on their own shoelaces. Gary Neilson and Bruce Pasternack help you identify which of the seven company types you work for—and how to keep what’s good and fix what’s wrong. You’ll feel the shock of recognition (“That’s me, that’s my company”) as you find out whether your organization is: • Passive-Aggressive (“everyone agrees, smiles, and nods, but nothing changes”): entrenched underground resistance makes getting anything done like trying to nail Jell-O to the wall • Fits-and-Starts (“let 1,000 flowers bloom”): filled with smart people pulling in different directions • Outgrown (“the good old days meet a brave new world”): reacts slowly to market developments, since it’s too hard to run new ideas up the flagpole • Overmanaged (“we’re from corporate and we’re here to help”): more reporting than working, as managers check on their subordinates’ work so they can in turn report to their bosses • Just-in-Time (“succeeding, but by the skin of our teeth”): can turn on a dime and create real breakthroughs but also tends to burn out its best and brightest • Military Precision (“flying in formation”): executes brilliant strategies but usually does not deal well with events not in the playbook • Resilient (“as good as it gets”): flexible, forward-looking, and fun; bounces back when it hits a bump in the road and never, ever rests on its laurels For anyone who’s ever said, “Wow, that’s a great idea, but it’ll never happen here” or “Whew, we pulled it off again, but I’m tired of all this sprinting,” Results provides robust, practical ideas for becoming and remaining a resilient business. Also available as an eBook From the Hardcover edition.

Hacking Marketing
Hacking Marketing

Author: Scott Brinker

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons

Published: 2016-03-02

Total Pages: 290

ISBN-13: 1119183235

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Apply software-inspired management concepts to accelerate modern marketing In many ways, modern marketing has more in common with the software profession than it does with classic marketing management. As surprising as that may sound, it's the natural result of the world going digital. Marketing must move faster, adapt more quickly to market feedback, and manage an increasingly complex set of customer experience touchpoints. All of these challenges are shaped by the dynamics of software—from the growing number of technologies in our own organizations to the global forces of the Internet at large. But you can turn that to your advantage. And you don't need to be technical to do it. Hacking Marketing will show you how to conquer those challenges by adapting successful management frameworks from the software industry to the practice of marketing for any business in a digital world. You'll learn about agile and lean management methodologies, innovation techniques used by high-growth technology companies that any organization can apply, pragmatic approaches for scaling up marketing in a fragmented and constantly shifting environment, and strategies to unleash the full potential of talent in a digital age. Marketing responsibilities and tactics have changed dramatically over the past decade. This book now updates marketing management to better serve this rapidly evolving discipline. Increase the tempo of marketing's responsiveness without chaos or burnout Design "continuous" marketing programs and campaigns that constantly evolve Drive growth with more marketing experiments while actually reducing risk Architect marketing capabilities in layers to better scale and adapt to change Balance strategic focus with the ability to harness emergent opportunities As a marketer and a manager, Hacking Marketing will expand your mental models for how to lead marketing in a digital world where everything—including marketing—flows with the speed and adaptability of software.

Practices for Scaling Lean & Agile Development
Practices for Scaling Lean & Agile Development

Author: Craig Larman

Publisher: Pearson Education

Published: 2010-01-26

Total Pages: 631

ISBN-13: 0321685083

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Lean and Agile Development for Large-Scale Products: Key Practices for Sustainable Competitive Success Increasingly, large product-development organizations are turning to lean thinking, agile principles and practices, and large-scale Scrum to sustainably and quickly deliver value and innovation. Drawing on their long experience leading and guiding lean and agile adoptions for large, multisite, and offshore product development, internationally recognized consultant and best-selling author Craig Larman and former leader of the agile transformation at Nokia Networks Bas Vodde share the key action tools needed for success. Coverage includes Frameworks for large-scale Scrum for multihundred-person product groups Testing and building quality in Product management and the end of the “contract game” between business and R&D Envisioning a large release, and planning for multiteam development Low-quality legacy code: why it’s created, and how to stop it Continuous integration in a large multisite context Agile architecting Multisite or offshore development Contracts and outsourced development In a competitive environment that demands ever-faster cycle times and greater innovation, the practices inspired by lean thinking and agile principles are ever-more relevant. Practices for Scaling Lean & Agile Development will help people realize a lean enterprise—and deliver on the significant benefits of agility. In addition to the action tools in this text, see the companion book Scaling Lean & Agile Development: Thinking and Organizational Tools for Large-Scale Scrumfor complementary foundation tools.

Accelerating Performance
Accelerating Performance

Author: Colin Price

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons

Published: 2017-01-04

Total Pages: 352

ISBN-13: 1119147492

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Transform your organization into a dynamic catalyst for success Accelerating Performance is not just another “warm and fuzzy” change management book—it's a practical, comprehensive, data-driven action plan for picking up the pace and achieving more. Co-written by one of the authors of Beyond Performance, this book draws on a combination of empirical research and decades of experience advising global companies to show you how to reduce time to value by building and changing momentum more quickly than your competitors. The META framework (short for Mobilize, Execute, and Transform with Agility) offers advice for leading change at four levels: strategy, the organization, teams, and individuals. In addition to step-by-step guidance toward assessment, planning, and implementation, the book offers: A diagnostic tool for leaders, teams, and organizations to assess their starting place, and highlight the specific areas needed to improve the ability to accelerate performance. A detailed look at the factors proven to create drag—and drive—at each of the four levels: strategy, organizations, teams, and individuals. An exploration of the 39 differentiating actions that organizations can combine as dictated by their strategy and context into a winning recipe. A closer look at the practices of 23 “superaccelerators,” a global (and perhaps unexpected) mix of companies that have demonstrated a consistent ability to accelerate performance. A single taste of success is all it takes to spark change, but the hard work of following through requires constant vigilance—and a plan. Learn how to capture that drive, bottle it, and use it to sustain motivation, inspiration, and achievement. Deliver at the highest level, and then turn around and do even better next time. Accelerating Performance gives leaders a step-by-step framework for taking action and transforming their organizations, teams, and even themselves—starting today.

Introduction to Agile Methods
Introduction to Agile Methods

Author: Sondra Ashmore Ph.D.

Publisher: Addison-Wesley Professional

Published: 2014-06-23

Total Pages: 331

ISBN-13: 0133435210

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A Thorough Introduction to the Agile Framework and Methodologies That Are Used Worldwide Organizations of all shapes and sizes are embracing Agile methodologies as a way to transform their products, customer satisfaction, and employee engagement. Many people with varying levels of work experience are interested in understanding the architecture and nuances of Agile, but it is difficult to know where to start. Numerous practitioner books are available, but there has never been a single source for unbiased information about Agile methodologies–until now. Introduction to Agile Methods is the place to start for students and professionals who want to understand Agile and become conversant with Agile values, principles, framework, and processes. Authors Sondra Ashmore and Kristin Runyan use academic research and their own experiences with numerous Agile implementations to present a clear description of the essential concepts. They address all key roles and the entire development life cycle, including common roadblocks that must be overcome to be successful. Through the authors’ realistic use cases, practical examples, and thought-provoking interviews with pioneering practitioners, complex concepts are made relatable. No matter what your role or level of experience, this book provides a foundational understanding that can be used to start or enhance any Agile effort. Coverage includes How Agile compares with the Waterfall method and when to use each Why Agile demands a cultural transformation–and how that looks to each participant Comparing various Agile methodologies, including Scrum, Kanban, Extreme Programming (XP), Crystal, Feature Driven Development (FDD), Lean, and DSDM Understanding the roles within Agile and how they work together to create superior results Agile approaches to requirements gathering, planning, estimating, tracking, reporting, testing, quality, and integration Extending Agile beyond IT