About this Presentation
Knowledge-intensive digital businesses compete at breakneck speed. Product development, software-engineering and knowledge-discovery need to happen fast; and quickly adapt in a business environment exposed to ever increasing volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity (VUCA). In the last 20-25 years “agile” approaches have developed to address such ever changing conditions. The mantra is to constantly “Inspect and Adapt,” with deep consideration of the socio-technical complex-adaptive-systems wherein humans communicate, interact and make critical decisions with incomplete information. Many agile approaches have been proposed. Many have been extremely successful, such as scrum, SAFe, the kanban method and DevOps. While some acknowledge TOC, none truly apply TOC. In agile circles, TOC is considered inappropriate or even inapplicable. TOC is seen as rigid and inflexible, mainly due to its heritage in the manufacturing world. Some approaches, like DevOps, do acknowledge the basic ideas of TOC; yet their application is far from systemic. The intellectual clarity and focusing power of TOC is not found in agile approaches. In this presentation we will see how to bring TOC to agile, or agility to TOC, through a novel approach called “TameFlow” that embraces TOC in its entirety, all the while making it compatible with all popular agile approaches. Video length: 48:05. PDF: 16 slides.
What Will You Learn
To help you get the most value from this session, we’ve highlighted a few key points. These takeaways capture the main ideas and practical insights from the presentation, making it easier for you to review, reflect, and apply what you’ve learned.
Agile and TOC can be bridged by understanding the nature of knowledge work and applying principles from both methodologies.
Probabilistic forecasting and Little's Law can be used in Agile to estimate timelines and place buffers.
DBR scheduling from TOC can be applied to limit work in process in Agile.
Instructor(s)
Steve Tendon
Steve Tendon is the Managing Director of TameFlow Consulting Limited. He is the creator of the "TameFlow Approach:" a pragmatic systems-thinking approach that delivers superior business outcomes in knowledge-intensive digital businesses, without compromising sustainability, quality or humanity. Steve's expertise covers: organizational performance; large scale IT/Digital/Agile transformations; engineering/knowledge-work management; decentralized organizations; organizational design and more. In his most recent book, "Tame your Work Flow," Steve focuses on how to apply the Theory of Constraints to knowledge-work, and in particular how to handle coordination, synchronization and prioritization in so called "PEST" environments: environments where you have multiple Projects or Products; multiple Events or deadlines; multiple Stakeholders; and multiple Teams. His techniques provide business with the agility to change direction at speed and at scale by dramatically improving performance even in extreme VUCA (volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity) conditions. Steve is furthermore a world-class expert on Blockchain Technologies, providing strategic advisory services to startups, multi-nationals and governments.
Ms Alka Wadhwa
Alka Wadhwa is an experienced consultant and process improvement expert with over 24 years of expertise in the Theory of Constraints (TOC), Lean Six Sigma, and organizational performance optimization. She has successfully led projects in healthcare, financial services, and manufacturing, driving significant improvements such as a 67% boost in hospital operations and a 140% increase in outpatient visits.
Previously, Alka Wadhwa spent 17+ years at GE Global Research Center, where she led initiatives to enhance various GE businesses through advanced technologies, process redesign, and system optimization. Founder of Better Solutions Consulting, LLC, she specializes in using TOC, Six Sigma, and data analytics to streamline operations and build high-performance teams.
Her work has earned her multiple accolades, including the Empire State Award of Excellence in healthcare.
Dr Gary Wadhwa
Dr. Gary Wadhwa is a Board Certified Oral & Maxillofacial Surgeon with extensive experience in the field. He completed his Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery training at Montefiore Hospital, Albert Einstein College of Medicine in Bronx, NY, and has served as an Attending at prestigious institutions like St. Peters Hospitals, Ellis Hospital, and Beth Israel Hospital in NY. With a career spanning over two decades, he was the former CEO and President of a group specialty practice in NY from 1994 to 2015. Dr. Wadhwa holds an MBA from UT at Knoxville, TN, and has undergone additional training in System Dynamics at MIT, Health System Management at Harvard Business School, and Entrepreneurship and healthcare innovations at Columbia Business School. Committed to expanding access to Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery care, he is currently engaged in a meaningful project to provide healthcare services to underserved populations in inner city and rural areas through non-profit Community Health Centers.