Kanban practitioners commonly ask two questions: “How can I reliably commit to a date using Kanban?” and “Is there a lack of perceived schedule pressure in Kanban?” People in contracting or service environments must often make commitments to clients with specific delivery dates and cost estimates. We will explore how to make target-driven commitments when managing projects with Lean principles. In addition, we will look at ways to utilize those initial estimates to appropriately set team expectations. The session will show how this encourages innovation within the team leading to process improvements. At the same time providing leading indicators of project status without willfully holding to an unrealistic goal.

More information regarding my talk can be found at http://atlanta2010.leanssc.org/home/chris-shinkle/.

If you are interested in applying Lean concepts to software and systems development then this is _THE_ conference to attend. It will have the best people in Lean and Kanban, and the best and largest quantity of Lean content.  (A significant number of our speakers will not be attending Agile 2010 and will not be speaking there so this is your chance to see them.)

At the conference, you will:

• Learn lean development approaches with a focus on scientific, model based solutions.
• See how to tailor lean methods to your unique work situation.
• Find proven approaches that let development and management work together on a system design level.
• Get pragmatic, actionable advice, delivered by people with field experience presenting metrics and data.

When: April 21-23rd, 2010

Where: JW Marriott hotel, Atlanta, GA

More information: http://atlanta2010.leanssc.org/news/

Follow on Twitter: @lssc10