Your project traffic light just turned red. The specialists for the next work package are still involved in another project, and you already suspect: The critical path of your project will change from a four-lane highway to an alpine pass with many serpentines. Well, you clearly had imagined your progress quite differently. Now the project…
The budgets for 2021 are ambitious. The wishlist of initiatives and projects for next year is long. Once again the question arises: How do we get as many strategic hp as possible on the ground? Time to taste the Strategic Lean Portfolio! In recent weeks, management has placed its bets on the future: The new…
Conversation and feedback loops are important In another Denkplan © blog on the values and principles behind Denkplan I listed conversation, feedback culture, cadence and synchronization as important principles behind. Talking about instruments and methods we often forget how important conversation is. To establish good conversations we have to identify, organize and align appropriate events…
Concepts are easy, being actionable is challenging The action step uses Kanban to lead the roadmap to action. With this the basic approach should be well known. The challenging part in the action step is hidden in the details of living it day to day. The most important part is to find a common and…
A physical wall We urgently recommend a physical wall for the roadmap step. For sure, an electronic representation must be available as well any time in the future in any tool like Jira or TargetProcess. Nevertheless the core activities of conversation and decisions create most value as conversation in front of the physical roadmap wall…
Prerequisites To visually and transparently communicate a strategy one prerequisite makes sense – some kind of strategy. That might sound funny, but from my experience – by working with many companies – that point is somewhat vague. Either the strategy is confidential (i.e. only top management is authorized to view the uncensored version) or it…
Over the last years I recognize more and more a blaming game against top management. My urgent appeal to the agile community is: STOP THIS! Why this statement? Since over thirty years I am in business. In the last twenty years I spend a sound part of my time working with middle management and in…
Denkplan plays on three levels: The strategic impact level (used instrument: the impact map using a morphological box) The tactical roadmap level (used instrument: the roadmap using the concept of a story map) The roadmap flow level (used instrument: a Kanban board) All instruments are physical instruments that foster the flow from strategy to action…
The success of any idea owns as fundament a mental model. Therefore we are happy to talk about the core elements of the mental model behind Denkplan. The agile and lean community lives a widely agreed mental model. This mental model starts from the needs of a person or organization and drills down to concrete techniques…
Strategy is hip again. From the ones creating customer value, up the line to the CEO – a collaborative developed and agreed strategy is a success factors of customer oriented, agile and flexible companies. Well, that isn’t surprising latest since the agile manifesto. Nevertheless, the real success stories are rare. This requires a new approach.…