Learning From Mistakes

Whenever something unexpected happens – such as when we make a mistake –  there’s a possibility for learning to happen. For example, I just tried to add an extra branch in my mind mapping tool, but I pressed the wrong key combination. Instead of a new branch, a nice little yellow callout appeared. I immediately liked it, because it seemed like a useful thing.

What mistakes have you done recently, and what did you learn from them?

Slides from Learning Together @ Öresund Agile

My talk at Öresund Agile yesterday went ok. I was slightly nervous before, as always. Once I started speaking, my 30 minutes flew by, though. Not clear on how relevant people thought my material was – we’ll see if some feedback drops in. My intention was to introduce a few useful concepts about learning to people in the agile community who hadn’t heard about them before. Embedded below are my slides, which may not be that useful if you weren’t at the conference, but that’s OK. If you were there, maybe they can serve as a small reminder of what I spoke about.

If you want to do some research on your own into the things I talked about, here are some links for further reading:

  1. The Two Great Wastes
  2. Origins of the “knowledge pyramid”
  3. Ikujiro Nonaka on knowledge
  4. Book tip regarding dialogue
Learning Together – Tobias Fors @ Öresund Agile 2009

View more presentations from tobias.fors.

Learning Together @ Öresund Agile 2009

I’ll be speaking at this year’s Öresund Agile conference. As at last year’s conference, I’m intimidated by being on the same program as veterans like Jeff Sutherland and Jim Coplien, but hey, I think I have something interesting to say. Plus, in a very un-Swedish way, I choose to focus on the two guys who came up to me at last year’s conference and said (guy number one), “your talk was the **curse word** best today”, and (guy number two) “your presentation skills are absolutely amazing”. Haha, of course, since I am a Swede, I cannot really believe either of them, but I’m working on that.

Here’s the elevator statement for my talk this year:

All organizations can use their potential better. Agile is one way to begin to do so. However, while agile has spread rapidly and resulted in many improvements, many still see it as just a new methodology. At the core of agile lies the belief in the value of being able to move with elegance and ease, even when circumstances change. This means that we can never stop learning about better ways to do things.
We can never stop and say that we found the one true way of doing things. Organizations that realize this use learning and teamwork to fuel improvments that go beyond what textbooks, industry gurus and competitors say and do. This is the true power of learning together.

Come to this Copehagen conference if you are in the Öresund area on May 13. You’ll also get to listen to experts like Mary Poppendieck and Henrik Kniberg!

Agila Sverige 2009: 8-9 juni

This year’s edition of the Agila Sverige (Agile Sweden) conference will take place on June 8-9. I’d like to be there, because last year it was absolutely fabulous, with lightning talks before lunch and open space after. It was rapid, engaging, fun and with the smartest people around. This year though, I might not be there, since that date correlates pretty well with the expected birth date of my second child! No question about my priorities there I’m afraid.

But for you, there’s no reason for not being there. Plus, it’s virtually free! Sign up here: http://agilasverige.se/

Fiona Charles on Testing

I met Fiona Charles at the AYE conference a couple of years ago. Here is an article by her that I just came across. It struck a chord with me, because last week – in my ongoing quest to broaden my understanding – I attended a three-day course on testing. Fiona’s article talks about one concept that seems to to be key to success: the relationships between developers and testers. I’ll be writing more about what I learned from attending the class later on, especially when it comes to the different views of testing that exist, but for now, Fiona’s article can speak for itself. Plus the longer comment below, which shows an example of the difference of opinion that is out there.