I have a new article published this month. Feels like my first heavyweight article for at least 18 months. It feels good to be back in the saddle writing again. Thanks to my friend Pollyanna Pixton of the APLN for the gentle nudge. I'm really pleased with how this article turned out. It was originally titled "Stop Negotiating and Get Naked!" but I backed off that risque title - having previously lived in the mid-West I've come to realize that culture varies a lot and it is easy to offend.

The article is a natural extension to my blog post inciting folks to Stop Estimating and is based on my more recent experience with kanban systems and implementing my Recipe For Success: focus on quality, reduce work-in-progress, balance demand against throughput, and prioritize. This new Cutter IT Journal article, Stop Negotiating and Start Collaborating takes a look at the more human aspects of implementing the recipe for success and how eliminating the hidden information inherent in negotiation helps to develop a high trust culture of collaboration. The effort expended in negotiation, contracts, verification, audit and litigation can be seen in Lean terms as unnecessary waste and by eliminating it, a more agile organization emerges that can produce more at reduced cost.

Read the whole paper...Technorati tag: Agile, Lean, Kanban, Software+Engineering, Cutter, David+Anderson, Pollyanna+Pixton, APLN