Jeff Sutherland @ nlscrum

Last week I co-organized an nlscrum event with a very special guest: Jeff Sutherland. After rushing with him from the airport to our Xebia office, Jeff gave a very inspiring presentation.

Jeff talked about the dramatic difference between those teams that take the red pill (that Morpheus offered Neo in the Matrix), and the blue pill that most people take. After his presentation, many attendees felt like they had just taken the red pill. I hope that this inspiration lasted long enough to have some effect at work, where countless small and big obstacles cause many people’s pill to be blue.
After dinner, which was accompanied by a nice Italian ice cream booth, we had a question and answer/discussion session in which Jeff touched many Scrum related topics. Usually at nlscrum events, we host an OpenSpace to give members of the nlscrum community a chance to share experiences. This time, we decided to opt for a different format to give a maximum of attendees the opportunity to learn from and get inspired by Jeff.
The topic that triggered most debate was a discussion about Kanban versus Scrum. According to Jeff, Lean principles and techniques are important to do Agile software development projects successfully. In fact, last month Jeff gave a Deep Lean course with Henrik Kniberg and the Poppendiecks. For those interested, you can find the course material online, including a presentation about Kanban versus Scrum by Henrik Kniberg.
All in all, I’m very glad by the way this special nlscum event turned out to be. We had approximately 65 attendees and got a lot of positive feedback. I hope to see many of them again on our OpenSpaces. So, for all of you in the Netherlands who use Scrum or plan to do so, come to our nlscrum events to get inspired and learn from your peers!


Photos: Laurens Bonnema