We at Stout were pleased to present a session with Mary and Tom Poppendieck at Marr Professional Development in Ann Arbor on Tuesday April 20th. As most of you already know, Mary and Tom are world renowned authors and consultants in the fields of lean and agile software development. They literally wrote the book on lean software development – several of them in fact. Currently they travel the world doing a variety of highly sought after presentations and workshops on these topics.

Our own Bill Heitzeg and John Stout attended such a workshop at CodeMash earlier this year and developed a good relationship with Mary and Tom. It was this relationship that opened the door for the session.

With limited seating available Stout hosted a sold-out crowd of 50 business and software professionals who were treated to an in-depth discussion of lean computing concepts.

There was also a detailed exercise demonstrating the power of value-stream mapping in identifying organizational and process waste. It is the elimination of such waste that defines lean processes of all kinds.

Mary and Tom were good enough to stop in between engagements and conduct the workshop. All proceeds from ticket sales went to benefit the Ann Arbor Chapter of the Association for Women in Computing and their scholarship fund.

You can find more information about Mary and Tom’s work and travels at their website www.poppendieck.com.