Speaker(s): Joakim Sundén

Session type: workshop

Length: 45 min

Targets, rewards, motivational speeches, ranking, individual bonuses, and even punishments, are to this day common management practices to get results from the workers. Are they effective in getting us to do better work? The world famous consultant Dr W Edwards Deming, who was “the man who taught the Japanese, America and many other countries about quality”, created The Red Bead Experiment in 1982 to communicate his take on the subject.

In this session we will run a version of the experiment that has been slightly adapted for software development by David P. Joyce. The experiment introduces many of Deming’s ideas about management, the principles of variation and statistical process control charts. And it is a humorous and fun experience for both participants and audience!

After the experiment there will be a presentation followed by a group discussions on the learning points and how they can be related to software development and the management of software development teams.