This page contains the reading/watching list for the FLEX Essentials course. We will be putting it out in advance to some extent so people who want to get a jump start on the course can. However, the course is not in the reading/watching but in the community and exercises and interactions with the instructors.

Week 1: Introduction

• Lean-Agile at Mid-Scale. This is an overview of both FLEX and the syllabus of the FLEX Essentials course.
• FLEX’s philosophy of transformation
• The foundation of FLEX
• How FLEX is different from Agile Approaches

Week 2: Understanding your situation

1. Systems thinking. If Russ Ackoff had given a TED Talk. Pretty much the best description of system thinking in about 12 minutes I’ve heard.
2. Three Oiled Wheel Approach. Explaining how the theory of constraints is not about eliminating the constraint but by working with it.
3. Value stream impedance. We are always talking about how we improve but perhaps we should be looking to see how to reduce the resistance for improvement.

Week 3: Understanding the steps required to go from concept to realization

In order to understand the steps we need to take we need to understand where we are going.

• Why Business Agility? We must shift our goal from improving teams to the quick realization of value predictably, sustainably and with high quality.
• Introduction to Minimum Business Increments. We are not interested in epics or stories. We are interested in how do we identify the business increment we want to realize.
• An Introduction to the Guardrails: Agreements to Keep You Aligned and On Track. The Guardrails are a set of agreements recommended by Net Objectives for any organization undertaking a transformation to business agility.

Week 4: Creating visibility

Why seeing the value stream is so important (7 min video). This also gives a good representation of what a value stream is.

Value Stream Mapping Value is an activity that catalogs the steps in the work producing a product or delivering a service. It reveals where the interfaces are between activities, as well as the times involved in and between process steps.