Chicago Certified LeSS Practitioner June 10-12, 2025

  James  5 mins read.

June 10-12: Get Tickets

Course Agenda

The morning of the first of three days will be used to establish the overall context of the system modeling activities which follow. This will be done through a small amount of lecture, combined with both small and large group discussions.

Once the stage is set, we will transition to thoughtful analysis of the impact of different organizational design decisions on adaptability and value delivery using system modeling. Following each incremental framework-agnostic advance in our understanding, we will map concrete aspects of LeSS into our increasingly enlightened understanding of organizational system dynamics. The system modeling brings deeper insight, while mapping this insight into LeSS facilitates better retention along with an understanding of how to act on what is being learned.

We will continue to incrementally advance our depth of understanding using system modeling for the majority of the three days. Towards the end of the third day time will be spent: coalescing the whole of our enhanced understanding; providing guidance on how to move forward; and orienting participants on how to navigate a wealth of additional information.

DAY 1: Setting the Stage

The first of three days will be used to establish the overall context of the system modeling activities which follow. This will be done with a small amount of lecture, but primarily via small and large group discussions and exercises. We’ll follow this thread through the entire 3-day event.

  • Introduction
  • Avoiding Taylorism
  • Estimates, not Commitments
  • People are Valuable
  • System Optimization, not Local Optimization
  • Discovering Value
  • Implications of multiple Product Backlogs

DAY 2: Seeing Simplicity through Systems Modeling

On the second day, we will take what we learned about Systems Modeling on Day 1 and use those tools to understand:

  • Benefits of Cross-Functional Teams
  • Product Breadth Considerations
  • Private Code Impedes Technical Excellence
  • Managing Cognitive Fullness
  • Requirement Area Sizing Considerations

DAY 3: Modeling decisions through Systems Modeling & LeSS

As we continue to advance our depth of understanding using system modeling, the third day will be spent coalescing the whole of our enhanced understanding, providing guidance on how to move forward, and orienting participants on how to navigate a wealth of additional information.

  • Product Breadth and Adaptability
  • Avoiding Middlemen
  • LeSS Complete Picture
  • Structure Drives Culture
  • Adoption in your organization
  • Extended Q&A

After course completion

Each participant will be a Certified LeSS Practitioner and will get an account on less.works. Here one can find additional information about LeSS, share course information, and stay in contact with the other course participants.

All participants get access to the book: Large-Scale Scrum: More with LeSS

U.S. Air-Force Specifics

This course is listed in the United States Air Force’s Education and Training Management System (ETMS). More details are available here.

Participant Testimonials

LeSS Adopters

LeSS Logo Sheet by Sector

Travel Logistics

Arriving By Air

Chicago is served by two commercial airports, O’Hare (ORD) and Midway (MDW).

O’Hare airport is a huge international airport with non-stop flights to almost anywhere on the planet. O’Hare is a hub for United Airlines and American Airlines.

Midway is a regional airport which is a bit closer to downtown Chicago than O’Hare. Southwest Airlines operates most of the flights into Midway.

Arriving By Amtrak

Roomette

A direct Amtrak route can be a wonderful low-stress choice for travel to and from downtown Chicago. This is especially true for anyone living in the mid-west. Only direct cross-country routes on Amtrak tend to make sense.

Detailed Travel Logistics

See the following pages for additional travel details:

Training Venue Details

I have reserved a hospitality suite at theWit Chicago, 201 N. State Street, Chicago IL 60601.

The hospitality suite will provide enough capacity to support the first five or six attendees, at which point I will cancel the hospitality suite and book a larger event space nearby.

There is a significant chance any larger event space will be outside of theWit. I therefore suggest you ensure any hotel reservations you make at theWit can be canceled without penalty.

Hotel room prices in downtown Chicago are rising quickly. Therefore, it makes sense to reserve your hotel room early, just make sure you can cancel and relocate if needed.

TheWit has some very nice windowed event spaces, which are much better than the dark event spaces found in a lot of the other 4-star and 5-star Chicago hotels. If all goes well, larger event space will still be available at theWit by the time I am able to justify contractually binding it. If not, there are backup options.

Taking the Blue Line on the elevated train from Chicago O’Hare Airport (ORD) to the Clark/Lake station will put you within two blocks of theWit Hotel.

If you are traveling via Amtrak, you will arrive downtown at Amtrak Union Station. This will put you within a long walk, short L train ride, or a five minute Uber ride of theWit.

Meals

Lunch will be arranged, but will not necessarily be included in the price of the course until it becomes viable to do so. This helps to assure that I can run the course at as low of a break-even attendee threshold as possible.

We will most likely be walking to pre-arranged lunches at nearby table service restaurants. This will provide a better social experience for everyone, and allow us to spend some time outside of the event space.

Participant feedback indicates that the ability to provide assurance the course will reach viability sooner, tends to be more important to attendees than whether or not they will need to have their employer pay for lunch.

Tickets

June 10-12: Get Tickets