Mexico City LeSS Practitioner Course Scheduling

Based on detailed calculations I should be able to run an in-person 3-day CLP in Mexico City at USD$2299/person if I can identify at least a dozen participants who are interested.

As long as I can find enough people, I plan to make this happen fairly quickly before an upcoming client engagement starts consuming all my time. I will work with everyone who is interested to identify a 3-day block which works for as many people as possible.

The course will be primarily in English, with Spanish being leveraged as much as practical. See the English and Spanish section below for details.

Please send me an email at james@agilecarpentry.com if you are interested in attending at the price listed above.

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

Air-Force Specifics

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

Participant Testimonials

LeSS Adopters

LeSS Logo Sheet by Sector

English and Spanish

Although I have spent a great deal of time studying Spanish in the past, I do not feel my Spanish is sufficient to run the course entirely in Spanish. Furthermore, all the written course content, as well as the three LeSS books by Craig Larman and Bas Vodde are in English.

That said, I think we can collectively muddle our way through using a mix of English and Spanish. My ideas to help us are below.

Participants Can Help

I’m expecting at least some of the participants to be extremely fluent in both Spanish and English, with everyone else having at least workable English skills. More fluent participants should be able to translate more confusing aspects in the moment.

Live Transcription and Live Translation

As long as I bring a little bit of audio gear with me, I am expecting to be able to use Microsoft’s Conversation App which provides both live transcription and live translation.

Microsoft PowerPoint 365 on Mac supports both live transcription and live translation as captions, but doesn’t integrate with the conversation application like the Microsoft Windows version does. Fortunately, Microsoft’s conversation web app worked well in my testing.

By using the loop-back interfaces of my audio interface, I can concurrently feed microphone input to both the conversation web app, and PowerPoint at the same time. This solution is slightly clunky compared to the Microsoft Windows experience, but it is still very workable.

Breakout Groups Can Use Spanish

A huge percentage of the course leverages breakout groups for both table discussions and system modeling. Each table should feel free to conduct their table discussions and system modeling activities in whatever language they are most comfortable with.

Class level discussions with me will need to be mostly in English.

Pre-Reading Content

This course has a large amount of pre-reading content which I will distribute to those who sign up. I expect it is easier for most native Spanish speakers to read English, than to hear it. Furthermore, online text translators have become extremely good lately, so that should help with any tricky aspects of the pre-reading.

Being diligent about the pre-reading will go a very long way in helping to follow along during class.

Awareness and Sensitivity

By leveraging all the mitigation techniques above, and remaining sensitive to the language issue, I expect we will be able to help each other overcome any language related obstacles we encounter.

Someone who doesn’t know any English probably should not attend. That said, I doubt there will be many people who are interested in LeSS who don’t know at least some English. If you managed to read everything here so far, your English is probably strong enough to be workable for the course.

Training Venue Details

I am expecting to deliver the course in one of the many convention hotels in Reforma neighorhood. The traffic circle surrounding the Angel de la Independencia statue marks the center of this area.

Of the two dozen venues I requested quotes from, the quote from the Sheraton Maria Isabel has been the most compelling so far. The nearby Marriott Reforma Hotel provides a good backup choice.

As I anticipate a smaller class, I am expecting to take the group to a different table service restaurant each day for lunch. The Reforma neighborhood is blessed with a multitude of gourmet restaurants to make reservations at. This approach to lunch will provide a more social experience for everyone, and hopefully provide a break from being in an event room all day.

I am expecting to have breakfast provided by the event venue.

Breakfast, lunch, snacks, and beverage service are all included in the price of the course.

Pricing Strategy

A price of USD$2299 is as low as I can reasonably offer this course with the expected number of participants. This is not a question of what the market will support, it is just about what I can afford to deliver the course for. If enough people are interested at this price I will run the course, if not I won’t.

Logistical Overhead

A system modeling heavy Certified LeSS Practitioner (CLP) requires a tremendous amount of floor space per participant, and a very large number of whiteboards for systems modeling. On top of this are all the normal facilitation costs of any in-person 3-day off-site conference or training event.

I have assembled the necessary equipment, flight cases, and logistics to cost effectively deliver a public or private systems modeling heavy CLP course most anywhere in the world with ease. Even with all this in place, the fixed overhead remains significant.

Understanding the LeSS Course Offerings

This is the in-person Certified LeSS Practitioner (CLP) course being offered, not the Certified LeSS Basics (CLB) course.

Although the CLB may be offered by any LeSS-Friendly Scrum Trainer, only a Certified LeSS Trainers (CLT) is licensed to teach the CLP course. There are twenty six CLTs globally. Only five of us live in the Americas, and none of us live anywhere near Mexico City. International airline flights are particuarly pricey at the moment, even when not flying with a multitude of heavy flight cases.

Although the Provisional Certified LeSS Practitioner is available remotely, the CLP is always in-person. The motivations for keeping the CLP in-person, while concurrently making the Provisional CLP available can be found at this FAQ page.

The information I am providing here is not intended to take anything away from the many wonderful LeSS-friendly Scrum trainers out there. I am simply trying to help people understand the facts when comparing the various LeSS courses. A LeSS Practitioner and LeSS Basics course are nothing like the same thing, and the course pricing reflects that.

Tickets

Please send me an email at james@agilecarpentry.com if you are interested in attending my Certified LeSS Practitioner course in Mexico City.

I am expecting to provide the course at USD$2299 if I can find at least a dozen people.