Henrik

Kniberg

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Henrik Kniberg

I help companies improve.

I am fascinated by the art of software development. How do you write great code? How do yo­u create & lead great teams? How do you create great workplaces? How do you evolve great architectures? How do you design great products? How do you build scalable & robust systems? How do you build interfaces that users love?

I’ve found that this mostly boils down to leadership, motivation, and organizational structure. The most effective approaches I’ve found so far to improve companies is Systems Thinking, Theory of Constraints, Lean thinking, and concrete implementations of this such as Scrum, XP, and Kanban.

This is what I am continuously striving to learn & apply & teach.

I’m currently working with Spotify. Here’s an article about our approach to scaling agile.

New book: Lean from the Trenches

I’ve recently published a new book called “Lean from the Trenches – Managing Large Scale Projects with Kanban“. It has received great reviews so far!

Lean from the Trenches

“FANTASTIC! I know it’s going to make a big dent in the world of software development. It’s easily the most important book I have seen in the past year!”
-Mary Poppendieck, Author of Lean Software Development Series

“I read the whole thing end to end. In a word, FANTASTIC! Grounded, real, funny,
easy to read, smooth flow, good balance between theory and practice.”
-Kent Beck, creator of Extreme Programming and Test-driven Development

“Awesome. Kudos to you for documenting the everyday sort of decision making that has to happen for a big project to be successful. I hope it becomes a benchmark against which many more projects are judged.”
-Ward Cunningham, inventor of the Wiki, pioneer of Agile software development

Improve your development process

Improving your development process is probably the best investment you can make. Most software projects fail, and the most common cause is process issues such as communication, customer involvement, and planning.

I can help you beat the odds. Succeeding with software development is not about having the biggest team, having the smartest people, or working the longest hours – it is about working smart. The difference is often dramatic.

My most common types of engagements at the moment are:

  • Coaching and mentoring, i.e. work directly with teams and managers to help them figure out how to improve their process. Check out my single-page coaching portfolio.
  • Help companies transition to Agile and Lean software development using a combination of interviews, training, workshops, and coaching. My books “Scrum and XP from the Trenches” and “Lean from the Trenches” illustrate this work.
  • 2 day Certified ScrumMaster classes, Kanban classes, and similar courses.
  • Inspirational talks (1 – 3 hours) on topics such as Agile, Lean, Kanban, Scrum and XP. Here are some typical topics.
  • Team workshops (half or full day), where I help teams address practical issues such as how to coordinate multiple teams, create a Kanban board, how to do agile release planning, how to write good user stories, etc.
  • Management workshops, to help managers or customers understand what Agile & Lean is all about and what it means to them.
  • Facilitate meetings such as Retrospectives and Sprint planning meetings
  • TDD/BDD workshops, where I use live coding and exercises to illustrate what TDD (test-driven development) and BDD (behaviour-driven developmenet) means in practice.

Upcoming public events & courses

Past public events

Slides & course material

Books & articles & recordings

Kanban and Scrum - making the most of both Scrum and XP from the Trenches Lean from the Trenches

Hobby projects and tools

  • Web Whiteboard - an instant web-based collaboration tool. One click to create an online whiteboard.
  • Index card generator - a simple tool that lets you print index cards from excel-based product backlogs.
  • Planning poker - I was first out with an online shop for physical planning poker decks.
  • Junk find - a tool that helps you see what is taking up space on your disk.
  • Band planner - a tool for finding rehearsal times for bands.
  • Where Is Everyone? – a tool for keeping track of your friends, for example in the ski slope.

Background & merits

I take a holistic approach to software development and enjoy adopting different types of roles.

  • Leader & manager
    • CTO at 3 Swedish IT companies, including Tain.
  • Agile alliance board of directors
  • Teacher & speaker
    • Trained and coached hundreds of people and dozens of companies in Agile & Lean software development – including developers, testers, customers, project leaders, and managers.
    • Regularly teach Scrum and Lean courses together with Jeff Sutherland (founder of Scrum) and Mary Poppendieck (founder of Lean Software Development). For example Deep Lean.
    • Certified Scrum Trainer.
    • Regular keynote speaker at Agile & Lean conferences worldwide, won “best speaker award” several times.
  • Process coach
  • Author
    • See my list of books & articles above.
    • My 3 published books have over 500,000 readers, have been translated to 12 languages, and are used as the primary guide to Agile and Lean software development by hundreds of companies worldwide, as well as several universities.
  • Developer & Architect
    • Rated #3 best developer in Sweden by Computer Sweden in 2012. Been on the top-20 list every time since 2008.
    • Obtained 4 patents within software technology such as communication between mobile phones and PCs over the internet and distributed architectures for gaming systems.
    • Designed and implemented platforms for mobile services, payment and e-commerce systems, gaming systems, flight booking systems, and more. I’ve done server programming, client programming, database design, testing, and web design.
    • Early adopter and champion of agile techniques such as test-driven development and continuous integration.
    • Sample product: webwhiteboard.com.
  • Entrepreneur
    • Founder of several Swedish IT companies, including Goyada.
    • Created several online services & open source products – see “Hobby projects” above.

Other links

Henrik Kniberg
Agile & Lean coach
Contact info

Feel free to get in touch for more info about how I can help you.

  • Henrik Kniberg
  • Henrik.Kniberg@crisp.se

Right now