Guy Beaver

Guy is a technology executive known for building Lean organizations that are driven by business priorities. With 25+ years experience in Financial Services, Aerospace, Health Care and eCommerce, his technology accomplishments include managing enterprise web development and delivery for world class transaction systems (16 Million users), large data center transitions, and SaaS operational excellence utilizing Lean IT practices. He is skilled at organizational change and is the co-author of Lean Software Development: Achieving Enterprise Agility.

• Lean Portfolio Management: Guiding IT Projects with Business Value

  • Better Software Magazine
  • March 2009
  Authors: Guy Beaver

• Forget What You Think You Know: Transitioning to Lean-Agile Project Management

  • Better Software Magazine
  • February 1, 2011
  Authors: Guy Beaver

  The transition to lean and agile approaches is gaining popularity in IT software development organizations [1]. But, many organizations embark on an agile transition with early team successes, only to struggle later to institutionalize both the
  processes and their benefits. Often, this is because the underlying reason of why agile approaches work is not well understood.

• Lean-Agile Software Delivery: Achieving Enterprise Agility

  • Addison-Wesley Professional
  • November 2009
  Authors: Guy Beaver, Alan Shalloway, James R. Trott

  Agile techniques have demonstrated immense potential for developing more effective, higher-quality software. However,scaling these techniques to the enterprise presents many challenges. The solution is to integrate the principles and practices of Lean Software Development with Agile’s ideology and methods. By doing so, software organizations leverage Lean’s powerful capabilities for “optimizing the whole” and managing complex enterprise projects.
  
  A combined “Lean-Agile” approach can dramatically improve both developer productivity and the software’s business value.In this book, three expert Lean software consultants draw from their unparalleled experience to gather all the insights, knowledge, and new skills you need to succeed with Lean-Agile development.
  
  Lean-Agile Software Development shows how to extend Scrum processes with an Enterprise view based on Lean principles. The authors present crucial technical insight into emergent design, and demonstrate how to apply it to make iterative development more effective. They also identify several common development “anti-patterns” that can work against your goals, and they offer actionable, proven alternatives.
  
  Lean-Agile Software Development shows how to
  
  Transition to Lean Software Development quickly and successfully
  Manage the initiation of product enhancements
  Help project managers work together to manage product portfolios more effectively
  Manage dependencies across the software development organization and with its partners and colleagues
  Integrate development and QA roles to improve quality and eliminate waste
  Determine best practices for different software development teams
  

• The climatology of stratospheric HCL and HF observed by HALOE

  • Advances in Space Research
  • August 1998
  Authors: Guy Beaver, J.M. Russell III

  The Halogen Occultation Experiment (HALOE) on UARS uses the method of solar occultation limb sounding to measure profiles of several key trace gases, aerosol and temperature in the stratosphere and mesosphere. Two of the HALOE channels centered at 2.45 microns and 3.4 microns are used to measure Hydrogen Fluoride (HF) and Hydrogen Chloride (HCl), respectively. These measurements reveal information regarding stratospheric chlorine input and origin, as well as atmospheric dynamics. Prior to HALOE, global coverage of HF and HCl was lacking. With almost five years of measurements, HALOE provides for the first time, data which can be used to formulate a global climatology for HF and HCl, including temporal change and seasonal zonal mean variation. These reference data should be invaluable for model initialization and validation, as well as trend studies. The HALOE measurements of HCl and HF yield global surveys of profiles for these trace gases, from the upper troposphere to the lower mesosphere.

• The Agile-V Scorecard

  • Agile Journal
  • March 8, 2007
  Authors: Guy Beaver

  Much has been written about the Balanced Scorecard methodology. Its goal is to measure desired outcomes and predict drivers of those outcomes.[1][2] A fundamental premise is that measuring what you want to achieve helps motivate its implementation. Large-scale implementations of the Balanced Scorecard link individual processes to overall business goals. For a properly implemented Agile team, this line-of-site measurement happens naturally and is controlled daily. This article suggests a simple and natural scorecard that provides accurate daily visibility of drivers and outcomes for an Agile team focused on delivering business value to its clients. With its emphasis on business value (as opposed to deliverable status), this scorecard offers a powerful approach to providing daily readout to management on the progress of Agile projects as they are piloted in a waterfall organization.

• Remotely Monitoring a Satellite Instrument

  • Linux Journal
  • September 1, 1999
  Authors: Guy Beaver

  How a small aerospace company uses Linux to remotely monitor the performance of a satellite instrument.

• Halogen Occultation Experiment (HALOE) altitude registration of atmospheric profile measurements: lessons learned and improvements made during the data validation phase

  • Proc. SPIE 2266, 266 (1994); doi:10.1117/12.187564
  • 1994
  Authors: Guy Beaver, Larry Gordley, James M. Russell III

  Measurements by the Halogen Occultation Experiment (HALOE), on board the Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite (UARS) are producing high quality atmospheric profiles of trace gases involved in ozone chemistry. Using eight IR channels to sense the atmospheric absorption of sunlight, HALOE is providing scientists with high quality global fields of HCl, HF, O3, CH4, NO, NO2, H2O, aerosol extinctions and temperature, shedding new light on the dynamics and chemistry of the atmosphere. Critical to the retrieval of atmospheric constituent profiles from space-borne spectroscopic sensors is the ability to determine the true path through the atmosphere of measured radiation. Since becoming operational in October 1991 new effort has been put into validating and refining the techniques required to estimate the tangent point altitude associated with each signal sample. This is accomplished by measuring transmission of sunlight in the CO2 2.8 micron region, and registering the CO2 transmission profile with a modeled transmission profile based on temperature and pressure data from NMC or UKMO and an assumed CO2 mixing ratio. In this paper we report on lessons learned during the data validation phase, and improvements made to the altitude registration process. The parameters and processes involved include CO2 limb radiance inversion, signal processing, zenith angle estimation, refraction calculations, registration regions and aerosol effects. We also present the results of sensitivity and error analyses which reveal the accuracy required for each estimated parameter in order to register within the specified error budget.

• Knocking Down Silos: Transitioning the Enterprise to Agile

  • Agile Journal
  • February 11, 2008
  Authors: Guy Beaver

  In a previous article addressing the challenges of Enterprise Requirements Management, it was suggested that the legacy enterprise organization requires restructuring so that productivity gains promised by Agile methods can take root and grow. At the same time, there is a growing chorus of IT skeptics who are singing about the ineffectiveness of the CIO.[1[2] Legacy enterprise organizations struggle to stay coupled with business drivers, with the most collaborative relationship occurring at the CIO-to-peer level. In this article, the structure of the misaligned IT organization is revealed as process-centric silos which have created an ever-widening chasm with business clients that the enterprise organization is supposed to serve. It is suggested that this chasm is best bridged using Lean and Agile methods. Enterprise agility begins with building trust by rapidly creating business value using cross-functional teams that can be scaled upward. Agile barriers and enablers are presented to allow CIOs to assess their organization's potential for restructuring and adapting to Agile.

• The Challenge of Enterprise Requirements Management: Boosting Business Value with Index Cards

  • Agile Journal
  • January 2008
  Authors: Guy Beaver

  Defect reduction through early and detailed requirements specification is a common outcome of process improvement efforts in product development. Enterprise requirements management becomes a specialization that requires expert business systems analysts to gather and document specifications that are detailed, accurate, and complete. If we apply Lean principles to the requirements gathering effort we see a backed up queue. Working to "Eliminate Waste" is a fundamental premise of Lean thinking in Software Development. Mary and Tom Poppendieck consider this so fundamental that they make it principal number 1 of 7 in their Principles of Lean Software Development.[i] They dispel the myth that "early specification reduces waste." In fact, for software development, early specification is waste. This article extends this myth-busting by exposing what can happen when process improvement techniques are blindly applied to requirements gathering. The suggested solution is to replace early detailed specification with solution roadmaps that can be detailed by collaborative teams at just the right time. Agile methods provide the structure and mechanics to allow business vision to lead product development with cross-functional teams that unfold detailed requirements when needed.

• Eye on the Prize: Best Practices for Aligning Agile Efforts with Business Goals

  • Agile Journal
  • June 2007
  Authors: Guy Beaver

  A phrase heard often in Agile discussions is "let the product lead." Applied correctly, these four words powerfully focus an Agile team's energy directly on work that provides the highest business value. Traditional engineering practices that focus on process often divert a technology team's energy away from quick delivery of business value, and toward design of infrastructure and architecture. Deep focus on technology decisions breaks the line-of-sight with business goals, creates opportunities for over-engineering, and requires complex tracing activities which ultimately slow the process. By focusing on implementing working software quickly, Agile methodologies provide feedback loops to constrain the end result so that no effort is wasted on unneeded features or over-engineered architectures and frameworks. By quickly delivering working software, the Agile approach makes line-of-sight with overall business goals achievable and visible. This article will spotlight best practices which result in an Agile team keeping its "eye on the prize" where the prize is a pleased customer, receiving high-quality capabilities delivered quickly in prioritized small increments.

• Agile Conversations

  • Agile Journal
  • March 2008
  Authors: Guy Beaver, Alan Chedalawada

  This article is a collection of conversations that demonstrates some of the tangible and intangible benefits of successful Agile implementation. The idea grew from a corporate engagement to pilot Agile methods in a heavy process-focused organization. We added conversations from other Agile teams which demonstrate characteristics of successful implementation. Some of the conversations were written down during Sprint retrospectives, but others were documented as part of a concerted effort to simply observe some of the behaviors and dialogues of collocated individuals in a real Agile environment.

• Perfect Planning

  • Scrum Alliance
  • August 2007
  Authors: Guy Beaver

  A successful sprint starts with the planning session. Taking the time to plan allows the team to review the work about to be undertaken, estimate the effort required to complete that work, and then commit to a prioritized list of stories and tasks that are within the team’s calculated capacity. This light set of procedures is well documented in Scrum and Agile literature [1],[2], but included here are some observable traits and best practices that have been found in well-formed, hyper-productive agile teams.

• Driving Enterprise Agility from the Program Management Office

  • Agile Journal
  • July 2010
  Authors: Guy Beaver, Kelley Horton

  The Premier healthcare alliance brings nationwide knowledge to improve local healthcare. It does this by providing solutions to collect and analyze clinical and financial data from its more than 2,200 member hospitals and 64,000 non acute-care members. By doing so, Premier unites a fragmented, chaotic and inefficient healthcare system to enable hospitals to provide patients with reliably high-quality healthcare at the lowest cost. Premier uses facts to determine the best practices and products that drive the best patient outcomes.

Websites:

• My Book
• Blog
• Lean Portfolio Management

Groups and Associations:

Board Member--Back River Surge Girls Fast Pitch Softball Team

• 
  Agile and Lean Software Development
• 
  Association of Information Technology Professionals (AITP) Richmond
• 
  CIO Exchange
• 
  Charlotte Business Professionals
• 
  Charlotte Deacs
• 
  Chief Information Officer (CIO) Network - The Group for CIOs
• 
  DBA Professional
• 
  Executive (CIO CTO) Club
• 
  Lean Agile Software Development Community
• 
  Lean Practitioners
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  Lean Software & Systems Consortium
• 
  Net Objectives Business Driven Software Development
• 
  Technology Hampton Roads
• 
  The Enterprise Architecture Network
• 
  Vang. Intl. Employees & Alumni Network
• 
  Wake Forest Alumni

Honors and Awards:

Vanguard Award For Excellence, 2003.