New computer-based training program from Gruver and Farley teaches software organizations how to address their own unique challenges instead of copying what others have done
Today, Gary Gruver, author and president of Gruver Consulting, announces the “Engineering the Digital Transformation Training and Certification” (EDT) program. EDT is a digital, self-paced training program for teaching software leaders and practitioners how to guide their own approach to continuous improvement. The goal is to help as many people as possible reduce the barriers to organizational change by making waste and inefficiencies visible.
As part of the new program, Gruver has partnered with Dave Farley, co-author of “Continuous Delivery,” to supply trainees with key software design patterns and an understanding of how to avoid common mistakes along the way. This curated, wiki-style content library is based on Farley’s breadth of knowledge and decades of experience.
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The EDT training program leverages certain principles from the manufacturing industry that have proven to deliver dramatic results. Instead of creating complex frameworks designed to solve someone else’s problem, which manufacturing organizations eventually realized didn’t work, EDT focuses on creating a systematic approach to continuous improvement. This approach leverages some of what was done in manufacturing but is modified to address the unique characteristics and capabilities of software.
“This is not a complex methodology to be implemented based on what practices worked for another team or organization,” said Gruver. “Additionally, to help overcome the resistance to change, we help people learn how to understand and address their own unique challenges instead of telling them what to do. By focusing on providing visibility into inefficiencies, it enables teams to use that insight to align on the improvements they are most passionate about addressing. Then, to ensure success, we help people transition from principles to implementation recommendations based on David’s years of experience.”
Organizations can’t replicate exactly what others are doing as transformation journeys aren’t a “one size fits all” approach. “Every company is on a different journey, in a different time and place. Teams need to learn how to do this themselves by analyzing their own unique problems,” explained Gruver. “If they’re not their own ideas, they are less likely to embrace new ways of working. People need to be empowered to create improvement plans and take ownership of the process. And, when software practitioners and leaders start on the continuous improvement path, they also need design patterns to avoid common mistakes along the way. It helps them avoid struggles that hamper motivation and progress.”
“Gary and I are at the point in our careers where we want to help as many people as possible throughout the transformation process with training we believe helps address unique challenges of the organization,” said Dave Farley, founder and director of Continuous Delivery Ltd. “Instead of providing expensive hands-on consulting to a limited number of clients, we realized if we could capture our experiences in computer-based training it would enable us to help a lot more organizations and it would be much cheaper for the clients.”
Engineering the Digital Transformation Training Offerings
White Belt
There are two online White Belt Certification courses — one for leaders ($250) and one for practitioners ($200). Both versions provide an approach that enables people to quickly align on their specific priorities for driving improvements. The white belt helps participants understand how to take a systematic approach to continuous improvement and identify the best opportunities for improvement. This computer-based training program can easily integrate with learning management systems, and be used across a large organization quickly and efficiently, motivating people to further complete Green and Black Belt Certifications.
One of the biggest challenges with any transformation is getting alignment across the leadership team. Global 2000 companies have used the white belt training with executives to make their issues visible so they can agree on improvement plans. Gruver believes this step is so important to any successful transformation that he is willing to provide a free prototype of the training to any organization that can commit. The requirements are to provide a lead to run the training and make their company-specific issues visible, and get an executive team committed to completing the training.
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Green Belt
Green Belt Certification is designed for leaders and practitioners to be able to apply White Belt training principles in their own organization. After the Green Belt training, people can help their organization eliminate waste and inefficiencies with support from David Farley. This important step helps people to document and share the impact of their improvement project where the development and delivery process is made visible, the biggest sources of waste are identified, and a change to remove said waste is implemented.
Black Belt
There are two types of Black Belt Certifications. First, there is a certification that ensures that people proficient in White Belt principles can certify their own Green Belts, enabling companies to be more self-sufficient. Second is to recognize larger and longer continuous improvement projects that can last years instead of months, and are projects that are of interest once the Green Belt Certification is completed.
Quotes/Testimonials
“I completed Gary Gruver’s new Leadership White Belt certification for improving the flow of delivery using the disciplined continuous improvement process he advocates in “Engineering the Digital Transformation,” said Bryan Finster, experienced software engineer and value stream architect. “I always learn something from Gary’s pragmatic approaches and this course was no exception. If you’re interested in learning actionable lessons for improving your quality process and removing waste from your development flow, I highly recommend this course. It really should be required for every level of leadership who wants to “do the DevOps”.
“I thoroughly enjoyed the White Belt training for “Engineering the Digital Transformation” from Gary and highly recommend people take the training and read his book,” said Shaaron Alvares, Senior Manager of Cloud Agile Delivery for a leading CRM company, and former DevOps practices leader at multiple Fortune 500 companies. “The training and certification had the rigor people like me need in order to apply systematic approaches to continuous improvement with metrics that are insightful and actionable. The experience was very different from anything I have done as it provided me with a practical hands-on and outcome-driven approach.”
