What's new in BetaCodex research?
After a string of publications in recent months around patterns in transformation, Time-Oriented Work Systems and OpenSpace DEV, new Beta research topics (and researchers) are starting to emerge
by Niels Pflaeging
When the BetaCodex Network was re-launched, in January 2023, with the aim to accomplish collective research carried out by its membership, and I found it hard to imagine a steady flow of interesting research projects for the network. 18 months on, results of the transition are appearing: More members are getting involved in joint research. More research papers have been published recently than at any point during the last 15+ years. And that’s not all: The research topics are diversifying, as projects around web tools and entirely new applications of Beta principles are getting under way.
Upon publishing the research paper on OpenSpace DEV, around two weeks ago, while doing the necessary updates on the BetaCodex Network website, I pondered the BetaCodex research agenda. Three projects on the agenda were already defined back in 2023 – and we continue to work on them. Two other pieces of the agenda became clear in the last few months, and one came to my mind over the weekend. In this article, I will focus on these last three items.
What would XYZ do? Additions to the book series that will invite and inspire people to think Beta
A couple of months ago,
, and I agreed to collaborate on editing two new volumes of the “What would XYZ do?” series of books. Especially the volume that Stefan and I are working on together is already taking shape. In my mind, that kind of book project is a wonderful, and very publicly-oriented kind of research. The idea, here, is not just to “slap together” a bunch of quotes you find on the web, of course. Because that kind of thing now can be done with any “A.I.” tool like ChatGPT or Perplexity. The idea is to identify the sharpest, wittiest and most inspiring Beta thinking of people like Peter Drucker and W. Edwards Deming, Taiichi Ohno or Russell Ackoff. And to combine the quotes in a way that enables the book’s reader to actually learn from the quotes and their contextualization, too. Those books are supposed to be more than collections. They are about didactics. Which is why I think they are perfect for teaching at business schools, too. But that’s an entirely different topic we might come back to at another point. Anyways, the two new books are an item on the current BetaCodex Network research agenda.The BetaCodex Thermometer: A web tool that holds a big promise for learning, transformation and the network
It was only a few weeks ago that Silke and I learned about the BetaCodex Thermometer that Alejandro Faguaga and
of d-vops in Argentina have recently created. The concept of this organizational diagnostic is clever: It is based on texts from the 12 Laws of the BetaCodex booklet, and neatly set up as a free-of-charge, user-friendly online tool. Once you finalize the questionnaire, a pretty impressive, personal report is generated by the system. The questionnaire is accompanied by short video clips, which nicely fit into the whole thing. Together with Silke, I believe that this diagnostic has enormous potential, and in several ways: For individual learning, for sure. For marketing Beta. For teaching. For self-diagnostic in organizations. But also for workshops and for Beta consulting with organizations. Many kinds of use are possible. To accomplish this – and to translate the diagnostic into further languages like German and Portuguese, Alejandro, Ernesto, Silke and I will collaborate on the further development of the tool. This will certainly be an exciting and fun project to undertake, as improvements will become available to the wider public pretty much immediately. You can try the current version of the diagnostic in English or in Spanish, here. Share with us what you think about it, and if you can imagine using it in your work.TOSD: Reinventing software development with Time-Orientation may offer a way out of agile misery
The latest addition to the portfolio of research projects, and probably the most daring item on our entire research agenda, came about last weekend. It occurred to me that applying Time-Orientation – a mighty concept in its own right – might lead to a breakthrough in the field of software development, where the quest for better structure to increase effectiveness has had so many expressions, in the last 25 years – none of them successful to the point where we could talk of true agility, delivered.
Let me briefly explain how the idea to Time-Oriented Software Development came about. As some of you may know, I published a BetaCodec research paper on Time-Oriented Work Systems, or Lean as Time-Orientation, in June. The purpose of the paper was three-fold:
To pull together insights from the Toyota Production System and the Big Three time-oriented Lean approaches (Lean RFS, Quick Response Manufacturing and the Weichselbaum System), for the very first time.
To demonstrate that these concepts can and should be applied in all industries, and everywhere that manufacturing or production happens.
To illustrate how BetaCodex socio-tech (Cell Structure Design, Relative Targets and OpenSpace Beta) can be combined with those Lean approaches, spicing up their impact, while making adoption easier and bringing the time for adoption down to a few weeks.
To those of you who have read the paper already: I hope I have succeeded in conveying these three messages. Anyways, a lot of reading, research and reflection went into that paper. It also became clear to me while writing the paper that the logic, and the concepts of time-orientation carry high potential beyond lean, manufacturing and industry. I kept researching literature about time in work and organizing (here’s a video about that) and kept thinking about where time-orientation might be applied to the biggest benefit of organizations and society. Coincidentally, Pradtke GmbH, a software firm from Bochum/Germany that undertook its Beta transformation guided by Red42 last year, now wants to reinvent the way it develops its product further. So I couldn’t help but combining the two ideas, or problems.
Here is what I have come to understand: If we can discover a better way to structure software development work around the concepts of time and decentralization – (beyond steering, beyond estimation, beyond sloppy roles like scrum master/agile coach/product owners, beyond command-and-control, beyond canvases, beyond team topologies or flight levels or scaling frameworks, and beyond capacity-orientation) - oh boy –, then this might revolutionize the craft. If we can pull this off, this could lead to a new understanding of agile, altogether. I also believe that most of the answers already exist in approaches like the Weichselbaum System, Cell Structure Design, Relative Targets and OpenSpace DEV. We just have to put the pieces together and marry these concepts further with (1) the immaterial nature of software development work, (2) already existing ideas/concepts in software development and (3) a few new ideas, we will have to come up with ourselves, while at it. I have a hunch that this could work out. You are invited to join this research project, if you feel you have relevant mastery to contribute. Before getting in touch with me about it, please read the project outline carefully and be prepared to answer my questions.
An invitation to engage in the network’s research
In short, there is a lot going on in our network, research-wise. And there is even more we can accomplish if you join the different projects, and maybe to suggest new research efforts. Find the overview over ongoing and recently concluded research on this page of the BetaCodex website. You can read more about the invitation to join the network’s collaborative research on this page on the website. Think about it.