This video is a fantastic example of how Industrial Light & Magic has “shifted-left” film editing activities usually only completed in post-production. The results are near real-time edits during the production of Lucasfilm’s hit Disney+ series, The Mandalorian. This has reduced costs, improved quality, and enabled faster release. Continues Integration remains a key way to reduce risk.

For the second season of Lucasfilm’s hit Disney+ series, The Mandalorian, Industrial Light & Magic reengineered their StageCraft virtual production platform rolling out version 2.0 in which ILM introduced among other things, Helios, Industrial Light & Magic’s first cinematic render engine designed for real-time visual effects. Engineered from the ground up with film and television production in mind, Helios offers incredible performance, high fidelity real-time ray tracing, the ability to rip through scenes of unparalleled complexity, all while leveraging ILM’s unrivaled color science, and was designed from the start to work seamlessly with ILM StageCraft. The purpose-built, production-hardened platform allows filmmakers to explore new ideas, communicate concepts, and execute shots in a collaborative and flexible production environment.

https://youtu.be/-gX4N5rDYeQ

Last week I was interviewed by Forbes on the criticality of Lean, Agile, and DevOps within the Auto Industry. Link below.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/edgarsten/2021/03/08/experts-say-auto-industrys-software-strategy-needs-to-get-agile-to-compete/

From the folks over at InfoQ:

Key Takeaways

— Remote work is suddenly the new normal due to the impact of COVID-19, and many teams are not fully ready for the change

— The spread of agile ideas into other areas of organizations continues—business agility is becoming much more than just a buzzword

— At the practices level, Wardley Mapping is one of the few truly new ideas that have come into this space recently. Invented by Simon Wardley in 2005, they are gaining traction because they are truly a powerful tool for making sense of complexity.

—The depth of impact that computing technology has on society has heightened the focus on ethical behavior and the move towards creating an ethical framework for software development, as well as growing concern in the environmental impact the industry has.

— Diversity and inclusion efforts are moving forward, with a long way still to go

— Practices and approaches that result in more humanistic workplaces, where people can express their whole selves, are recognized as important for attracting and retaining the best people and result in more sustainably profitable organizations

https://www.infoq.com/articles/teams-teamwork-trends-2020/

Interesting they listed “Scaling Frameworks” in the Late Majority bucket. Much of the Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) 5.0 is also within the Innovators and Early Adopters buckets (such as: #NoProjects, Business Agility, and Enterprise Startups, and some in the Early Majority: Coaching/Mentoring, DevSecOps, etc.

My wish list (#RelentlessImprovement) for SAFe 6:

• Product Managment over Product Ownership

• Deliberate Culture Design

• Liberating Structure (avoiding Zombie Scrum and doubling down on SAFe Principle 10: Organize around value).

For those interested in Team self-selection in SAFe— I recommend Tribal Unity by Em Campbell-Pretty. (1)

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1. This link is an affiliate