Last Updated on 11/04/2026 by John Vins
How do we turn strategy into valuable products and services? Coordinate work across teams without creating more delays? Build quality in, respond to changing needs, and help people become more capable? People know many of the answers, but unfortunately, that knowledge is scattered across multiple disciplines, books, frameworks, and individual experiences.
Sonesis is an integrated approach to organizational improvement and capability development. It brings together accumulated knowledge from systems thinking, Lean, Theory of Constraints, and other fields to help leaders, product and engineering practitioners, and coaches understand their situations and choose appropriate practices. Sonesis enables teams to address challenges such as aligning work with stakeholder objectives, reducing dependencies and rework, organizing teams around value creation, and helping people learn and adapt together.
This talk introduces Sonesis through practical examples. We will explore how to recognize key concerns, understand the system producing them, identify the capabilities needed to address them, and choose next steps. We will also explore how this analysis opens the door to leveraging Sonesis/AI: a tool providing guided assistance, relevant knowledge, and alternative responses to current challenges.
You will leave knowing:
- What Sonesis is, who it serves, and the organizational challenges it addresses
- How to connect challenges with capabilities and practices appropriate to your situation
- How AI can provide your teams with relevant options while developing their own judgment and capabilities
About the Speaker:
Alan Shalloway is a thought leader in using AI to deliver better training, consulting, and coaching more effectively and at a significantly lower cost than previously available. He is the founder and CEO of Success Engineering. Al is a recognized thought leader in Lean, Disciplined Agile, SAFe, Kanban, Scrum, design patterns, Acceptance Test-Driven Development, lean management, value creation networks, Lean product management, and more.
Al attended “Snowbird 10”, the tenth-anniversary meeting of the Manifesto for Agile Software Development. He is the creator of the FLEX system, which is the heart of the Disciplined Agile Value Stream Consultant workshop. He has co-written seven books ranging from Design Patterns to Agile at Scale. He is an international speaker. He is a former SPC Trainer and contributor to SAFe. His current focus is on providing affordable learning experiences to individuals and organizations which includes helping internal change agents be self-sufficient in training their teams in a cost-effective manner.
Agile New England’s Monthly Keynote Speaker is Virtual!
Please note our keynote will be fully virtual with no in-person meeting. The new timeline follows:
5:30 – 6:30 pm ET – Agile 101 breakout with Garry Miller (or network in main Zoom session)
6:30 – 8:00 pm ET – Keynote Speaker, followed by announcements and free-form networking
