Corey Ladas was a process coach recruited by Anderson to corbis in winter 2007, during the active development of the Kanban Method. He subsequently co-founded Modus Cooperandi with Anderson and jim-benson in January 2008, and became one of the earliest practitioners to extend and document kanban thinking. His most lasting contribution is the concept of Scrumban — a hybrid approach combining Scrum's sprint structure with kanban's continuous flow and WIP limits.
Role at Corbis
Ladas joined the corbis-kanban-experiment at an advanced stage, when the basic structure of the kanban system had already been established by Anderson and rick-garber. His process coaching background meant he could work directly with teams on implementing the practices — visualizing workflow, setting WIP limits, establishing cadences — in a hands-on way. He worked alongside dan-vacanti, who joined in May 2007, to refine the system and develop the practices that would be codified in the kanban-book.
Scrumban
Ladas coined the term "Scrumban" to describe the use of kanban-style flow management within or alongside Scrum's sprint-based framework. His book scrumban-ladas (2009) — published the year before the kanban-book — collected essays on applying kanban principles to teams already using Scrum, and was among the first published documents presenting kanban for knowledge work in book form. Scrumban proved a practically important concept because it gave Scrum teams a path to adopting WIP limits and flow metrics without abandoning the Scrum ceremonies and roles they already used. Ladas's presentation of detailed kanban scenarios at the Agile 2008 conference was one of the earliest public technical presentations of kanban-for-software at a major Agile conference.
Modus Cooperandi
The January 2008 co-founding of Modus Cooperandi (a consulting firm) with Anderson and jim-benson represented the first institutional structure for kanban consulting. The firm was a vehicle for the three founders to market their skills and develop kanban implementations with client organizations during the period between the Corbis work and the kanban-book-publication.