While We’re Promoting Lean Author Interviews on other Blogs…

Thanks, I enjoyed this post. I agree it was a long post for a blog, but the continuity of the interview was maintained by keeping it whole. Regardless of that I wanted to comment on a portion of the topic.
My experience working with and leading agile teams has been that 1) scrum developers like working in teams in an open environment 2) those same developers will demand some private space at times so they can work out technical challenges in a quiet area without interuption.
To accomplish this you need different work spaces, and in opposition to your tendancy, I find that what works best is private offices (preferably with full walls and solid doors). In addition to those offices a collaborative work area that allows the developers to haul their high-powered laptops out and sit with the group to work is a must. Additionally, a separate conference room/meeting area allows for multiple activities to occur at the same time without interfering with each other.
I personally feel that this is likely the best work cell option for lean software development. The process flows, the team spends most of their time in the open area voluntarily and the work has been efficient and effective.

Jon,
You’re absolutely right. I should have posted in a much less-batchy manner than I did. It goes to show, that some of us long-time Lean practitioners still revert back to large-batch thinking once in a while. I apologize to your readers for doing so.