Beyond Value Streams: Experimental Evolution in Action
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The document discusses the challenges organizations face in adopting agile practices, emphasizing that traditional management methods hinder innovation and effectiveness. It advocates for a shift towards lean thinking and the integration of learning and process improvement at all organizational levels. Various strategies, including value stream mapping and experimental evolution, are highlighted as methods to facilitate change and improve organizational performance.
Beyond Value Streams: Experimental Evolution in Action
- 1. @agilesensei agilesensei.com a3thinker.com nd yo Be ue al V ms ea tr S on ti n ac ni utio ol l ev ta imen r Expe written, illustrated and performed by Claudio Perrone
- 2. I’ve seen things most people wouldn’t believe…
- 3. Like the rise of A Learning organization, fueled by the enlightened self-interest of ITS people
- 4. I saw how Curiosity and courage can generate endless options
- 5. ... And what it means to develop, and honor people for their ideas & contribution.
- 6. All those… moments... will be lost in time like tears... in... rain
- 7. % of organizations Today, Many of us face a different world… effectiveness (*) Courtesy: Steve McConnell – After the Gold Rush & Bob Marshall (“Marshall Model of Organizational Effectiveness” www.fallingblossoms.com)
- 8. It’s a world where Invention and innovation are replaced by organizational conformity…
- 9. … Knowledge development IS annihilated by bureaucracy, fire-fighting, and command & control
- 10. Companies go through many reorganizations, only to stay the same Organization chart Blame flow God Victims Rule makers Controllers Enforcers Losers
- 11. The traditional agile approach towards management Hasn’t been particularly effective … You are a “chicken”. You shouldn’t even talk
- 12. Arguably, organizations can’t be “agile” if only the development teams are doing Agile Typical “Agile” Enterprise SMs
- 13. It’s a war we can’t possibly win…
- 14. Unless…
- 16. “ All we are doing is looking at the timeline from the moment the customer gives us an order to the point we can collect the cash. And we are reducing that timeline by removing the non-value-added wastes. -‐-‐-‐ TaiichiOhno, Founder of TPS
- 17. Customers Lean destroyed the myth that splitting work Kaizen Current State Value-Stream Map in big batches improves the economies xx to yy (high season) Period calculated: from of Acme Reinsurance Push arrow F: 200/month scale. Date: xxx inbox Author: Claudio Perrone Average: 10/day Pull arrow Proc. Lead Time: 71.75h Non VAT 3d Value Adding Time (VAT) 0.25h 2d 2.5d 5h 2h 1h 1h Calculate premium 2h Submit quote Proc. Efficiency 12.9% Train on Kanban pulling Reinsurance placement Request for reinsurance Register 20jobs Clean & analyze data FIFO Reduce batch sizes 10jobs $ value Calculate risk 2jobs due date Clarify classes of service C/T too long Setup Kanban board 5jobs Improve system validation Total Cycle Time: 9.25h
- 18. … And provided many “tools” to obliterate Customers the competition Future State Value-Stream Map Period calculated: from xx to yy (high season) Acme Reinsurance Date: xxx F: 200/month Pull arrow Author: Claudio Perrone Average: 10/day Proc. Lead Time: 46.25h Non VAT 2d Value Adding Time (VAT) 0.25h 1d 1.5d 4h 2h 1h 2h 1h Calculate premium Submit quote Proc. Efficiency 17.8% Train on Kanban pulling Reinsurance placement Request for reinsurance Register MAX 5 jobs Reduce batch sizes Clean & analyze data MAX 4 jobs Calculate risk MAX 2jobs Clarify classes of service C/T too long Setup Kanban board MAX 2jobs Improve system validation Total Cycle Time: 8.25h
- 19. “but that’s only part of the story…”
- 20. Why do you allow your competitors to copy all your tools?
- 21. What they need to see… is not visible What the hell is He talking about?
- 24. Do you remember how the story ends?
- 25. W. Edwards deming believed that… “ 95% of variation in worker’s performance is governed by the systems ---W. Edwards Deming
- 26. …Which maybe explains why the purpose of the Lean systems society is to… “Improve the world by improving its systems.” Lean Systems Society “Excellence in Managing Complexity” http://leansystemssociety.org/
- 27. Perhaps… “ We should work on our processes, not the outcome of our processes. ---W. Edwards Deming
- 28. “At Toyota, improving and managing are one and the same” Traditional thinking: Normal daily management + improvement Toyota’s thinking: Normal daily management = Process improvement
- 29. “ Some people question targets. Question arbitrary targets instead. "How are we going to change our systems to achieve it?” That’s an excellent question. -- Claudio Perrone
- 30. In Lean, Managers have a purpose... Value Stream
- 31. …and (at least) a method.
- 32. I believe “ Lean is a business strategy to make money* THROUGH the development of people (*) replace with “create customer value” or “reach results”, if you prefer
- 33. So, maybe... “ It’s not what you do but rather what you learn by doing it that matters. -- Claudio Perrone
- 34. “learning to see” involves bringing to the surface what we learn Value Stream Learning Stream(s)
- 35. An A3 report, for example, “surfaces” a learning stream around a problem
- 36. A set of kaizen memos can represent another Learning stream… Kaizen memo: Kaizen Memos Before improvement: We didn’t trace the small, continuous improvements to our work Action taken: Created “Kaizen memos” to post on an “implemented ideas” board Effect: Team members trace and celebrate every implemented idea, even the smallest! Submitted by: Claudio Perrone Date:
- 37. …Which can also be “SURFACED” on a kaizen board
- 38. What other Learning streams can we seek to surface?
- 40. How about change efforts?
- 41. More specifically… How do you introduce and surface change in your organization?
- 42. 2 EVOLVE EXPERIMENTALLY (A Lean Change story)
- 43. “Once upon a time, in a ‘fortune 50’ land, A prince lived in a much troubled castle”
- 44. “after reading a great book, he thought” Scrum is AWESOME!
- 45. Fascinated by the benefits that a mature agile organization can bring… Visibility Business Value Agile Development Adaptability Risk Traditional Development
- 46. … he said: I want you to turn 33+ teams using scrum. Do it. Now.
- 47. Scrum may be a great solution, but… …What’s the problem?
- 48. I went to the “gemba”, the place were the value is actually created. After all… “ ... A desk is a dangerous place from which to view the world. --- John le Carre
- 49. After some fact finding, I shared my observations and insights… Insights Lean Change Cycle Review Options Introduce MVC Prepare
- 50. Copies of my preliminary A3 were lying on the table… http://a3thinker.com/deck
- 51. after 1½ years of waterfall Development, The company was experiencing a seemingly endless integration hell
- 52. many People where blaming each other for what was happening
- 53. What could we do? Insights Lean Change Cycle Review Options Introduce MVC Prepare
- 54. The ship was sinking fast… So, “Do nothing” was not an option
- 55. with that urgency, in that context, And with that complexity… …scrum was not a viable option
- 56. In the end, we agreed to: - aim at a pre-release for a major customer - focus on flow optimization
- 57. change was certainly going to be disruptive (and not so “minimal”) Insights Lean Change Cycle Review Options Introduce MVC Prepare
- 58. …But desperate times called for desperate measures Insights Lean Change Cycle Review Options Introduce MVC Prepare
- 59. “we articulated our Change strategy” Urgency Target State Stable prerelease deployed to Major Client by xx If we don’t release soon, the ship will sink! Communication Vision Cadenced meetups Pre-Release to Major Client by Focus on JIT fixes Cross-funct. teams Kanban Committments … R&D Teams Testing Dep Success Criteria Actions Change Participants Mgmt Released by xx QA ok Major client happy Review MMFs Wins morale https://leanpub.com/leanchangemethod Baseline for performance Keep job Keep Client
- 60. we also negotiated and challenged certain (self-serving) policies
- 61. We introduced lean techniques very pragmatically Insights Lean Change Cycle Review Options Introduce MVC Prepare
- 62. We moved hundreds of people in just 3 days, to reduce many functional barriers Programming Team Testing Team Programming Team Documentation Team Cross-functional Team Functional Team Cross-functional Team
- 63. teams adopted a kanban bord, each fine-tuned according to their specific workflow Development Ordered Backlog 3 6 Rq. Fixed DOD DOR Expedite 1 PreTesting CD Ready Smoke Test PreTested Done DOD Integration Done Integration Team (Complex configuration) DOD
- 64. We reviewed and validated our progress and assumptions regularly Insights Lean Change Cycle Review Options Introduce MVC Prepare
- 65. focus on flow optimization, Shared sense of Urgency and executive sponsorship enabled us to deliver fast, against all odds
- 66. What would your first lean change implementation look like?
- 67. Start small! These days, When I first engage with any team…
- 68. …I often start with a retrospective to collect initial insights (and to obtain permission to help)…
- 69. I USE THAT DATA TO feed a change board And SYSTEMATICALLY DEFINE AND negotiate explicit change experiments Observations & insights Options Possible Experiments This Week Week + 1 Week + 2 Week + 3 Archive
- 70. That was a (powerful) learning stream!
- 71. BUT… HOW DO WE KNOW THAT WE ARE actually CREATING VALUE?
- 72. It’s hard. We accept that… “… complexity and uncertainty are natural to social systems and knowledge work.” http://leansystemssociety.org/
- 73. Are we doomed? “ If you get good at delivering shit faster, you just get a lot of shit. --Jeff Patton
- 74. 3 VALIDATED LEARNING (A lean startup story)
- 75. Some time ago, I decided to write a book on A3 thinking
- 76. But I didn’t want to write a book that nobody reads…
- 77. So, I Documented my initial assumptions on a Lean canvas Top 3 Problems Existing alternatives Solution Key metrics Cost structure Unique Value Proposition Unfair Advantage Channels Revenue streams Customer Segments Early adopters
- 78. … and then, I went “out of the building”, to validate those assumptions
- 79. I shaped my thinking around the the build/measure/ learn loop through an experiment board Learn idea (whether to pivot or persevere) Build (Turn ideas into product) (often a series of MVPs) data Product Measure (How customers respond)
- 80. …Which, today, consists of observations/ insights, open questions, and ideas…
- 81. targets, analysis and hypotheses…
- 82. Experiments (identify, define metric, build)
- 83. Validation (qualitative & quantitative)
- 85. In other words… “ I execute tasks To develop features That are part of experiments That I run to validate hypotheses That I formulate thanks to observations about the world that surrounds us. -- Claudio Perrone
- 86. My mindset shifted: “From concept to cash” to “From question to knowledge base”
- 87. Ironically , I never wrote that book
- 88. people needed something to help them when and where it mattered most
- 89. So I tested an idea with a low fidelity MVP
- 90. … captured enthusiastic earlyvangelists with a glimpse of what would come next…
- 91. And released a family of thinking tools… www.a3thinker.com
- 92. to change the world. one problem at a time. www.a3thinker.com/deck
- 93. Final Thoughts
- 94. “ It’s not what you do but rather what you learn by doing it that matters. -- Claudio Perrone
- 95. “ It’s not what you do but rather what you learn by doing it that matters. But then... -- Claudio Perrone
- 96. “ It’s not what you do but rather what you learn by doing it that matters. But then... it’s not what you learn, but rather what you do with it that matters. -- Claudio Perrone
- 97. Thank You! Claudio Perrone [email protected] www.agilesensei.com www.a3thinker.com [email protected]/agilesensei