Making Improvement Standard: Dynamic Agile Practices through Lean Standard Work
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This document discusses using standard work and A3 problem solving to drive continuous improvement in agile practices. It begins by defining standard work and lean concepts. Examples of standard work are provided, such as standardizing hospital processes and agile team definitions of done. The document then explains A3 problem solving, providing a template and example for improving a new associate integration process. It discusses applying A3 and standard work to agile by establishing baseline practices, experimenting with improvements, and updating standards. Metrics are suggested for tracking process, people and product outcomes. Finally, an example simulation illustrates applying the concepts to synchronize team sprints while maintaining stakeholder engagement.
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Making Improvement Standard: Dynamic Agile Practices through Lean Standard Work
- 1. Making Improvement Standard Dynamic Agile Practices through Lean Standard Work
- 2. Meet your Presenters Arlen Bankston • Co-Founder of LitheSpeed, LLC • User experience & product development background • 14 years of Agile experience • Lean Six Sigma Master Black Belt • Lately 40% training, 20% each of coaching, product development & management 2
- 3. Meet your Presenters Vice President of Enterprise Consulting [email protected] What I do: • Agile Enablement that’s pragmatic, not prescriptive • Host of “Agile Toolkit Podcast” • Chair AgileDC conference • Speaker all over How long I’ve been doing it: 14+ years Bob Payne 3
- 4. Agenda • The What & Why of “Standard Work” • Examples of Standard Work • A3 Planning Continuous Improvement • Applying A3 Planning & Standard Work to Agile • Learn More about Standard Work 4
- 5. The What & Why of “Standard Work”
- 6. What is “Lean?” • Just-in-Time – Supply what is needed, when needed, in the amount needed. • Jidoka – Halt production and address quality issues as encountered. • Heijunka – Respond smoothly and efficiently to varying demand. • Standardized Work – Organize a job or task in an efficient activity sequence while minimizing waste. • Kaizen – “Change for the better.” A philosophy of continuous improvement. 6Image Source: http://www.mtu.edu/improvement/continuous-improvement/lean-overview/
- 7. PDCA Thinking Fire fighting Hero Culture Plan Do Check Act Problem solving is a defined method rooted in the scientific approach – Slow evolutionary Continuous Improvement What We do Problem Solution ?? Assumptions, Unknown Causes, No Facts What We Need to Do Problem Solution 7
- 8. Standard Work Template Simply describe how you do a job today: • Who needs to do what? • What information, tools or other inputs are needed? • How will the work be performed? • What are the expected outputs? • How long should it take (if appropriate)? * Standardized work training example from Toyota. Thanks to http://artoflean.com/index.php/2011/01/21/standardized-work/ * 88
- 9. Benefits of Standardized Work • Process improvement Evolving standards in and across teams • Expectation management & reliable delivery Definition of done, working agreements, coding standards • Audit & Regulatory support Well-defined & documented standards • Organizational learning & training Rapid bootstrapping of new team members • Self-organization Personal ownership & accountability for processes “Without standards, there can be no Kaizen.” – Taiichi Ohno 9
- 11. Standard Work in a Hospital Images from http://leanhealthcarewest.com/Page/A3-Problem-Solving 1. Plan 3. Check 4. Act 2. Do 1111
- 12. Getting “Ready” to Plan a Sprint Definition of “Ready” • Choose the few items that your team finds most useful in Sprint Planning. • Confident and quick Sprint Planning and smooth Sprints that produce polished results are your goals. Interaction Diagrams Prototypes Wireframes Sample Data Testable Examples Acceptance Criteria State Diagrams Small Enough Agreement from other teams RITE / Wizard of Oz / UX Test Approvals (Compliance, Security, Brand Mgmt, etc.) Dependency List Stakeholder signoff 12
- 13. When is a Story “Done?” Definition of “Done” • A shared definition and compact between Teams and Stakeholders • Denotes what stories require to be accepted • Ideally represents “potentially releasable” or even released state Acceptance Criteria are met Cleared by QA Accepted by Tactical PO Accepted by Strategic PO Live for A/B Testing Final Deployment Training Script Pair reviewed Peer Reviewed Integrated Lightweight usability tested Automated testing in place User documentation created Ops documentation created 13
- 14. Standard Work for Card Type & Core Values You can use Standard Work to define how your current visual management systems work, and to evolve them when better ways are found. Standard work can also be applied to illustrate current working agreements among teams. 14
- 15. Today’s Standard Work Background Three teams working on a single product have stakeholders that need to attend their respective demos. Current State (Today’s Standard Work) These teams have staggered their sprints so that stakeholders can attend all demos. The Problem The staggering has created other issues, in that integration of the teams’ codebases is now more complex, and demos don’t represent integrated work. 15
- 17. Defining “A3 Planning” A3 Planning is a way to suggest and implement improvements to Standard Work. • Teams highlight problems with current processes • Find root causes of issues • Suggest “countermeasures” to improve things • Test these new ways of working • Adopt them if they’re better Plan Check Act Do 17
- 18. A3 Improvement Process Template Plan • What’s the problem? • Who’s involved in fixing it? • What’s the targeted goal? • What are the root causes of the problem? Do • How will we try to solve the problem? Check • How will we know the problem is solved? Act • What’s next? • How will we document and share the results? Plan Check Act Do 18
- 20. A3 for New Associate Integration Process You can use A3s to improve how new team members are on-boarded. 20
- 21. A3s for Storage & Estimation Process You can use A3s to improve estimation practices or artifact storage processes. 21
- 22. The Personal A3 – Developing People 22
- 23. The Personal A3 – Collaborative Learning 23
- 24. Validation Board for Product Experimentation 24
- 25. A3 Simulation Background: Three teams working on a single product have stakeholders that need to attend their respective demos. Current State: These teams have staggered their sprints so that stakeholders can attend all demos. Analysis: The staggering has created another issue, in that integration of the teams’ codebases is now more complex, and demos don’t represent integrated work. Proposed Solution: Describe a new process that might address the conflicting goals. Plan: What: Describe the steps you would take to implement your solution. Who: Our Team When: 12/15/13 Expected Results: 1. What do you think is likely to happen once this solution has been implemented? 2. How will you measure the results? 25
- 26. Applying A3 Planning and Standard Work to Agile
- 27. Agile PDCA Processes Determine Standards Standard Work & Experimentation Adjust Standard Work Assessment Learning Teaching Leading Doing Process People Visual Management Systems Lean Management Agile Delivery • Process – Assessing current practices, comparing to Standard Work, and team experimentation to continuously improve practices and processes. • People – Role development and equipping teams with the skills to successfully implement Agile practices. • Product – Product discovery, execution, measurement and learning. RoleDevelopment ProductDelivery StandardWorkAssessment&Evolution Discover Measure Learn Build Product 27
- 28. Sprint Retrospective at a Glance Description • SM guides team to inspect Sprint & adapt for future: • Inspect people, relationship, process, tools, etc. • Identify “pluses” and “deltas” • Refactor approach for upcoming Sprints Duration 30-60 minutes Attendees ScrumMaster (leader), team, optionally Product Owner Outputs: Process revisions Project or team structure revisions Quick hit action items Long term improvement items Understanding of team member perspectives A retro relies on double loop learning 28
- 29. Where Does Standard Work Live? Standard Work is ideally used as a physical visual management system. • On the Wall Team norms, daily stand-up rules …but can also be captured digitally for cross-team improvement. • In a Wiki Coding standards, audit repository 29
- 30. Standard Work in Organizational Metrics Product (Led by Product Owners & Managers) Process (Led by ScrumMasters & Coaches) People (Led by Functional Managers) External Stakeholder Satisfaction • Quarterly survey • Assessment score Quality: • % Code Coverage • % Scenario Coverage • % Delivered features with zero critical post iteration defect count Delivery Cadence: • Time from concept to cash • Velocity stability Standard Work Assessment Process Adoption • # of Agile teams • # of certifications Process Improvement • Change in Assessment scores • Updates to standard work • Retrospective actions & impacts Associate Engagement /Happiness • Assessment Score Learning Organization • # of Agile Practitioners at various levels Collaboration * Standard Work-related metrics 30
- 31. Team Standard Work Self-Assessment 31
- 32. A Simple Standard Work Process Drive continuous improvement by establishing standards, then tasking teams to continuously improve upon them and share their learnings. Determine Standards • Identify baseline Agile practices used by teams or recommended • Capture current practices as “Standard Work” on wall or wiki Adjust Standard Work • Quality Circles reconvene to review results of A3 experiments • Adopt or reject process based on results: adoption results in updates to Standard Work Standard Work Experimentation • Teams experiment with selected A3(s) • Teams document outcomes of experimentation A3 Planning • Hold Quality Circles comprised of team members and managers • Review suggestions for improvements in the forms of A3s • Team members iterate on suggested A3s • Vote on A3 suggestions to implement 32
- 33. A3 Simulation Background: Three teams working on a single product have stakeholders that need to attend their respective demos. Current State: These teams have staggered their sprints so that stakeholders can attend all demos. Analysis: The staggering has created another issue, in that integration of the teams’ codebases is now more complex, and demos don’t represent integrated work. Proposed Solution: Synchronize the sprints, but have an integrated demo across all three teams. Plan: What: Ask ScrumMasters to drive selection of a day when an integrated demo could occur, and to update invites. Who: Bob & Arlen When: 12/15/13 Results: 9 of 10 Stakeholders have attended the past two demos, and teams report that code integration is easier. 33
- 34. Accountable Adoption Teams Executive Steering Group for Organizational Improvement • Set broad, organizational goals • Define measures of success • Communicate to middle management and staff frequently • Review progress regularly • Address organizational barriers to adoption Quality Circles for Team Process Improvement • A cross-functional problem solving group • SW Dev, QA, Production, BA, PMO, Resource Managers • Anticipate, uncover, address tactical issues • Make recommendations to executive team 34
- 35. How typical Agile roles might take part in Standard Work: • ScrumMasters & Team Leads – Own Assessment and Standard Work practices for their teams, lead adaptation through retrospectives • Functional Managers – Drive Standard Work improvements through direct assistance and provision of coaching, training & tools • Agile Working Group – Review Standard Work patterns across departments and drive common support like training and presentations • Agile Teams – Identify improvement areas in working agreements and coding standards, experiment to advance standard work over time • Product Owners – Look for ways to enhance feedback loops and interfaces with agile teams, external stakeholders, customers and users Process Improvement Roles & Responsibilities 35
- 36. Learning More about Standard Work
- 37. Tips for Effective Standard Work • Workers define and improve their own day-to-day work • Managers review and support improvements to big-picture processes • Make standards visible and obvious • Incent & celebrate improvements • Share learning across teams 37
- 38. Reading List – Lean Standard Work • Managing to Learn – Shook • Lean Thinking – Womack & Jones • Understanding A3 Thinking – Sobek • The Checklist Manifesto – Gawande • The Toyota Way to Lean Leadership – Liker & Convis 38
- 39. Contact Us for Further Information Arlen Bankston Vice President [email protected] m Bob Payne Vice President [email protected] www.lithespeed.com 39 How we can help: • Training – Agile Developer, Executive, Kanban, Coaching Agile Teams, and more! • Coaching – Process & engineering help • Organizational Consulting - Create a robust agile delivery & support capability
- 40. Process Descriptions by Role (Reference)
- 41. Determine Standards • Help construct Team Self- Assessments • Observe and help Describe Current State Practices Assessment • Rationalize Variations to Standard Work as Described during Assessment Adjust Standard Work • Highlight Changes to Standard Work • Describe Results of New Process Experiments Standard Work & Experimentation • Lead Team Retrospectives • Develop Plan to Implement Retrospective Suggestions • Guide Implementation of Suggestions Own Assessment and associated Standard Work practices for their teams, lead introspection and adaptation through retrospectives. ScrumMasters & Coaches
- 42. Determine standards • Work with managers to schedule assessments • Provide assessments to managers and SMs Assessment • Conduct assessments • Take detailed notes on current state practices and rationales • Gather improvement ideas and denote if team needs AWG assistance Adjust standard work • Determine if assessor is needed • Conduct assessment as required • Adjust standard work for specific teams or the enterprise at large Standard work & experimentation • Provide assistance to teams as requested • Analyze trends across standard work items • Determine needs for cross-team assistance (training, brown bags, etc.) • Update assessment and scorecard as needed Review Standard Work patterns across departments and drive large group support activities such as training and presentations. Agile Working Group
- 43. Determine standards • Self assess and provide detailed information on current state practices Assessment • Participate in assessment • Find practices, tools and principles that need attention Adjust standard work • Update standard work based upon experimental results Standard work & experimentation • Implement improvement actions • Experiment and document deviations from standard work Identify improvement areas in working agreements and coding standards, experiment to advance standard work over time. Agile Teams
- 44. Determine standards • Schedule assessments with teams • Provide assessment results to AWG Assessment • Provide feedback from managerial perspective Adjust standard work • Provide feedback on process improvements • Share results with peers and executive steering group Standard work & experimentation • Support implementation of retrospective suggestions • Daily standups with SMs to discuss operational issues and process improvements • Daily standups with peers to discuss operational and process trends Own Standard Work deviations and drive improvement through direct assistance and provision of coaching, training & tools. Functional Managers
- 45. Determine standards • Gather internal and external stakeholder satisfaction ratings from real users and customers • Determine tool usage standards Assessment • Provide insight to team relationship and interactions with stakeholders • Assess how well product-related tools and processes are working Adjust standard work • Update interfaces between team and PO, team and stakeholders, PO & stakeholders as needed • Update tools Standard work & experimentation • Assist implementation of improvement items as appropriate • Provide updates on stakeholder satisfaction and team interface impacts Look for ways to enhance feedback loops and interfaces with agile teams, external stakeholders, customers and users. Product Owners