Single Point Continuous Flo1
- 1. Company SINGLE POINT CONTINUOUS FLOW COMBINING SCRUM AND LEAN TO CREATE AN EFFICIENT PROCESS FOR EXECUTING SMALL, SELF-CONTAINED PROJECTS AS QUICKLY AS POSSIBLE. CharlesCooper,MA,MBA,PMP, ACP LeanSix SigmaMasterBlack Belt Abstract Over the past six months in the Branded Card Fulfillment Assurance team, we have created an evolutionary form of Agile called Single Point Continuous Flow. The results speak for themselves. After correcting for available work hours, we have seen our velocity double. Single Point Continuous Flow is designed specifically for small, self-contained development efforts. Vital components of its application includes the application of standards and templates, the synergy of one, and the application of LEAN and AGILE concepts to achieve maximum throughput through the development value chain. INTRODUCTION TO CONTINUOUS FLOW Lean and Six Sigma have revolutionized manufacturing. By embracing continuous improvement, manufacturers have seen their production levels skyrocket. Agile has done the same for software development. Scrum has been embraced by the industry and ensuing production increases have justified the decision. As Scrum matured, however, many leaders recognized the limitations imposed by the formal trappings of the Scrum Methodology. These leaders have chosen to combine elements of Kanban, a lean methodology, with Scrum to create a method that embraces the best elements of both. They call it Scrumban. Single Point Continuous Flow is a version of Scrumban that takes the best aspects from Agile, Scrum, and Kanban to create an incredibly efficient process for rapidly completing short, self-contained development efforts. Like most Scrumban’s, it imposes WIP limits and visualizes the process in a continuous flow, uninterrupted by sprints, however, in Single Point Continuous Flow, the element of a small, self- contained development effort is taken into account and a Work in Process limit of one is imposed on the developer or team because of the small nature of the work. Additionally, the project does not need to be subdivided because by its nature it is self-contained.
- 2. Company As with all Agile Methodologies, the Team defines the standards and norms by which the pod operates. Below is a description of the choices and reasoning that our team used to create our standards and norms. The resulting process, which evolved over six months, saw our throughput increase by 60% when adjusted for available development hours. The Guidelines of Single Point Continuous Flow Guiding Principles are shown in Italics for ease of reading. 1. As a rule we follow the agile manifesto and apply lean principles. 2. Maintain a current, prioritized backlog that reflects the Customer’s priorities. This was achieved by having the product owner meet face to face with the Customer representatives to balance priorities and align resources. 3. Stories are small, self-contained projects which are able to be completed by a single person. Having a single person assigned to the story creates an expert on the content. This can be seen as a drawback when it comes to supporting the report at a later date, however, it allows the development team to focus on a solution and gain synergies from a dedicated resource. The trade here is faster development for limited support. A Story that is ready for development, can be worked from start to finish with minimal interruption. Story refinement (formerly grooming) creates two outputs. First, a Story, complete with Acceptance Criteria and ready to be worked from start to finish with minimal interruption. Second, as much of the developed product’s documentation as possible, our estimate is that near 95% complete is possible. We do not believe 100% is possible because of instances that derive from the expected norm, which occur routinely during development. Time spent documenting is time not performing development. 4. One Person works one story at a time – Create a natural Work in Process (W.I.P.) Limit and a single, dedicated owner/team to a single story. Some of the stories were organized into related clusters and assigned to a single developer based on synergies between them. For example, if they had the same customer or accessed the same data. Also referred to as the Synergy of One, this allows the developer to focus on and become expert in specific subject matters. Since the main focus is on data, a developer gains inside into how the data elements work together and provides that expertise to the customer as required.
- 3. Company 5. The Self Organized team is a critical element of owning the work. Let your team define its norms, intervals, schedule and so on. Also the direct interface between the developer and the customer is critical to success. Having instant access to the intent either through refinement or the Intent Owner, provides dramatic acceleration and increased quality. 6. Non-developmental roles like meetings should be kept to a minimum. Every non- developmental role that exists should allow development personnel to focus on development. Remember the purpose of the team is to develop software. Get rid of anything and anyone who does not have an equal return as cost. 7. Always maintain a current prioritized backlog so when a story is completed the next one is ready and available to minimize down time. Continuous Flow is about no down time. The backlog should always be ready to supply the next story. This was critical since the Refinement process we adopted made the lead time from submittal to ready for development more complicated. What are the factors that dictate the use of this method? This technique was designed for this team specifically because of the product they produce. The team uses different Agile Methods in the POD when dealing with stories that do not meet this criteria. To use Single Point Continuous Flow, the projects should be: 1. Small Development Projects (Stories not Epics) 2. Limited Resources Assigned to the Projects (e.g. one person available for each development project) 3. Stories completed in a short time (< 2 Weeks) What Roles did we find Added to the Process? The Development Team The Development Team performs development and provides coordination with the customers during the development process to ensure the requested intent is met. This will typically include meeting daily (or as often as is required) with the customer of a report, providing a status on the story at the Daily Status Meeting, providing technical expertise, and developing the required report. The development team will also be involved in the ongoing effort to improve the team in the form of the retrospective and continuous improvement stories.
- 4. Company The Product Owner A Product Owner Team was created to serve as the businesses point of contact, which monitored and controlled the product backlog and ensured priorities were established and deadlines are met. A secondary rol for the Product owner was introduced, performing Refinement on stories prior to development to ensure they were ready for development, and completing as much of the documentation as possible prior to development. Prioritization Under normal circumstances the Product Owner is the lead user of the Software. They hold the priorities of the customer in their head and use this to guide the development effort. In this case, there were several customers whose requirements had to be balanced. The Product Owner met with the customers weekly to insure the product backlog was always up to date with the latest priorities. Refinement The process of Refining stories to ensure they are ready to work and as documented as they be prior to development starting, is a central responsibility of the Product Owner. During the Refinement Process, documentation is developed to the maximum allowable point prior to development taking place. This allows Developers to focus on development instead of documentation. Acceptance Criteria are created during refinement to create an indefatigable definition of done. This keeps scope creep from occurring. The Agile Coach The role of Agile coach functions as a Consultant and Trainer for the team. In addition, the Agile Coach will provide administrative assistance, enforce the team’s rules, serve as the administrator for Version One, act as a backup for the Product Owner when required and guide the team’s Agile Journey. The priorities of the Agile Coach are keeping the team on task, removing any impediments to project completion, developing team members understanding of agile through coaching, mentoring, and implementation, and creating continuous improvement opportunities for the team. The Customer The Customer role is to provide a clear concise definition of intent to the developer. To that end, the customers are required to commit to the following before their story is ready for development:
- 5. Company 1. Meet with the Product Owner and participate in the prioritization and Refinement processes. 2. Spend at least one hour (typically 10-11 AM) daily with the development team during the development process. 3. It is recommended that the Customer have a back up in case they are unavailable. What Ceremonies Add to the Process? Ceremonies (Agile code word for meetings) should be kept to a minimum. Scrum tries to limit and time box meetings in order to keep the time spent to a minimum, but even then, some meetings are still rote and wasteful. The important thing about a meeting, whether it is your daily scrum or the retrospective, is ensuring that there is return on investment. What does that mean? Time spent in meetings should reduce time spent on the project. If it doesn’t do that, don’t waste your time with it. The point of Single Point Continuous Flow is to develop software. The development team should be isolated from everything that is not software development. With that said, the following ceremonies have been found to add value at certain intervals and the team has elected to keep them. TEAM CEREMONIES - Daily Status Meeting (15 Minute Time Block) The Daily Status meeting, led by the Agile Coach, functions to update the team on progress and identify issues. Just like the Scrum, each team member addresses what they did yesterday, what they will do today, and what impediments there are. Keep this meeting as short as possible. Relegate issue discussion and problem solving to offline conversations. During this meeting only the team may talk, but anyone may attend. - Retrospective Continuous Improvement is built into all agile project management. This critical aspect of the process should be maintained no matter if using time boxed scrums or Kanban methodologies. As part of the Retrospective, it is important that you address the concerns of the team at a regular interval (most use 2 weeks). These
- 6. Company issues tend to be focused around communication from the perspective of the customer and the developer. Agile focuses on face to face communication wherever possible because it drives the greatest understanding. As a group leader, it is important to take a step back at a larger interval and consider the larger thematic elements of the Group. These process design sessions occur every six weeks or so. These sessions should be driven by data, experiments, and results. When you decide to implement something like Continuous Flow, test it first against your performance in a two week scrum. As the FAV group did this, the results spoke for themselves. Using Data to drive process change allows the team to see, participate in, and buy in to the change as it is happening. Finally, let the team drive the evolution of the group. As a leader you can make suggestions, but it is up to the team to drive the evolution.