Joe Fecarotta on Agile

Dennis Stevens - Theory of Constraints and Big Agile

2012-01-26T10:59:00.001-08:00

Here's a great article I found on CCPM and Agile. Its a bit short.... and I still have read The Goal...but I think there's alot of synergy between agile and CCPM.
--

Dennis Stevens - Theory of Constraints and Big Agile

Theory of Constraints and Big Agile

By Dennis Stevens

In 1984, Eli Goldratt first published The Goal: A process of ongoing improvement. The book describes the Theory of Constraints, a method for managing systems. It is based on the concept that at any time in a system there is one (of very few) bottleneck(s) slowing down the performance of the system. Performance is measured based on three variables. Throughput measures the units delivered to the consumer of the system. Operating expense is investment into the system to ensure its operation on an ongoing basis. Inventory is investment into the system to produce.
The Goal is to make more money now and in the future in order to meet the expectation of stakeholders and ensure the business continues to operate. You increase profit by combinations of increasing throughput while decreasing the ratios of operating expense and inventory against throughput. A key first step to accomplish this is to reduce inventory – or work in process. This will improve cash flow of the organization. Reducing WIP has the added benefit of exposing the bottlenecks in the system. Exposing these bottlenecks is the key to implementing POOGI (Process Of OnGoing Improvement). Goldratt provides five focusing steps to follow to help achieve the goal.
Five Focusing Steps
Identify the limited number of current constraints: At any point, there is a single point in the system that is the current bottleneck. For example in Agile development teams, it may developer productivity or a testing person. The way that you will identify the constraint is that it is the person where work is piling up in front of them and where downstream resources are starved for work. In the figure below the constraint is B. Work can only get through B at 3 units per unit of time. Since A is more productive work will pile up in front of B and C will be starved for work.

Two important concepts need to be presented here. The first is that the team of ABC can’t produce work any faster than the bottleneck, B. So the consumer is only receiving 3 per unit of time. The second really important concept is that A, B, and C don’t have to be different people, they can be state transitions of a piece of work. In an Agile team, A might be understanding the requirements, B might be develop and unit test the code, and C might be integrate and acceptance test. On an Agile team, everyone is involved in all the states, it is the work that is moving through various states.
Make sure output from the constraint is not compromised. The second step in the five focusing steps is to recognize that the work done at the bottleneck is precious and must be exploited. So focus on making sure that none of B’s work is wasted. In our Agile example that means improving the quality of how work is communicated in the transition from A to B. It also means focusing on quality at B so that C is able to use everything produced by B. Doing this step will result in improved performance of the system.
Subordinate the system to the bottleneck. This means slow down the work at A. While this might seem counter-intuitive B can’t work any faster than it can work. Often, manager’s focus on improving utilization rather than throughput and this focus actually exacerbates the problems. Producing more and more inputs to B creates stress on the people in the system, makes the system more difficult to manage, and increases the likelihood of waste at B. In our Agile example, A can spend more time clearly communicating what needs to be built and less time producing more detailed stories. A may consist of meetings where stories are communicated, estimated, and prioritized. On our Agile team, it is consuming time from the team that could be spent at A. So do less detailed estimating and prioritizing in each cycle. The effort is better spent at B.
Elevate the constraint. In many organizations, when the effort is to elevate performance of a system (or team) investment is made to elevate the entire team. In our example above, that may mean adding more subject matter expert resources as well as more testing resources. But the only benefit to improving throughput of the team in our example is to increase at B. Elevating the constraint can happen through improving the capabilities at B or shifting more manpower to B. In our Agile example above, it may be better to shift one of the testing people to focus on development. Even if they are initially not as productive as the top developers, they will contribute to elevating the constraint without damaging the throughput of the team.
After the system has stabilized go back to the beginning and identify the constraint. The final step is really to not let inertia become the constraint. Remember, this is POOGI – a Process Of OnGoing Improvement. You don’t go through the process once – you go through it continually.
Theory of Constraints and Big Agile
This model is very interesting because if provides a thinking process for focusing efforts on the next most important problem. If our Agile team example above, if this model is not kept in mind by the team, they may spend time putting in a cool new CI environment – but unless that environment raises the constraint at B it will not result in an improvement. So it isn’t the next best place to focus. The other interesting thing about this model is that it scales up through the organization through the orders of scaling. If you haven’t read The Goal and Goldratt’s other writings you need to get this model into your thinking toolkit.

Dennis Stevens � Blog Archive � Theory of Constraints and Big Agile

2012-01-26T10:59:00.000-08:00

Here's a great article I found on CCPM and Agile. Its a bit short.... and I still have read The Goal...but I think there's alot of synergy between agile and CCPM.
--

Dennis Stevens � Blog Archive � Theory of Constraints and Big Agile

Theory of Constraints and Big Agile

By Dennis Stevens

In 1984, Eli Goldratt first published The Goal: A process of ongoing improvement. The book describes the Theory of Constraints, a method for managing systems. It is based on the concept that at any time in a system there is one (of very few) bottleneck(s) slowing down the performance of the system. Performance is measured based on three variables. Throughput measures the units delivered to the consumer of the system. Operating expense is investment into the system to ensure its operation on an ongoing basis. Inventory is investment into the system to produce.

The Goal is to make more money now and in the future in order to meet the expectation of stakeholders and ensure the business continues to operate. You increase profit by combinations of increasing throughput while decreasing the ratios of operating expense and inventory against throughput. A key first step to accomplish this is to reduce inventory – or work in process. This will improve cash flow of the organization. Reducing WIP has the added benefit of exposing the bottlenecks in the system. Exposing these bottlenecks is the key to implementing POOGI (Process Of OnGoing Improvement). Goldratt provides five focusing steps to follow to help achieve the goal.

Five Focusing Steps

Identify the limited number of current constraints: At any point, there is a single point in the system that is the current bottleneck. For example in Agile development teams, it may developer productivity or a testing person. The way that you will identify the constraint is that it is the person where work is piling up in front of them and where downstream resources are starved for work. In the figure below the constraint is B. Work can only get through B at 3 units per unit of time. Since A is more productive work will pile up in front of B and C will be starved for work.

Make sure output from the constraint is not compromised. The second step in the five focusing steps is to recognize that the work done at the bottleneck is precious and must be exploited. So focus on making sure that none of B’s work is wasted. In our Agile example that means improving the quality of how work is communicated in the transition from A to B. It also means focusing on quality at B so that C is able to use everything produced by B. Doing this step will result in improved performance of the system.

Subordinate the system to the bottleneck. This means slow down the work at A. While this might seem counter-intuitive B can’t work any faster than it can work. Often, manager’s focus on improving utilization rather than throughput and this focus actually exacerbates the problems. Producing more and more inputs to B creates stress on the people in the system, makes the system more difficult to manage, and increases the likelihood of waste at B. In our Agile example, A can spend more time clearly communicating what needs to be built and less time producing more detailed stories. A may consist of meetings where stories are communicated, estimated, and prioritized. On our Agile team, it is consuming time from the team that could be spent at A. So do less detailed estimating and prioritizing in each cycle. The effort is better spent at B.

Elevate the constraint. In many organizations, when the effort is to elevate performance of a system (or team) investment is made to elevate the entire team. In our example above, that may mean adding more subject matter expert resources as well as more testing resources. But the only benefit to improving throughput of the team in our example is to increase at B. Elevating the constraint can happen through improving the capabilities at B or shifting more manpower to B. In our Agile example above, it may be better to shift one of the testing people to focus on development. Even if they are initially not as productive as the top developers, they will contribute to elevating the constraint without damaging the throughput of the team.

After the system has stabilized go back to the beginning and identify the constraint. The final step is really to not let inertia become the constraint. Remember, this is POOGI – a Process Of OnGoing Improvement. You don’t go through the process once – you go through it continually.

Theory of Constraints and Big Agile

This model is very interesting because if provides a thinking process for focusing efforts on the next most important problem. If our Agile team example above, if this model is not kept in mind by the team, they may spend time putting in a cool new CI environment – but unless that environment raises the constraint at B it will not result in an improvement. So it isn’t the next best place to focus. The other interesting thing about this model is that it scales up through the organization through the orders of scaling. If you haven’t read The Goal and Goldratt’s other writings you need to get this model into your thinking toolkit.

Making Your Culture Work with Agile, Kanban & Software Craftsmanship

2012-01-09T22:22:00.000-08:00

Making Your Culture Work with Agile, Kanban & Software Craftsmanship

An extraordinary article on culture and agile. I'm not sure I totally align with his analysis - I always saw kanban as a hippie version (or libertarian, whichever is less offensive) of agile. "hey dude...limit wip, pull stuff where done with it and we're cool...'? Groovy...."

But I need to do more thinking about it. To me it all boils down to commitment and renewal - how do you generate commitment where this really matters to people, and two, how can you keep renewing those folks so they *continue* to care?

Later duuuuudes.

- joe

Intrinsic Commitment vs. Extrinsic

2012-01-03T22:30:00.000-08:00

As I look at my family work board I find myself wondering - why aren't things like, "take child to basketball practice" on there? Are the things that are on this board extrinsic or intrinsic?

Lets look at this basketball thing. At some time we in our past we committed to it. What does that mean?

We committed funds
We involved other people (the team) in the commitment
We didn't set the times ( set for us)
but we know its good for our children, and we're committed deeply to their well being.
Its fun when kids play sports

I'm drawn to that last two. We can do the first two, but at the end of the day its the heart that matters. We really want to do something. we probably don't even need a board for it.

So what's on this board, at least in part, are extraneous things, things that life could probably go on without. We won't put dinner on there, because we're intrisically motivated to do that thing. The things on the board are elective time items then? If so, does this make them less important?

I think not. I would position it to say that this board is the things we want to do but have force ourselves to set the time for. They make our commitment public, they make it clear. It forms an information raditor. And for me I play the game that I "cannot finish this week without clearing that item out."

One piece of leadership literature said, " eat the big frogs first." So the things you don't really want to do ," call the bank.." that's the stuff that goes on there. But Bri already has some art things on there. So she needs to be held to that commitment by someone else. Its her own priority rather than one dictated to her by parents or curriculum.

Topgun hasn't gotten in there yet, nor has Julie. I'll have to push it a bit. :)

-Joe

The Family Kanban

2012-01-03T01:52:00.001-08:00

It was a lovely vacation I just finished with, and while I want to type about that, for this journal I would focus on one big outcome. My family has agreed, amazingly, to be part of an experiment - a bold experiment of bringing agile into my family life with greater energy.

Understand – in our family my wife Julie generally runs things. She’s got the planner, she’s fabulously organized and networked, and does a great job of it. Interjecting myself into this working system is a bit scary for me, and a bit out of my “defined role”.
However, there are a few things that I think I can help with. Agile, and the many roots it has in OD and systemic thinking, finds its specialty in managing goals in environments rich with change, and as any family of almost any constitution can attest, there’s a bunch of change out there. I see the labors Julie has put into planning meals, planning trips, planning schooling, planning events – its staggering.

More than that, I feel that really we’re a team and as they get older (I’ve got one teenager, near to two) they need to take more ownership in the tasks and goals they want to accomplish in their young lives.
And then there’s me. I’m like an uninformed CEO of my family. Julie will run things past me. Usually I nod and agree, or try to say something intelligent about whatever event we’re talking about. We get by, but I do not feel that I’ve really added much value since I don’t have the big or little pictures in my mind. I generally don’t put things on the calendar (google’s calendar has helped), but I certainly have things, and on occasion that will be a source of friction.

For example:
“Hey, can you be home by 5:30? I’ve got book club.”
“Oh…well, I was going to meet Erik at Starbucks…”
Or another…
“Hey, what are we doing this weekend?” Julie asks.
“….” Joe has no response.

Then the space gets filled with other tasks. Eventually I realize I had other things, but I never mentioned them. So to make my role a more active role and to have the whole tribe here see what’s happening and get them to focus on things, I sold to them an experiment. I plan to use Agile and Lean software development techniques to help run the family’s goals and accomplishments.

Notice how I framed that – goals and accomplishments. I do not intend to take from Julie the daily efforts of planning every action in our lives any more than I think she wants to hear about every meeting I go to. One good change technique, perhaps the core change technique, is to simply show the tool, and this tool will be focused on those things above and beyond the daily grind. Or will it? I’m not sure.
Of course, as a good agilest, I have tried some of this already,. I was able to install Retrospectives into my family. We do them every 6 months, and I think they’re starting to enjoy them. It’s difficult work to look back, think about what we’ve done, and think about what we want to do. I sense that it doesn’t come easily to children.

I’ve also had a bunch of sticky notes by the fridge, but they’re wrinkled from age. They’re definitely the epics, and we didn’t manage on the list other than lament the fact that we haven’t done many of them for more than a year. So it lacked commitment.

My kids are cautiously agreeing to this. When I told topgun, my 12 year old, the full plan (my hopes to make this into a book or at least a talk and a white paper), he got excited. This experiment, as you will see in future posts, has been launched around a whiteboard. Everyone got their own sticky note color, and the board is just two weeks, so really, this is more of a family kanban. Perhaps that’s what I’ll call it.

The journey has started. I intend on doing this for at least 6 months, and will be blogging about it often. I have no idea how to map all this. Is it Kanban, or Scrum? If the later, who is product owner? Are there user stories? Burndowns? Hours? I mean a lot of this won’t apply, right? I’m keenly aware of the differences between managing adult professionals in software and the dynamic of family.

In the end I hope, as I do at work, to add value by leveraging the perspectives of a change agent and in this context, a dad and husband. :)

Neat planning post - Re-thinking the foundations of the strategic business process

2011-11-28T18:29:00.000-08:00

A very comprehensive review of some planning models here, including the The GE–McKinsey nine-box matrix. Mine this later. :)

Emerald | Re-thinking the foundations of the strategic business process

InfoQ: Craig Larman on the Challenges of Scaling Scrum to Large Organizations

2011-04-28T12:50:00.000-07:00

This interview with Larman is awesome. He's so methodical and well spoken. He really runs down the value of management as overhead and that includes program managers and project managers. I get what he's saying but I'm not sure that role assault is where I would begin with an agile transformation.

InfoQ: Craig Larman on the Challenges of Scaling Scrum to Large Organizations

Having said that, I really like his bit on outsourcing, and still wonder how he gets any work with that perspective :)

Go get'em Craig!

-Joe

InfoQ: Daily Standup Tips - a Roundup

2011-04-25T13:26:00.000-07:00

A great brief on daily standups. I've struggled with this since I grow tired of routine quickly. My take aways and adds?
Focus on Accomplishments - love that.
Mix it up - make it at the coffee break..
Keep V1 up all day- Nice!
InfoQ: Daily Standup Tips - a Roundup

Kanban...the Lesser Agile

2011-04-08T21:59:00.000-07:00

Just read an article by Alistair Cockburn about the Taylor-ism of Software Development. I have to believe he's onto something. It seems that the whole system, starting with the Forrester researchers and reaching into the larger organizations, are reacting to the paradigm shift that Agile represents.

Kanban is an easier system. No org changes. No team bonuses. No silly commitment. No estimation. Its all about the flow.....

Seriously, I've only used Kanban at my current employer for those who cannot achieve true agility. Perhaps they don't have a good product owner. Perhaps they don't have a cross-functional team. Perhaps they're really small, or they can release whenever they want to ( read: facebook) . Then great. Just throw that stuff out there.

For me, I like the cadence and discipline an Agile process will provide teams and organizations. I like it in the middle, where the value can be released iteratively. It is possible that an enterprise could roll iterative products into a kanban to flow the release, but for me, I'll take the iteration over some nebulous flow any day.

-JF

I'm speaking at Agile 2011! The Agile Cafe

2011-04-08T21:24:00.000-07:00

For those who know me I have been very busy writing for other things, but I know write with good news. I'm going to be a speaker in Salt Lake City - Agile 2011! This is my favorite convergence of all - I always learn a bunch and speaking is great practice for me.

First, a quick description of the Agile Cafe- It is simply a variation of the World Cafe. Right now I'm working on the whitepaper, which I will post here when its done, but for now here is some points:
1. The Agile cafe is to gain visibility of agile in a large organization
2. The AC is a way to get people to meet and talk where there would be no other reason for them to do so.
3. The AC is for us to have fun at work, lighten the load, and be ourselves. To be human, and to leverage the oldest form of learning - conversation - to get us to the next level.

I'm excited to present, and excited to help others with how to set one of these up.

- Joe

Agile & Business: Middle Managers and Scrum

2011-03-23T10:18:00.000-07:00

Agile & Business: Middle Managers and Scrum: "In a lot of organizations I work with, we need to do a better job of explaining Scrum to the middle managers. Most of the people in the Te..."

2008-01-06T22:10:00.000-08:00

Joy, How to Make it Last
By Siri Carpenter, Prevention
Prevention

Rose Theis is the consummate amateur athlete. Some might call her a machine. At age 46, she is an Ironman triathlete, an experienced marathoner, and a year-round bicyclist—a notable feat for a resident of Madison, WI, where the winters are no joke.

In the summer, she thinks nothing of awakening before dawn for a swim in the cool waters of Madison's Lake Monona. She isn't stopped by minor pains or by driving rains. But a school of muskies jumping upstream to spawn...a clump of magnolias spreading their flowering arms... a hot pink sunrise looming over a glassy lake—those are pleasures worth stopping for.

Theis understands implicitly what Loyola University Chicago social psychologist Fred B. Bryant, PhD, wishes he could impart to all of us: Finding joy means opening yourself up to it. The value of taking time to appreciate positive experiences seems obvious—trite, even. Yet it's a skill that few people have mastered. The reason is simple: We're busy, and we have a lot on our minds. There'll always be other sunrises, we say to ourselves, but if we don't hit the shower soon, we'll never beat the traffic to work. Under the weight of our daily responsibilities and worries, we reflexively tune out the fleeting, spontaneous events that can happen at any time and that, if we let them, could bring us deeper joy and greater health.

For more than 20 years, Bryant has worked to understand what he terms mindful savoring: the things we think and do to intensify or prolong positive feelings. "We all know people who are like this," Bryant says. "They're the life of the party, and they're the first people you want to turn to when something good happens. What is their gift?" Across the different cultures that Bryant has studied, women tend to possess this skill more often than do men.

Mindful savoring doesn't only enhance our feeling of well-being, Bryant notes. It may also improve health. A substantial body of related research indicates that people with a sunnier outlook about growing older recover more quickly from illness and live longer—7 1/2 years on average, according to a large Yale University study—than people who have bleaker views. People who scored highest on a test Bryant designed that measures savoring ability also reported fewer illnesses.

Needless to say, it's easiest to appreciate the good when fortune leans in our favor. But when we're ill or anxious or beset by tragedy, savoring positive events is all the more important. Happiness, Bryant says, broadens our perspective and helps us recognize ways to cope with adversity. "Bad things will come—we can't avoid them," he says. As many a poet has written, joy is fleeting, and elusive. "But if you know how, you can go hunting for it, and you can make it last."

Here are 10 surefire strategies that Bryant says everyone can use to discover pleasure and satisfaction in everyday moments:

1. Share positive feelings

Let your children know how great it feels to spend time with them. Tell your spouse about the compliment your boss paid you. E-mail your best friend to tell her how fondly you remember the camping trip you took last year, and include a silly picture. Sharing happy memories and experiences with others—or even simply anticipating doing so—is one of the most powerful and effective ways to prolong and magnify joy, Bryant's research shows. "It helps sustain emotions that would otherwise fade," he says. Affirming connections with others, he adds, is "the glue that holds people together."

2. Build memories

Take mental photographs of memorable moments that you can draw on later. Recall vivid, specific events, and pinpoint what brought you joy. Do you love your red wool scarf because it's stylish and warm, or because its smell reminds you of your childhood romps in the snow? Just be careful not to overanalyze and lose the wonder of the moment. What you want, says University of Virginia social psychologist Timothy D. Wilson, PhD, is to dissect your experiences just enough to appreciate how they've helped form you and then get back to simply living them. Interjecting mystery into happy moments—reflecting on what's surprising or hard to understand about them, for example—can strengthen their power. "If you analyze special times in a way that makes them seem ordinary or predictable, then you don't necessarily get as much benefit," Wilson says.

3. Congratulate yourself

Take pride in a hard won accomplishment. If you spent a year sweating at the gym to reach a fitness goal, bask in your success—and share it with others. Self-congratulation doesn't come easily to everyone. "A lot of people have trouble basking in an accomplishment because they feel that they shouldn't toot their own horns or rest on their laurels," Bryant says. It's a fine line between joyous self-congratulation and shameless self-promotion, but don't worry: You'll know if you're crossing it.

4. Fine tune your senses

Close your eyes while you roll a square of dark chocolate over your tongue or fill your lungs with salty sea air or eavesdrop on your grandchildren's play and laughter. Shutting out some sensory stimuli while concentrating on others can heighten your enjoyment of positive experiences—particularly those that are short-lived.

5. Compare downward

Comparing upward makes us feel deprived, but comparing downward can heighten enjoyment. Think about how things could be worse—or how things used to be worse. Just keep it light—you don't have to relive your cancer diagnosis or revel in a neighbor's misfortune. Simply take note: Is today sunnier than promised? Are you fitter than you were a year ago?

6. Get absorbed

Some joyful moments seem to call for conscious reflection and dissection. At other times, we savor best when we simply immerse ourselves in the present moment, without deliberate analysis or judgment. Listen to your favorite music with headphones in a dark room. Lose yourself in a novel. Set aside enough time on the weekend for your favorite hobby so you can attain a level of absorption known as the "flow" state.

7. Fake it till you make it

Putting on a happy face—even if you don't feel like it—actually induces greater happiness, says Bryant. So be exuberant. Don't just eat the best peach of the season—luxuriate in every lip smacking mouthful. Laugh aloud at the movies. Smile at yourself in the mirror. After all, he says, "a surefire way to kill joy is to suppress it."

8. Seize the moment

Some positive events come and go quickly—a surprise toast to your accomplishments at work, your daughter's sweet 16 party. It seems obvious that the more quickly a positive experience evaporates, the more difficult it is to savor. Yet paradoxically, Bryant has found, reminding ourselves that time is fleeting and joy transitory prompts us to seize positive moments while they last.

9. Avoid killjoy thinking

The world has enough pessimists. Short circuit negative thoughts that can only dampen enjoyment, such as self recriminations or worries about others' perceptions. When you find yourself awash in happiness, give it space to grow—don't ruminate about why you don't deserve this good thing, what could go wrong, how things could be better. Consciously make the decision to embrace joy.

10. Say thank you

Cultivate an "attitude of gratitude," Bryant says. Pinpoint what you're happy about—a party invitation, a patch of shade—and acknowledge its source. It's not always necessary to outwardly express gratitude, Bryant notes, but saying "thank you" to a friend, a stranger, or the universe deepens our happiness by making us more aware of it.

Provided by Prevention

2003-10-29T15:48:00.000-08:00

Perfection and Simplicity

2003-10-29T15:46:00.000-08:00

Perfection and Simplicity

2003-10-28T15:46:00.000-08:00

Alphapage.html - University of Maryland

2003-10-23T12:01:00.000-07:00

Edgar Degas - From Incompetech!

2001-05-30T16:29:00.000-07:00

Barracuda - Surveying the Landscape

2001-05-29T12:22:00.000-07:00

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