Continuous Improvement in software development, AgileGurgaon2016

Continuous Improvement in

software development

Sudipta Lahiri, Digite

A "routine" of Continuous Improvement!

The Goal!

Inspect and adapt... don’t copy

It not adequate to implement a methodology, model or method

Think how you can make Continuous Improvement a routine that your team can follow without a second thought

Thank you!

@sudiptal

Let's recap...

Define a vision

Should be challenge but not unreal

Identify the next step...

Don't think of the whole journey; accept that you don't know

Try to define the next step as a pattern!

Use a Kanban System to help define the pattern and the next step

Visualization + a desire for uniform cadence

Once you know the target condition, do quick PDCA

Don't focus on Pareto

Do "single factor" experiments"

A Continuous Improvement Kata will look like this...

@sudiptal

In summary, 5 questions for Improvement Kata...

What is the target pattern/condition (the challenge)?

What is the actual condition now?

What obstacles are preventing you from reaching the target condition?

Which one are you addressing now?

What is your next step (starting PDCA)?

When can we go and see what we have learnt from the next step?

PDCA... with a twist!

Accept that the path is unclear

“No Problem” = Problem

Small, incremental and rapid step

Sometimes in minutes; no detailed plan

Don’t lose time in trying to get the perfect step; take a bandaid step to see farther

This is where PDCA comes in

With single-factor experiments, not necessarily the biggest problem

The basics of Coaching Kata

As a mentor, let them experiment but keep them in the zone; don’t tell them what to do (too hard!)

There is value of learning through small errors; its more permanent in nature

It helps the mentor understand how the mentee thinks

Inputs for future training and improvement

Use a written document... A3... for a focussed discussion

Putting it down in one sheet is damn hard!

Needs extreme clarity to be concise

Don’t suggest the template to begin with... lead to something like it!

@sudiptal

So... you know what you need to do?

The purpose of Kanban is to eliminate Kanban!

- Mike Rother

How do you go about doing it...?

Eliminate the supermarket... but don’t do it too fast!

Use Kanban to define the “next stage” of improvement journey

There is no point in seeing the same thing what you are doing today! There is no improvement...

The basics of Coaching Kata

@sudiptal

Menton-Mentee-Mentor-Mentee... Relationship

At lowel levels, Mentor is mostly the line manager; as you grow, the mentor changes to someone not in the line

Mentee is responsible for “doing”; mentor is responsible for the “outcome”

If the learner hasn’t learnt, the teacher hasn’t taught...

@sudiptal

The purpose of Kanban is to eliminate Kanban!

- Mike Rother

Your observations...?

@sudiptal

What’s the approach?

How is it different from what we do today?

Bottomline, this isn’t training OR workshop! You learn the art by doing it again and again and again... till your brain does it in an auto mode!

Think about how you drive...

KUMON...

Establish a work "pattern"

My Background

Kanban: method for “Continuous Improvement”

Sudipta Lahiri

@sudiptal,slahiri@digite.com

@sudiptal

Without a pattern:

You cannot identify where to improve...

You are not certain how to react to OR how the system will react to when you change something

Visible intent: produce only what we need

Invisible intent: support process improvement to provide a target condition by defining a relationship between stages of the value stream

In push systems, you dump work to downstream; rest is his problem!

@sudiptal

Vision sets the "direction"

Senior Vice President, Digité

Agile/Lean practitioner (75%)

Lean Transformation of our own team

Developed SwiftKanban (www.swiftkanban.com), SwiftALM (www.digite.com)

Licensed user base of over 300,000

Agile Coach (25%)

Train and coach teams/organizations in Lean/Agile

Run the LimitedWIP Societies in India

Use it for defining the next steps... and to manage the team

Resolve/maneuver through the obstacles

Coaching in action...

Pareto Charts aren't adequate!

@sudiptal

Our response should NOT BE from the team members...

Why? Because if the problem is quickly fixed, you will not be able to address the root cause

Too strongly influenced by your pain..

Its simply too late!

We don’t look into what is happening now

Root cause trail is cold

The “Other” bucket

Our response has to be immediate

@sudiptal

Who does the Improvement Kata?

Set a vision for the team/organization

Team Members:

Limited impact

Voluntary improvement activity

Train them to think of kaizen

Identify who is ready to go to the next level

Leaders/Managers:

90% impact

50% of their time!

Part of their job function

Cost reduction via improvement in productivity and quality

Improvement Kata

What happens in retrospectives?

@sudiptal

VISION gives a direction for the “system” to think in one direction

Mike Rother says : “Continuous Improvement and Adaptation”

“Moving towards a desired state through an unclear territory by being sensitive and responding to actual changes on the ground”

Alvin Toffler’s says”

You have got to think about big things while you are doing small things, so that all the small things go in the right direction

@sudiptal

Thinking like this is not easy...

It does not happen with... training, classroom sessions or ToDo or Checklists!

Best case scenario:

We get a “scattered” set of improvements

These are not generally directed in any specific direction

Without a vision, once you address these improvements, you get a static system

You can’t predict the outcome!

In the most common scenario:

Action items don’t get closed; over time, team loses faith, quality of feedback drops

Often, too many items and too many “organizational” items

Freshers, attrition, requirements are not well defined, etc.

Rarely, problems within the team are identified!

Rarely, a 5Why analysis to get to “real” Root Cause

This is where "Coaching Kata" comes in

@sudiptal

What do we mean from continuous improvement and adaptation?

Two fundamental “Kata” routines

Kata means “routine”

Picture by Mike Rother

Improvement Kata

A routine that helps you to improve, adapt and evolve

Coaching Kata

A routine that makes the experienced leaders and managers teach the Improvement Kata to everyone

... routines that help its people continuously improve and evolve... systematically, not as a special initiative

A way of keeping 2 things in alignment, synchronized with each other: A) The system B) The continuously changing environment

We don’t control the environments around us but we can control how to manage them

Kata is not a technique, not a principle

It’s much deeper.... it’s part of work, everyday

@sudiptal

Small incremental steps, adjusting along the way, continuously

Relying on periodic retrospectives assumes a system that is “temporarily” static

Standards that don’t keep continuously improving bring down system performance because system characteristics keep changing

@sudiptal

Lets set the context...

@sudiptal

What Toyota values...

Why this session?

We aren’t the best “copy cats”!

Toyota: unparalleled success

It values organization’s routines for improvement and adaptation for competitive advantage and long term success

Not quantitative/financial targets

“ Toyota has long considered its ability to permanently resolve problems and then improve stable processes as one of the company’s competitive advantages.

- Kathi Hanley, Toyota”

Are we missing the point?

Should we have a different perspective?

Are we really happy with how Agile teams have performed so far?

Have the retrospectives delivered the results we were told they will deliver?

Toyota is one of the most open organizations

There are many known practices that are widely adopted

Andon, Kanban, Jidoka, Heijunka...

There is so much talk about ‘Continuous Improvement’

A3 sheets, others...

Yet, the success of Toyota rarely been replicated... why?

Even within Japanese companies

.... it all comes down to Toyota’s key values!

Teams need to be adapt and continuously improve

External and internal environments are changing continuously; you can’t predict how they will develop

We jump to “implementation”...

to implement methodologies (with certifications!)

We copy what we see...

... forgetting that some of these practices and principles were a response to their issues, their problems

@sudiptal

Picture by Mike Rother

@sudiptal