Making the Work VisibleThe materialization of the evolution on the understanding of our working system

Alisson ValeSoftware DesignerCoach / Independent ConsultantTwitter: @alissonvaleBlog: http://alissonvale.com

Looking for Sustentability in Software Development

Study Case

we have started our Kanban implementation in Feb/2008

From physical to electronicOct/2008

The Phidelis System Designin Jan/2009

The Phidelis System Designin Apr/2010

?

by continuously “making the work visible” in response to new levels of system understanding

The Phidelis System Designbecame an ecosystem

The Phidelis System Design

design focusand discoveries

design focus #1

thinking in “ecosystems” rather than in linear

processes

Discovery #1: visual structures help you when you are designing ecosystems

contextualizing visual information rather than

using traditionalreports

design focus #2

Discovery #2: Contextualizing visual information helps you get the big picture

design focus #3

organizing the system considering

interconnected perspectives

Discovery #3: Perspectives help to

comprehend interconnections

personal perspective

team perspective

system perspective

customer perspective

Phidelis System Perspectives

Perspectives also help to absorb market profles

● Customer interest is associated with flexibility andcustomization, regardless cost● Higher revenue compensates unacceptable costdue pressure, commitments,and estimations

● Hard to Scale● Restricts grow

Heterogenous

● Customer interest is associated with smaller cost● Lower revenue due resource sharing,lack of commitment for

customization

● Easy to Scale● Enables grow

Homogenous

Perspectives based on market aggregations

remind the presenter to show

● that this is not a Kanban tool,it's an environment for getting system understanding

● the ecosystem architecture in a nutshell

● the four perspectives

● the product line flter to switch between perspectives

DemoPoint

making ...

... visible

| the nature of the work || the workfow |

| time || collaboration |

| information || engineering traceability || movements |

making the nature of the work visible

the nature of demand

new software

Improvements on existing softwareproblem

solving

support operations

Cards and other symbols are putted together to represent units of work in

different contexts

levelling effort

T-Shirt sizing approach

Small Medium Large

Units of work fow in single pieces, but we also need to persue business goals and other

achievements

business activities

Following high level achievements

Mini View

remind the presenter to show

● how work is represented in different ways

● the structure of a unit of work

● the structure of a business activity

DemoPoint

making the workfow visible

workflow scheme

backlog

prioritizationin progress

enqueued

feedback

inspection

releaseready

delivered

IN OUT

Waiting for release

Flow in WIP is no linearIt is random due constant arrival of new information related or not to a given unit of work

WIP

workflow: team member perspective

Limits per personand state

workflow: team perspective

bidimensionalfow

workflow: customer/aggregation perspective

remind the presenter to show

● fow and prioritization in the input area

● fow in WIP, transition to the inspection state and output area

DemoPoint

making collaboration visible

Swarming behavior occurs as people get involved with the work

“I have done something to help himon this work”

“I have done something to help themon work they are involved”

a team member participationin terms of comments applied to each unit of work

the whole conversation of the team

Conversation

Full visibility of current involvement and recent actions

remind the presenter to show

● Swarming e conversation around a card

● Individual collaboration visible

● Visualization of team involvement

● Team view and conversation

DemoPoint

making time visible

Getting time perspective

The “Cycle Time” clock stops when the demand arrives the delivered

state

remind the presenter to show

● Time on delivery area and card details

● the time view

DemoPoint

making information visible

Focus on contextual information in order to

get a quick understanding of the

system

Work leaving/entering in the three systemic

areas

What has just been pulled to WIPWhat has just left the system

What has just entered into the backlog

Getting information about the relative volume of demand

regarding its nature

%

%

%

%%

%%

%

%

%%

%

INPUT WIP OUTPUT

%%+ Undesirable economic effort

...and regarding relevant customers and aggregations

%%

%%

INPUT WIP OUTPUT

%%

%%

%%

%%

this information is used to help with capacity allocation

Individual involvement rather than individual performance

remind the presenter to show

● information on the top bar and rotator with “Most Recent on” information

● info rotator on the top bar

● info on personal view regarding individual involvement

● performance view

● no hidden info neither access control

DemoPoint

making engineering traceability visible

From the board to the Tracking System (Mantis)

From the board to The Build System (CruiseControl)

53

From the board to the change in the source code repository (subversion/trac)

making movementsvisible

Instant desktop communication for team members

Broadcast channel #1

Instant TV communication for the workplace

Broadcast channel #2

Final thought:

Making the work visible can be a really good way to materialyze

the current understanding of the system and to enable further

improvements

Read more...Blog Articleshttp://alis s onvale .com/e nglis hblog

Interview on InfoQ Brazil (Portuguese)http://www.infoq.com/br/ne ws /2009/01/bras il-re pre s e ntacao-confe re ncia

The History of a Kanban System (Portuguese)http:// alis s onvale .com/e nglis hblog/pos t/A-His toria-de -um-Sis te ma-Kanban.as px

Kanban: When Signalization Mattersalis s onvale .com/e nglis hblog/pos t/Kanban-Whe n-Signalization-Matte rs .as px

ContactMail: contact@ alissonvale.comBlog: http://alissonvale.com/englishblogTwitter: @ alissonvale

Thank You!