Colin Cherry iTesting › 2017 › 07 › model-office-pd… · WHAT IS A MODEL OFFICE, JIM? • A scaled and realistic simulation of an operational business (or part thereof) •

Colin Cherry iTesting

We Need a Model Office Jim, Didn't You Know That?

(A talk from the “Real World Shit” Series)


HELLO, GOOD MORNING & WELCOME

• WYSIWYG describes me perfectly

• What you see in front of you is a 60+ year old white male with 40+ years technology expertise. The last 20+ years my professional focus has been on the Risks associated with implementing and using technology

• How do I manage Risk?

• I make it Visible

• I make it Real

• I make it my Main Focus

• And I Mitigate it Colin Cherry iTesting


TODAY’S REAL WORLD SHIT TALK…


EXPECTATION BEGETS REALITY

A Model Office reduces the risk

of a poor User Experience

• WTF does it mean when some Sales/Marketing dick says “We build Quality into our Software”? It means he inhabits some parallel universe where perfect software runs on perfect hardware & everyone drives a Tesla

• No Sales or Marketing spin, just Real World shit …

• If our software is Robust (it doesn't fail), then we have Quality

• If our software is efficient (it responds pretty much immediately), then we have Quality

• If our software returns (consistently) accurate results, then we have Quality

• If our software doesn't adversely impact any other software (that it interacts with), then we have Quality

• If our software enriches lives (saves folks time and/or money), then we have Quality

• And while we're about it… #Just because you use PostIt Notes it doesn't mean you’re Agile (@colinthetester, January 2017) Colin

Cherry iTesting

LETS TALK ABOUT REAL WORLD SHIT

• An Agile organisation needs a current state (baseline) upon which to anchor its future

• It also needs the ability to design/model, build & test every future state not just from a technology perspective, but from a "whole of business" viewpoint

• To do this successfully it needs an environment within which to reflect this

• A Model Office provides such an environment

• A Model Office provides a malleable environment within which you can focus on Risk (& Quality) from Day 1

• This presentation is a short (hi)story of my Model Office journey & how it changed my perspective on Risk & Quality Management

• Maybe this presentation will influence your Risk & Quality Management journey too…

WHY BUILD A MODEL OFFICE, JIM?


MY (HI)STORYWriting Software

Improving SoftwareMO

MO

MOMO


WHAT IS A MODEL OFFICE, JIM?

• A scaled and realistic simulation of an operational business (or part thereof)

• A (safe) place to verify a business proposition, that can also provide confidence to everyone involved

• A (safe) place to let employees learn how to run their (new/modified) business

• A (safe) place to verify how users will interact (and react) with hardware, software & any equipment

• A (safe) place to try out processes & procedures

• A (safe) place to design, model, build & verify workaroundsColin Cherry iTesting

WHERE DOES A MODEL OFFICE FIT, JIM?

Lean Agile Systems Thinking

Analysis Design Test Training Implementation


WHERE DO I START, JIM?• Get a Room…

• One of the most crucial aspects of setting up an MO is finding the right space. The most effective space I’ve used was a Warehouse (in Altona) where we were designing business change around a significant technology upgrade for a Transport & Logistics company

• Treat the space as if it were a “War Room”, in that it must become central to all communication & activity (for your change)

• Use the MO for: Meetings, Workshops, Walkthroughs, Planning Sessions, Milestone Celebrations etc.

• Get an Influential Sponsor…• The more senior the sponsor the better. I have engaged the entire board of one company & the

CEO to sponsor a MO. Senior Execs give you leverage!!

• Make the Model Office (space) your Office…• As many of you & your (core) team as possible should also base themselves in the MO space

• Make the MO as REAL as possible…• The MO brings your change to life & provides a place within which to tell the story of your change


WHAT DO I DO NEXT, JIM?

• Get plenty of Brown Paper & Sticky Notes

• In fact, setup an account at ,you’ll need it!!

• Baseline your Business…• Conduct a series of Workshops to establish a Baseline for your business

• We call it The BIG Picture

• Include all supporting evidence of how the business works. This includes (physical) inputs to processes, (physical) outputs from processes, technology that supports those processes (hand-held devices, laptops, desktops, printers etc.), architecture maps. In fact, ANYTHING that shows how the business functions

• Build a Change Roadmap & make sure it dominates the Model Office Landscape• Change needs to be visible, malleable & tangible


• UK-based Online Supermarket Startup

• £100m original budget (another £50m added just before launch)

• When I arrived (as an external Test Management Consultant)…

• The solution was about 80% built

• Business Processes were in progress, but no-one was looking at integrating them across the enterprise or looking at external impacts

• There were multiple technology vendors providing packaged solutions that still required Integration & Testing

• The Head of IT was about to be sacked

• The Payment Engine vendor was about to go into liquidation!!

IT’S A CASE STUDY, JIM


WHY I BUILT THE MODEL OFFICE• I wasn't convinced that the existing (Waterfall-driven) Testing & Launch Strategies

would get the best outcome for an Internet start up

• The existing Test Strategy was not going to cover issues such as end-to-end business effectiveness (this needed to include food technology, delivery driver efficiency, warehouse worker effectiveness etc.)

• I wanted to have somewhere where I could show the Directors & Shareholders what their business would look like, how it would function under real world conditions & what it was capable of (at any given time) - fundamentally, to get sign off for Go Live

• I wanted to segue Testing into Go Live via a soft-Launch approach, (where we gave away food in order that we properly test the business from a truly end to end perspective)

• I wanted somewhere where I could try out both manual & technology workarounds, because I didn't trust all the vendors to meet their deadlines (this proved a godsend for proving that we could Go Live without automated Payment technology - we took credit cards payments via old-fashioned “swipe” machines)


RegionalDistribution

Centre

Supplier CustomerFulfilment Centre

Replenishmentof Orders

RegionalFulfilment

Centre

MerchandiseInformation

ProviderOCADO

Virtual Supermarket

EFT Acquirer

Product Information

Payments

Product Information

OCADOCustomer Care

CustomersInquiries &

Emergencies

Inquiries &Emergencies

Supplier Deliveries

Supplier Deliveries Supplier Deliveries

OUR ORDER, SCHEDULE, PICK, DELIVER, PAY STORY

Personal Shopper


Pick Customer

Order

Pick Customer

Order

Customer Payment

Deliver Customer

Order

Initiate Customer

Order

Schedule Customer

Order

RegionalDistribution

Centre

Supplier CustomerFulfilment Centre

Replenishmentof Orders

RegionalFulfilment

Centre

MerchandiseInformation

ProviderOCADO

Virtual Supermarket

EFT Acquirer

Product Information

Payments

Product Information

OCADOCustomer Care

CustomersInquiries &

Emergencies

Inquiries &Emergencies

Supplier Deliveries

Supplier Deliveries Supplier Deliveries

OUR REPLENISHMENT STORY

Personal Shopper



DETAIL IN THE MODEL OFFICE


INFRASTRUCTURE IN THE MODEL OFFICE


A TYPICAL MODEL OFFICE

OUR FOOD SELECTION FAIL


Folks who work in a warehouse have different values when it comes to choosing what’s “good enough”. What you and I may pick off a

supermarket shelf will probably differ

We introduced a Training update to fix this

OUR “DRIVER/DELIVERY” FAIL


Men got lost because they wouldn't follow instructions (OR use GPS)

To compound this fail they also didn't ring the Depot to admit that they were lost!!

We changed the profile of what a Driver/Delivery person should be

WHY THE OCADO MODEL OFFICE WAS SUCCESSFUL

I got rid of 50% of the original Test Team & therefore made significant manpower savings

Our soft-Launch strategy, where we gave away food for 8 weeks to 200 “friendly” customers across a wide area of North London, highlighted significant driver & warehouse operator risks that led to a complete change in the recruitment strategy & training for these roles

All Board Meetings, Shareholder briefings, Project Progress Meetings and Defect Triage Meetings were held in the Model Office Control Room, so that an up to date view of the Launch readiness could be seen in detail

We proved that the business could Launch without an automated Payment Engine. This was necessary due to the original Payment Engine vendor going into liquidation & the internal development of a replacement Colin

Cherry iTesting

SOME INSIGHTS FROM MY OTHER MODEL OFFICE STORIES

Used to Design significant change

Used to Design significant change

Used to Implement a New System

I was

the

Test

Manag

er

I was

the

Proje

ct Man

ager

I was

the

Test

Consu

ltant

Funds

Management

Provider

Transport &

Logistics

Government

Agency


• Businesses that have a significant physical aspect to them - Transport, Logistics, Energy, Retail

• Startups, Mergers & Acquisitions, Technology-driven change, Business Transformation, New Product launches

WHEN DOES A MODEL OFFICE WORK BEST?


• Lack of support & buy-in from senior management (same as any new initiative)

• Lack of vision of possibilities of what can be achieved across the entire change lifecycle (single use solutions)

• Lack of clarity around “Good Enough”

WHEN DOES A MODEL OFFICE STRUGGLE/FAIL?




Documents

Colin Cherry iTesting › 2017 › 07 › model-office-pd… · WHAT IS A MODEL OFFICE, JIM? • A scaled and realistic simulation of an operational business (or part thereof) •