Management Overview of Agile, Lean, Systems Thinking and Kanban

Waterfall  Delivery  Method  

Agile  Delivery  Method  !  Customer  collabora'on  

!  Priori'sa'on  by  business  value  

!  Incrementally  build,  and  release  working  systems  

!  Respond  to  change  faster  

!  Be;er  quality  systems,  faster,  at  lower  cost  and  lower  risk.  

Agile  working  very  well  for  at  the  team  level  

Can  s?ll  result  in  building  the  wrong  thing  right  

h;p://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agile_Manifesto  

Software Project

Systems  Thinking  

OGen  IT  develop  solu?ons  based  on  sub  op'mised  status  quo  

If  we  build  an  IT  system  around  a  wasteful  process,  then  we  are  locking  in  that  process  for  longer.  

Projects  oGen  focus  on  the  needs  of  a  single  business  unit  

Focus  on  customer  needs,  and  the  organisa'on  as  a  system  

Many  of  the  previous  problems  that  apparently  required  soGware  projects  may  well  have  been  ‘dissolved’    

The  improvement  effort  can  be  targeted  to  where  it  has  most  benefit.  

Systems  Thinking  

A  Summary  of  Lean  !  Developed  by  Toyota  over  50  years  ago  as  TPS  

!  Using  less  to  do  more  

!  Comes  from  observing  best  prac'ce  in  workplace  –  not  theory  

!  Relentless  focus  on  crea?ng  brilliant  processes  

Toyota  say:  

Con?nual  Improvement  +  Engaged  People  =  Amazing  Results  

h;p://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyota_Produc?on_System  

Core  of  Lean  

!  Iden?fy  what  creates  value  for  the  customer  

!  Iden'fy,  then  remove  what  is  non-­‐value  adding  

!  Make  the  value  adding  ac?vi?es  flow  

!  Allow  the  customer  to  ‘pull’  the  service  or  product  from  you    

Review  and  Redesign  !  Record  data  from  customer  contact  to  delivery  

!  Work  out  how  to  improve  (pilot)  

!  Make  changes,  measure  results  

!  Implement  successes,  repeat  

Align  project  deliverables  with  business  strategy  objec'ves  

Able  to  respond  as  the  business  strategy  alters  

IT  looks  to  pull  work  based  on  customer  value  

IT  focused  on  delivering  beLer  systems  rather  than  beLer  soMware  

Objec?ves,  Deliverables  &  IT  

Within:  

Where  is  Lean  and  Systems    Thinking  Being  Applied?  

!  HBOS  

!  NHS  

!  BT  

!  Power-­‐Gen  

!  West  Midlands  Police  

!  MicrosoG  

What  is  Kanban?  

Implements  Lean  for  SoGware  delivery  

!  Focus  on  Quality  

!  Balance  Demand  against  Capacity  

!  Reduce  Work-­‐in-­‐Progress,  Deliver  OMen  

!  Improve  Flow;  removing  waste,  boLlenecks,  blockers  

!  Maximize  value,  minimize  risk  

Where  Is  Kanban  Working  Well?  

!   IT Application Maintenance

Examples include Microsoft, Corbis, Robert Bosch, BBC Worldwide

!  Media Sites and Applications

Publishing houses, video, TV, radio, magazines, websites, books. Examples include Authorhouse, BBC, BBC Worldwide, IPC Media, NBC Universal and Corbis

!  Games Production and Design Agencies

Where there is a lot of specialisation and a lot of hand-offs, kanban helps them manage work in progress and flush out issues quickly.

Incremental  Features  &  Funding  

SoGware  systems  can  be  deconstructed  into  units  of  value.    

A  complex  soGware  product  can  deliver  value  even  if  it  isn’t  complete.    

These  can  be  delivered  not  as  a  monolithic  whole,  but  as  a  series  ofincrementally  deliverable  features.  

This  gives  rise  to  the  concept  of  incremental  funding.  

Incremental  Features  An  Example  

Rolling  Wave  Planning  

[2]

Different planning buckets for different time horizons: 

•  6 week bucket: well-defined Features

•  3 month bucket: loosely-defined features 

•  6 month bucket: broad feature areas 

•  1 year bucket: strategies, goals, market force

In  Summary  

We  recognise  IT  is  about  delivering  business  value  and  enabling  business  agility,  not  technology  for  the  sake  of  it  

We  are  constantly  trying  to  beLer  ourselves  through  innova'on  and  building  on  industry  best  prac'ce