Using Retrospectives for Better Quality Assurance · Kanban is not about right or wrong 1. Visualise your work 2. Limit Work in Progress 3. Manage your flow 4. Make explicit rules

Ruben Olsen Lærk – [email protected] – http://www.lku.no/ - http://www.knowit.no/ 1

Using Retrospectives

for Better Quality Assurance

With the use of the Kanban Method

Ruben Olsen Lærk

Stuff I do SQL

PHPJava

OSX

(Modular) (Analogue) Synthesizers

Quality Assurance

Automatic Build & Deploy

OpenSource

Unix & derivates

perl

Log management

Cats

SIP

IAX

Lean Agile Kanban coaching & training

Board games

Load testing

GO lang

4

Our agenda

• Nailing a few misconceptions

• A possible definition

• Relation to Kanban

• Fitness for purpose

• The anatomy of a retrospective

• The quadruple-L facilitation

• Variations of quadruple-L

• Managing change through retrospectives

5


BullshitA few misconceptions about retrospectives

7

Retrospectives are only

for agile development

teams – right?

Bullshit #1

8

But … but … we are

not developers … ?

Bullshit #2

9

Retrospectives are a

waste of time!

Bullshit #3

10

Retrospectives is a

way of making

management feel good

about themselves!

Bullshit #4


Lets try to define “retrospective”

Retrospect

Contemplation of things past: “in retrospect.”

Retro old

Spective (lat.) looking

Looking back

12

13

retrospective (rèt´re-spèk-tîv) -- a

ritual held at the end of a project to

learn from the experience and to

plan changes for the next effort

As a ritual

Normal L. Kerth

14

Regardless of what we discover, we

understand and truly believe that

everyone did the best job they could,

given what they knew at the time,

their skills and abilities, the

resources available, and the

situation at hand

As a directive

Norman L. Kerth

15

A method for analysing

our experiences, and

improve our future

through that perspective

Retrospective

Ruben Olsen Lærk

16

Retrospectives are

about improving the

future!

Conclusion


How do the Kanban Method fit in?

18

Kanban principles

1. Start with what you do now

2. Gain agreement to pursue improvement through

evolutionary change

3. Encourage acts of leadership at all levels

19

20

Retrospectives are

about improving the

future!

Thus, you need a

method to help you

transition to this

future.

Kanban is an approach to change management.

It isn’t a softwaredevelopment or projectmanagement lifecycle or process.

David Anderson

Kanban is not about right or wrong

1. Visualise your work

2. Limit Work in Progress

3. Manage your flow

4. Make explicit rules for your process

5. Implement feedback loops

6. Pursue evolutionary improvements

22

de

pth

deep

shallow

Kanban in light of retrospectives

1. Visualise your work

5. Implement an excellent feedback

loop

6. Pursue continiously evolutionary

improvements

23

You are

doing this

You want to

get here

… by using

this …


Fitness for purposeBefore we can improve, we must know which

services we do provide to our customers

25https://www.flickr.com/photos/lancerenok/533704195

26

Michael O'Leary

Bjørn Kjos

27

Norwegian flyr 416 ruter til 126

destinasjoner i Europa, Nord-Afrika,

Midtøsten, Thailand og USA.

Norwegian Air Shuttle ASA har en flåte

bestående av 97 fly. Av disse er 81 av

typen Boeing 737-800, 9 av typen Boeing

737-300 og sju av typen Boeing 787-8

Dreamliner.

http://www.norwegian.no/ - 2014-09-01

Update, March 2016

We offer 400 routes to

over 130 destinations in

Europe, North Africa, the

Middle East, Thailand, the

Caribbean and the US

We have more than 100

aircraft in our fleet and

more than 250 aircraft on

order

28

2014:

• 416 routes

• 126 desitnations

• 97 airplanes

http://www.norwegian.com/uk/about/our-story/

29

•

https://www.flickr.com/photos/millionseven/6717957525

97 airplanes, 416 routes & 125

destinations

30

Eyjafjallajökull - 2010

31

“ash stuck”

32

“kjos stuck”

33

Fit for purpose?

34

What makes a pizza delivery service “fit for purpose”?

Fitness criteria metrics

• Delivery time• Quality• Preditability• Safety (regulatory requirements)

https://www.flickr.com/photos/paulidin/2955847349

35

Say hello to Silje.

Silje is a project manager,

and her team is running late

again.

Let’s order some pizza.

36

What makes a pizza delivery service “fit for purpose” for Silje, the Project Manger?


• Delivery time =approximately 1 hour

• Non-functional quality =tasty & hot

• Functional quality (order accuracy) =doesn’t matter if small mistakes are made, geeks will eat any flavor of pizza

• Predictability =+/- 30 minutes is acceptable

• Safety =so long as health & safety in food preparation is good, it’s fine

37

Say hello to Silje.

Silje is a mom to 3 kids,

age 6, 8 and 10.

She’s getting home late.

Let’s order some pizza.

38

What makes a pizza delivery service “fit for purpose” for Silje, the Mother of 3?


• Delivery time =20 minutes

• Non-functional quality =does not matter too much – it’s pizza!!

• Functional quality (order accuracy) =it must be cheese pizza! No other flavor is acceptable even if you remove the peperonis!

• Predictability =+/- 5 minutes maximum!!!!!

• Safety =only mommy worries about that stuff

https://www.flickr.com/photos/91193364@N02/8298538390

1. Shortly present what

services each you are

providing to your customers

2. Select one, or two, of the

services and decide what

makes the service delivery

fit for purpose

Exercise – 10 minutes

39

Are you fit for purpose?

40

Did you take a look at your

service delivery in the light of

your job as Quality Assurance

workers?

I want to know

41

Did you take a look at your your

job as Quality Assurance

workers in light of what service

your organization delivers?

I also want to know

Let’s talk about it

42

Did you take a look

at your service

delivery in the light of

your job as Quality

Assurance workers?

Did you take a look

at your your job as

Quality Assurance

workers in light of what

service your

organization delivers?

BA

Tell me what you want,

what you really really want


The anatomy of a retrospective

The stages of a retrospective

45

This is the traditional flow

Set the stage

Gather data

Generate insight

Decide what to do

Closing

46

Se

t the

sta

ge

Ga

the

r da

ta Clo

sin

g

De

cid

e

wh

at

to d

o

Ge

ne

rate

insig

hts


How many of the stages does

your team use?

If any stage is missing – what is

the reason for this?

• Set the stage

• Gather data

• Generate insights

• Decide what to do

• Close the retrospective


47

How is your retrospective

48

Facilitating the retrospective

Who should attend the retrospective?

49https://www.flickr.com/photos/wwworks/9111274504

Who should conduct the retrospective?

50

Facilitator – not dictator!

https://www.flickr.com/photos/wwworks/9111274504

51

Set the stage

52

Regardless of what we discover, we

understand and truly believe that

everyone did the best job they could,

given what they knew at the time,

their skills and abilities, the

resources available, and the

situation at hand

The Prime Directive

Norman L. Kerth

Purpose of the retrospective

• It’s about tomorrow

• It’s about continuous improvements

• It’s about getting real facts

• It’s about action

• It’s about following through53

Do we need rules?

• The view from me, myself and my navel

• Interrupting each other

• Judgement on opinion

• Checking email

• Taking phone calls

• Never interact

54

Depends on the maturity of the team

55

Gather data

Traditional

• What did we do good

• What did we do bad

• What can we improve

56

… but … not very effective

https://www.flickr.com/photos/scottkeddy/2323359442

57

58

Retrospectives are not

some kind of happy

therapy for your team!

Retrospectives are

about your future

starting tomorrow

But it does require

some assembly to

function correctly

59

There are many ways to play the

Retrospective Game

Do something that involves

everyone

There are many ways to the goal

The quadruple-L facilitation

• What did the team like

• What did the team learned

• What did the team lacked

• What do the team long for

60

1. Jot down on stickies

• What you liked during the last period

• What you learned during the last period

• What you lacked during the last period

• What did you longed for during the last

period

61

Each person on their own

62

Example of liked topics

63

• Faster to register

issues

• Better GUI for issues

• Friday afternoon

lightning talks

• Jira is much more

stable

• Using red and green

tennis balls

• Better respect of other

peoples time

• Meetings run on time

• Local IT support has

improved their reponse

time

• Allowed to put things

on the walls

2. Group stickies into

• What we liked

• What we learned

• What we lacked

• What we long for

64

Group work

Cluster and report

1. Cluster stickies together

2. Find a common theme & write it down

(one sentence)

3. Each group report their findings

65

Group work

Example of to liked clusters of topics

66

Jira:

• Faster to register

issues


• Jira is much more

stable

Examples of two things that has been improved (liked)

Respect for other people:

• Better respect of other

peoples time


• Friday afternoon

lightning talks

• Using red and green

tennis balls

Example of finding a theme

• Faster to register issues


• Jira is much more stable

67

The Jira items

We like that Jira is better suited for our usage

pattern with regards to registering issues

Example of finding another theme

• Better respect of other peoples time


• Friday afternoon lightning talks

• Using red and green tennis balls

68

The Respect for other people items

We like that we have better respect for other

peoples time by implementing small control

mechanisms

Dot voting

Each member get 2 dots and place then on

any theme (group) of yellow stickies

69

Per person


Most of us flew in here – either

today or yesterday.

• What did you like

• What did you learn

• What did you lacked

• What do you long for

Exercise - 5 minutes

70

Let’s gather some data


Cluster stickies in each category,

but do not do anything more right

now


71

Let’s gather some data, part 2

72

Generating insights

73

The whole point about

generating insights is to find out

what actionable items the team

want to address in the coming

period

In practice

1. A decent way to detect any patterns

2. Which things are they way we want them

3. What is our long goal (longing for)

74

The quadruple-L facilitation

1. The Long Goal

2. What’s important for the team to focus on

3. What’s working for the team

75


Find the various topics in each

category (learned, liked, lacked,

longed for) – and write out ONE

sentence for each category.

We liked that our Jira is much

more responsive than 3 weeks

ago.


76

Let’s generate insights

Example of finding a theme

• Faster to register issues


• Jira is much more stable

77

The Jira items

We like that Jira is better suited for our usage

pattern with regards to registering issues


Let’s dot-vote – 2 votes per

person placed on any of the

themed stickies


78

Let’s find some conclusions

79

Variations of the quadruple-L

These are common and popular

80

• What makes me happy

• What makes my sad

• What ideas have I had

• Who should I thank

• What makes me glad

• What makes me sad

• What makes me mad

Speed boat / Sail boat

81https://www.flickr.com/photos/davidmasters/4092689289/

A better way

82

(Mark Löffler et.al.)

Set the stage

Gather data

Check hypothesis

Generate insight

Decide what to do and add hypothesis

Closing

This fit right into the

6th Kanban Principle

about evolutionary

improvements


Two points regarding change theory

84

Successful evolutionary

change for your

business

The main reason why we do retrospectives:

The Kanban Method

Organizational development

1. Change through cooperation

2. Change through experiments

85

Continuous improvements

86

Using PDCA as a driver for change

Plan Do Check Act / Shewhart Cycle

87

W. Deming – development of W. A. Shewhart’s idea

plan

do

check

act

imp

rove

me

nts

standard

time

standard

standard

Plan Do Check Act

88

Plan Decide on a new way of working

Define acceptance criteria

Decide on a test period

We wish to test out how a physical

Kanban board will make

management better understand

our problems.

We want to test this for 2 months.

Do Execute the experiment during the test

period

Yellow stickies, black electrical

tape, magnets, white boards, etc.

Check After the test period, evaluate the

results

Management became aware of

our problems within the next two

weeks.

Act Decide if we want to keep the new way

of working – or go back to our old way.

We continue using a physical

board.

89

Change management

Now

Future

Wishful thinking about change

90

A is where you are now, and B is where you are heading

• B is either defined (from a methodology)

• or designed (by changing the framework using a model based change

method lik VSM1 or ToCTP2)

To get from A to B, an change agent3 need to guide the

organization towards B

Traditional changes is an A to B process

3) Either a internal process group, or using external consultants

Currentprocess Future

process

Defined

Designed

transition

1) Value stream mapping, 2) Theory of Constraints Thinking Processes

91

How change ACTUALLY feelsThe Satir change model

External

change

92

Fitness

Time

Evolutionary changes using small Js

93


Decide what to do, and add hypothesis

Check the hypothesis

Tell me what you want,

what you really really want


Most of us flew in here – either

today or yesterday.

Based on your previous findings,

use the liked and lacked “winner”

items.

Create hypothesises:

• how to keep what you liked

• how to improve what you

lacked


96

Liked, Learned, Lacked, Longed for

Is the change fit for our purpose?

97

We measure based on what

or how our customer, or

external entities values our

work:

• Delivery time

• Quality

• Predictability

• Security and governmental

requirements

When do we arrive at our goal post?

or we measure real results

like

• Customer satisfaction

• Employee happiness


How will you measure the

hypothesis regarding how to

improve what you lacked?

Why did you choose this metric?


98

Group discussion


Methods of tracking changeVisualize what you are doing right now!

100

101

102

103


Closing the retrospective

Questions to the participants

1. What do you like about how we are doing

retrospectives right now?

2. What do you want to improve on how we are doing

retrospectives in the future?

3. Is this retrospective fit for our purpose of facilitating

continuous improvements?

105

Important – but maximum 10 minutes!


Summary

Summary

107

Set the stage

Gather data

Check hypothesis

Generate insight

Decide what to do and add hypothesis

Closing


Takk for meg

Documents

Using Retrospectives for Better Quality Assurance · Kanban is not about right or wrong 1. Visualise your work 2. Limit Work in Progress 3. Manage your flow 4. Make explicit rules