Coaching in distributed environment

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Coaching in

distributed

environmentICGSE 2011 Tutorial

Jaroslav Procházka

Tomáš Tureček

Principal Consultants

Delivery Mentor Network, Tieto

[email protected]

[email protected]

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Tieto

today

• Net sales approximately EUR 1.8 billion

• Listed in NASDAQ OMX Helsinki and Stockholm

• Founded in 1968

Tietotoday

• 18 000 IT professionalsin close to 30 countries

• Customers on all continents

• One of the leading IT service companies in Northern Europe and global leader in selected segments

© 2011 Tieto Corporation

Who we are

• Delivery Mentor Network

• Core of the network

• 8 coaches

• 11+ years in IT (developers, architects, PMs)

• Have been supporting transformations in different industriesin last 5 years in Tieto

• Representing Tieto at international IT conferences

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Introduction

• Your name

• Current role

• Expectations

2011-07-184

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Synchronizing

our understanding

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Exercise

• Create groups of 3-5 people

• Try to answer:• What is coaching?

• What is mentoring?

• What do people expect?

• Time: 5 minutes

2011-07-18


“Give a man a fish;

you have fed him for today.

Teach a man to fish;

and you have fed him

for a lifetime”

[ Chinese proverb ]

7

Discussion

• Share your experience from distributed environment • What are typical issues you try to solve?

• What makes distributed collaboration harder?

• Have you identified root causes?

• Time: 5 minutes

2011-07-18

Discussion

• Share your experience about communication issues

• Time: 5 minutes

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Exercise

• Chinese whispers game• We need 4 volunteers

• First person reads the message and whispers it further in the chain

• Last person says message loud

• We will compare the message with the original

2011-07-1810


Chinese whispers exercise• Tieto sees market opportunity to enter Czech Republic Banking

market. Czech bank "Ceska Sporitelna" needs new banking system. Since we do not have enough suitable people here in Finland we need to hire skilled engineers and consultants in Czech republic. This way we get close to customer. Owner of the activity Martin Chmelar will lead kick-off meeting on 11th of October this year to explain strategic plan:• Kick-off meeting

• Core team nominations

• Hiring Czech people

• Knowledge transfer

• Pilot project

• Evaluation and next steps planning

• Except new Tieto site we expect to get return on investment in 1 year and 5% market share in Czech Republic banking area.

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Chinese whispers exercise• Background

• Ceska Sporitelna bank needs new IT system

• Needs• New banking system for Ceska Sporitelna, Czech bank• Entering local market• To be physically closer to Ceska Sporitelna customer• More resources needed: skilled engineers and Czech speaking consultants

• Solution• When: Kick-off meeting conducted by activity owner on 2012/10/11• Who: Martin Chmelar• Steps:

• Kick-off meeting

• Core team nominations

• Hiring Czech people

• Knowledge transfer

• Pilot project

• Evaluation

• Expected Outcomes• ROI in 1 year

• 5% market share in 1 year

• New Tieto location

2011-07-1812


Remote vs. face-to-face

communicationHelsinki Team

Czech Team

Low-cost broad-band

communication channel

High-cost narrow-band

communication channelBoundary

spanner

Boundary

spanner

Ambassador

Analyst

ArchitectureDesign&CodeTesting

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Our team story

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We started in 2006

• Context: • Ostrava just a delivery centre – environment context

• Successful “Agile” project

• Started with local (offsite) coaching of developers and testers

• Mindset and assumptions• Limited sphere of influence:

• focus on engineering practices like TDD, component architecture,code conventions, continuous integration, pair work

• Problems caused by onsite people

• Pushing our ideal vision (no tradeoffs and workarounds)

15

Sales Req. mgmt. Development DeploymentCust.


Real case example

• Developer’s perspective:

• I’m asked for estimates… thus we focused on improved estimations using prototypes and iterations that helps to understand the problem more in details

• First lessons learnt:

• Improving estimations is sub-optimization

• Onsite people making decisions lacks knowledge,we were not able to explain ideas

• Our proposals seen as obstacles

• Let’s conduct Agile training courses onsiteto learn experience and constraints of others.

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2007

• Context: Whole delivery teams – onsite & offsite• Conducting training courses for PMs and other roles onsite

• Mindset change: • Problem is sales people

• People have different views on the whole value chain(different concerns, goals, targets)

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Real case example

• Explaining iteration concept via phone to traditional PM was hard• Different mindset, vocabulary

• Onsite PM training discovered fix-all-contract consequences!• Hard to utilize sprints/iterations benefits

• Second lessons learnt:

• Agile workshops with sales to learn their experience and constraints

• Different views and concerns of different people

• Typology

• Change agent (gate keeper, boundary spanner) for remote synchronization

• Narrow band channel

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2008

• Context: Whole delivery chain – onsite & offsite & sales• Conducting workshops for sales and customer representatives

• Mindset: • Problem is customer and contract

• We and customer see the value and control differently

• People do what they are measured for

• Delivered something else then expected in spite of fulfilling SLA/contract

• Our vision is not the only truth

• Looking for common goal

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Real case example

• Sales: Customer needs price estimate to get budget to finance project

• Fix price is not the only model teach customers

• Fix price leads to lose-lose situation

• Third lessons learnt:

• Gather all people involved (one team approach)

• Uncover common goal

• People are part of the system (act as measured, different silos)

• Social relationship is key for further remote communication (trust)

• Let’s conduct Kaizen workshops with customers as well

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2009

• Context: Whole value chain• Conducting Kaizen workshops with customers as well

• Mindset: • People are part of “the system”

• Trying to merge people’s view of the system

• Most constraints are mental

• Problems can be solved if we extend the context

• Focus on solving Value Stream/Technical issues

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2010

• Context: People around Whole value chain

• Mindset: • People have their personal view of the system they are part of

• People have their own needs and internal drivers

• Trying to understand perspectives of other people and their needs

• Always fix the root cause in long term

• But also provide quick wins here and now to ease the pain

• Coaching (pull instead of push)

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Real life example• 2 day workshop in Helsinki

• Island volcano was against

• Video workshop• Lacking personal presence and body language

• Technology caused interruptions (hijacking talks)

• People annoyed

• 3 days instead of 2

• Face-to-face contact needed to build social relationships

• Highly interactive communication (whiteboard discussions)

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14 weeks

frameworkThe way to overcome distribution

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How to?

• Question:How to do distribute coaching if it is so difficult?• Agile&Lean coaching is not only about its practices

• Human aspects

• Respect and Trust

• Answer:Goal is to start-up continuous improvement• …the rest is just matter of time:-)

• Lessons learnt as dependence on mentors

• The way:14 weeks framework latest evolution of our approach

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14 Weeks Transformation Framework

Introduction

• Transformation goals

• Lean Awareness / Game

• Key terms and tools

Focus / Kick-off

• Common understanding

of situation, motivation

• Top issues captured

(Kaizen workshop)

Continuous improvement

• Improvement (A3) discussion

and implementation

• Internal coach education

• Hands-on support

Independence

• Team self-improvement

• On demand consultancy

• Investment: 6 man-days extra time in 14 weeks for each core team member

• Components:

• Lean Awareness workshops

• Kaizen workshop

• Bi-weekly follow-ups

• Additional tools and materials


Introduction• Multiple entry points

• Teasers and teasing discussions

• Agile training course

• Lean awareness

• Mentoring

• Goal• Make people interested

• Make people care

• Make people to pull for more

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Intro

Kick-offImprovement

Independence

Things can be done

in a different way

Everyone is

responsible for

himself Stop talking

let’s play :-)


Introduction

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Intro

Kick-offImprovement

Independence

Together we

can change

the world



Introduction




Focus / Kick-off




(Kaizen workshop)



and implementation



Independence



• Investment: 6 man-days extra time in 14 weeks for core team members

• Components:


• Kaizen workshop




Kick-off

• 2 days Kaizen workshop

• Goal• Get people physically together

• Synchronize all the people about

• Common goal

• What’s the value

• How the value is delivered

• Identify bottlenecks and plan to fix

• This activity creates momentum necessary for the change

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Intro

Kick-offImprovement

Independence


Kaizen workshop – guideline

• Upfront preparation• Invite right people

• Identify delivery streams (80:20)

• Ensure

• Owner of the activity

• Executive support

• Mentor

• Skilled facilitators

• Communicate details to stakeholders

• What’s expected from them

• Future workshop outcomes

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Intro

Kick-offImprovement

Independence


Intro

• Goal, Agenda, People, Expectations

• William Wallace speech

ValueStream

Mapping

• Group work Value Stream Mapping

• Consolidation of results onto whiteboard

Issues

• Group work issue identification across whole stream

• Issue consolidation onto the whiteboard

Rootcause

• Issue prioritization

• 5 why's or Current Reality Mapping (ToC CRT)

Social

• Wrap-up and feedback

• Dinner or beer in restaurant

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Kaizen workshop – guideline Day1Intro

Kick-offImprovement

Independence


Intro

Kick-offImprovement

Independence

Intro



ValueStream

Mapping



Issues



Rootcause



Social



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Kaizen workshop – guideline Day1

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Intro

Issues

Rootcause

Social

ValueStream

Mapping

Intro

Kick-offImprovement

Independence

Group works (facilitator’s lessons)

These group works

are great. I do not

feel sleepy and I am

much more involved

I can’t believe a single

feature delivery takes

so long…

Wow, this value

stream is different

than we thought it is

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Intro

Issues

Rootcause

Social

ValueStream

Mapping

Intro

Kick-offImprovement

Independence

The Value and the stream

Ass. to IA

(CCB)

Classific

ation

1 week

Req.

Spec

Requeste

20 m

Cust. contact

Decision to

cont.

(Sol. Arch.)

Cust. contact

Ballpark

estimate

(Impl.

Arch.)

Approved

(Sol. Arch.)

Agreed by

cust.

Des. Spec.

and cost

estimate

Cust. contact

Agreed by

cust.

Des.

Spec

Release

agreed by

cust.

Des.

Spec

Assig. to

Sol. Arch.Break down

Tech. Spec.

and impl.

Review

Rework

Dev Test

(DS)

Rework

Test

Spec.

Test

Case

created

Regressi

on test

System/

Performanc

e/install

Tests

Bug fix

(REQUESTE)

Bug fix

(JIRA)

Bug fix

(JIRA)

Customer

Testing

1 d

1 h

1 week

2 w

20 m 1 week

2 d

1 day

2 h

5 h

2 weeks 4 d

2 weeks

3 h

2 months

1 w

3 weeks

Iter.

backlog

1 month

1 d 40 h

2 d

4 h

1 d 8 h

1 h

Wait for

test

1 month

1 d 1 h

2 d 1 d

2 h

1 week

4 h


Intro

Kick-offImprovement

Independence

Intro



ValueStream

Mapping



Issues



Rootcause



Social



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Intro

Kick-offImprovement

Independence

Intro



ValueStream

Mapping



Issues



Rootcause



Social



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Issues

Current

Reality

Tree

ValueStream

Mapping

Intro

Social

Rootcause

Estimates are

often too

optimistic

Estimates are forced

upfront without proof

of concept

Fixed priced

contract with

customers

Higher cost per

feature than

estimated

Productivity is

slower than

estimated

Constant

obstacles in

development

Concrete scope

is promised to

customers

Low ROI

More items to be

delivered than

possible

Strong push to

teams to deliver

faster

Cheap&dirty

solution often

wins

Defect software

at output

HardToMaintain

software at

output

A lot of

maintenance

work

High

maintenance

costs

Teams over-

commit

themselves

Demotivated

team members


Intro

Kick-offImprovement

Independence

Intro



ValueStream

Mapping



Issues



Rootcause



Social



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Issues

Evening dinner

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ValueStream

Mapping

Intro

Rootcause

Social

Who’s turned

off the lights?!?

Now I see that you

are humans guys,

not just roles:-)

I can see faces behind

all these names…


Day 1recap

• Day 1 recap

• Goal, warm-up

Problem solving

• Root cause analysis recap

• World coffee solution creation

Plan

• Ease the pain

• Kaizen steps A3s

• Long term vision and plan

Groups

• Heroes group definition

• Coaches and mentors

• 14 weeks framework sessions planned

Wrap-up

• Wrap-up

• Feedback

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Kick-offImprovement

Independence


Day 1recap

• Day 1 recap

• Goal, warm-up

Problem solving



Plan

• Ease the pain



Groups




Wrap-up

• Wrap-up

• Feedback

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Kick-offImprovement

Independence


Improvement formalization• A5

• Draw-up improvement proposal

• Problem description + solution or the first suggestion

• A3• Approved and prioritized A5

• Based on Plan-Do-Check-Act cycle

• Reporting of the improvement

• Problem description and background

• Target (improved) state

• Problem root cause analysis

• Proposed solution in form of measurable actions

• Real state after implementation

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Day 1recap

Groups

Wrap-up

Problem solving

Plan

Intro

Kick-offImprovement

Independence


Day 1recap

• Day 1 recap

• Goal, warm-up

Problem solving



Plan

• Ease the pain



Groups




Wrap-up

• Wrap-up

• Feedback

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Kick-offImprovement

Independence


Day 1recap

• Day 1 recap

• Goal, warm-up

Problem solving



Plan

• Ease the pain



Groups




Wrap-up

• Wrap-up

• Feedback

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Kick-offImprovement

Independence



Introduction




Focus / Kick-off




(Kaizen workshop)



and implementation



Independence



• Investment: 6 man-days extra time in 14 weeks for each core team member

• Components:


• Kaizen workshop




Improvement meetings

• Goal• Plan-Do-Check-Act cycle in practice

• Learning by doing

• Teaching to fish

• Agenda• 14 weeks meeting schedule update

• Regular re-voting about streams (Go/No Go)

• Regular follow-up of A5/A3

• New and existing A5/A3 + prioritization, status, follow-up

Intro

Kick-offImprovement

Independence



Introduction




Focus / Kick-off




(Kaizen workshop)



and implementation



Independence



• Investment: 6 man-days extra time in 14 weeks for core team members

• Components:


• Kaizen workshop




Independence• Goal

• To get here with the team :-)

Vision is stable

Continuous improvement implemented

Local mentor(s) in place

Bright future secured :-)

Intro

Kick-offImprovement

Independence

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Wrap-upQuestions and answers


Conclusion

• What did you take from the tutorial?


Conclusion

• Coaching is about coaching people• People first, system the second

• Soft skills, practice what you preach

• We showed our way to overcome this distribution• Motivate people to PULL

• Face to face intensive sharing kick-off

• Focus onto build-in continuous improvement (driven by teams)

• Remember our story and mindset shift• Actions need to correspond to people and environment readiness

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Jaroslav Procházka

Tomáš Tureček

Principal Consultants

Delivery Mentor Network, Tieto

[email protected]

[email protected]