Get lean tutorial

Get Lean Slimming Down with Rails Marty Haught @mghaught http://martyhaught.com http://github.com/mghaught/getlean

tutorial’s goal • introduce lean concepts • discuss the how and why • demonstrate Rails-speciﬁc techniques • give you a starting place to go further

session guidelines • questions are welcome at any point • let’s be interactive • encourage conversations • we’ll have breaks

context for today • limited resources (time & money) • uncertain of solution • unknown market

outline 1. lean overview 2. rails basics 3. focusing on value 4. minimize effort 5. measuring 6. delivering fast

tutorial material http://github.com/mghaught/getlean

flingr! tutorial/install.md http://flingr.martyhaught.com http://ciflingr.martyhaught.com

Boulder Ruby Longmont, Colorado

why lean? consulting entrepreneurship

other reasons • bloated, inefﬁcient agile projects • building software no one wants or uses

rockin with ramen (pictured with Dokken)

1. lean overview “from manufacturing to software”

discovering lean Mary Poppendieck http://www.poppendieck.com/

history of lean • emerged from manufacturing in the 50s • Toyota production system • translated for software projects in 90s • inﬂuenced agile thinking

lean startups “translating your startup vision into a successful business as quickly and efﬁciently as possible” Eric Ries http://www.startuplessonslearned.com/

customer development Steve Blank http://steveblank.com/

new ‘translation’ http://www.custdev.com/

changed my view • much like when I discovered XP in 2004 • think just as much about the business as the technical • engineers should ‘own’ the business side

2. rails stack “preaching to the choir”

why rails/sinatra • great for prototyping • can be minimal or full stack • change is easy • start simple but can grow

community assets • helpful • easy to pick up new resources • constantly improving

automation • automated testing • continuous integration • data migrations • deployment • notiﬁcations

master your stack • practice your art to get faster • use plugins and gems for common functionality • anything to let you focus more on what’s important

context is king • pick the right amount of process • start simple and add on as you go • know when not to use lean “A solar death ray assembler would likely need more testing and process than a twitter-based web app.”

context changes • what worked for the start of the project may not ﬁt once you enter into maintenance mode • the larger the organization, the more the process • accept that you will likely have to re- evaluate

3. focusing on value “work on the right things”

deﬁning your product • knowing your vision • clarify and agree as a team • what is your value? • why are you creating this software?

business value • how do you deﬁne success? • how do you measure it? • will people use it? • who?

agile’s customer • dev team takes direction from client • no questioning of business motives in feature requests • engineers don’t ‘own’ the business side

ice cream glove

drinking your kool-aid?

webbchange story

of excess

of too many features

valuing web content

demo time

everything but ... Getting in all the features before launching

Built too much?!?

my mistake

will people use it?

got eyeballs on it

too complex

ran out of money

lessons learned • start simple and launch early • validate against real use • get out of the building and talk to people

minimum viable product • rails rumble or startup weekend • starting place for validated learning with the least effort • should be embarrassing • early adopters see the potential

mvp exercise • what is ﬂingr’s mvp? • what about webbchange?

learning process • make progress by reaching users • don’t just execute a plan • use feedback • pivot as you learn

Eric Ries’ feedback loop

4. minimize effort “less is more”

simplicity • strip features to the essence that achieves value • spiking large features • “do the simplest thing that could possibly work”

delay commitment • pushing off decisions, commitment until the last possible moment • yagni - you ain’t going to need it • no really, be militant about pushing things off

reducing waste • core value of lean, eliminating waste • does your current task add business value? • eliminate activity that doesn’t contribute to progress • re-evaluate the value of what you’re doing

seven wastes of lean

Develop only for the current Overproduction Extra Features story Story cards are detailed only Inventory Backlog, Requirements for the current iteration Extra Processing Extra Steps Code directly from stories Have everyone in the same Motion Finding Information room; customer included Test ﬁrst; including acceptance Defects Defects not caught by tests tests Waiting Waiting, Including Customers Deliver in small increments Developers work directly with Transportation Handoffs customers

5. measuring “know when you’re making progress”

pirate metrics

not vanity metrics

must be actionable “should help you make decisions”

AARRR! by Dave McClure http://www.slideshare.net/dmc500hats/startup-metrics-for-pirates-long-version • acquisition • activation • retention • referral • revenue

ﬂingr metrics • unique visits (acquisition) • signups (activation) • repeat use (retention) • ﬂing backs (referral) • pro upgrade (revenue)

skip services for now • Google Analytics http://www.google.com/analytics • MixPanel http://mixpanel.com/ • KISSMetrics http://kissmetrics.com/ • others

diy metrics • you control the data • can track any event in your system • good enough for actionable metrics • start simple, 5 at most

metrics exercise tutorial/metrics.md

what to measure? • will the new story add value? • how will you measure progress? • deﬁne when new stories are created • best when it’s one of your core metrics

split testing “presenting two or more variations and measuring user behavior to determine value”

beneﬁts • best mechanism to truly measure progress • can answer internal debates

pitfalls • can lead to a mess if not well-guided • may not get conclusive reports • don’t go overboard • don’t let it replace your vision

split test exercise tutorial/abingo.md tutorial/vanity.md

take away • limited to a single metric/conversion • best when you can analyze all aarrr metrics

6. delivering fast “speed wins”

small batches “amount of ﬁnished work that can be shipped” • reduce to smallest, meaningful chunks • reduces integration costs • helps avoid overproduction • think hours not days

kanban • a pull-based system for continuous ﬂow of work • expression of just in time • emphasis on ﬂow http://www.limitedwipsociety.org/

science behind it • queueing theory • theory of constraints • proven in world of manufacturing • working in software projects

agile’s iteration • ﬁxed time box, such as two weeks • IPM to cover a set of stories • make estimates • velocity to determine what ﬁts

reducing waste • no need to estimate • no need to force stories to ﬁt • just in time meetings • no big batch of stories

kanban exercise

kanban beneﬁts • simple, less process • limit work in progress, maximize throughput • more easily spot bottlenecks • easy to change direction • less inventory of requirements/stories • less time in meetings

why not? • cultural • green or undisciplined team • other reasons?

kanban-tracker hybrid • one week iterations • ultra light weight complexity ‘estimates’ • continuously add stories to backlog as needed • no ipm, just in time discussions • deploy stories when complete

kanban continuous deployment

continuous deployment “automatic ﬂow of completed features”

agile way • batch up all stories for iteration • separate integration step • explicit sign off process • qa -- staging -- production

not lean “the larger the gap between ‘trunk’ and production, the heavier the process”

classic stack • source control with commit hook • continuous integration • deploy/rollback script • real time alerts • root cause analysis

Commit Monitor Test Deploy

go lighter • deploy to a ‘dev’ instance • no monitoring

faking it • nothing’s automated • once you commit a feature, deploy

monitoring • pingdom • nagios with business metrics • stop the line on alert

ﬁve whys • determine source of issue • take small steps to prevent

benefits • eliminates waste on shipping code • features go live sooner • reduce shelf time for finished work • find integration issues quickly in isolation

cd exercise tutorial/contdeploy.md

take away • deliver code faster • focus on features, not integration • reduces fear of pushing to production • quality does not have to decline

why we test exercise ?

test all the f’n time? • don’t blindly follow some guideline • does 100% coverage have business value? • are all tests valuable? • cost of writing/maintaining all tests? • cost of failure/bugs?

value of testing • not all project phases value testing equally • larger the team, the greater the need • context really matters

phases of a startup Kent Beck http://www.threeriversinstitute.org/blog/?p=251 1. Taxi (ﬁnd a need) 2. Takeoff (validate need has a problem) 3. Climb (scaling) 4. Cruise (manage)

lean up your tests • consider business value of features tested • view tests as a garden, must prune • strong integration layer • test interesting/tricky business logic • look for high value, small footprint tests • skip rarely used areas like admin UI

takeaway • really understand value for your project • focus on tasks that add value • ship early and continuous • automate all that you can • minimize effort to get feedback asap

go forth and rock!

thank you Marty Haught @mghaught mghaught@gmail.com http://martyhaught.com

image credits Long's Peak - http://www.flickr.com/photos/17972620@N00/2956076614/ Pile of Money - http://www.flickr.com/photos/ironrodart/3841677517/ Bowl of Ramen - http://www.flickr.com/photos/billselak/2388252659/ George Lynch - http://www.rollingstone.com/artists/dokken/photos/collection/photo/1 Lean Overview - http://pffc-online.com/mag/paper_latitudes_lean/ Rails Stack - http://www.building-your-model-railroad.com/model-railroad-operation.html Gold Heart - http://www.flickr.com/photos/cryodigital/3060730616/ Ice Cream Glove by Ali G - Sacha Baron Cohen Kool-Aid - http://www.flickr.com/photos/dyannafstop/2025899850/ Various Black and Whites - http://blackandwtf.tumblr.com/ Hammock - http://www.flickr.com/photos/wisdoc/3212710310/ Seven Deadly Sins - Painter Hieronymus Bosch Measuring - http://www.flickr.com/photos/captkodak/272746539 Motley Crue - http://www.laughinsam.com/1980Images/MotleyCrue.jpg Running Dog - http://www.flickr.com/photos/wisdoc/123640339/ Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups - http://chocolateheaven.org Randy Rhoads - www.rudysarzo.com/images/bio/Randy-Rhoads.jpg

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