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Continuous Improvement, make it visible!
Ben Linders
Operational Development & Quality
Ericsson R&D, The Netherlands
ben.linders@ericsson.com, +31 161 24 9885

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Quotes
Lee Iacocca (Ford Motors):
You can have brilliant ideas, but if you can’t get them
across, your ideas won’t get you anywhere.
Larry King (TV Talk show host):
I remind myself every morning: Nothing I say this day
will teach me anything. So if I’m going to learn, I must
do it by listening.
Chinese Proverb
There is no wave without wind.

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Ericsson, The Netherlands
• Market Unit Northern Europe & Main R&D
Design Center
• R&D: Intelligent Networks
– Strategic Product Management
– Product marketing & technical sales support
– Provisioning & total project management
– Development & maintenance
– Customization
– Supply & support
• +/- 1300 employees, of which +/- 350 in R&D

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Improve?
• Better, faster, cheaper
• Preventing problems iso solving
• To increase revenue
• New markets, products
• To compete in the market
• (New) organizational targets
• Everything changes, we will adapt ourselves
Improvement is necessary in all organizations

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Communication
Communication:
¾ Get commitment
¾ Change behavior
¾ Motivate people
• Which problem are we solving?
• What have we done already?
• How did we do it?
• What did it bring us?

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Past (1980-2000)
Early Days: Process establishment
• Processes part of the product
• Detailed instructions on every document
• Extensive training program
Corporate improvement programs
• CMM used to manage improvement
• Process Areas responsibles, strict follow up
• CMM level 3 in 1995, level 4 assessment in 1998
¾ Separate process organization
¾ Large investments in process creation & support

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Past: Improvement Communication
Large improvement programs:
• Management attention
• Communication is required
• Communication plan
• Budget, people
• People want to know (audience)
• Measurements
Communication part of improvement project:
“Relatively easy”

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Intermezzo (2001-2003)
Economical situation
• Cost reductions
• Focus on processes largely reduced
• Lay-offs, loss of process knowledge
• 2003: Back to profit!
¾ Focus on core business
¾ Essential improvements (Operational Excellence)
Communication part of restructuring

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Present (2004 onwards)
Process Disciplines Programs:
• Coordinated top-down
• Business Cases, improvement top 3, Scorecard driven
• Long term, major investment
Continuous Improvement:
• Gathered bottom up
• Audits, retrospectives, Root Cause Analysis, best practices
• Short term, quick wins
¾ Processes integrated in the line
¾ Time available for process work heavily reduced
¾ Effective and efficient communication needed

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Present: Improvement Communication
Diverse improvement:
• Management is a scarce resource
• Communication needs vary
• No structural communication plan
• Limited budget, people
• Resistance to change
• No standard measurement
Improvement communication is difficult!

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Tools for communication of improvements
Main “tools”:
• Presentations
• Intranet
• Agile tools
• Measurements
The next slides will show examples & experiences

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Presentations
• Kick off
– Business need, goals
– Approach, organization
– Expected results
• Progress
– Intermediate results & changes
• Wrap up & evaluation
– Did we reach our goal?
– Was it worth the effort?
¾ Large groups
¾ Create commitment
¾ Base for further
communication

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Example presentation (1)
Early Fault Detection project
Kick off presentation
• Need for the project
• Expected business result
• Deliverables
• Planning
• Way of Working

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Example presentation (2)
Leading Efficiency
Wrap up/evaluation
• Results?
• Project Goals realized?
• Handover
• Critical Success Factors
• Experiences

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Intranet
• Improvement project website
– Overview of improvements
– Newsletter
– Archive
• Results
– Balanced Scorecards
– Business Cases
• Processes, methods, tools
– Overview
– Detailed instructions, templates,
checklists, etc
¾ Supporting
¾ Promotion
¾ Do not expect that
everybody sees it!

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Example Intranet
Project Defect Model
• Short paragraphs
with main info
• Links to detailed info
& documents
• Newsletters
• Contact for more
information
Make it:
• Clear & Concise
• Up to date
• Printable

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Agile Communication
• Quick & Easy
• Relevant
• Access to information
• Examples
– Support Mailbox
– “Road show”
– Workshops
– WIKI
– Blogs

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Measurement of improvements
• Targets
– Assessments, Improvements
– Budgets, ROI
– Planned communication
• Steering
– Regular measurement
– On track?
– Results?
¾ Priority?
¾ Time/budget?
¾ Results?

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Example Measurement Improvement
• Assessments
• Improvements
• Details
Asse ssm e nts Done S D Tre nd 12 m onths
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
Apr M ay Jun Jul A ug S ep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb M rt
-15
-10
-5
0
5
10
15 D ep 8
D ep 7
D ep 6
D ep 5
D ep 4
D ep 3
D ep 2
D ep 1
Unit
S D finis hed
R obus t
S tretch
Commit
S D Open
Improvements Done SD Trend
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mrt
-40
-30
-20
-10
0
10
20
30
40
Dep8
Dep7
Dep6
Dep5
Dep4
Dep3
Dep2
Dep1
Unit
Clos ed6 Months
R obus t
S tretch
Commit
OpenSD
Kind of Impr., Result,
Total
Process
Definition
Process
Deployment
Tool
Deployment
Organization
Other
Value per department
Dep 1
Dep 2
Dep 3
Dep 4
Dep 5
Dep 6
Dep 7
Dep 8
Value
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
1 2 3 4 5

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Conclusions
• Diverse set of communication tools needed
– Reaching all groups in the organization
– Time dispersed, different needs, backgrounds
• Communication tools support each other
– Presentations: Commitment, general information
– Intranet: Support, background, results
– Agile tools: Updates, interaction, feedback
– Measurements: Steering, decision taking, focus
• Plan for communication
– Time, people, opportunities
– Skills, tools

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Further reading
Papers:
– Make what’s counted count, in Better Software magazine march 2004. Ben Linders.
Books:
– Managing expectations. Naomi Karten.
– Getting things done when you are not in charge. Geoffrey Bellman.
Ben Linders, Ericsson R&D, The Netherlands
ben.linders@ericsson.com, +31 161 24 9885
Related Websites:
– Tantara links to SPi and QA: http://www.tantara.ab.ca/info.htm
– Software Engineering Institute: http://www.sei.cmu.edu
– SPI forum: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/spi/