Boost your flow

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There
is
a
better
way
OCTO Part of Accenture © 2020 - All rights reserved
Boost your flow
A sustainable pace with good quality

There
is
a
better
way
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A strategy for optimizing the flow of value

There
is
a
better
way
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Flow thinking is a system thinking approach
What is a system ?
A system is an
interconnected set
of elements that is
coherently
organized in a way
that achieves
something
(function or
purpose)
How to know whether you are looking at
a system or just a bunch of stuff :
A) Can you identify parts? . . . and
B) Do the parts affect each other? . . .
and
C) Do the parts together produce an
effect that is different from the effect
of each part on its own? . . . and
perhaps
D) Does the effect, the behavior over
time, persist in a variety of
circumstances
Input Output
Goal
Parts

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What do you do as a team?
A definition of the individual units of
value that are moving through the
workflow
Work item

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System thinking from the trenches
https://simplifychange.se/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Kanban-Kick-start-Field-Guide-v1.1.pdf

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Know where you are
๏
• WIP: The number of work items started but
not finished.
• Throughput: The number of work items
finished per unit of time. Note the
measurement of throughput is the exact
count of work items.
• Work Item Age: The amount of elapsed time
between when a work item started and the
current time.
• Cycle Time: The amount of elapsed time
between when a work item started and
when a work item finished.
Flow measures to track
Cycle time = WIP / Throughput
Little’s Law

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One or more defined states that the work items flow through from started to finished
Visualize
Pending Analysis Development Test Deploy
Doing Done Doing Done
Demand : What does a card mean ?
Identify your input types.
Buffer : You may want to highlight waiting
time. Queues are your stocks.
!!
Warning : A visual symbol to
make problems visible..
Process : This is your current way of working.

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Explicit policies about how work items can flow through each state
Make policies explicit
Cards must
be prioritized
by PO
Any
available BA
can pull
US with desc,
acc criteria &
size
Any
available
dev can pull
UT OK and
CR done.
Deployed.
US matched
acceptance
criteria
Deployed in
production

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From multitasking to focus for a better efficiency
Limit work in progress
Positive
Very easy to
start anything
Negative
Very difficult to
finish
something
valuable
Frequent
delivery
Negative
Prioritization
SAY NO !
Positive

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To support discussion and decision
Work in progress limits
How to do it?
By limiting the number of work
items in a single column, several
grouped columns/lanes/areas.
Not necessary to put a limit on
every columns.
By activities
How to do it?
items managed by people
(avatars) or group of people.
By people
How to do it?
items in the whole system.
Whole system
When to do it?
When you got a constraint in your
system and not everyone can
work on every columns.
When to do it?
When people availability is not
that clear, most of the time due
to run activities.
When to do it?
When everyone can work on
every columns, the constraint is
more at the system level.

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Avoiding work items piling up in any part of the workflow
Push vs pull system
Push system
• Symptom : Done steps are overloaded.
• Usual cause : The focus is on people efficiency and not
the overall efficiency.
• Cure : Use a right to left synchronization focused on the
system to foster collaboration. Stop starting, start finishing.
System members should start work on an item only when there is a
clear signal that there is capacity to do so
Pull system

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Theory of constraints
Remove impediments
Locally saturated system
• Symptom : One step is overloaded.
• Usual cause : There is less resources to manage this step
than the others. The level of mutual assistance is low or
not possible.
• Cure : Use the theory of constraints (Identify the
constraint, Subordinate the system to the constraint,
elevate the performance of the constraint.

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Overloaded system
See the big picture
Globally saturated system
• Symptom : A lot of steps are overloaded and not
always the same.
• Usual cause : Too many items in the system which can’t
handle it.
• Cure : Stop adding new items to the system until you
reach a sustainable flow. You can use a work in
progress limit at the system level.

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Do the right thing
Implement feedback loops
Use feedback loops Measure flow efficiency
To track progress
Flow efficiency = added value time / cycle time
Poor : 0-10%, Medium 10%-20%, Good > 20%
To know as early as possible
And adjust accordingly

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Places to Intervene in a System
Leverage Points
๏ Visualize constants, parameters, numbers.
๏ Change the size of buffers.
๏ Add/remove feedback loops.
๏ Change the structure of information flows.
๏ Modify the rules of the system.
๏ Update The goal of the system.

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