The document discusses how adopting Agile, Kanban and Lean principles can help optimize maintenance work. It dispels myths that maintenance is not suited to teamwork or continuous improvement. After introducing Kanban boards and collaboration, the maintenance team saw defects received per week increase by over 100% while time to fix defects was reduced by nearly 50%. The rest of the document provides tips for collaboration, optimization and leadership when applying these principles to maintenance.

1. Achieving Maintenance Stabilisation with Agile, Kanban and Lean
Thinking
by Zsolt Fabók
@ZsoltFabok March 20, 2012

2. Myth #1: “There is no place for Agile in
maintenance!”

3. Myth #2: “Maintenance is not a team
work!”

4. Myth #3: “Maintenance work cannot be
improved!”

5. The proof that these myths are wrong:
Before* After*
# ID description
Defects received in
9 21
a week
Number of days to
fix a defect 11 6
(avg. lead time)
* due to confidentiality reasons the numbers have been altered, but the ratio is still valid

6. Introducing Kanban and visualizing the workflow...

7. 3 2
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Collaboration

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Collaboration Optimization

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Collaboration Optimization
Leadership

12. Collaboration Tips and Tricks

13. Collaboration Tips and Tricks
#1: Defects aren't different from user stories

14. User story Defect
Has an owner Not always Always
Has a deadline Fuzzy, flexible Almost always
Expectations are clear Not always Always
Customer contact Seldom Too often
Will they be delivered Not always Most likely

15. Collaboration Tips and Tricks
#1: Defects aren't different from user stories
#2: Automatic data collection scripts

21. Collaboration Tips and Tricks
#1: Defects aren't different from user stories
#2: Automatic data collection scripts
#3: Defect and future oriented daily meeting

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23. Collaboration Tips and Tricks
#1: Defects aren't different from user stories
#2: Automatic data collection scripts
#3: Defect and future oriented daily meeting
#4: Prioritize by cost of delay

25. Collaboration Tips and Tricks
#1: Defects aren't different from user stories
#2: Automatic data collection scripts
#3: Defect and future oriented daily meeting
#4: Prioritize by cost of delay
#5: Design discussion every afternoon

26. Collaboration Tips and Tricks
#1: Defects aren't different from user stories
#2: Automatic data collection scripts
#3: Defect and future oriented daily meeting
#4: Prioritize by cost of delay
#5: Design discussion every afternoon
#6: Write your own bug report

27. Collaboration Tips and Tricks
#1: Defects aren't different from user stories
#2: Automatic data collection scripts
#3: Defect and future oriented daily meeting
#4: Prioritize by cost of delay
#5: Design discussion every afternoon
#6: Write your own bug report
#7: Use collaboration tools for communication

28. Collaboration Tips and Tricks
#1: Defects aren't different from user stories
#2: Automatic data collection scripts
#3: Defect and future oriented daily meeting
#4: Prioritize by cost of delay
#5: Design discussion every afternoon
#6: Write your own bug report
#7: Use collaboration tools for communication
#8: Throw away old defects

29. Optimization Tips and Tricks

30. Optimization Tips and Tricks
#1: Use continuous integration and staging environment

32. Optimization Tips and Tricks
#1: Use continuous integration and staging environment
#2: Introduce separate swim lanes for different versions

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34. Optimization Tips and Tricks
#1: Use continuous integration and staging environment
#2: Introduce separate swim lanes for different versions
#3: Introduce hot lane for expedite defects

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36. Optimization Tips and Tricks
#1: Use continuous integration and staging environment
#2: Introduce separate swim lanes for different versions
#3: Introduce hot lane for expedite defects
#4: After reproduction write a test case

40. Optimization Tips and Tricks
#1: Use continuous integration and staging environment
#2: Introduce separate swim lanes for different versions
#3: Introduce hot lane for expedite defects
#4: After reproduction write a test case
#5: Never test your own code

41. Optimization Tips and Tricks
#1: Use continuous integration and staging environment
#2: Introduce separate swim lanes for different versions
#3: Introduce hot lane for expedite defects
#4: After reproduction write a test case
#5: Never test your own code
#6: Measure everything, and improve everywhere

42. Leadership Tips and Tricks

43. Leadership Tips and Tricks
#1: Keep the Cloud small and the Live large

44. A retrospective comment:
“Zsolt, can we keep the finished defects on the board? I
feel better when I see how much we finished, while the
new ones keep coming and coming and coming...”

45. Leadership Tips and Tricks
#1: Keep the Cloud small and the Live large
#2: Discuss problems right on the spot

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47. Leadership Tips and Tricks
#1: Keep the Cloud small and the Live large
#2: Discuss problems right on the spot
#3: Provide feedback to the other teams

48. Leadership Tips and Tricks
#1: Keep the Cloud small and the Live large
#2: Discuss problems right on the spot
#3: Provide feedback to the other teams
#4: Rotate people between phases

49. Leadership Tips and Tricks
#1: Keep the Cloud small and the Live large
#2: Discuss problems right on the spot
#3: Provide feedback to the other teams
#4: Rotate people between phases
#5: Weekly face-to-face with everybody

50. Leadership Tips and Tricks
#1: Keep the Cloud small and the Live large
#2: Discuss problems right on the spot
#3: Provide feedback to the other teams
#4: Rotate people between phases
#5: Weekly face-to-face with everybody
#6: Turn off notifications - email, issue tracker

51. Thank you very much for your attention!
http://zsoltfabok.com zsolt.fabok@ericsson.com

52. Sources of ussd images:
leaders on the field:
http://carterkellyconsulting.com/lifepoint_leadervisionspirit
factory floor:
http://www.copters.com/trips/rhc2006.html
Miners:
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2010/05/18/
the_coal_miners_burden?page=ful
hipchat:
http://blogs.atlassian.com/2012/03/meet-hipchat-the-newest-
member-of-the-atlassian-family/
Continuous delivery:
http://www.infoq.com/articles/Continous-Delivery-
Patterns
Cost of delay:
http://agileconsulting.blogspot.com/2011/03/using-cost-
of-delay-functions-to.html