Delivering Value on Time Lean Agile Techniques

Christophe Achouiantz (@ChrisAch)
The Art of Delivering Value
on Time
(The Art of Succeeding)
Christophe Achouiantz
Lean/Agile Coach

About me
Christophe Achouiantz (fr)
Lean/Agile coach
– Consultant since 2007
– Sogeti since 2010
– Coach, Project Leader, Programmer
Twitter: @ChrisAch
Blog: http://leanagileprojects.blogspot.se
LinkedIn

The Art of Delivering Value on Time
1. A tale about a ’real’ project
2. Classical Techniques (to try and NOT to try)
3. Advanced techniques
Helping a project to be more Effective and Efficient
Christophe Achouiantz @ChrisAch - Sogeti

Christophe Achouiantz (@ChrisAch) TM & © LUCASFILM LTD. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
A Tale about a ’Real’
Project:
The Death Star 2 Project
a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away

Huge Program/Projects!
• Massive Hardware
• Looks Hugely Complex
• Lot of Manpower
• Heavy Security, Protocols, Processes
• Probably nightmarish complex Software Systems
What is all this
about?

$850,000,000,000,000,000
- Estimated Cost by The White House

$1,215,500,000,000,000,000
- Including typicall cost overrun of 43%
For IT projects, an industry study by the Standish Group found that
the average cost overrun was 43 percent (Wikipedia)

Senior Executive,
sent to ”fix it”
Project Manager
Team Members
(Glad they are not the PM)

Seek desperate solutions, that will only make
things worse this late in the project…

Management by
Fear…Christophe Achouiantz @ChrisAch - Sogeti

How did the project
get into this
situation?

How did the project
get into this
situation?
• Complex!
• But manage it as if it is not…
• Everything is high prio OR prioritized between epics
(all of Epic1, then all of Epic2)
• Dubious motivational methods (no one really cares?)
• Unplanned changes due to market conditions (new
due date + changes to design)
• Lack of experience (design team ’disapeared’ withChristophe Achouiantz @ChrisAch - Sogeti

What will happen
now?
• Stress to get the job done in time! Overtime!
• Multiple projects competing for the same expert
resources
• Task-switching (actually gets less done)
• Take short-cuts (technical debt++)
• Everything becomes urgent! Hard to follow a plan
• Errors due to human factor (exhaustion, forced to use
underqualified resources, etc.)
• Add people late makes the project later
•  Poor Quality!

From a ”venting shaft” to a ”highway”
to the highly explosive core!?
Result of Stress, Task Switching &Technical Debt!
Result:

”Delivered!”
Success
“Why would we spend countless taxpayer dollars on a Death Star with a
fundamental flaw that can be exploited by a one-man starship?”
- The White House

Why Do Projects Fail?
“The project focuses not primarily on creating
value, profit and customer satisfaction for the
business,
but to get the project completed on time and on
budget.”
Christer Cragnell (Group CIO Swedbank)

Success!
”Value Delivered on Time”
• To Deliver Value on Time means to deliver
something of value to the customer, when it is
needed…
– not before, as it would be waste
– not after, as it would be a cost and a missed opportunity
• …and with the necessary qualities to realize that value

Become an Artist
to Deliver Value on Time
Today, despite an abundance of methods and processes,
60-80% of projects fail.
Therefore, to succeed is still an art!
If no method can fix it for us,
we should all become better artists.
Let us learn some techniques!

Classical Techniques
• Techniques that usually do not help:
– Change Control Boards
– Add people late
– Remove all constraints
• Techniques that usually help:
– Intelligent Constraints
– Know Why
– Limit size of project
– Reuse experience
– Trim the tail

Use a CCB
”Changes are killing this project,
we need a Change Control Board (CCB)!”

Do Not Use a CCB
CCBs are only good for:
– Making sure that the customer does not get what is
needed/wanted
– Create conflicts
– Focus attention on contract rather than solution

Add People Late
”I need more men!”

Do Not Add People Late
Brooks’s Law:
Adding manpower to a late software project
makes it later!

Remove Constraints
”Let’s take our time on this one.
No time limit, no pressure, no constraints!”

Duke Nukem

Do Not Remove Constraints
Student Syndrome: People will start
to fully apply themselves to a task
just at the last possible moment
before a deadline
Parkinson’s Law: “Work expands so as to
fill the time available for its completion.”
Murphy’s Law: With sufficient time/trials,
"Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong"

Set Intelligent Constraints
to Drive Creativity
"Constraints shape and focus problems, and provide clear
challenges to overcome as well as inspiration. Creativity
loves constraints, but they must be balanced with a healthy
disregard for the impossible.“
Yahoo! CEO Marissa Mayer
An intelligent constraint informs creative action by
outlining the "sandbox" within which people can play and
guides that action not just by pointing out what to pursue
but perhaps more importantly what to ignore.

Intelligent Constraints: Understand
How Much Time you Have
KarlScotland

No Big Projects
Get rid of Big Projects!
Only start small projects, or even better no project at all!
Big Projects = Big Administration & Complexity

Reuse Experience
To deliver the rigth thing on time:
• Only work with Teams that already have the needed
knowledge!
Did you know? The Empire State building was built, from
scratch to ’done’, in 1 year. This would be impossible to do
today…
Poppendieck : ”Leading Lean Software Development: Results Are not the Point”

Sofware Development is a
Knowledge Creation Process
• To succeed we need premium knowledge about:
– The Problem
– The Solution
– The Technology used
– How to work together as a team
– How to work with the customer
– The fitness of our organization

Succeed with Experience
• So, to best succeed you should only work with:
– The same type of problems
– The same type of solutions
– The same technology
– The same team
– The same customer
• If not: it is a Challenge!
You are in a Complex problem (more about that in a
moment).

Trim the Tail
• Get rid of the ”long tail”
where there is a low value
created / time spended
ratio.
• This requires some
planning (more on that
later)

Know WHY
• Allways start with WHY! (the golden circle)
– Not What, or How or Who (yet)
• Spread it to everyone, so that everyone can contribute
to reaching the goal
– So that everyone CARES about it!

Advanced Techniques
Advanced Techniques that usually help
to become more:
• Effective ”Do the right thing”
• Efficient ”Do the thing right”

Minimize Output, Maximize Outcome
• Effectivity Techniques
– Seek Actionable Feedback
– Minimize Rework
– Plan to make an Impact
– Flesh out details after the plan (and not the plan
efter the details)
• Efficiency Techniques
– Select the Right Process
– Optimize Flow

Effectivity
”Do the Right Thing”

Speed Up Knowledge Creation with
Actionable Feedback
• Expect & Plan for feedback!
• Feedback about:
– The problem and the solution (Iterative and Incremental
Development, Paper protypes, demos, etc.)
– The process (visual management)
– The implementation (test in parallel)

The Financial Value of Feedback
Christophe Achouiantz – Sogeti Inspiration Day 2011

Minimize Rework
• Avoid Failure Demand
• Build quality in!
– Test & Validation (validation criteria)

Make an Impact
• Identify Who (the actors) to focus on in the short term
• How to impact them (strategy)
• What to do to impact them (features)
How To: Impact Mapping!

Impact Map
Gojko Adzic: ”Impact Mapping: Making a Big Impact with Software Products and Proje

Example of Impact Map
Gojko Adzic: ”Impact Mapping: Making a Big Impact with Software Products and Proje

Create the Right Plan
• Flesh out details after the plan
(and not the plan efter the details)
• Start with an IDEA and high level requirements (a
handfull).
– Ex: an iPad app, with a team of 4, within one week, to help
customers choose the right sun-glasses (Norstrom inovation lab)
– Intelligent Constraints!
• Specifications (the details) are unknown at the start and
should be discovered with the help of feedback.
• How To: User Story Mapping!

User Story Mapping
• A technique to design a solution and create a plan to
deliver it into small increments.
• Combined with Impact Mapping, allows you to design
and discover a Minimum Viable Product (MVP).
• Resembles Toyota’s ”Success Assured” as well as
Kickstarter’s target funding and strech goals.

From Idea to Plan
via User Story Mapping

Building a Car using a traditional
System Development method
Stop!
No time/$ left!
Brakes Engine Gears Body Suspention Interior
& Seats
Wheels
& Tyres

Building a Car the Right Way
Increment
Increment
Increment
Increment
Brakes Engine Gears Body Suspention Interior
& Seats
Wheels
& Tyres

Exempel - 2
Beroende
Frågor
Validation /Tests
User Stories
Tasks /Sub-Aktiviteter
Utv. Teamet
Kunden
Användaren
Aktiviteter
mindre ”optional”
Mer ”optional”

Exempel - 3
1: Structure
2: Control
3: Security
4: Data
quality
5: Statistics
(xtra)
6: Performance
(xtra)
7: Interface
(xtra)
Inkrement 1:
”Basic”
Inkrement 2
”Testa
Kopplingar”
Inkrement 3
”Säkerhet”
Inkrement 4
”Kvalité”
Delmål /
inkrement mål
Diskutera, klargöra, dela-upp,
ändra, validera, bekräfta
Klar for
Project ”Pete”

A model for using
User Story Mapping
A System Design Workshop
 Invite key stakeholders (a handfull)
 Together, design the system by discovering details
and discussing when/how to fit them in.
”Drill-down” sufficiently deep to discover and manage most of the
problems.
 Create a visual map as a support for the
discussions.
 Create an incremental development plan/roadmap
from the visual map.
A recurring re-planning meeting
 Manage changes contiuously (e.g. weekly).
 Re-design the system (the map) to fit the changes
 Re-plan to accomodate the changes.
After the workshop, adapt the plan continuously to accomodate:
• The new understanding about the problem, solution, system.
• The impact of the stakeholders feedback after an increment.
• Life!

Efficiency
”Do the Thing Right”

Use the Right Process
for the Right Problem

Optimize the Workflow
• See and Understand your Value Stream
• Identify bottlenecks, blocks, queues
(waste)
• Create experiments to get rid of them
• Create policies from successfull
experiments
• Go further with Kanban & Personal
Kanban
(set extra constraints/policies. E.g. limit Work In
Progress)

Kanban Board Ex.
A Kanban Board

Techniques for the
Art of Delivering Value on Time
• Set intelligent constraints
• Work with small projects, or no project
• Plan for experience and re-use it
• Effectivity
– Seek feedback (prototypes, demos, visual management,
test and validate parallel to development)
– Minimize Rework (Failure Demand)
– Plan to make an Impact (Impact Mapping)
– Flesh out details after the plan (User Story Mapping)
• Efficiency
– Use the right process (complex or complicated?)
– Optimize Flow (Kanban)

Thank You!
Christophe Achouiantz
Twitter: @ChrisAch
Blog: http://leanagileprojects.blogspot.se

Referenser
• Jeff Patton
User Story Mapping
User Story Mapping (presentation)
How you Slice it (artikel)
• Gojko Adzic
• Mary & Tom Poppendieck
http://www.poppendieck.com/
Bok: Leading Lean Software Development: Results Are not the Point
• Eric Ries
The Lean Startup: How Today's Entrepreneurs Use Continuous
Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses

Delivering Value on Time Lean Agile Techniques

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