Time Theft: How Hidden and Unplanned Work Commit the Perfect Crime

@dominicad

Time Theft – How Hidden & Unplanned Work
Commit the Perfect Crime
Dominica DeGrandis - Director, Training & Coaching

@dominicad
How to make
uncertainties
visible

@dominicad
5Unplanned
work
The Thieves

Conflicting
priorities
Too much
WIP
Neglected
work
Unknown
dependencies

@dominicad
THIEF #1 – TOO MUCH WIP
When demand exceeds capacity
demand
capacity

@dominicad
WHY TOO MUCH WIP MATTERS
Effective
people say
yes
deliberately
Too much WIP delays work

@dominicad
WIP is a leading indicator

@dominicad
YOU KNOW THIEF #1 STEALS TIME WHEN...
Ø  Context switching is common.
Ø  We start new tasks before finishing
older tasks.
Ø  Work gets neglected and ages.
Ø  We say, “Yes, I’ll do that.”
Molecules
Of
Emo-on:
The
Science
Behind
Mind-‐Body
Medicine,
Candace
B.
Pert,
1999

@dominicad
hAps://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1UKjHHM7Y-‐
emzSo4p0RLhzLaIR4Yp3owWR3JdT5QghoY/edit#gid=0

delivered
Build/
fix
Study
Silver
Bullet
Team
work
feedback
Business
requests
cycling done
(5)

(3)

(1)

EXPOSE WIP

@dominicad
THIEF #2 – UNKNOWN DEPENDENCIES
Time delays due to:
Ø  Tightly coupled architecture
Ø  Bottlenecks from specialized skillset
Ø  Work outside of our control

@dominicad
WHY DEPENDENCIES MATTER
Every dependency increases the
probability that you will be
late by 50%.
Dependencies are asymmetrical
in their impact.

Troy Magennis

@dominicad
Dependency x 3
you
friend
brother

X

X

X
X

X

X
X

X
X

X
X
X

1 chance
in 8
= 12.5% of
arriving
on time

@dominicad
Ø  Coordination needs are high.
Ø  People aren’t available when you need
them.
Ø  A change in one part of the code
unexpectantly changes something else.

@dominicadEXPOSE DEPENDENCIES
deliveredinvestigate
Expedites or
Unplanned
Dependencies
feedback
Everything
else
waiting
8 days

@dominicad
THIEF #3 – UNPLANNED WORK
An Interruption –
usually to fix a
problem
Ex: Break fix,
expedites, incidents,
fires

@dominicad
WHY UNPLANNED WORK MATTERS
https://puppet.com/resources/white-paper/2016-state-of-devops-report
Unplanned work steals
time away from planned
work.

@dominicad
Someone joins your slack channel and within 2
min, 4 people are sucked into the vortex.

@dominicad
donedoingTo do
Unplanned
work
Planned
work
validate
EXPOSE UNPLANNED WORK

@dominicad
THIEF #4 – CONFLICTING PRIORITIES
Conflicting
priorities are
when people are
uncertain or
disagree on what
to work on.

@dominicad
WHY CONFLICTING PRIORITIES MATTER
If people can’t prioritize
effectively, they try to
do too much at once.
Too much wip = longer Cycle Time.

@dominicad
Ø  “When will my thing be done?”
Ø  “My thing is a high priority!”
Ø  “If my thing doesn’t get done by ____,
then…

@dominicad
EXPOSE CONFLICTING PRIORITIES
mainmnai

delivereddoingTo do
Expedites
validate
Project 1
work
Project 2
work
On-hold
work
Maintenance
work

@dominicad
THIEF #5 - NEGLECTED WORK
Neglected, often important work
sits idle when other work is
seen as a higher priority.

@dominicad
WHY NEGLECTED WORK MATTERS
Important work sits waiting – until it
eventually becomes an emergency.

@dominicad
“When are we going to finish x?”
“We can’t get to x right now,
because we’re working on y.”

@dominicad
EXPOSE NEGLECTED WORK
5

donedoingTo do
Expedites
Unplanned
work
validate
9 days 13 days
Revenue
protecting
Revenue
generating

@dominicad
The

5 Thieves

@dominicad
5

delivereddoingNext
Expedites
Revenue
protecting
validate
Revenue
generating
ALL THE TIME THIEVES EXPOSED

@dominicad
THE TIME THIEF O’GRAM
Unplanned
work
Unknown
dependencies
Conflicting
priorities
Neglected
work
Too much
WIP
20

10

5

15

1

@dominicad
AGGREGATED TIME THIEF O’GRAM TREND
20

10

5

15

1

Oct
3

Oct
10

Oct
17

Oct
24

@dominicad
CONGREGATED TIME THIEF O’GRAM
20

10

5

15

1

OCTOBER, 2016
Unplanned
work
Neglected
work
Unknown
dependency
Conflict
priority
Over
WIP

@dominicad
MORE ON TIME THEFT & UNCERTAINTY

Time Theft: How Hidden and Unplanned Work Commit the Perfect Crime

More Related Content

What's hot

Viewers also liked

Similar to Time Theft: How Hidden and Unplanned Work Commit the Perfect Crime

More from LeanKit

Recently uploaded

Time Theft: How Hidden and Unplanned Work Commit the Perfect Crime