This presentation is both a how-to as well as the material you need to prepare and host the Visualized Workflow workshop that Jeff describes in the Actionable Agile Tools book published by OikosofySeries. You will find “Facilitator slides” which help you understand how to prepare and host each of the steps in the workshop. You will also find the “Presentation slides”, which you can use directly in the workshop.

1. Visualised Flow Workshop
Jeff Campbell
Author of Actionable AgileTools

2. About
This presentation is both a how-to as well as the
material you need to prepare and host theVisualized
Workflow workshop that Jeff describes in the
ActionableAgileTools book published by
OikosofySeries
You will find “Facilitator slides” which help you
understand how to prepare and host each of the
steps in the workshop.
You will also find the “Presentation slides”, which
you can use directly in the workshop.
This material is provided inCreative Comments BY-
SA 4.0. For more information on the license, please
visit this page.

3. Prerequisites
• Who to involve
• What you need to know
• Basic Layout
• Materials for the workshop

4. Prerequisites (Who to involve)
• This workshop can be run with any team, group, or department that takes
place is a product/project deliver. But the best results are achieved when
people representing the entire value chain are represented.
• Think about all the people and departments who come in to contact with a piece of
work when it goes from idea to delivery to someone who pays for it.
• Try to gather people from these all of these disciplines and mix them up in
the groups in the workshop.
• Do not create groups based on peoples function within the organisation.

5. Prerequisites
(What do you
need to know)
• In order to run this workshop you need an understanding of
the problem domain you are running the workshop for.
• For example, if this is a software development
company you need an understanding of how software
delivery works in various organisations, what type of
departments are usually involved, what the common
issues are, what processes are commonly used.
• You need an understanding of the fundamental concepts of
Kanban and the ability to illustrate them for others.
• Notably the idea ofWIP being a cost and seeing the
whole.
• You need the ability to facilitate disagreements between
participants to productive discussions.

6. Prerequisites (Basic layout)
People should be
in groups of 5-9
people.
If at all possible
there should be
at least 2 groups.
Whiteboard at
the front of the
room.
A flipchart for
each group.
Optimal room
layout:
• bit.ly/1RyjPpH

7. Prerequisites
(Materials)
The following material is considered a minimum for the workshop. Feel free
to add/change the list to fit your needs.
Post-its
• 203x152 mm (1-2 packages)
• 127x76 mm (2-3 packages per group)
• 76x76 mm (2-3 packages per group)
Markers
• Sharpies for writing on smaller Post-its
• Permanent markers to write on larger Post-its
• Whiteboard markers to write on the white board as you explain the ideas
of the workshop and to allow for brainstorming on whiteboards
Food
• The workshop can get pretty intense and you may not want to break the
flow of the participants. In this case it is imperative to have some food
available so that people can keep their energy level and avoid irritated
conversations

8. Workshop
Agenda
Outline
• Introduction (10 minutes)
• Concepts (30 minutes)
• Why visualised flow?
• Why explicit policies?
• Workshop
• Guidelines (10 minutes)
• Inflows (30 – 60 minutes)
• Refinement (30 – 60 minutes)
• Development (30 – 60 minutes)
• Outflows (30 – 60 minutes)
• Abstractions (30 minutes)

9. Introduction
• This slide is to be used for any
introduction information you
might have. (i.e.Who you are,
logistical questions, workshop
policies.)

10. Concepts

11. Visualised Flow
What is this and why do I care about it?

12. What is it?
• A way of visualising your entire value chain.
• A common understanding of status of work.
• An overview where information is aggregated in a way that is understandable
across departments.
• Picture of a flow that makes sense.

13. Why do I care about it?
• Allows people to understand status of work at a glance.
• Enables ”epiphanies” about work process.
• Helps people understand the relationship between their work and the whole
value chain of the company.
• Promotes collaboration across organisational boundaries.
• Helps you understand impacts of ”optimisations” on the system as a whole.

14. Explicit Policies
What are they and why do I care about them?

15. What are they?
A visualisation of
established
processes.
A snapshot of your
organisations
current process.
Checklists to
ensure needed
process steps are
used.
Reminders of what
to think about
when doing a piece
of work.
Picture of a work
process with
explicit policies.

16. Why do I care about them?
• They reveal where people have differing processes.
• They create clarity in how the process works currently.
• They make it easier to find improvement opportunities.
• They create clarity in how the process is being changed.
• They aid in collaboration across departments.
• They act as safety nets and reminders.
• The enable easier training and understanding of a process.

17. Workshop

18. Guidelines
Identify
In order to improve
we must
understand the
current situation.
• This means always be
honest about how
something works today.
Avoid
Don’t get caught up
on disagreement
• Note it and resolves
when there is a clearer
picture of the whole.
Strive
Always strive to
understand outside
your piece of the
puzzle
• Ask questions and seek
clarifications
Be Clear
Be clear in your
communication
• Write large and clear on
all notes
• Be clear in a legend
about any conventions
your groups has
adopted.

19. Visualised Flow
• Give a name to specific process steps and describe their general function.
• Exactly what happens is not needed right now.
• Describe at whatever level of granularity makes most sense to your group.
• Always seek to understand as much before and after ”your job”.
• Note when something becomes a mystery.
• If a mystery, try to figure out who would be needed to clarify.

20. In-Flows
• Have participants generate all the possible inflows to their backlog.
• Have the groups work in small increments and share with the other groups in order to inspire
and build off each others ideas.
• For instance set a 10 minute timebox, have each team present, have the other groups ask questions, then
work in a 10 minute timebox again based on feedback., continue this iteration until a solid picture of the in-
flows has emerged.
• Have groups work on small post-it notes until the output is solidified, then create a presentable
version for the final output.
• Place all the In-Flows as swim lane.
• Create a column called “backlog” after all of them.

21. Example of In-Flows

22. What In-Flows do you have?
• Where does work come from?
• Try to find the various channels from which work flows into you backlog.
• Think about
• Stakeholders.
• Customers.
• Projects.
• Products.
• Type of requests.

23. Refinement
• Have participants consider the work required to transform ideas into ready to implement work.
• Have the groups work in small increments and share with the other groups as in previous steps.
• Try to draw out managers and product experts in this step, as they usually have the most
information about this part of the process.
• Have people who actually implement the work (i.e. Developers, testers) discuss things that they
are unsure of or puzzle them about this part of the process.
• Have groups work on small post-it notes until the output is solidified, then create a presentable
version for the final output.
• Place all the refinement steps as columns.
• Create a column called “Ready” after all of them.

24. Example of Refinement

25. Refinement
After an item arrives what is
needed to get it into a state
where is can progress to the
next major part of the
process?
Think about
• Information gathering.
• Legal questions.
• Funding.
• Prioritisation.
• Waiting states.

26. In Development
• Have participants consider the work process that actually takes place to turn ready ideas into product
increments.
• Have the groups work in small increments and share with the other groups as in previous steps.
• Have people who actually implement the work (i.e. Developers, testers) describe their working process in
detail.
• Have the managers and product experts discuss things that they are unsure of or puzzle them about this
part of the process.
• Have groups work on small post-it notes until the output is solidified, then create a presentable version for
the final output.
• Place each step of the process as a column.

27. Examples of In Development

28. Outflows
• Have participants consider what is required in order to move product increments into the hands
of the customer.
• This is one of the trickier parts of the workshop as the outflows can involve any part of the company, you will
need to ask a lot of questions about how this part of the process works in order to draw out all the
departments or functions who contribute.
• Also, much of this work can happen in parallel. Don’t get too caught up on making this sequential at first.
• Don’t forget about operations teams if your company has this function.
• Have the groups work in small increments and share with the other groups as in previous steps.
• Have groups work on small post-it notes until the output is solidified, then create a presentable
version for the final output.
• Place each step of the process as a column.

29. In Development
• What work is done to turn something from idea in reality?
• Think about
• Which departments are involved before a product is finished?
• Planning.
• Verification.
• Feedback.

30. Examples of Outflows

31. Outflows
• What is needed to get your product from finished to in the hands of the per who wants it?
• Think about
• Other types of verification
• Customer acceptance.
• External quality requirements.
• Environments where things are deployed.
• Other teams that work on it after we are done.
• How are things distributed?
• Waiting states.

32. Abstraction
• In this part of the workshop you should guide the participants using your own
knowledge to create meaningful abstractions of the process.
• Encourage participants to think about where they need transparency and where
they don’t.
• Visualise the abstractions using the whiteboard and the process that is already
established for all of the participants.
• Invite the participants to ask questions or create action points for future
clarification.

33. Abstraction
• As a group, create a map of what information is needed at a company wide
level to create transparency.
• Map what information is needed only by certain teams to get their job done.

34. Book Jeff to host this
workshop at your
company
Email Jeff at Jeff@rebelalliance.se
Jeff Campbell is an AgileCoach who
considers the discovery of Agile and Lean
to be one of the most defining moments
of his life. He has been helping teams and
organizations adopt Agile ways of working
close to ten years now and he has worked
with driving Agile transformations in
organizations both small and large.
This has led him to write the book
“Actionable AgileTools” since most
materials and tools available to Scrum
Masters and AgileCoaches are theoretical
with almost zero practical tools available.

35. This workshop is a way to
achieve the results Jeff
describes in the book
Actionable AgileTools,
published by
OikosofySeries.com
Buy the book at
bit.ly/07BuyAATNow