Our presentation from ICGSE 2011 conference tutorial on coaching in distributed environment. First part covers basic facts to unify the knowledge. Second one is more interesting and describes our current approach to implement Agile and Lean principles into people's mindset ;) covering Kaizne workshop and A5/A3 concept

1. Coaching in
distributed
environment
ICGSE 2011 Tutorial
Jaroslav Procházka
© 2011 Tieto Corporation
Tomáš Tureček
Principal Consultants
Delivery Mentor Network, Tieto
jaroslav.prochazka@tieto.com
tomas.t.turecek@tieto.com

2. • 18 000 IT professionals • Net sales approximately EUR
Tieto in close to 30 countries
• Customers on all continents
1.8 billion
• Listed in NASDAQ OMX Helsinki
and Stockholm
today • One of the leading IT service
companies in Northern Europe and
global leader in selected segments
• Founded in 1968
Tieto
today
© 2011 Tieto Corporation

3. Who we are
• Delivery Mentor Network
• Core of the network
• 8 coaches
• 11+ years in IT (developers, architects, PMs)
• Have been supporting transformations in different industries
in last 5 years in Tieto
• Representing Tieto at international IT conferences
3 © 2011 Tieto Corporation 2011-07-18

4. Introduction
• Your name
• Current role
• Expectations
4 © 2011 Tieto Corporation 2011-07-18

5. Synchronizing
our understanding
© 2011 Tieto Corporation
5 2011-07-18

6. Exercise
• Create groups of 3-5 people
• Try to answer:
• What is coaching?
• What is mentoring?
• What do people expect?
• Time: 5 minutes
2011-07-18

7. “Give a man a fish;
you have fed him for today.
Teach a man to fish;
and you have fed him
for a lifetime”
[ Chinese proverb ]
7 © 2011 Tieto Corporation

8. Discussion
• Share your experience from distributed
environment
• What are typical issues you try to solve?
• What makes distributed collaboration harder?
• Have you identified root causes?
• Time: 5 minutes
2011-07-18

9. Discussion
• Share your experience about
communication issues
• Time: 5 minutes
2011-07-18

10. Exercise
• Chinese whispers game
• We need 4 volunteers
• First person reads the message and whispers it further in the chain
• Last person says message loud
• We will compare the message with the original
10 © 2011 Tieto Corporation 2011-07-18

11. Chinese whispers exercise
• Tieto sees market opportunity to enter Czech Republic Banking
market. Czech bank "Ceska Sporitelna" needs new banking
system. Since we do not have enough suitable people here in
Finland we need to hire skilled engineers and consultants in
Czech republic. This way we get close to customer. Owner of the
activity Martin Chmelar will lead kick-off meeting on 11th of
October this year to explain strategic plan:
• Kick-off meeting
• Core team nominations
• Hiring Czech people
• Knowledge transfer
• Pilot project
• Evaluation and next steps planning
• Except new Tieto site we expect to get return on investment in 1
year and 5% market share in Czech Republic banking area.
11 © 2011 Tieto Corporation 2011-07-18

12. Chinese whispers exercise
• Background
• Ceska Sporitelna bank needs new IT system
• Needs
• New banking system for Ceska Sporitelna, Czech bank
• Entering local market
• To be physically closer to Ceska Sporitelna customer
• More resources needed: skilled engineers and Czech speaking consultants
• Solution
• When: Kick-off meeting conducted by activity owner on 2012/10/11
• Who: Martin Chmelar
• Steps:
• Kick-off meeting
• Core team nominations
• Hiring Czech people
• Knowledge transfer
• Pilot project
• Evaluation
• Expected Outcomes
• ROI in 1 year
• 5% market share in 1 year
• New Tieto location
12 © 2011 Tieto Corporation 2011-07-18

13. Remote vs. face-to-face
communication
Helsinki Team
High-cost narrow-band
Boundary communication channel
spanner
Boundary
spanner
Czech Team
Analyst
Architecture Ambassador
Design&Code
Testing
Low-cost broad-band
communication channel
© 2011 Tieto Corporation

14. Our team story
© 2011 Tieto Corporation
14 2011-07-18

15. Cust. Sales Req. mgmt. Development Deployment
We started in 2006
• Context:
• Ostrava just a delivery centre – environment context
• Successful “Agile” project
• Started with local (offsite) coaching of developers and testers
• Mindset and assumptions
• Limited sphere of influence:
• focus on engineering practices like TDD, component architecture,
code conventions, continuous integration, pair work
• Problems caused by onsite people
• Pushing our ideal vision (no tradeoffs and workarounds)
© 2011 Tieto Corporation 15

16. Real case example
• Developer’s perspective:
• I’m asked for estimates… thus we focused on improved estimations using
prototypes and iterations that helps to understand the problem more in
details
• First lessons learnt:
• Improving estimations is sub-optimization
• Onsite people making decisions lacks knowledge,
we were not able to explain ideas
• Our proposals seen as obstacles
• Let’s conduct Agile training courses onsite
to learn experience and constraints of others.
16 © 2011 Tieto Corporation 2011-07-18

17. Cust. Sales Req. mgmt. Development Deployment
2007
• Context: Whole delivery teams – onsite & offsite
• Conducting training courses for PMs and other roles onsite
• Mindset change:
• Problem is sales people
• People have different views on the whole value chain
(different concerns, goals, targets)
© 2011 Tieto Corporation 17

18. Real case example
• Explaining iteration concept via phone to traditional PM was hard
• Different mindset, vocabulary
• Onsite PM training discovered fix-all-contract consequences!
• Hard to utilize sprints/iterations benefits
• Second lessons learnt:
• Agile workshops with sales to learn their experience and constraints
• Different views and concerns of different people
• Typology
• Change agent (gate keeper, boundary spanner) for remote synchronization
• Narrow band channel
18 © 2011 Tieto Corporation 2011-07-18

19. Cust. Sales Req. mgmt. Development Deployment
2008
• Context: Whole delivery chain – onsite & offsite & sales
• Conducting workshops for sales and customer representatives
• Mindset:
• Problem is customer and contract
• We and customer see the value and control differently
• People do what they are measured for
• Delivered something else then expected in spite of fulfilling SLA/contract
• Our vision is not the only truth
• Looking for common goal
© 2011 Tieto Corporation 19

20. Real case example
• Sales: Customer needs price estimate to get budget to finance project
• Fix price is not the only model  teach customers
• Fix price leads to lose-lose situation
• Third lessons learnt:
• Gather all people involved (one team approach)
• Uncover common goal
• People are part of the system (act as measured, different silos)
• Social relationship is key for further remote communication (trust)
• Let’s conduct Kaizen workshops with customers as well
20 © 2011 Tieto Corporation 2011-07-18

21. Cust. Sales Req. mgmt. Development Deployment
2009
• Context: Whole value chain
• Conducting Kaizen workshops with customers as well
• Mindset:
• People are part of “the system”
• Trying to merge people’s view of the system
• Most constraints are mental
• Problems can be solved if we extend the context
• Focus on solving Value Stream/Technical issues
© 2011 Tieto Corporation 21

22. Cust. Sales Req. mgmt. Development Deployment
2010
• Context: People around Whole value chain
• Mindset:
• People have their personal view of the system they are part of
• People have their own needs and internal drivers
• Trying to understand perspectives of other people and their needs
• Always fix the root cause in long term
• But also provide quick wins here and now to ease the pain
•  Coaching (pull instead of push)
© 2011 Tieto Corporation 22

23. Real life example
• 2 day workshop in Helsinki
• Island volcano was against
• Video workshop
• Lacking personal presence and body language
• Technology caused interruptions (hijacking talks)
• People annoyed
• 3 days instead of 2
• Face-to-face contact needed to build social relationships
• Highly interactive communication (whiteboard discussions)
23 © 2011 Tieto Corporation 2011-07-18

24. 14 weeks
framework
The way to overcome distribution
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14
© 2011 Tieto Corporation
24 2011-07-18

25. How to?
• Question:
How to do distribute coaching if it is so difficult?
• Agile&Lean coaching is not only about its practices
• Human aspects
• Respect and Trust
• Answer:
Goal is to start-up continuous improvement
• …the rest is just matter of time:-)
• Lessons learnt as dependence on mentors
• The way:
14 weeks framework  latest evolution of our approach
25 © 2011 Tieto Corporation 2011-07-18

26. 14 Weeks Transformation Framework
Continuous improvement Independence
• Improvement (A3) discussion • Team self-improvement
and implementation • On demand consultancy
• Internal coach education
• Hands-on support
Focus / Kick-off
• Common understanding
of situation, motivation
• Top issues captured
(Kaizen workshop)
Introduction
• Transformation goals
• Lean Awareness / Game
• Key terms and tools • Investment: 6 man-days extra time in 14 weeks
for each core team member
• Components:
• Lean Awareness workshops
• Kaizen workshop
• Bi-weekly follow-ups
• Additional tools and materials
© 2011 Tieto Corporation

27. Independence
Improvement
Kick-off
Intro
Introduction
• Multiple entry points
• Teasers and teasing discussions
• Agile training course
• Lean awareness Things can be done
• Mentoring in a different way
• Goal Everyone is
responsible for
• Make people interested himself Stop talking
• Make people care let’s play :-)
• Make people to pull for more
27 © 2011 Tieto Corporation 2011-07-18

28. Independence
Improvement
Kick-off
Intro
Introduction
Together we
can change
the world
28 © 2011 Tieto Corporation 2011-07-18

29. 14 Weeks Transformation Framework
Continuous improvement Independence
• Improvement (A3) discussion • Team self-improvement
and implementation • On demand consultancy
• Internal coach education
• Hands-on support
Focus / Kick-off
• Common understanding
of situation, motivation
• Top issues captured
(Kaizen workshop)
Introduction
• Transformation goals
• Lean Awareness / Game
• Key terms and tools • Investment: 6 man-days extra time in 14 weeks
for core team members
• Components:
• Lean Awareness workshops
• Kaizen workshop
• Bi-weekly follow-ups
• Additional tools and materials
© 2011 Tieto Corporation

30. Independence
Improvement
Kick-off
Intro
Kick-off
• 2 days Kaizen workshop
• Goal
• Get people physically together
• Synchronize all the people about
• Common goal
• What’s the value
• How the value is delivered
• Identify bottlenecks and plan to fix
• This activity creates momentum necessary for the change
30 © 2011 Tieto Corporation 2011-07-18

31. Independence
Improvement
Kick-off
Kaizen workshop – guideline
Intro
• Upfront preparation
• Invite right people
• Identify delivery streams (80:20)
• Ensure
• Owner of the activity
• Executive support
• Mentor
• Skilled facilitators
• Communicate details to stakeholders
• What’s expected from them
• Future workshop outcomes
31 © 2011 Tieto Corporation 2011-07-18

32. Independence
Improvement
Kick-off
Kaizen workshop – guideline Day1
Intro
• Goal, Agenda, People, Expectations
Intro • William Wallace speech
• Group work Value Stream Mapping
• Consolidation of results onto whiteboard
Value
Stream
Mapping
• Group work issue identification across whole stream
Issues • Issue consolidation onto the whiteboard
• Issue prioritization
Root
cause
• 5 why's or Current Reality Mapping (ToC CRT)
• Wrap-up and feedback
Social • Dinner or beer in restaurant
32 © 2011 Tieto Corporation 2011-07-18

33. Independence
Improvement
Kick-off
Kaizen workshop – guideline Day1
Intro
• Goal, Agenda, People, Expectations
Intro • William Wallace speech
• Group work Value Stream Mapping
• Consolidation of results onto whiteboard
Value
Stream
Mapping
• Group work issue identification across whole stream
Issues • Issue consolidation onto the whiteboard
• Issue prioritization
Root
cause
• 5 why's or Current Reality Mapping (ToC CRT)
• Wrap-up and feedback
Social • Dinner or beer in restaurant
33 © 2011 Tieto Corporation 2011-07-18

34. Independence
Improvement
Kick-off
Group works (facilitator’s lessons)
Intro
Intro
I can’t believe a single
feature delivery takes
so long…
Value
Stream
Mapping
Issues
Wow, this value
stream is different
than we thought it is
Root
cause
These group works
are great. I do not
feel sleepy and I am
Social
much more involved
34 © 2011 Tieto Corporation 2011-07-18

35. Independence
Improvement
Kick-off
Intro
The Value and the stream
1 week
Req.
Cust. contact Spec
Intro Ballpark
Decision to 2d
Classific Ass. to IA estimate Approved
Requeste cont.
ation (CCB) (Impl. 2h (Sol. Arch.)
1d 2w (Sol. Arch.)
Arch.)
20 m 1h 20 m 1 week 1 day 5h
Value Cust. contact
Stream
Mapping 1 week
2 weeks
Des. Des. Iter.
Cust. contact Spec Spec backlog
1 month
Issues 1w
Des. Spec. Release
Agreed by Agreed by Assig. to Tech. Spec.
and cost agreed by Break down
cust. cust. Sol. Arch. and impl.
estimate 3 h cust. 2d
2 weeks 2 months 3 weeks 1d 40 h
4d
Root Wait for
cause test
1 month
System/
Test
Dev Test Test Regressi Performanc Customer
Review Case
(DS) Spec. on test e/install Testing
created
Social Tests
4h 1h 1d 1h 2h
4h
Rework Rework Bug fix Bug fix
(JIRA) (JIRA) Bug fix
1d 8h
2d (REQUESTE)
1d
35 © 2011 Tieto Corporation
1 week

36. Independence
Improvement
Kick-off
Kaizen workshop – guideline Day1
Intro
• Goal, Agenda, People, Expectations
Intro • William Wallace speech
• Group work Value Stream Mapping
• Consolidation of results onto whiteboard
Value
Stream
Mapping
• Group work issue identification across whole stream
Issues • Issue consolidation onto the whiteboard
• Issue prioritization
Root
cause
• 5 why's or Current Reality Mapping (ToC CRT)
• Wrap-up and feedback
Social • Dinner or beer in restaurant
36 © 2011 Tieto Corporation 2011-07-18

37. Independence
Improvement
Kick-off
Kaizen workshop – guideline Day1
Intro
• Goal, Agenda, People, Expectations
Intro • William Wallace speech
• Group work Value Stream Mapping
• Consolidation of results onto whiteboard
Value
Stream
Mapping
• Group work issue identification across whole stream
Issues • Issue consolidation onto the whiteboard
• Issue prioritization
Root
cause
• 5 why's or Current Reality Mapping (ToC CRT)
• Wrap-up and feedback
Social • Dinner or beer in restaurant
37 © 2011 Tieto Corporation 2011-07-18

38. Current Low ROI
High
maintenance
Reality
costs
A lot of
maintenance
work
Intro
Tree HardToMaintain
software at
output
Defect software
at output
Cheap&dirty
Demotivated
solution often
team members
wins
Value
Stream
Mapping Higher cost per Teams over- Strong push to
feature than commit teams to deliver
estimated themselves faster
More items to be
delivered than
Issues possible
Constant Productivity is
obstacles in slower than
development estimated
Root
cause Concrete scope
Estimates are is promised to
often too customers
optimistic
Estimates are forced
Social upfront without proof
of concept
Fixed priced
contract with
customers
© 2011 Tieto Corporation

39. Independence
Improvement
Kick-off
Kaizen workshop – guideline Day1
Intro
• Goal, Agenda, People, Expectations
Intro • William Wallace speech
• Group work Value Stream Mapping
• Consolidation of results onto whiteboard
Value
Stream
Mapping
• Group work issue identification across whole stream
Issues • Issue consolidation onto the whiteboard
• Issue prioritization
Root
cause
• 5 why's or Current Reality Mapping (ToC CRT)
• Wrap-up and feedback
Social • Dinner or beer in restaurant
39 © 2011 Tieto Corporation 2011-07-18

40. Evening dinner
Intro Who’s turned
off the lights?!?
Value
Stream
Mapping
Now I see that you
are humans guys,
not just roles:-)
Issues
Root I can see faces behind
cause all these names…
Social
40 © 2011 Tieto Corporation 2011-07-18

41. Independence
Improvement
Kick-off
Kaizen workshop – guideline Day2
Intro
• Day 1 recap
Day 1 • Goal, warm-up
recap
• Root cause analysis recap
Problem • World coffee solution creation
solving
• Ease the pain
• Kaizen steps  A3s
Plan • Long term vision and plan
• Heroes group definition
• Coaches and mentors
Groups • 14 weeks framework sessions planned
• Wrap-up
Wrap-up
• Feedback
41 © 2011 Tieto Corporation 2011-07-18

42. Independence
Improvement
Kick-off
Kaizen workshop – guideline Day2
Intro
• Day 1 recap
Day 1 • Goal, warm-up
recap
• Root cause analysis recap
Problem • World coffee solution creation
solving
• Ease the pain
• Kaizen steps  A3s
Plan • Long term vision and plan
• Heroes group definition
• Coaches and mentors
Groups • 14 weeks framework sessions planned
• Wrap-up
Wrap-up
• Feedback
42 © 2011 Tieto Corporation 2011-07-18

43. Independence
Improvement
Kick-off
Intro
Improvement formalization
• A5
Day 1
recap • Draw-up improvement proposal
• Problem description + solution or the first suggestion
Problem
solving
• A3
• Approved and prioritized A5
Plan • Based on Plan-Do-Check-Act cycle
• Reporting of the improvement
• Problem description and background
Groups • Target (improved) state
• Problem root cause analysis
• Proposed solution in form of measurable actions
Wrap-up • Real state after implementation
43 © 2011 Tieto Corporation 2011-07-18

44. Independence
Improvement
Kick-off
Kaizen workshop – guideline Day2
Intro
• Day 1 recap
Day 1 • Goal, warm-up
recap
• Root cause analysis recap
Problem • World coffee solution creation
solving
• Ease the pain
• Kaizen steps  A3s
Plan • Long term vision and plan
• Heroes group definition
• Coaches and mentors
Groups • 14 weeks framework sessions planned
• Wrap-up
Wrap-up
• Feedback
44 © 2011 Tieto Corporation 2011-07-18

45. Independence
Improvement
Kick-off
Kaizen workshop – guideline Day2
Intro
• Day 1 recap
Day 1 • Goal, warm-up
recap
• Root cause analysis recap
Problem • World coffee solution creation
solving
• Ease the pain
• Kaizen steps  A3s
Plan • Long term vision and plan
• Heroes group definition
• Coaches and mentors
Groups • 14 weeks framework sessions planned
• Wrap-up
Wrap-up
• Feedback
45 © 2011 Tieto Corporation 2011-07-18

46. 14 Weeks Transformation Framework
Continuous improvement Independence
• Improvement (A3) discussion • Team self-improvement
and implementation • On demand consultancy
• Internal coach education
• Hands-on support
Focus / Kick-off
• Common understanding
of situation, motivation
• Top issues captured
(Kaizen workshop)
Introduction
• Transformation goals
• Lean Awareness / Game
• Key terms and tools • Investment: 6 man-days extra time in 14 weeks
for each core team member
• Components:
• Lean Awareness workshops
• Kaizen workshop
• Bi-weekly follow-ups
• Additional tools and materials
© 2011 Tieto Corporation

47. Independence
Improvement
Kick-off
Intro
Improvement meetings
• Goal
• Plan-Do-Check-Act cycle in practice
• Learning by doing
• Teaching to fish
• Agenda
• 14 weeks meeting schedule update
• Regular re-voting about streams (Go/No Go)
• Regular follow-up of A5/A3
• New and existing A5/A3 + prioritization, status, follow-up
47 © 2011 Tieto Corporation 2011-07-18

48. 14 Weeks Transformation Framework
Continuous improvement Independence
• Improvement (A3) discussion • Team self-improvement
and implementation • On demand consultancy
• Internal coach education
• Hands-on support
Focus / Kick-off
• Common understanding
of situation, motivation
• Top issues captured
(Kaizen workshop)
Introduction
• Transformation goals
• Lean Awareness / Game
• Key terms and tools • Investment: 6 man-days extra time in 14 weeks
for core team members
• Components:
• Lean Awareness workshops
• Kaizen workshop
• Bi-weekly follow-ups
• Additional tools and materials
© 2011 Tieto Corporation

49. Independence
Improvement
Kick-off
Intro
Independence
• Goal
• To get here with the team :-)
Vision is stable
Continuous improvement implemented
Local mentor(s) in place
Bright future secured :-)
49 © 2011 Tieto Corporation 2011-07-18

50. Wrap-up
Questions and answers
© 2011 Tieto Corporation

51. Conclusion
• What did you take from the tutorial?
© 2011 Tieto Corporation

52. Conclusion
• Coaching is about coaching people
• People first, system the second
• Soft skills, practice what you preach
• We showed our way to overcome this distribution
• Motivate people to PULL
• Face to face intensive sharing kick-off
• Focus onto build-in continuous improvement (driven by teams)
• Remember our story and mindset shift
• Actions need to correspond to people and environment readiness
52 © 2011 Tieto Corporation 2011-07-18

53. Jaroslav Procházka
Tomáš Tureček
© 2011 Tieto Corporation
Principal Consultants
Delivery Mentor Network, Tieto
jaroslav.prochazka@tieto.com
tomas.t.turecek@tieto.com