Tag Archives: Kanban

Kanban Archive

Zero Cost Effect

– April 13, 2011Posted in: Agile, Project Management

I had dinner with a colleague the other night. I inadvertently quoted something verbatim from Dan Pink’s book, Drive. My colleague said if I liked Dan Pink’s work, I should read something from Dan Ariely. So, I started on Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions. Wow, this book is crazy! I’m not going to go into any more details in the post other than a comparison of an experiment detailed in the book and something I’ve seen in the real world.

In the book, the author described an experiment on 34 Halloween trick-or-treaters. As soon as the children knocked on the door, they received 3 Hershey’s (each weighing about 0.16 oz.) and were asked to hold the Hershey’s they had just received in their open hand in front of them. Each child was then offered a choice between a small (1 oz.) and a large (2 oz.) Snickers bar, under a Cost Condition and under a Free Condition. In the Free Condition, they could simply get the small 1 oz. Snickers bar (for free) without giving up anything or they could exchange 1 of their 3 Hershey’s for the 1 large Snickers bar. In the Cost Condition, the children could exchange 1 of their .16 oz. Hershey’s for the small (1 oz.) Snickers bar or exchange 2 Hersheys for the large (2 oz.) Snickers bar. They could also choose to do nothing but all of the kids chose to make an exchange.

Experiment Results

In the Free Condition, in which the small Snickers bar is free, demand for it increases substantially (relative to the Cost Condition). The results demonstrate the attractiveness of zero cost. People gravitate more toward options that do not require giving up anything.

Example of this on a project

At work, I’ve had a Product Owner (PO) who wanted to add items from the Backlog to the Sprint. During sprint planning, the team basically added a buffer, to account for unforeseen events. I know people are going to crucify me for this, but basically, the Product Owner always seemed to want to shift priorities of work mid-Sprint. Rather than killing the Sprint, we added a buffer. This would allow new work to be entertained without totally derailing the work already being completed. Yes, we could have used Kanban and all of this could have been avoided. But, Kanban wasn’t an option.

So, what happened? I offered the PO a deal. I could allow him to add a certain amount of work to the Sprint for free. When I did this, he usually asked for smaller deliverables (relative to other items on the backlog that were ready to work). But, when I said some work would have to come off the table to pay for the new work, he always went big. He would choose larger deliverables relative to other items on the backlog that were ready to work.

All I can say is we truly are predictably irrational.

Yes, the links to the books are affiliate links.

Popularity: 1%

Tags: Backlog, Free, Kanban, Product Owner, sprint

Getting PMI Agile PDUs Early

Derek Huether

– April 7, 2011Posted in: Agile, Kanban, Project Management

Let’s say you’re interested in the upcoming Agile Project Professional (APP) certification from PMI. You look to see the eligibility requirements and notice you’ll need 21 hours of Agile Project Management Training. If you’re determined to get the PMI APP and looking to do this on the cheap, start watching webinars now. I can guarantee there will be a lot of training opportunities in the near future. Check out a future location to find upcoming Agile PDUs. Once it is fully rolled out, it should be an excellent resource to find PDUs to meet your PMI needs.

So back to the intent of getting the training. After I read (and recently reread) Dan Pink’s book, Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us, it made me stop and question why people wanted to get the PMP or APP. Are we trying to discover better ways to deliver value to customers or just trying to get a piece of paper and a few extra letters after our names? Dan breaks it down to pursuing the mastery of performance-based objectives versus learning-based objectives (ie. getting a passing score on a certification exam versus learning new approaches to deliver value to customers).

Regardless, information is information and I want to do what I can to help people discover it.

One of the approaches I really enjoy using is Kanban. Today I stumbled upon a free Kanban webinar. Though you do have to enter some contact information, it’s free. You have the option of downloading it or viewing a playback. So, regardless if you’re looking to bank those PMI Agile PDUs or not, enjoy 1 free hour of training. By the way, I am in no way affiliated with the provider. I just like free webinars.

HT: ASPE Events
HT: Agile PDUs

Link to Drive is an Amazon affiliate link
Drawing by Pictofigo

Popularity: 2%

Tags: Kanban, PDU, PMI, PMI-ACP, PMP, Webinar

Say Goodbye to that Expensive Meeting

Derek Huether

– March 25, 2011Posted in: Agile, Project Management

Back in August (2010) I wrote about attending a $17,904 meeting. It was painful to watch the PMO have a 3 hour meeting every month that seemed to cost so much but deliver so little value. As a follow-up post, I wrote about the value proposition for the expensive meeting.

I am happy to report that the meeting in question has been cancelled indefinitely. In one year alone, the cost savings is $214,848. Wouldn’t you like to have that kind of money added to your budget? I want to be clear that I’m not being a hater of meetings. I’m being a hater of waste. Time and money are precious and I strongly believe we need everyone to communicate more. But it’s about communicating effectively. I can facilitate the communication of more strategic information, without saying a word, by using a enterprise level Kanban. I can facilitate the communication of more tactical information, by having Daily Scrums or Stand-ups.

Though the cancellation was months in the making, I commend those who finally made the difficult (but necessary) choice. It’s easy to complain about things but accept the status quo. It’s hard to ask why and then act on it appropriately.

Drawings by Pictofigo

Meeting with GAO

Derek Huether

– March 18, 2011Posted in: Project Management

After finding out the Government Accountability Office (GAO) was coming to pay our program a visit, I was also told to work with a small cross-functional team to collect all of the data to meet their requests. There was a list of recommended executive actions and we had to prove how we were satisfying those recommendations. To visualize our progress of collecting the data, I used a physical task board and sticky notes. I would call it a Kanban but we really didn’t have any work in progress (WIP) limitations. The board was comprised of 4 columns: Backlog, WIP, Blocked, Done.

GAO

As of last night, everything was in the done column and I even had one team member come up and shake my hand. For some reason, I think there may have been a lack of confidence that we could identify and collect the data requested. With some leadership, inspiration and clear goals, we got it done. Though I’m not at liberty to say exactly what we supplied them, the requests they made were not unreasonable.

I’ve been through a SOX audit before so I understood how an audit works. Provide proof that you do what you say you do. Be able to explain why you do it. Now, what you do and how it aligns with how others think you should do it is another story. But, if the auditor is not satisfied with how you do it, they will make a recommendation on how you can meet their expectations. Here is the important thing. An auditor does not care what you say you are going to do. They care what you say you’ve done or do.

Popularity: 1%

Tags: Audit, GAO, Kanban, SDLC, SOX

Reading about Process Improvement

Derek Huether

– March 14, 2011Posted in: Agile, Kanban, Project Management

Over the weekend, I found myself trying to read a physical book about systems analysis while listening to a book on operational process improvement. I’m not going to go into the physical book because I am so impressed with the audio book. I guess it wouldn’t matter if it was physical, digital, or audio. It’s just a really really good book!

It’s titled: The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement by Eliyahu M. Goldratt (yes, if someone clicks on that link and buys a book, I would get credit)

Though the story reads like fiction, in its introduction of characters and story, it does an amazing job of introducing concepts to the reader. The main character manages a production plant, where everything is always behind schedule and things are looking pretty bad. (Sound like any projects you know?) The production plant is doing so poorly, the company has given the main character an ultimatum. With a threat of closure, the plant has three months to turn operations from being unprofitable and chronically late on deliveries to being profitable and successful. In the book, we are introduced to the Socratic method. Throughout the book, a character poses questions to another or a member of a team, which in turn causes them to talk amongst themselves to come up with a solution to their problem.

Because the book revolves around manufacturing and not application development or project management, there are a few dotted lines that need to be drawn. But, overall, it really got my wheels spinning. It doesn’t matter if you’re using Kanban or if you’re in any type of management position, I would recommend this book.

One quote really stuck with me

Intuitive conclusions (common sense) are commonly masked by common practice

Process Improvement

The following lists some of the ways that processes can be improved.

Reduce work-in-process (WIP) inventory to reduce lead time
Add additional resources to increase capacity of the bottleneck
Improve the efficiency of the bottleneck activity to increase process capacity
Move work away from bottleneck resources where possible to increase process capacity
Increase availability of bottleneck resources to increase process capacity
Minimize non-value adding activities to decrease cost and reduce lead time

Like the drawing? Get it free from Pictofigo

Popularity: 1%

Tags: Agile, Kanban, Lean, WIP