a3 & kaizen: here's how

Claudio Perrone

written, illustrated and performed by

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@agilesensei

There is a war Going on…

Most large organizations I know are stuck into firefighting and command & control

Is Yours?

The traditional organization model seems inadequate to cope with today’s corporate challenges

Organization chart Blame flow

Rule makers

Controllers

Enforcers

Losers

…

Organization chart

But if organizations are more like organisms (i.e. complex adaptive systems)...

... How can we encourage and support everyone to be responsible for change?

I looked for clues when I attempted to...

Leverage and celebrate everyone’s

improvement ideas

1

Who are the heroes in a firefighting company?

Kaizen memo:

Before improvement: Action taken:

Effect:

Submitted by: Date:

We didn’t trace the small, continuous improvements to our work

Created “Kaizen memos” to post on an “implemented ideas” board

Team members trace and celebrate every implemented idea, even the smallest!

Claudio Perrone

Kaizen Memos

It all started when I launched a kaizen system as part of a major Lean & Agile transition

One of the teams was going through a delicate storming phase

Things improved sharply as we began to celebrate the completion of each story

Kaizen memo:

Before improvement: Action taken:

Effect:

Submitted by: Date:

Story completion was taken for granted

Created an explicit “Ready for Celebration” step in our workflow

Team proudly celebrates completion of stories at standup meetings

Claudio Perrone

Ready for Celebration

... leading me to my first kaizen idea!

Backlog Selected Development Testing 4 4 2

Done

Done

Ready for celebration

In the early days, loud-voiced celebration was not for everyone, however...

... So, we introduced a celebration volume

Kaizen memo:

Before improvement: Action taken:

Effect:

Submitted by: Date:

Some team members were “too modest” to celebrate with a resounding applause

Created a “celebration volume” icon to be crossed on the Kaizen memo

Members can choose to celebrate quietly (e.g. shake of hands, pat on the back, gimme 5, ..)

Claudio Perrone

Celebration Volume

People began implementing simple ideas such as improving their working environment...

Before…

… AFTEr

... Experimented with different forms of visualization (e.g. prisoner metrics, dj check sheets), scripts, and so on

What would your first kaizen idea

look like?

Write it down!

Kaizen memo:

Before improvement: Action taken:

Effect:

Submitted by: Date:

We had this problem We did this

It became a little better You Today

Unfortunately, Management’s initial reaction wasn’t exactly what I expected...

Who can yawn the loudest?

“Seeds of a revolution? Yeah right.”

But as the transition progressed, massive impediments raised dramatically to the surface

Like never before, we badly needed to develop our

ability to...

Systematically solve

problems

2

What do You

know about A3 thinking?

Copies of my preliminary A3 were lying on the table…

It was a hell of a good way to kick start a transition

I followed that same approach to tackle problems at team level

a "problem" is the difference between the "current situation" and the "standard/expectation"

Gap = Problem

Current Situation

Standard

So the first step I took with a team was to clarify & breakdown the problem…

Theme:

Problem Situation:

Target(s):

Cause Analysis:

Countermeasure(s):

Implementation:

Follow-up:

Background  Team is looking at improving its internal feedback loop to reduce cost of delay, particularly when rework is involved.

Theme:  

Current Situation  Lead-time of reworked stories: 14.6 days Processing time: 2.8 days Current State Map

Why are we talking about it?

Where do things stand today?

Problem Statement  

Lead-time of reworked stories: 10d

Team takes 4.6d longer to deliver a reworked story

The problem affects about 15% of all stories

If no action is taken, customers will continue to suffer delays

What should be happening?

Expectation – Current Situation

When? How often?

Where? How Long?

What is effected? Importance?

Urgency? Tendency?

Expectation:  

Discrepancy:  

Extent:  

Rationale:  

WE THEN SET A TARGET TO STIMULATE IMPROVEMENT

Theme:

Problem Situation:

Target(s):

Cause Analysis:

Countermeasure(s):

Implementation:

Follow-up:

Target  

Extent: The problem affects about 15% of all stories

Rationale: If no action is taken, customers will continue to suffer delays

Reduce lead-time of reworked items from 14.6d to 10d by July 31st 2011

what?

how much?

by when?

Background  Team is looking at improving its internal feedback loop to reduce cost of delay, particularly when rework is involved.

Current Situation  Lead-time of reworked stories: 14.6 days Processing time: 2.8 days

Reduce lead-time of reworked items

Theme:

Then, we wrote the theme

what? how much?

from 14.6d to 10d

What prevents us from reaching our target Condition?

Analysis  

Lead time > 10d

Functional test performed once a week

No dedicated tester

Tasks accumulate in large batches on Deploy stage

official (test) builds are installed weekly

Why?  

Push system

Why?  

Why?  

Why?  Nightly build setup/configuration takes 0.5d Verify “why” logic with

“therefore” in reverse

Facts, not opinions

Actionable root causes!

Cause Analysis:

Only then we identified a set of potential countermeasures…

Theme:

Problem Situation:

Target(s):

Cause Analysis:

Countermeasure(s):

Implementation:

Follow-up:

Cause Countermeasure Description Benefit Effectiveness

Feasi-bility

Impact

A Limit WIP/Pull Limit how many stories team can start in parallel

-improve flow -encourage small stories

+ ++ 0

B Hire tester Hire dedicated internal tester

eliminate dependency on external people and spend more time on testing

- ++ --

B Do system Test internally

Devs that don’t work on feature can test someone else’s work

Reduces testing bottlenecks, improves knowledge sharing

+ + -

B SLAs with external testers

Create service level agreements between team and external testes

-more predictable flow -clear expectations -no “begging” -closer collaboration

++ + -

C Skip setup

Test the latest version of a subset of component files skipping the full product setup

Don’t need to wait for daily/weekly builds, reduce feedback delay between dev/test

++ + -

Countermeasures  C.Perrone

June 10, 2011

With the proposed countermeasures the future would look like this

Future State Map

In the implementation section, we created & shared an action plan

Theme:

Problem Situation:

Target(s):

Cause Analysis:

Countermeasure(s):

Implementation:

Follow-up:

Action Plan  

What Who Where How Proj. Completion

Actual completion

Vsm Stef./Claudio

Team Room

Post-its 10/6 10/6

Trace prisoner metrics

Paola Whiteboard Mark at each standup

15/7 N/A

Adopt skip-setup procedure

Team Team room

Agree policy

10/7 10/7

Limit WIP Team Whiteboard Agree policy

27/6 27/6

Hire tester Stef. Meeting room

Begging Mgmt :D

Never 29/6

Agree internal testing policy

Team Meeting Room

Retrospective

10/7 10/7

SLAs with external testers

Claudio/Elena/Stef.

Meeting Room

Agree policy

10/7 15/7

Finally the follow-up section…

Theme:

Problem Situation:

Target(s):

Cause Analysis:

Countermeasure(s):

Implementation:

Follow-up:

Follow-up  

Indicators  

Item Initial 15/7 31/7

Lead-time non-reworked items

7.8d 5d 5d

Lead-time reworked items

14.6d 6d 5d

WIP 15 5 6

IF THEN Countermeasure plan failed Begin A3 process to identify root cause of failed

plan

Target achieved but problem could recur

Identify other root causes and find new countermeasures

Target achieved and problem won’t recur

Share findings, standardize countermeasures, begin A3 process to reduce percentage of reworked items

We posted the A3 on the wall, right beside the kanban board

the team became 3 times faster, with less rework

The new state became the new "baseline for improvement”

We shared our findings with our communities of practice to let the acquired knowledge spread “laterally”

What problems would you

tackle?

More importantly, management saw what it means to "remove impediments”

… making me realize that

I had chance to...

Turn the leadership

triangle upside-down

3

At this point of the transition we were falling into chaos

Performance

Time

Late Status Quo

Resistance

Chaos

Integration

New Status Quo Foreign Element (transition begins)

Transforming Idea

Satir Change Model

The leadership triangle was actually broken

To turn the leadership triangle upside down, we didn’t need enforcers, “easy going” or absent managers…

we needed problem solvers!

So I began to tackle problems by pairing up with one promising manager

… Then I began practicing quick coaching cycles

What do you mean by it? (Clarity) Is it always the case? (Assumptions) How do you know? (Evidence) What are you implying by that? (Implications) Would that necessarily happen? (consequences) Do anyone see it another way? (Alternative Point of views)    

Today, more managers are beginning their a3

thinking journey

So, I released a family of thinking tools…

www.a3thinker.com  

To help them change the world. one problem at a time.

www.a3thinker.com/deck  

Final Thoughts

“ -- Chinese proverb

If you want 1 year of prosperity, grow seeds. If you want 10 years of prosperity, grow trees. If you want 100 years of prosperity, grow people.

Claudio  Perrone  

claudio@agilesensei.com  www.agilesensei.com  

www.twi<er.com/agilesensei  www.a3thinker.com  

Thank You!