Project and Resource Management

… when every hour makes a difference

____________________________________________________________________________________ Ln4 Solutions AB, Topeliusvägen 29, SE 16771 Bromma www.ln4solutions.com

© L

n4 S

olu

tio

ns A

B,

april 2019

Avsik

tlig

t används s

am

ma b

ilder

som

i d

en e

ngels

ka v

ers

ionen

Kanban board with Scrum-SAFe

The LeanFour ™ TP3 is designed with the intention that a production organization will be

able to make the best possible use of the working hours of the participating persons and at

the same time be confirmatory and contribute to a good working environment. This is also

the intention behind the technology of both Kanban boards and Scrum. A Kanban board

facilitates an even production flow by avoiding unnecessary congestion by controlling both

the inflow and the number of ongoing activities during the various steps. There must not be

too much going on in any column and in total the amount of work should be adjusted to the

existing capacity. Together with Scrum, the work also becomes finite and confirmatory

thanks to an inboxing in calendar periods with subsequent delivery to a "customer" and user.

A productivity enhancing side effect is that planning is done to take advantage of the team's

planned presence.

1. The standard Kanban board

provides clear progress information

even in comprehensive activity

tags. The number of columns can

be selected.

2. Burndown diagram shows that the

planned scope (red Diagonal)

corresponds to the resource hours

under the sprint (blue curve) and

with the summed estimate for the

activity tags.

3. Accounting with Earned Value Management is done with an analysis based on the Level of

Effort.

4. For a more accurate situation analysis, activities are attributed to "almost" completed with 50

percent EV and ongoing by 20 percent EV. This is so that the gap between the time reporting

and the accounting of fully completed activities should not become unnecessarily large and

misleading

5. Each employee can in their own

LeanFour ™ TP3 see the Kanban-

Boards of the teams they are

involved in.

6. The person in the example image is

in two teams.

7. There is a filter for which activity

tags to display.

a. Only own tags

b. Other employees’ tags

c. All tags

d. Available tasks that the person may take responsibility for in case of lack of tasks.

8. A selection can display a list of pending task tags. It is usually referred to as Backlogg and is for

there to prevent too many tags on the Kanban board at the same time.

9. It is possible to filter so that the tags on the Kanban board only show activity sheets for a single

work package (Feature).

Each person can manage their own activity tags and take new

2 (8) Senast uppdaterat 2019-04-16

© L

n4 S

olu

tio

ns A

B,

april 2019

Avsik

tlig

t används s

am

ma b

ilder

som

i d

en e

ngels

ka v

ers

ionen

10. By a selection on the Kanban

board, it is possible to access the

work breakdown (WBS) in the

project schedule (Gantt). In Scrum-

terminology, it is the work package

(Features) and a backlogg with

short activities that should be

managed in one day.

11. The breakdown of activity sheets

into a backlogg is done by the

people in the team. The dialog

allows the control of how the sum

of these activities is consistent

with the work package calculation.

Velocity or capacity Velocity is a term that describes how much a Team is expected to deliver during a sprint.

The starting point is how the current team performed during previous sprints. The result of

the scoring system used will be highly dependent on the people in the team, for example,

using Scrum Poker. In addition, consideration must be given to attendance during early

previous sprints and on the next sprints. Absence during the reference periods and planned

absence the next sprint has a strong impact on the value of Velocity. A simpler and safer

method is to use working hours. It is natural and concrete for most and planned presence is

made naturally in man hours where planned absences can be taken into account. The results

of the application of Earned Value Management for CPI and SPI allow the assessments to be

calibrated.

A. Planned presence of the team for

the persons who make up the team.

B. The sprint date range is here three

weeks.

C. Total planned working hours to

participate in the team's work. Total

working time that becomes starting

point for the task tags placed on the

Kanban board’s ToDo field before

the start of the sprint. The figure

shows that the planned working

time for the team during the sprint is consistent with the overall assessment of the patches and

also with the budgeted amount of work during the sprint. This is important for time-box

methods like DSDM and PRINCE2.

Breakdown of a work package to a backlogg can be done by the team

3 (8) Senast uppdaterat 2019-04-16

© L

n4 S

olu

tio

ns A

B,

april 2019

Avsik

tlig

t används s

am

ma b

ilder

som

i d

en e

ngels

ka v

ers

ionen

From a team member's standpoint With digitisation, colud services and

digitised kanban boards, each person can

take responsibility for their working time

and commitments in all their projects and

operations in real time. This is no matter

where on earth they are. In books that

describe LeSS, it is strongly argued that

activities must be concentrated in a

geographical location – probably because

it is assumed that only Post-It notes on a

white-board give the right feeling. This is

called radiation and is, according to

proponents, import but digital solutions are

also in this respect more effective and counteract the waste of spending a lot of time in

meetings. Lean means to counteract waste of resources.

Project Time Reporting

The simplest way is to report the number of hours of participation in the project every day.

Other options are the type of work, per solution component, or enabler. Another option is

per patch.

1. Open the Tag Properties dialog.

2. Calculation in hours for the tag.

3. The person who is responsible and can

report time on the tag.

4. Select time Reporting with command

button.

5. The list of previously made reports.

6. Reporting can be done in increments.

7. Compressed custom Kanban board for the

other project teams that the person

participates in.

Each person can actively participate in the planning 1. Employees have in their own workspace a

view to actively participate in planning and

reporting work in project teams.

2. There are settings to see the information you

want.

a. Only own on-going patches

b. Free patches only

c. All patches regardless of the

person responsible

d. Backlog

e. The solution components with

their tasks

3. It is possible to open the properties dialog for the solution components, however, without the

ability to change other than the data that make up the patches on the Kanban board.

4. Patches can be added directly by the team-members.

4 (8) Senast uppdaterat 2019-04-16

© L

n4 S

olu

tio

ns A

B,

april 2019

Avsik

tlig

t används s

am

ma b

ilder

som

i d

en e

ngels

ka v

ers

ionen

DSDM/Athern and LeanFour™ TP3 For service projects where the cost for working

hours is predominant, the control of hours and

costs are crucial to keeping the project plan. In

the waterfall methodology, the scope is fixed

and the uncertainty that always exists often

results in increased costs and thus also late

deliveries in person-intensive projects. In an

agile project, however, it is included to fix the

cost and schedule because the scope and

deliveries are systematically evaluated and

reassessed during the project.

The decision taken in DSDM / Athene is

to ensure that all "Must-Requirements"

will be included and the project will end

in time. To achieve this, the require-

ments which must be met must not

exceed 60 % of the project’s cost budget.

In order to control the project, "Time-

boxing" is applied where the project's

cost budget and resourceplanning is

divided into a calender interval for each

increment. The "must-requirements" are

then allocated to increment in such a way that they occupy a maximum of 60 percent of the

available resource in each increment.

DSDM/Athern and Scrum have great

similarities in handeling of a running

increment/sprint but differs in the way of

planning. The starting point is keeping

the budget and the deadline. This is done

by determining the time boxes until the

deadline and then determining the

resource use for each Timebox and in

total to keep the project budget. 1. Planning of Timeboxes and Resources.

2. Each sprint is defined within a calender-

interval and can be given an hourly

budget.

3. All sprints can be conveniently

configured in Excel and then imported into LeanFour ™ TP3.

4. When the timeboxes are defined with a calendar period and

budget, the resource plan is adjusted so that the number of

hours booked by participants with the right skills matches

the need.

5. The activities based on the MoSCoW model have the priority

"Must" moved to the ToDo column.

6. The Burndown chart shows that the resource planning and

the timebox budget match in the example.

7. This displays the estimated number of hours for the activities

moved to the ToDo column.

The so-called iron triangles are handled differently in

waterfall and DSDM projects

Principbild över DSDM/Athern och planering på av alla

Timeboxar till varsin Kanbantavla

Planning the next Sprint

5 (8) Senast uppdaterat 2019-04-16

© L

n4 S

olu

tio

ns A

B,

april 2019

Avsik

tlig

t används s

am

ma b

ilder

som

i d

en e

ngels

ka v

ers

ionen

Nexus and LeanFour™ TP3 Working with one or two agile teams

provides no problem in coordination. In the

case of more teams there can be much

coordination. The number of contact areas

increases exponentially and there is feedback

to give to the group. To avoid loss of

information in these meetings, documentation

must be made and administered.

NEXUS is a framework

designed to overcome the

inefficiencies that arise from

the upscaling of a simple and

well-functioning Scrum

application with a single

Team. Nexus allows each

Team to appoint a

representative who does not

need to be the scrum-master

and who can rotate the team. These form

Together with the product owner and perhaps an integration manager an NIT (Nexus

Integration team). All teams will also work towards a common backlog and discuss and

prioritize the order of the different features found in the product backlog.

LeanFour™ TP3 facilitates coordination and minimizes the need for a NIT.

1. For each project, projects participants

can be divided into an unlimited

number of teams that have their own

Kanban board.

2. Each team can enter a project backlog

by checking a control. An additional

column will appear on the Kanban

board where free Backlog notes are

displayed.

3. Each team can visualize the project’s

all features (work package). Splitting to

the activity tags for each feature can

also be done by the team from this

Dialog.

4. By reading the project's Gantt chart

on the timeline, a Team can easily

assess and prioritize the data in the

back log.

Productivity decreases with more teams in a project

Each project can have an unlimited number of teams with their

own Kanban board share a common backlog

6 (8) Senast uppdaterat 2019-04-16

© L

n4 S

olu

tio

ns A

B,

april 2019

Avsik

tlig

t används s

am

ma b

ilder

som

i d

en e

ngels

ka v

ers

ionen

LeSS and LeanFour™ TP3 LeSS or Large Scale Scrum is not a method but an

attempt to scale up something that works well in

the small format e.g. the methods of Kanban,

Scrum, DSDM/Athern etc. in order to achieve the

vision of a self-governing body. The challenge in

LeSS is even greater than that of many teams in a

single project. Digitisation offers a way out of

endless coordination meetings and geographical

centralisation. LeanFour™ TP3, where TP3 stands

for teams, portfolios, programs and projects means

an opportunity to apply an agile approach as

described in literature with full transparency and for a globally dispersed organization that

allows "work where you are". At the same time, personnel organization can also plan for a

full capacity use.

LeanFour™ TP3 is designed to give full control of

resource usage in organizations where the user is the

limiting factor. The principle is the

supply and demand of resource hours.

Demand for these comes in form of

the need from portfolios of product

programs that may have a portfolio of

component projects. The need can be

in the form of hours from a person or

competency or hours from a Team.

Planning means simultaneous

occupancy and nystheefore be

expressed as a need per wiik or

month.

1. The component project records the

capacity of the teams to work with

work packages.

2. The schedule for the component

project and the total volumes are

within the booked capacity.

3. Each Team has a presence planning

of participating people, which gives

a capacity that grows aggregated over the calendar time.

4. It is easy to have control so that the team use you have booked does not exceed the planned

capacity of the planned resource hours for the team.

5. A team has a time view that shows all the work packages that are placed on the team. In this

context, the size and schedule of work packages in the calendar are visible within the actual

resource planning.

SAFe and established project management

The difference between an agile paradigm and an established project management is mainly

the responsibility and actions of the roles (Management). Instead of a project manager who

The composition of persons may vary

depending on the application of team

With LeanFour TP3, it is possible to create an infrastructure for

making an agile paradigm that LeSS and SAFe possible to overview

7 (8) Senast uppdaterat 2019-04-16

© L

n4 S

olu

tio

ns A

B,

april 2019

Avsik

tlig

t används s

am

ma b

ilder

som

i d

en e

ngels

ka v

ers

ionen

directs and puts people in the project and reports to a client, it applies self-management in all

teams in a structured interaction with a product owner who in turn is responsible for a

management. The activity's metadata in the form of the purpose of the Client/Stakeholders,

finance, hours, investments, etc. are still the same (Governance). In addition, the auditors

and the tax authority are required to follow up in order to activate investments as assets in

the balance sheet. En ledningsfunktion behöver också ha full transparens i hur resurser

planeras och används för att klara sin uppgift med att prioritera och fatta bästa möjliga

beslut, vilket är omöjligt utan ett BI system och helst kombinerat med ett AI.

Portfolio SAFe with touch points marked and explained below

SAFe is largely new designations on an already existing governance. This is to facilitate the

understanding of a business that wants to apply agile methods and clarify the difference in

the application of management. The following is an attempt to map.

Portfolio/Program 1. Epic – Corresponds to the programme's purpose and is expressed as the impact targets

which are the basis for defining input projects (Program Increment) objectives.

2. Enabler – Corresponds to the program's value deliveries also known as enablers in value

Management.

3. KPIs – it is possible to apply Earned Value Management (EVM) Even when the work is done

according to agile techniques with Scrum, DSDM etc. Financial control with an accrual-

based budget, planning and follow-up is feasible and recommended. The auditors'

requirement for accounting for costs in order to activate investments as assets must still be

met. EVM is compulsory in military contexts and many authorities.

4. NFRs – Non-functional requirements have their counterpart in Project Excellency Baseline,

where a program is evaluated among others. Precisely in this respect and then with the

application of Deming's circle I a. Plan-Do-Check-ACT technology.

Projekt/Team 5. PI Objectives – Program Increment can easily be translated into the initiatives that a

Program starts within its budget and is implemented in project form with a clear purpose,

i.e. objectives and shall result in value deliveries of enablers.

8 (8) Senast uppdaterat 2019-04-16

© L

n4 S

olu

tio

ns A

B,

april 2019

Avsik

tlig

t används s

am

ma b

ilder

som

i d

en e

ngels

ka v

ers

ionen

6. Story – A technique to describe Objectives for the initiative. The wishes of the project to be

met by to produce what constitutes the enabler; i.e. the enablers, which are needed to

achieve the program's effect goals.

7. Enablers – The value deliveries of the project and the enablers that are necessary to

achieve an intermediate goal e.g. in the form of a user story.

8. Scrum – Kanban – The WBS consists of solution components that can be scheduled in a

Gantt view. The length is preferably set longer than a sprint of 3 - 5 weeks. The rest of the

WBS one is designed into a list of tasks (Task) managed on a Kanban-board.

9. Feature – Solution component/function or a larger work package which in turn breaks

down to the tasks that the team uses in their planning which are the patches on a Kanban-

board.

10. NFRs – Non-functional requirements that are realized at this level as the checklists usually

applied to quality assurance of a project.

11. Roadmap – Normally realized with a Gantt chart schedule or schedule (ISO 21500).

12. Milestones – Milestones symbolize a milestone consisting of defined enablers. At a

scheduled time, it is evaluated if the milestone has been achieved or not. In the latter case,

action must be taken, and delays notified.

13. Metrics – Established KPIs for the management and evaluation of programmes and benefit

realisation. For projects, Earned Value Management is used and for resources, occupancy,

efficiency and productivity.

LeanFour ® TP3 is the perfect bridging between agile techniques and approaches and the

established governance of project as described in ISO 21500 and governance in accordance

with ISO 21505. The agile methods supported by the software are: Scrum, NEXUS, LeSS,

and DSDM/Athern, etc.

LeanFour™ TP3 provides a complete control and overview of the planned and reported

resource usage and quality assurance based on CMMI Project maturity measurement and

Project Excellence Baseline från IPMA. The software also reports a periodic follow-up to

plans as well as an estimate of the final cost forecast. LeanFour® TP3 applies Earned Value

Management automatically on all projects.

LeanFour ® TP3 FeatureButtons

for the basic views and can to

present clickable images for your

own custom processes