Making Better Business Decisions with Flow Metrics

A look at how to expose common business problems using flow metrics to help you and your boss make better business decisions.

Transcript

1. © 2019 Tasktop @dominicad Making Better Business Decisions with Flow Metrics Dominica DeGrandis, Principal Flow Advisor Author of Making Work Visible: Exposing Time Theft
2. © 2019 Tasktop @dominicad • Few compelling sets of data to visualize at biz level • Delivering value to customers quickly requires fast, smooth flow of work • Flow metrics help you improve business decisions WHAT’s THE POINT?
3. © 2019 Tasktop @dominicad • Few compelling sets of data to visualize at biz level • Delivering value to customers quickly requires fast, smooth flow of work • Flow metrics help you improve business decisions WHAT’s THE POINT?
4. © 2019 Tasktop @dominicad Image taken with permission from Jon Smart presentation at DOES London 2018 – credit Klaus Leopold Barclays’ Value Stream
5. © 2019 Tasktop @dominicad v Flow Time: A measure of speed v Flow Velocity: A measure of throughput v Flow Distribution: A measure to see tradeoffs v Flow Load: Amount of Work-in-Progress (WIP) v Flow Efficiency: Work vs. wait time ratio 5FLOW METRICS: Why, How, + considera>ons
6. © 2019 Tasktop @dominicad Make tradeoffs clear – help set strategic direction Flow Distribution: A measure to see tradeoffs
7. © 2019 Tasktop @dominicad Dominica DeGrandis Thief Neglected Work Neglected Work is partially completed work that gets postponed. It’s work that sits idle on the bench waiting for attention. Neglected work is a time thief b/c it either gets in the way of higher value work or it delays the delivery of important work. NEGLECTED WORK
8. © 2019 Tasktop @dominicad Flow Distribution allocation (3) (1) (5) (5) WIP limit Context influences strategy If just deployed a big release, may want to allocate more capacity to fix risks & defects. If you continue to do more feature work, you can’t expect it won’t take away from doing risk work.
9. © 2019 Tasktop @dominicad Flow Time – a measure of speed Yes, let’s do this! Flow Time: The duration from when work enters the value stream to its completion.
10. © 2019 Tasktop @dominicad Dominica DeGrandis Unplanned Work: Interruptions that prevent you from finishing something or from stopping at a better breaking point. Unplanned Work is a time thief b/c unplanned work usurps planned work UNPLANNED WORK Unplanned Work: • Delays planned work • Steals your predictability The enemy of getting work done is not you're lack of talent - it's being interrupted.
11. © 2019 Tasktop @dominicad Look at Flow time date Measuring Flow Time
12. © 2019 Tasktop @dominicad “Be approximately right instead of exactly wrong”. ~John Tukey
13. © 2019 Tasktop @dominicad Flow Velocity: A measure of throughput A decision to do one thing is a decision to delay something else.
14. © 2019 Tasktop @dominicad https://itrevolution.com/book/the-cornerstone-for-winning/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qav1y7G15JQ People have a finite amount of capacity
15. © 2019 Tasktop @dominicad Look at Throughput Measuring Flow Velocity date
16. © 2019 Tasktop @dominicad Flow Load: Amount of Work-in-Progress (WIP) Flow Load: All the partially completed work. All the work-in- progress (WIP) in the value stream
17. © 2019 Tasktop @dominicad Dominica DeGrandis Too much WIP comes from too much Yes TOO MUCH WIP
18. © 2019 Tasktop @dominicad • Design overall architecture of the web application. • Maintain quality and ensure responsiveness of applications. • Collaborate with the rest of the engineering team to design and launch new features. • Maintain code integrity and organization. • Experience working with graphic designers and converting designs to visual elements. • Understanding/ implementation of security and data protection. • High experience {{back-end programming languages: PHP, Python, Ruby, Java, .NET, JavaScript}} • Proficient experience using {{advanced JavaScript libraries and frameworks such as AngularJS, KnockoutJS, BackboneJS, ReactJS, DurandalJS etc.}}. • Development experience for both mobile and desktop. • Understanding of server-side languages including {{such-as Jade, EJS, Jinja, etc.}}. • Experience with cloud message APIs and usage of push notifications. • Knowledge of code versioning tools {{such as Git, Mercurial or SVN}}. https://insights.stackoverflow.com/survey/2019 The Rise of the Full Stack Engineer
19. © 2019 Tasktop @dominicad https://itrevolution.com/book/full-stack-teams-not-engineers/ DevOps is about enabling different teams to communicate and work better together, not eliminating the need for cross-team communication by merging teams or making one person responsible for everything.
20. © 2019 Tasktop @dominicad WIP is a leading indicator • WIP is a leading indicator • The single most important factor that affects wait time is capacity utilization Why Work-in-Progress Matters
21. © 2019 Tasktop @dominicad Flow Load: The WIP report
22. © 2019 Tasktop @dominicad “If we have data, let’s look at data. If all we have are opinions, let’s go with mine.” - Jim Barksdale Be the voice of reason.
23. © 2019 Tasktop @dominicad @dominicad Flow Efficiency: The percentage of time where work is in an active state vs. a wait state. Why Flow Efficiency - Expose wait time Benefit: Learn how much wait time exists in Value Stream to drive discussion to improve decisions on prioritization, capacity & utilization.
24. © 2019 Tasktop @dominicad Dominica DeGrandis INVISIBLE DEPENDENCIES Where is the feature delivery bottleneck?
25. © 2019 Tasktop @dominicad Where is my feature delivery bottleneck? Too few designers caused wait states on upstream UX work FLOW EFFICIENCY
26. © 2019 Tasktop @dominicad @dominicad “If you measure anything, measure wait time.” UX design
27. © 2019 Tasktop @dominicad Considerations
28. © 2019 Tasktop @dominicad @dominicad A metric to gage safety Examples: • On my team, failure causes inquiry and not blame. • Our leadership is open to hearing bad news. • In my org, failures are learning opportunities and messengers are not punished. • People on our team trust one another @nicolefv h+ps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=avauW5FAWCw promoters passives detractors Flow Safety: A measure of trust
29. © 2019 Tasktop @dominicad Make tradeoffs visible: If one metric improves, what is the impact to other metrics? Define early warning signs: What signals to look for to recognize when one metric is over-optimized? When is it time to prioritize other metrics?
30. © 2019 Tasktop @dominicad What we measure impacts people because people value what is measured.
31. © 2019 Tasktop @dominicad TAKEAWAYS & BENEFITS • Flow metrics are tied to business value • Flow metrics are based on outcomes • Flow metrics provide a feedback loop to improve decisions
32. © 2019 Tasktop @dominicad IT can't be successful without business support and business people can’t support IT if ideas aren't framed in terms they understand. Involve your business people
33. © 2019 Tasktop @dominicad § Flow Time – speed § Flow Distribution – work item types § Flow Velocity – throughput § Flow Efficiency – wait time ratio § Flow Load – WIP 5 Flow Metrics - focused on business outcomes
34. © 2019 Tasktop @dominicad @dominicad How to Get started with Flow Metrics Start capturing 1 work item type in 1 VS and 1 flow metric Homework: Find 1 business leader & 1 IT leader and take steps toward alignment. It's up to you.
35. Email: dominica@SendYourSlides.com Subject: flow To receive: • copy of this presentation deck • Full Stack Teams, Not Engineers • Flow 101 workshop info • Value Stream Canvas exercise • Tasktop tool integration video on ServiceNow & Jira • excerpts of Making Work Visible • Forrester report on Value Stream Mgmt