the broken state of process improvement in software development

A g i l e I n d i a 2 0 1 4

BROKEN STATE OF PROCESSWhy software process improvement is broken… and what

to do about it…

A BIT ABOUT ME…

ThoughtWorker Product Manager by trade See a lot of processes Unfortunate Six Sigma Black Belt Fascinated by process wonkery

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GOAL: !

TRY, MEASURE, LEARNSoftware development processes… Be incremental about your process, just like your delivery

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HOW WE THINK ABOUT PROCESS IMPROVEMENT IS BROKENToo many people like me are telling you what you *should* do…

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WE ARE OBSESSED WITH…

▫︎ Small batches, watch your queues ▫︎Measure the cost of delay ▫︎ Pair ▫︎ Scrum/Kanban/SAFe ▫︎Do TDD ▫︎Do CI ▫︎Do CD ▫︎ LeanUX ▫︎ Burn up ▫︎ Run experiments ▫︎ Build, Measure, Learn ▫︎ Control chart !!!

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Frameworks Methodologies Practices

All great guide posts but…

WHAT’S THE POINT?

Why do we have processes in the first place?

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Hans Splinter - http://www.flickr.com/photos/archeon/4885276155/ via cc

REDUCE VARIATION IN A BUSINESS OUTCOMEYour process shouldn’t get in the way…

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A BAD PROCESS

Doesn’t achieve the outcome !

OR !

Doesn’t reduce variation in that outcome !

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WHAT ARE YOUR OUTCOMES THEN?

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Facilitate a decentralized, empowered, collaborative workplace

the most critical aspects of being adaptive leaders. These are

Value(Releasable Product)

Figure 4: The Agile Triangle

Jim Highsmith’s Agile Triangle Speed

Quality

Performance

Compliance

User Experience

Responsiveness

Learning

Customer Satisfaction

…

PRINCIPLES OF PRODUCT DEV FLOW

Read it Particularly the chapter on variation ■ Pay-off functions

■ Pay-off asymmetries

■ Some of it is wrong :-)

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Reducing variation isn’t bad, reducing it irrespective of the outcome is bad

HOW DO PROCESSES AFFECT YOUR OUTCOMES?Let’s talk about throughput to make things easy…

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MARGINAL BENEFIT OF ADDITIONAL PROCESS

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It turns negative! Assuming small discrete steps as a simplification…

ALL VARIATION IS REDUCED

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INSTITUTIONAL MEDIOCRITY

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REAL EXAMPLE - CUSTOMER CONVERSATION

Problem: Poor Unit Testing Solution: Attach tests to stories, fill out form !

Cost: 300 Devs X 10mins per check-in X 200 Days X 3 checkins per day = !

30,000 Hrs or 15 Person Years!15

STANDARDIZATIONUt oh… Let’s challenge a scaling core belief

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SCALED INSTITUTIONALIZED MEDIOCRITY

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DIFFERENT TEAM OUTCOMES?

How can you go “faster” if need to follow “slow” processes? !

Do you have “special”teams?

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Neus1.jpg via cc

WHAT HAPPENS WHEN OUTCOMES CHANGE?

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Felix Burton - http://flickr.com/photos/65328860@N00/14320717 via cc

Speed

Quality

Performance

Compliance

User Experience

Responsiveness

Learning

Customer Satisfaction

…

Org process rollouts tend to be big bang.

STANDARDIZATION CREATES RESPONSIBILITY DISCONNECT

Rarely do leaders blame the process for poor outcomes

!20A2gemma - http://www.flickr.com/photos/a2gemma/1448178195/ via cc

REPORTING IS NOT AN OUTCOMEIf you have a bunch of process or unnecessary standardization to facilitate the “right” report for managers or the PMO, you’re doing it wrong… Good reporting = side effect of good process

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SCALE ISN’T AN EXCUSE FOR PROCESS COMPLEXITYScale brings complexity. Just like in a good product, your job is to strive for simplicity despite the complexity. Hide complexity from your teams.

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WHY DO WE STANDARDIZE?

▫︎Common language across teams

▫︎ People fungibility

▫︎ Reporting

▫︎Management convenience

▫︎ Investment management

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SOLUTIONS?Questions and practices as guide posts!

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How complex is your process?

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Can a random team member accurately describe your process?

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Are your processes any good?

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Are you hitting your outcomes?

Are you hitting your outcomes consistently?

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Do you have feedback loops across organizational hierarchy?

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Do your standards change?

Is there a visible feedback mechanism?

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How much time do you spend administering your processes a

day?

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Do you “work the spreadsheet”?

Does reporting take days?

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TRY, MEASURE, LEARN

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Try

Measure

Learn

Ideas

StepsData

http://theleanstartup.com/principles

EXPERIMENTS

▫︎ Clear hypothesis/problem statement

▫︎ Ability to measure the result

▫︎ Constant monitoring of biz outcomes

▫︎ Stop things that hurt outcomes or affect variation (in an unwanted direction)

▫︎ Learn a bit about stats

▫︎ Rinse, repeat

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MINIMUM VIABLE PROCESS

▫︎ Start from the minimum amount of process required to get the outcome you want.

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▫︎ Tweak until you get the right consistency (process costs)

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▫︎ Carefully add to support for other goals, as marginal additions eventually turn negative (try to subtract things, and keep measuring outcomes!)

▫︎ The Improvement Kata looks interesting (I haven’t used it

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MINIMUM VIABLE STANDARDIZATION

▫︎ Start from the minimum amount of standardization for visibility and communication. (e.g. 3 key metrics, or common names for work items) !

▫︎Make sure your base standardization gives teams plenty of wiggle room. !

▫︎Carefully add, measuring the outcomes!32

SHAMELESS PLUG

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Now O

SS!

TRY, MEASURE, LEARN !

PROCESSES HAVE COST !

KNOW YOUR OUTCOMESThen have fun with all those frameworks, methodologies, and practices

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Twitter: @twchad

THANK YOU!