strategic portfolio management with kanban
TRANSCRIPT
Strategic Portfolio Management With Kanban
Nicolas Mercier ([email protected]) &
Frédéric Paquet ([email protected])
Speakers
Frédéric Paquet
Nicolas Mercier
Agenda
Yesterday
Today
Tomorrow
Based on an operational experience in a government field.
With more than 1k IT folks.
Intro
There must be a better way?
You didn’t even think about asking yourself this question. 1
You asked yourself this question but can’t find answers. 2
You found the answers. 3
Intro
Disclaimer
Once upon a time, the creation
• A sometime epic story
(in the non-agile way of the term)
• Team building (internal & external)
• Define scope, budget and schedule
… of a project
Accountability measures and KPIs
• Baseline, BAC
• EV, SV, CV, SPI, CPI, TCPI
• Velocity
• Parking graph
• Sunset graph
Tactics and tricks
• Happy hours
• Recursive Padding
• Watermelon indicators
Project-centric dimension
• Let’s suppose everything is fine
but there is still a problem …
,
WE ARE NOT ALONE
A successful project can hurt the organization
Everyone is full capacity
300
J F M A M J J A S O N D J F
A common strategy to fix the problem
• Plan better
Magic button
All I have to do, is hit the magic button …
The perfect master gantt
From creation to …
SCIENCE FICTION
We need an army of PCOs and PMs
At a portfolio level
At a portfolio level
From beginning to realization
The longer the process for starting a project is ...
the more difficult it will be to stop it.
And you got a lot of useless features
• 64% of features really rarely or Never used
Standish Group
TODAY
There must be a better way?!
If only someone could have invented something to put on your head to block the sun from your eyes…
1. Visualize
2. Limit WIP
3. Manage flow
4. Make policies explicit
5. Implement feedback loops
6. Improve continuously
Our experience with Kanban
Source: Essential Kanban – Condensed Guide, 2016, p. 17, http://leankanban.com/guide/
REVEAL THRIVE STABILIZE
Visualize
• Where is what? • Dependencies? • Health? • Issues? • Whatever!
Let’s see this thing!
Visualize - Start with what you do now
Reveal the system!
• See it just the way it is. • Don’t change it in any way. • Empower people to own it.
This will generally hurt quite a bit.
Visualize
Why do we do this to ourselves?
Visualize - The Great Kanban!
Visualize - Systems Thinking
A system is not the sum of it’s part, it’s the product of their interactions. - Russell L. Ackoff
Limit your WIP
Stop starting, start finishing!
Limit your WIP
Maximize productivity Become responsive collectively
…but how?
Limit your WIP - Pull
Pull!
• Create a pull system. • Value creation will
drive your choices.
Value
Limit your WIP – Little’s Law
L = W
L = W
WIP
= Throughput
Cycle Time
Manage flow
Go with the flow!
• Decentralize decisions. • Empower and trust your people. • Support your system:
• Eliminate bottlenecks. • Puts the spotlight on constraints. • Set up a cadence.
Manage flow - Cadence
• Rythmn of the system. • Creates alignment and synchronisation.
• Breaks down BIG THINGS into small things.
Move to the beat!
Make policies explicit
Know the rules!
• Use Definitions of Done. • Share and follow the rules. • Ex: Card templates
Implement feedback loops
Portfolio
Project
Team
Weekly sync and Quarterly replenishment
Sprint review and planning
Daily meeting
Improve continuously
Inspect and Adapt!
• High level drives high impact. • Invest in improvement opportunities
at this level.
You’ll be rewared!
TOMORROW
We still have challenges to come
How does the highest level of government measure the success of
IT Initiatives?
Evaluating IT initiatives as an whole vs Individually
VS VS
Go from silos to system
WE’RE LUCKY THE HOLE ISN’T ON
OUR SIDE!
The non-performing system
The performing project
We still have challenges to come
The fear of auditor or medias is strong
Transparency vs individual’s motivations
VS
We still have challenges to come
• Your structure will need to change. Sometimes drastically to support these things: • Flatten your organization • Break silos • Move from project-centric to user-centric • Make boundaries from roles and responsabilities a little
more blurry • DevOps
• Understand people will disappear… and reappear in new form (caterpillar to butterfly)
• Measure the impact of changes is hard on things that last for months at a time
Metrics
• Focus more on outcomes than following the plan
• Use flow metrics and Value to steer your decisions
Questions?