Experimentation and the scientific method are very valuable for validating business opportunities. The Lean Startup and Lean UX are driving new thought patterns in the software development world. However, despite all the new thinking on product, rarely do organizations apply these techniques to their processes, opting for inefficiently adding more steps ad nauseum until productivity has ground to a halt. We’ll cover the following topics: What are processes, and why do we need them How processes affect delivery and productivity Scale and process inefficiency Process experimentation techniques Designing productive processes

1. Agile India 2014
BROKEN STATE OF PROCESS
Why software process improvement is broken… and what
to do about it…

2. A BIT ABOUT ME…
ThoughtWorker
Product Manager by
trade
See a lot of processes
Unfortunate Six Sigma
Black Belt
Fascinated by process
wonkery
!2

3. GOAL:
TRY, MEASURE,
LEARN
!
Software development processes… Be incremental about your process, just like
your delivery
!3

4. HOW WE THINK
ABOUT PROCESS
IMPROVEMENT IS
BROKEN
Too many people like me are telling you what you *should* do…
!4

5. WE ARE OBSESSED WITH…
Frameworks
Methodologies
Practices
your
▫︎ Small batches, watchdelay queues
easure
▫︎ Mair the cost of
▫︎ Pcrum/Kanban/SAFe
▫︎ S o TDD
▫︎ Do CI
▫︎ Do CD
▫︎ DeanUX
▫︎ LBurn up
▫︎ Run experiments
▫︎ Build, Measure, Learn
▫︎ Control chart
▫︎
!
!
!
All great guide posts but…
!5

6. WHAT’S THE POINT?
Why do we have processes in the first place?
Hans Splinter - http://www.flickr.com/photos/archeon/
4885276155/ via cc
!6

7. REDUCE VARIATION
IN A BUSINESS
OUTCOME
Your process shouldn’t get in the way…
!7

8. A BAD PROCESS
Doesn’t achieve the outcome
!
OR
!
Doesn’t reduce variation in that outcome
!
!8

9. WHAT ARE YOUR OUTCOMES THEN?
Jim Highsmith’s Agile Triangle
Value
(Releasable Product)
ace
Speed
Quality
Performance
Compliance
User Experience
Responsiveness
e
Learning
Figure 4: The Agile Triangle
Customer
Satisfaction
…
!9

10. PRINCIPLES OF PRODUCT DEV FLOW
Read it
Particularly the
chapter on variation
■ Pay-off functions
■ Pay-off asymmetries
■ Some of it is wrong :-)
Reducing variation isn’t
bad, reducing it
irrespective of the
outcome is bad
!10

11. HOW DO PROCESSES
AFFECT YOUR
OUTCOMES?
Let’s talk about throughput to make things easy…
!11

12. MARGINAL BENEFIT OF ADDITIONAL PROCESS
It turns negative! Assuming small discrete steps as a simplification…
!12

13. ALL VARIATION IS REDUCED
!13

14. INSTITUTIONAL MEDIOCRITY
!14

15. 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

16. STANDARDIZATION
Ut oh… Let’s challenge a scaling core belief
!16

17. SCALED INSTITUTIONALIZED MEDIOCRITY
!17

18. DIFFERENT TEAM OUTCOMES?
How can you go “faster” if need to follow
“slow” processes?
!
Do you have “special”
teams?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Neus1.jpg via cc
!18

19. WHAT HAPPENS WHEN OUTCOMES CHANGE?
Speed
Quality
Performance
Compliance
User Experience
Responsiveness
Felix Burton - http://flickr.com/photos/65328860@N00/14320717 via cc
Org process rollouts tend
to be big bang.
Learning
Customer
Satisfaction
…
!19

20. STANDARDIZATION CREATES RESPONSIBILITY DISCONNECT
Rarely do leaders blame the process for
poor outcomes
A2gemma - http://www.flickr.com/photos/a2gemma/1448178195/ via cc
!20

21. REPORTING IS NOT
AN OUTCOME
If 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
!21

22. SCALE ISN’T AN
EXCUSE FOR
PROCESS
COMPLEXITY
Scale brings complexity. Just like in a good product, your job is to strive for
simplicity despite the complexity. Hide complexity from your teams.
!22

23. WHY DO WE STANDARDIZE?
▫︎ People fungibility
▫︎ Reporting
▫︎ Management convenience
▫︎ Investment management
▫︎
Common language across teams
!23

24. SOLUTIONS?
Questions and practices as guide posts!
!24

25. How complex is your process?
!
Can a random team member accurately
describe your process?
!25

26. Are your processes any good?
!
Are you hitting your outcomes?
Are you hitting your outcomes
consistently?
!26

27. Do you have feedback loops
across organizational hierarchy?
!
Do your standards change?
Is there a visible feedback mechanism?
!27

28. How much time do you spend
administering your processes a
day?
!
Do you “work the spreadsheet”?
Does reporting take days?
!28

29. TRY, MEASURE, LEARN
Ideas
Try
Learn
Data
http://theleanstartup.com/
principles
Steps
Measure
!29

30. 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
!30

31. MINIMUM VIABLE PROCESS
from the minimum amount
▫︎ Startthe outcome you want. of process required to
get
!
▫︎ Tweak until you get the right consistency (process costs)
goals, as marginal
▫︎ Carefully add to support for other (try to subtract things,
additions eventually turn negative
!
and keep measuring outcomes!)
▫︎ The Improvement Kata looks interesting (I haven’t used
it
!31

32. 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

33. N
ow
O
SS
!
SHAMELESS PLUG
!33

34. TRY, MEASURE, LEARN
PROCESSES HAVE COST
!
KNOW YOUR OUTCOMES
!
Then have fun with all those frameworks, methodologies, and practices
!34

35. THANK YOU!
Twitter: @twchad