9. The White Bead Co.
ITIL
WE LISTEN TO
OUR PEOPLE
CMMI5
ISO9000
Only at their annual appraisal
10. We Are Recruiting!
3 willing workers. Must be willing to put in best
efforts. Continuation of job is based on performance.
No experience in making beads necessary. Educational
requirements-nil.
1 inspector. Must be able to distinguish red from
white. Must be able to count to 20. No experience
necessary.
1 chief inspector. Same qualifications as inspector.
Must be able to speak in a loud voice.
ABOVE AVERAGE WORKERS
ONLY NEED APPLY
11. FINISHED FILES ARE THE RESULT OF YEARS
OF SCIENTIFIC STUDY COMBINED WITH
THE EXPERIENCE OF MANY YEARS.
12.
13. Lessons learned
• Did incentives work?
• Did the motivational posters help?
• Did have a CMMI standard process work?
• What could managers do to improve things
for the workers?
• What are the red beads in your company?
14. Lessons learned
• It’s the system not the workers
• It’s management thinking that designed the system
• Arbitrary numerical targets were completely ineffective
• Rewarding or punishing the workers had no effect
• Rigid and precise procedures are not sufficient to produce
quality
• Keeping the ‘best’ workers did not work
• Management tampering creates more problems than it solves
• Posters and slogans are at best useless and can be insulting
and create resentment
• The biggest source of variation was in the system
24. Setting a Target
Upper Control Limit
✓ Average
Lower Control Limit
Performance
✗
Time
25. “I recently asked a colleague [CIO] whether he would
prefer to deliver a project somewhat late and
overbudget, but rich with business benefits, or one that is
on time and underbudget but of scant value to the
business.
He thought it was a tough call, and then went for the on-
time scenario. Delivering on time and within budget is
part of his IT department’s performance metrics.
Chasing after the elusive business value, over which he
thought he had little control anyway, is not.”
Cutter Sr. Consultant Helen Pukszta
26. If you give a manager
a numerical target, he’ll
make it, even if he has to
destroy the company in
the process.
27. The Third Principle of the Theory of
Variation
Work on the Causes of
Variation,
Which are Always Found in
the System
28. Majority of Performance is
Down to the System
A bad system will
defeat a good person
every time.
System 95%
Individual 5%
29. System Conditions
Work Design Business Cases
Policies Funding
Measures Poor requirements
Structure
Roles Inspection
Procedures Compliance
Information
Job skills
Knowledge
30. The Fourth Principle of the Theory of
Variation
Understanding Variation
Tells you When Something
has Happened
31. Special Cause vs
Common Cause
Velocity
50
40
30
20
10
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24
32. Did we improve?
Change
introduced
after sprint 8
30
20
10
0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16