let your tasks flow like water!

Apr 2016 - Antonio De Marinis, Michael Norén

TASKMAN TRAINING

Let your tasks flow like water!

Training agendaMotivation - our success storyIntro to Agile methodologiesAgile at EEA: FlowTips and tricksTaskman roles, who does whatTaskman featuresIDM2 setupLet’s do it - Exercises

Motivation

MotivationLost tasks in emails and excel sheets, avoid chaosProject tasks vs private tasksStay in controlBetter prioritizationClear who is doing what, no more ambiguityVisualise workMeasure progress, find bottlenecksLess meetings neededLess documentation overheadBetter feedback loop = better output

Motivation

Within any shared system we need framework and policies to avoid chaos and the depletion of the common resources (Tragedy of the commons).

The tragedy of the commons is an economic theory of

a situation within a shared-resource system where

individual users acting independently and rationally

according to their own self-interest behave contrary to

the common good of all users by depleting that

resource.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tragedy_of_the_commons

Motivation

Share lessons learned and best practices

Some definitions

Motivation - our success story

83 days

47 days38 days

17 days

Tasks got faster and faster like turbocharging our team!

28 days26 days 19 days

The process has high impact

Note the IDM2 A-Team lead time (~9 days), much shorter compared to other software teams. IT Helpdesk has the shortest (< 7h) due to the specific kind of work (non-software development).

How did we achieve this?


🏁 Stop starting, start finishing

🔞 Limit work in progress

⏰ Fast feedback loop

Main policies:

Motivation - our success story 🏁 Stop starting,

start finishing🔞 Limit work in progress (WIP)

⏰ Fast feedback loopProject A

Project B

Finish A

Finish B

Start

Start

12 months

Project A

Project B Finish B

6 months

Finish A

6 months

Start

Start

+ task switching time

Imagine resource available: one fte developer. Work on 2 projects.

Option1

Option2


Little’s law*:

Average lead time (LT) = Average WIP (WIP) / Average Throughput (TH)

* Little’s law was found in 1928 by John Little (Prof. MIT) in the discipline of queueing theory

It implies that increasing WIP leads to a higher LT and vice versa - check to reduce WIP to increase LT

in order to get stuff done faster, you need to work on less (on average)

🏁 Stop starting, start finishing🔞 Limit work in progress (WIP)


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little%27s_law

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Little_(academic)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queueing_theory

Monitor WIP-limits in TaskmanGOOD BAD

Motivation - our success story 🏁 Stop starting, start

finishing🔞 Limit work in progress (WIP)


To-do list

time

WIP = 1

Needs FeedbackArea




To-do list

time

?

Needs clarifications

Startnew ticket

WIP = 1

Needs FeedbackArea




To-do list

time

WIP = 1

Needs FeedbackArea




To-do list

time

WIP = 1

?


Startnew ticket

Needs FeedbackArea




To-do list

time

WIP = 1

Needs FeedbackArea




To-do list

time

WIP = 1

Needs FeedbackArea

?


Startnew ticket




To-do list

time

WIP = 1

Needs FeedbackArea




To-do list

time

WIP = 1

Needs FeedbackArea

Startnew ticket

Feedback given




To-do list

time

WIP = 1

Needs FeedbackArea

Startnew ticket




To-do list

time

WIP = 1

Needs FeedbackArea

Startnew ticket

Feedback given

Feedback given




To-do list

time

WIP = 1

Needs FeedbackArea

Startnew ticket




To-do list

time

WIP = 1

Needs FeedbackArea

Startnew ticket

Now WIP = 4Task switching will kill performance?!




To-do list

time

WIP = 1

Needs FeedbackArea

Startnew ticket

Now WIP = 4Task switching will kill performance?!

These are stuck hereThese tasks will have to wait much longer now




To-do list

time

?


Startnew ticket

WIP = 1

Lesson learned: Don’t start a new ticket too easily. Chase after feedback first.

Feedback queue in Taskman

Agile methodologies

Waterfall

Agile(Scrum, Kanban, Lean)

VS

project methodologiesWaterfall = Space mission Each step takes months/years with little flexibility to change

project methodologiesWaterfall = Space missionScrum = Cruise ship Sprints of 2-3 weeks each= mini waterfalls

Sprint 1

Sprint 2

Sprint 3

project methodologiesWaterfall = Space missionKanban = RaftingKanban = Motorboat

EEA Flow process

Product Owners,Stakeholders

Idea / Requests

Meetings

Emails

Usability tests

Stakeholders

Users feedback

Product Strategy

External factors Team

Manager,Developers

Developers Product Owners,Team Manager

Developers

EEA Flow process - multi-projects

EEA FLOW PROCESS - detailed view

Implementation at EEA: Flow

ideas

Epics (XXL/XL user stories)

Contextual prioritised list(L/M/S user stories)

Product Owner +Stakeholders (product team)

Product Owner + Team

Product Owner + Team

GREEN PRODUCT

Delivery Team(cross-functional)

Delivery Team Manager /(System Owner)

queue analysisin progress testing demo to deploy

FLOW

ideas

PRODUCT BACKLOG

TASKS BACKLOG

TEAM QUEUE

VISION BACKLOG

WORK IN PROGRESS

BLUE PRODUCT

Live

Roles and permissions

Product Owner / Delivery Team Manager: Represents the stakeholders (internal EEA product owners) towards the developers and make sure the WIP-limits and workflow policies are respected.

Manager: This is a senior developer (IDM/contractor), that supports the Product Owner and further co-ordinate the queue and work in progress, also known as Scrum Master.

Developer: This role is given to the resources that are implementing the tickets, it is mostly consultants and EEA IT-staff.

Reporter: This is given to all stakeholders and EEA internal product owners that are allowed to report new tickets. Being a Reporter means you will request- and give feedback on work to be done.

Suggested reading...Free downloadhttp://www.infoq.com/minibooks/kanban-scrum-minibook

Key points summaryhttps://goo.gl/MwO1MK Thank you for

your attention

http://www.infoq.com/minibooks/kanban-scrum-minibook

http://www.infoq.com/minibooks/kanban-scrum-minibook

https://goo.gl/MwO1MK

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lean_startup

let your tasks flow like water!

Leadership & Management