Continuous improvement is the real engine of success, but scaling it is tricky. The Theory of Constraints teaches us that at any given time there is one system bottleneck in a value stream and that improvement efforts away from the bottleneck will not improve overall system performance, and may well make it worse. In almost complete contrast, the various approaches to scaling Agile typically mandate that all teams reflect on and improve their practice, not just those situated at the system bottleneck. This advice seems superficially in contradiction to a key lesson of The Theory of Constraints: don’t boil the ocean, focus your improvement efforts. In this talk I will resolve this apparent paradox, showing how both sides have part of the truth, and also how by going a little deeper we can give sage advice on improvement to both people working on the overarching system of work and to those working on front line teams, as well as everyone in between. Join me on a journey through the very practical theory of distributed improvement, culminating in the immodestly titled Prager's Law: "The last thing you should do after making an improvement, is more work".

1. How to Scale Improvement
Beyond Bottlenecks and Boiling the Ocean
Daniel Prager, PhD

2. Daniel Prager, PhD
Agile Consultant & Coach
daniel.a.prager@gmail.com
www.linkedin.com/in/danielaprager
agile-jitsu.blogspot.com
@agilejitsu
Coming soon, pragerslaw.com
Working paper: papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3245685
Prager’s Law
“After you make an
improvement, the last thing
you should do is more work."

3. Why this talk?
“Since the strength of the chain is determined by
the weakest link, the first step to improve an
organization must be to identify the weakest link.”
― Eliyahu Goldratt (right)
But when coaching in a large organization, I
almost certainly do not have access to or even
visibility of the weakest link.
Thanks for the crisis of confidence, Dr Goldratt!

4. But first, an intuitive interlude ...

5. Q: If you get a decent amount of work done in the
morning, what do you do in the afternoon?
A. More work
B. Go to the beach
C. Help others
D. Learn something new
E. Change the world

6. What would Einstein do?
In 1905, while working as a
patent clerk ...
Mornings: Albert quickly completed his
allotted work
Afternoons:
1. Finished his doctorate, and
2. Wrote four! revolutionary scientific
papers
Not more patent work

7. A Two Person Team
Let’s say you can paddle faster than
your partner
● Should you?
● What could you do instead?

8. Applying the metaphor
In a canoe you can see!
● Where you’re going
● What your partner is doing
● Dangers, e.g. that waterfall up ahead
How well do people, teams, and larger
parts of your organisation see and
coördinate?
Engineering
Sales

9. Two Conflicting Approaches to
Continuous Improvement
The Theory of Constraints
vs
Agile at Scale

10. The Theory of Constraints in a nutshell
● Only improvement at the global bottleneck improves total throughput
● Improvements elsewhere are at best useless, often counter-productive

11. Goldratt’s
Five
Focussing
Steps
Awesomely
efficient, but
inhumane at
scale

12. The Theory of Constraints
Pro
● This is the royal road to rapid, compounding improvement
Cons (at Scale)
● Only those with a god’s eye view get to make improvements
● The rest get treated like cogs in the machine, so morale suffers
● Improvement “muscles” atrophy in people and teams

13. Agile at Scale
● Each team makes its own local improvements
● Teams share and learn from each other via coördinating groups
Example: Scrum at Scale*
SoS = Scrum of Scrums
SoSoS = Scrum of Scrums of Scrums
* Similar considerations apply to other scaling
frameworks. E.g. SAFe, LeSS, Nexus

14. Scaled Agility
Pros
● Humane: everyone gets involved in improvement efforts, and makes a
difference locally
● Scalable (sort of): no god’s eye view required
Cons
● Trying to improve everywhere is tantamount to boiling the ocean
● Insufficient focus on the global bottleneck
● Improvements in one place often interfere elsewhere

15. Q: Can we have our
cake and eat it too?
1. Focussed, efficient improvement
2. Global involvement in
improvement efforts plus raised
morale
A: Yes!
But first we need to make a correction
to the Theory of Constraints

16. A Thought
Experiment (part 1)
A team (not working at the
global bottleneck) makes an
improvement to their work
process and finishes their
usual five days worth of work
in four days.
On day five they go to the
beach.
What effect does this have
on the overall system?

17. A Thought
Experiment (part 2)
In this case:
● Global output is
unchanged
● Morale increases
We can have everyone
improve all the time (not just
at the global bottleneck) as
long as we are smart about
how we spend the
improvement dividends.

18. Prager’s Law
After you make an improvement,
the last thing you should do is
more work.
Instead: focus on freeing up
available time, which can be used
for a variety of intelligent purposes.

19. What should you do, before more work?
1. Celebrate!
2. Reserve capacity for more learning and improvement
3. Contribute! Help others ...
a. Share insights and learnings
b. Take some work away from the next-level bottleneck
Only do more of your usual work if you are slowing others down.
In this way we can drive capacity and improvement to where it is most needed.

20. CSIC: An Agile Scaling meta-framework
1. Create Slack: find ways to free up local capacity to start improving, e.g. by
finding the biggest local bottleneck and slowing down the rest of the local system
to match speed
2. Improve: apply Agile, Lean, and/or the Theory of Constraints locally, but
remember Prager’s Law, and don’t boost output unless you confirm that your
area is a bottleneck for the next level
3. Instead, Contribute! Celebrate, re-invest in learning and improvement, offer
help at the next level up, share ideas, take load off the next-level bottleneck

21. Conclusion
● Start where you are! Improvement can start anywhere (and
everywhere) in a large system
● Together, we can optimise for performance and happiness, but
big mindset changes are needed
Stop focussing on lifting local output
Start freeing up time, improving, and contributing at the next level

22. Final thought
There’s always a larger
system!
Applying these ideas seriously
will free up enormous creative
capacity
What will your
contribution be?

23. Daniel Prager, PhD
Agile Consultant & Coach
daniel.a.prager@gmail.com
www.linkedin.com/in/danielaprager
agile-jitsu.blogspot.com
@agilejitsu
Coming soon, pragerslaw.com
Working paper: papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3245685
Prager’s Law
“After you make an
improvement, the last thing
you should do is more work."