Pea Pods. A reflection on how achieving flow, and the intended business results of Agility, requires us to solve system problems that go beyond the team. The Kanban Method is shown to be applicable at the level of the whole organization.
Presented at Lean Kanban North America 2018
By Martin Aziz and Fernando Cuenca
Pea Pods & Connecting the Upstream - Lean Kanban North America 2018
1. Pea Pods & Connecting the Upstream
@martinaziz@fer_cuenca
Fernando A. Cuenca, KCP Martin Aziz, KCP
fernando.a.cuenca@gmail.com martinaziz@gmail.com
2. The Case for Organizational Flow
Companies need to pay attention to end to end flow.
Local optimization will only offer you temporary relief in
solving your business challenges.
3. Punctuated Equilibriums. A multi-year journey of
transformation and emerging maturity.
Punctuation
Points
At Equilibrium
Managed Projects
Some consistent
process
Heroics
Inconsistent
Outcomes
Scrum
Consistent
Outcomes
Teams & Tribes
Scrum
All Teams
No projects
No managers
Business needs
unmet.
2016 ->2014-2015< - 2013
Equilibrium
Time
Need
something
more!
11. Where is my
stuff?
What am I
going to get
at the end?
Why does it
take this long?
Seems to work
for me….
End to End Measurement for
Fitness
12. Comes from
different sources
Comes in different types,
requiring different
processing
It has different
frequencies of
arrival
It has different
levels of urgency,
Importance, and
cost of delay It has different
perceived value
Cost of Delay and Heterogeneous
demand
13. Is the teams local
agenda an issue?
+
Local
Improvement
Effort
Complexity
of Problem
+
+Number
of Teams
Tribal
Behaviour
14. How does this impact
Lead Time and Fitness
for Purpose?
‐
Complexity
of
Problem
+?
Lead
Time
Fit for
Purpose
16. What is the effect of a
disconnect between
commitments and capacity?
Potential for overburdening
Implicitness of
Commitment
Point
Distance
between Teams &
Commitment
Point
Overburdening
+
+
17. White Spaces, Revealed Complexity
& Batch Sizes
Delivery “chains”
Shared team
members
Internal “shared
services”
Person with
very specialized
skills “floating”
around teams
“External” team
members
18. Overburdening
and white spaces.
Have we found the
link to Fitness?
+
‐
‐
Over-
burdening
Coordination
effort +
White Space
‐
‐
Number
of
Teams
Flow
Efficiency
Lead
Time
Fit for
Purpose
19. What about batch sizes?
Reinforcing relationship to
transaction costs. Feeds
Dark Matter. Amplifies lead
time.
+
+
Transaction
Cost
+Lead
Time
Batch
Size
21. Recognizability and
Transaction Costs
Some stay the
same
Some are re-
aggregated and
batchedSome describe
business
functionality
Some are purely
technical tasks
Some have
internal
dependencies
Some are sent
to other team’s
backlogs
22. Where does
decomposition
take us?
Loss of Customer
Recognizability.
Losing your link to
the customer.
Number
of Teams
Tribal
Behaviour
+
+
Decomposition
+
Customer
Recognizability
Flow
Efficiency
‐
Batch Size
Local
Improvement
Effort
+
+
Lead
Time
Fit for
Purpose
‐
Implicitness of
Commitment
Point
Distance
between Teams &
Commitment
Point
+
Overburdening
‐
+
Complexity
of Problem
Coordination
effort +
White Space
+
‐
‐
+
+
+
+
+
+
‐
+
Transaction
Cost
‐
Decomposition
Customer
Recognizability
25. Number
of Teams
Tribal
Behaviour
+
+
Decomposition
+
Customer
Recognizability
Flow
Efficiency
‐
Batch Size
Local
Improvement
Effort
+
+
Lead
Time
Fit for
Purpose
‐
Implicitness of
Commitment
Point
Distance
between Teams &
Commitment
Point
+
Overburdening
‐
+
Complexity
of Problem
Coordination
effort +
White Space
+
‐
‐
+
+
+
+
+
‐
+
Transaction
Cost
‐
Constraints
‐ ‐
Explicit
Commitment
‐
Pull
Policies
Measurement
‐
‐
Service
Orientation
+
System level
changes for the
organization.
Service
Orientation
Constraints
Explicit
Policies Pull
Policies
Measure-
ment
1. Constraints
2. Service Orientation
3. Measuring
4. Pull
5. Policies
Number
of Teams
Tribal
Behaviour
+
+
Decomposition
+
Customer
Recognizability
Flow
Efficiency
‐
Batch Size
Local
Improvement
Effort
+
+
Lead
Time
Fit for
Purpose
‐
Implicitness of
Commitment
Point
Distance
between Teams &
Commitment
Point
+
Overburdening
‐
+
Complexity
of Problem
Coordination
effort +
White Space
+
‐
‐
+
+
+
+
+
+
‐
+
Transaction
Cost
‐
27. Linking Upstream Flow to
Downstream Capacity
Sense
Pull
Features
Option
Do Next
Ideas
CustomersDelivery
Customers
Options
Do
Options
Good
Constrained delivery
pipeline
Upstream Downstream
Progress Customer
Recognizable. No
longer expressed
as a team property.
Delivery Improvements
aligned to optimize for
value delivery
Work is pulled into delivery
pipe automatically as
capacity becomes
available. Push is avoided
to prevent overburdening.
Shaping Demand
28. Board for Enterprise Flow. 3 levels of Constraints
Shaping
Uncommitted
Options
Maintaining
Recognizability
in the
downstream.
F4P
Feedback
Loop to
improve
selection
and delivery
Work
Stream
pull