Using paper, pen, and a wall to manage our work has become a practice that is moving well beyond its roots in Agile software delivery.
The concept works particularly well for two main reasons:
• Visual systems are open for all to see and collaborate with, using a medium that is cheap and requires little overhead to understand, and to use.
• Visual systems give everyone a true sense of the work. It is easy at a glance to see how much work there is, and exactly where that work is. This has a striking, almost physical affect on users of the system that is not present when using digital systems which largely hide the work.
What exactly is a Visual System?
Specifically, we are referring to a Kanban style project or programme workflow, which is articulated on a highly visible wall in your workspace. The work you do, is articulated as a process, and items of work move across the wall as they are completed. Really this is just the beginning and we will take this much further...
Adam Hope and Mike Biggs will share their knowledge, philosophies, and real stories from the coalface of visual systems in both software delivery, and non- software situations.
3. Todo Doing Done
Introductions
Why visual
management?
What is visual
management?
Visualisation
Continuous
improvement
Choose your own
adventure!
Collaboration
4.
5. “All I want is a single prioritised backlog!”
– Everyone, ever
6.
7. ● Action focused
● Shared understanding / Purpose
● Shows actual progress
● Minimise waste
● Decisions are value driven
● Shared accountability
● Transparency
Practices
Principles
Values
● Cards on a wall
● Stand-ups Easy
Effective
Visible
Subtle
12. Designing the system
● What are the steps in the
process. (Including
decision points).
Frequency
● Who is required for
various kinds of work?
● What is a piece of
‘work’?
● What information is
required to do the work,
and make decisions?
● When do we meet?
15. Typical stand-up agenda
1. Attendance - Who’s missing?
2. Major announcements - e.g. whole team is away for the rest of the week
at training
3. Walk the wall
a. highest priority to lowest by group (typically left to right, top to bottom)
b. Are you on track?
c. If not why not?
17. ❏ 100% visible 100% of the time.
❏ Should be kept up to date in real time.
❏ Should be the single (main) source of truth.
❏ Minimise the number of backlogs. Ideally 1 shared by
the team.
Key points
18. ❏ Work can only be in 1 position at a time (but may go
backwards).
❏ Step size affects maintainability & visibility.
❏ There is always room to improve.
Key points
27. Further reading
One day in kanban land
Agile board hacks
It’s not just standing up
Kanban pizza game
Experiments in roadmapping
Toolbox for the agile coach - 96 Visualisation examples
User stories applied
29. ❏TV / projector.
❏Whiteboard with columns etc. as our board.
❏Index cards for questions etc.
❏Lots of sharpies.
❏Pizza.
❏Chocolates for question.
❏Clicker.
Preparation
30. Instructions
Make sure the burning questions and agenda slides are visible next to an empty card wall with
the following columns:
❏ Your questions
❏ Prioritised
❏ Doing
❏ Done
Do this once before you begin and once at the end of the main presentation.
The slides in part two can be brought up as required depending on the questions.
Discourage asking questions during the first half of the presentation
Make sure questions are timeboxed and follow-up with people afterwards if need be, just like a
stand-up!
31. What would you like to learn
about?
What questions do you have?
Please write one question per
index card and group them on
the board over there.
While you’re waiting
Notes de l'éditeur
mike
Adam - re-draw as piechart filling up with an arrow that says visual management
“If you believed what I believed we’d make the same decisions.” – Decentralised decision making
Create a shared and explicit understanding of:
Work in process
Accountability
Priorities
Risks and issues
Adam
REA story
Mike
Why?
Because lean // kanban - any comments on waterfall?
Limited bandwidth (wip limits)
Accountability
What is the tradeoff / opportunity cost if we do each request from stakeholders?
Mike
Visualisation
provides a sense of the amount of work
provides a tangible expression of the implicit goals and values.
Collaboration
team - a workspace for action, and a way to capture diversity.
Continuous improvement
of the visual system/board as a tool.
of the process.
Adam
Power point on walls
Xmas party photos
Mike
Agile little A
Governance little G
Cargo cults story
Adam
This is really common in the software industry
Could be any simple process for a single
Mike
Big visible boards
They show the process,
the people
and the work
Stand-up meetings are run at the walls
Adam
A portfolio wall for multiple teams
High level view of the work done by 1300 people
Mike to drive each step, discussion to ensue.
Adam
A forward looking view of the work
Mike
Adam
They have a wall
The whole team is present
They’ve got their materials ready to go so they can update the wall in real time
In the past it was common to go around the circle, really not the best way to run a stand-up
Work / Progress > individual
Adam
This is the typical journey, not necessarily the ideal
3 stages
Data is only as useful as your ability to act on it!
Adam
If you identify a problem with the work you can re-shape the wall to make it visible
This will change the conversations
For instance you don’t think the work is valuable, ask people to try and write the value on the cards
Continuous improvement of the visual system/board as a tool.
Continuous improvement of the process.
Mike
What if we can’t see the work on our wall?
Cafe order books are visual systems too.