A better method for it export - David Joyce

A Better Method for IT

David JoyceThoughtWorks

1Saturday, 25 September 2010

Systems Thinking

The means to obtain knowledge, and act with prediction and confidence of improvement.

John Seddon - Freedom from Command & Control2Saturday, 25 September 2010

No Single Solution

Better practice NOT

best practice

4

Anything can be improved if you know how to look.

Everything you need to know is in your own system

W. Edwards Deming & Taiichi Ohno

Saturday, 25 September 2010

Are we just building

the wrong thing righter?

Rather than focusing on going Agile which may lead to being successful, instead we

should focus on the needs of our customers.

How agile you are doesn’t matter. Whether you are 50% agile, 90% agile, or agile through and through doesn’t matter.

What matters, is that your company is satisfying its customers, stakeholders, and employees.

4Dr Russell Ackoff & Esther Derby


Projects often focus on the needs of a single business unit

We often develop solutions based on

sub optimised status quo

Software

Project

We need to encourage a whole “system” view rather than a

locally optimised view

Eric Landes, David Anderson & Dr. Peter Middleton 5

We need to bring considerably more to the table than just the technical ability to transform user stories into

product in a more efficient way


Its not “The Business”, Its “Our Business”

6Jeff Patten & Mary Poppendieck

?


If we build technology around a wasteful process, then we are

locking in that process for longer

Dr. Peter Middleton 7


A

B


A

B

A

B


Customer Analysis - Yes!

Business Analysis - NO!


Typical Organisation Hierarchy

Senior Leaders

UpperMgt

Middle Mgt

Line Mgt

Workers

Customer View

Customers

Upper Mgt

Middle Mgt

Senior Leaders

Line Mgt

Workers


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11

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Senior Leaders

Hidden costs11

140 days

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IT

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Hidden costs11

I.T.

I.T. I.T

.

I.T.

I.T.

I.T.

I.T.

I.T.I.T

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.

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IT

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Hidden costs

Outsidein

12

20 days

FlowFlowFlowFlow


13

Core Processes vs Support Processes

Support

CoreCustomer

Core


Since IT “can” should it?

There is little merit in a well executed project that no one

wants the output from

Dr. Peter Middleton & Tripp Babbitt & Jim Highsmith 14

The Standish data are NOT a good indicator of poor software development performance.

However, they ARE an indicator of systemic failure of our planning and measurement processes


15

“I recently asked a CIO whether he would prefer to deliver a project somewhat late and over-budget, but rich with business benefits, or one that is on-time and under-budget but of scant business value. 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.”

If you give a manager a numerical target, he’ll make it, even if he has to

destroy the company in the process

Cutter Sr. Consultant Helen Pukszta & W. Edwards Deming


Does this mean the end of IT?

There is a better way to approach the use of technology.

Understand and improve, then ask if technology can further improve

The thing that makes technology work is not the technology

16Dr. Peter Middleton & Tripp Babbitt


Larger gains can be achieved through better thinking around the design and management of work

17John Seddon

Then pull technology into the work as needed


Clarity of Purpose

18

John Seddon & Daniel Pink


Value vs Failure Demand

19John Seddon

Value Demand; what we want from our customers and spend

time on

Failure Demand; demands we don’t want. Failure to do something or do something

right for the customer


End to End Flow

20

People may argue over what the value steps are.The rule is purpose defines the value work

We often find hundreds of steps, but very few will be valued by

the customer

Stuart Corrigan


End to End Flow

20



the customer

Stuart Corrigan


End to End Flow

20



the customer

Stuart Corrigan

CUSTOMERDEMAND


End to End Flow

21

Customers

Upper Mgt

Middle Mgt

Senior Leaders

Line Mgt

Workers

Mapping is important, because it helps staff to change their perspective on the work

John Seddon


System Conditions

22John Seddon


Capability and Predictability

23

People may argue over what we should or shouldn’t do for our customers, but they cannot argue over what we actually do

John Seddon


24


x

xx

xx x x

xx

xx x

x x

x

x

x

xx

Upper control limit

Lower control limit

Time

Mean


25



Common Cause vs

Special Cause

26


x

xx

x

x x x

x

xxx x

x x

x

x

x

x

x

0

50

100


Comparison

27John Seddon

x

x

xx

xx

xx

Team 1

xx

xx

x

x

xx

Team 2

xx

xxxx

x

Team 3

x

x

x

xx

x

x

Team 4


Improve

Improve performance without using technology

If the current work uses technology, leave it in place, work with it, or treat it as a constraint

Don’t do anything to change the technology

John Seddon 28

Instead, change to a Systems Design

Plan the redesign

Setup a clean stream and Roll changes in


Dr. Peter Middleton

When we focus on customer needs, and the organisation as a system, many of the previous problems, that apparently required software projects, may well have been ‘dissolved’

The improvement effort can be targeted to where it has most benefit


Can technology further improvethis process or system?

Now we can see potential benefits, from a position of knowledge, about the work.

We can therefore predict the benefits technology

solutions will bring

The result is always less investment in technology, but

much more value from it

IT is pulled into the work, rather than dictating the way work

works

John Seddon 30Saturday, 25 September 2010

Measure improvement results

Use operationalperformance data

31

Split dataafter a change


Pull Technology

Measure

Improve the work

Understand System

A better method for IT


Case Studies


Case Study

34

Study of query management


Walking the flow

35

Certain data obscured for confidentiality reasons

Total customer experience involves multiple silos and hand-offs between 3rd party call centre and BBC Divisions


End to end vs SLAs

Customer query end to end times in days – provides a different perspective.

3rd Party reported following against SLAs:

• 80% of queries resolved in 1 working day

• 100% in 5 working days

• Call answering SLA is 90% of calls answered within 30 seconds

• Call abandoned rate is less than 3%


Analysing Demand

37

60% Failure Demand


BBC Customer Support System - IVR

38

IVR questions did not match customer demand

Current IVR Query Routing vs Top 5 Query Reasons


Recommendations

1. Total system visibility - map end to end experience, identifying improvements

2. Call handling analysis - establish end to end times and value/failure demand

3. Align IVR route options with customer needs

4.Supplement SLAs with end to end times and & value/failure demand metrics

5. Website for customers to easily update their details


Case Study

40

Results


Case Study

IT is THE bottleneck

41


Value Stream Mapping

Mapped the value stream from idea to completion

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Case Study

43

Results


Case Study

44

Measures


John Seddon

30

If you find that despite lots of measures, you don’t really know much about what matters to customers, then it can be a powerful starting place for change

Clarity of purpose, and measures that relate to purpose, are prerequisites to

learning and improvement

Measures should be in the

hands of those doing the work


How do you study purpose? Go out into the system and study

demand, what matters to your customer. Look at Value Demand vs Failure Demand, go and talk to your customers!

Jeremy Cox


John Seddon

35

The worker has to be

responsible, and have the means to control their own work

When people understand what is happening where they work, they are able to contribute

more in improving the work.

This results in greater control and flexibility


Case Study

48

Results


Case Study

49

Understanding Capability and Increasing Capacity for New

Development


50

Value Demand

Failure Demand

Demand


Blockers hard to remove

51


Data split from financial year end52

# Days Blocked

Mean reduced from 30 to 10 days (67%)Large drop in the spread in variation.Recent outliers have proved to be special cause, waiting for a 3rd party.


Case Study

53

Results


Case Study

54

IT Help Desk


55

Variation reducing, but average # calls notby much

Low # callsis xmas period


Jun 08 - Sep 08UCL: 76 Mean: 16 Longest: 500

Oct 08 - Dec 08UCL: 66 Mean: 14 Longest: 360

Jan 09 - Mar 09UCL: 63 Mean: 14 Longest: 300 56



Thinking -> System -> Performance


Case Study

59

Results


Beyond the BBC

60

Applying the Method


61

Deming: I find few people in industry

know what constitutes a system

Ohno: The important thing with improvement, is to think of new work methods, not to make new

tools or equipment

Drucker: There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently, that which should not be done at all



http://www.amazon.com/Understanding-Variation-Key-Managing-Chaos/dp/0945320531



http://www.amazon.com/Out-Crisis-W-Edwards-Deming/dp/0262541157



http://www.amazon.com/Taiichi-Ohnos-Workplace-Management-Ohno/dp/0984139605



http://www.amazon.com/Freedom-Command-Control-Better-Make/dp/0954618300



http://www.amazon.com/Discussing-Undiscussable-Overcoming-Jossey-Bass-Management/dp/0787986321



http://www.amazon.com/Drive-Surprising-Truth-About-Motivates/dp/1594488843



http://hbr.org/2009/02/moon-shots-for-management/ar/1





















http://hbr.org/2003/01/one-more-time/ar/1



http://www.amazon.com/Leading-Lean-Software-Development-Results/dp/0321620704



http://www.amazon.com/Four-Steps-Epiphany-Steven-Blank/dp/0976470705



http://www.amazon.com/Leaders-Handbook-Making-Things-Getting/dp/B001SCKVZ8



A better method for it export - David Joyce

Documents

value steps

flow flow flow flow

en d flowwe

en d flow customer demandwe

en d flow mapping

scant business value

elusive business value

t sales