Distributed Lean & Agile Teams in the Public Sector: Lessons Learned

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Distributed Lean & Agile

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Lean & AgileSo, what are we talking about?

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Lean, at 50,000 feet• Remove 7 forms of waste–Kaizen Events

• Kanban Boards to optimize flow–E.g. by limiting Work-in-Progress

• Focus on Continuous Improvement–Reprioritize daily (if you like)

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Where would you use Lean?• Where work is coming in continuously–Is of the same size and shape–Can be done by you

(Or someone like you)–Needs to be re-prioritized frequently

• Examples:–Personal Kanban, Help Desk…

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Melissa’s Task List

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Agile, at 50,000 feet• Project iterations of fixed duration–Sprints, e.g. 2 weeks long

• Commit to a chunk of deliverables–Sprint Backlog

• Protected teams–Cannot change commitments midway

• Reduce the cost of change–Re-prioritize at the end of each Sprint

©2014 Kerika, Inc.

Where would you want Agile?• Work is new–Therefore strategy is uncertain

• Environment is fluid–Technology & demand is changing

• Process improvement is rhythmic–Re-prioritize work episodically

• Examples:–Any & all software development

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Cross-Agency GIS Project

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Distributed Teams are everywhere

Non Profits

Private Sector

Public Sector

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Non-Profit Sector• Non-profits are a cottage industry–Over 55,000 in Washington State–80% of them have less than $100K

• They are service delivery organizations–Contracted to deliver civic services

• They know how to leverage partnerships–That’s how nonprofits scale up

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Private Sector

Google is here

Google’s CIO is here

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Because no room is roomy enough

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And no building is long enough

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Public Sector• Collaborate across multiple locations–Only the tiniest agencies are collocated

• Develop partnerships–Across agencies, across sectors

• Support field teams–It’s not just about Olympia

• Support Telework

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Social Collaboration: You Are Here

You are a member of multiple, evolving collaboration networks

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What really matters?(for distributed teams to succeed)

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This really matters• Visualization– See the work, spot the improvement

• Visibility– Everyone on the same page

• Integration– Tasks + Content + Conversations + People

• Awareness–What happened when I wasn’t looking?

• Empowerment– Pull, not Push

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Visualization: See the Work

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Visibility: Everyone, Everywhere

What’s in progress?

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Visualization: Process Flows

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Visualization: Turn it up to 11

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Integration: Tasks + Content

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Tasks + Files + Online Content

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Integration: Tasks + People

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Tasks + People + Conversations

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The Post-It Palace at DOL

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Where’s Scott?

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Scott is in Spokane

Hello, Scott

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Awareness: What Happened?

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Awareness: This Happened!

This card changed

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Situational Awareness

Someone moved this card

Someone added contentSomeone said somethingSomeone changed this card

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Empowerment: Push vs. Pull

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Remove ambiguity

This card is…

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Bottom line: Paper doesn’t scale

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But software does

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Demo

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Revisiting the Post-It Palace

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Questions?

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