Dynamic Scheduling for Today’s Agile Projects
Alan Hill
About Alan Hill
 Developed numerous business models and operational tools:
 Kanban Scheduling Model
 Talent Management Business Model
 Veteran Network Services Operating Model
 Organizational Resistance Model
 Health Care Business Model
 Company Cultures Assessment
 Latent Value Management Model
 System Scalability Model
 Provided mobile architecture strategy for an innovative HR application
 Re-engineered support processes as part of IT re-alignment
 Architected functional model for weekly job fair - increased attendance 1,200%
 Created system architecture for intranet procedures website (Opsweb)
 Created “One Sheet” Dashboard of key Dot Com metrics for CEO
 Created transition strategy for Data Center support of Dot Com systems 24/7
The Waterfall Fallacy –
Precision Planning
What’s Wrong With This Picture?
 Not flexible – can’t change task priority or schedule
 Can’t iterate – no cyclical development (no agile)
 Not scalable – hard to add or remove tasks & people
 Intolerant of change – new scope = new project
 What else do you struggle with?
 Soooo….. Why use broken tools and broken methods?
“Factories are havens of erratic behavior, places where everything is going wrong
all the time. Abandon the illusion that you can predict these technological
headaches, or that you can avert them with forward planning.”
"You don't have a prayer in hell of ever understanding factories. You really don't
have control. By striving to get control, you only make it worse."
Dick Morley
Richard Morley is known as the "father" of the
programmable logic controller since he was
involved with the production of the first PLC for
General Motors, the Modicon, at Bedford and
Associates in 1968. Wikipedia
FAST COMPANY
The Man From CHAOS
By William Green, October 31, 1995
CHAOS Paint Booths
"It ran beautifully,
it saved $1 million a year
in paint alone."
Morley's system changed the game: it enabled the paint booths to "bid" for the right to
paint certain trucks. If a particular booth had been painting black trucks all day, it
would bid to paint any subsequent trucks that were to be painted black. "The booth is
empowered to decide what it does."
Still not ‘pull’ based:
Throughput limited by #
of open slots
Kanban Project Management
http://www.agileproductdesign.com/blog/2009/kanban_over_simplified.html
Kanban ‘pull’ workflow
with room for expansion
Workers ‘bid’ on tasks from
various projects – not ‘held
captive’ to one project
Verifies task meets
requirements, as usual
Expanded to include
offshore and freelance help
Workers can bid on any
task: Experience factor
affects their total bid value
Tasks have ‘Reward Points’
exchangeable for rewards in
the Reward Bank
QA assures task meets
requirements before reward
is assigned
Your Turn - Discussion
 Feature enhancements for the way you really work?
 Manual vs. automated?
 How to ‘socialize’ acceptance in your company?