Outcomes
“A group of people can get together, talk about Lean; what it
means and how it applies to us. Furthermore and more
importantly, what we can do to work in this way and
evangelise the principles”
What is it and where did it come from?
A very brief history of Lean
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Born out of the Henry Ford – Model T Ford production line and W. Edwards Deming “Plan –
Do – Check – Act” Cycle which was taken to Japan in the Post WWII era
Toyota best developed the model known as Toyota Production System – popularised Just In
Time Production
What did they do so well?
• Got Employees involved in the process – especially in terms of Quality
• Focused on smaller batches
• Worked to eliminate Waste – in the end-to-end production process
• Reduced queues in the production line (reduced inventory required)
• WIP was reduced
• Ultimate focus was on Customer Satisfaction – delivering on time resulted in
customer satisfaction and Quality improvement resulted in less returns and repairs
Not difficult to see how this works so well in the Product Development World
House of Lean
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House of Lean
The Roof of the House
• GOAL – Value, Speed, Quality
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Sustainably shortest lead time
Best Quality and Value to Clients
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Taiichi Ohno (Father of Toyota Production System) “All we are doing is looking at the
timeline from the moment the customer gives us an order to the point when we collect the
cash. And we are reducing that timeline by removing the non-value-added waste”
Pillars of Lean
Respect for People
• Software is developed by people for people!!!
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If you look after the people and the teams, they will build effective software
Fundamentally people want to come to work to do a good job. If you create the right
environment for them to do so, they will!
Teams must be empowered to make change and continuously improve
Partnerships are built on mutual respect and trust
House of Lean
Product Development Flow
1. Take an Economic View
2. Actively Manage Queues
3. Understand & Exploit Variability
4. Reduce Batch Size
5. Apply WIP Constraints
6. Control Flow Under Uncertainty
7. Get Feedback As Fast As Possible
8. Decentralise Control
House of Lean
1. Take an Economic View
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Apply Economics to everything. Ultimately we are doing this to make money!
Reduce wasteful work because it costs money
Produce Minimum Viable Product (MVP)
Understand the full value chain
Sequence work/jobs for maximum benefit
If you quantify one thing, quantify the cost of delay
Empower local decision-making
I want to make sure the costs of running teams and producing Features
becomes more visible to everyone
House of Lean
2. Actively Manage Queues
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Long queues lead to:
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Longer cycle times
Increased risk
More variability
Lower quality
Decreased Motivation
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3. Understand and Exploit Variability
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You cannot add value without adding variability!
We will miss opportunities to add value or remove waste if we do not exploit
variability
By using spikes effectively, you can discover which features/stories can be done
and which should not be done
Use of spikes helps control the variability. We can invest more in those areas
which will add value and abandon those areas which will only be wasteful
House of Lean
4. Reduce Batch Size
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Small batches:
• Reduce cycle time
• Enable faster feedback
Good Infrastructure and s/w development practices enable small batches –
Build and Test automation; Continuous Integration - etc
House of Lean
5. Apply WIP Constraints
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Stop starting and start finishing!
Enables us to maximise economic benefit (by having work in the ‘Deployed’
column and not in the ‘In Progress’ column)
Brings focus to a task
Maximises throughput
Ensures prioritisation of work (most important work is in progress while lessimportant work is not taken on)
House of Lean
6. Control Flow Under Uncertainty
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Donald Reniertsen “We get more value from overall alignment than local
excellence”
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Introduces the ideas of cadence and synchronisation
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Cadence:
• Turns unpredictable events into predictable ones (Sprints 2 weeks and regular
drops into production)
• Makes waiting time predictable – expectations are managed
• Helps manage load by limiting time
Synchronisation:
• Causes multiple events to happen at the same time (E.G. sprints within the
Programme)
• This facilitates cross-functional trade-offs of people and resources
House of Lean
7. Get Feedback As Fast As Possible
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McGill “Sometimes people don’t know what they want until they see it”
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Reduces ‘cost’ of failure - decreases risk
Improves efficiency of learning
Enables MVP – if client sees it they realise they might not necessarily need
everything they have asked for
Enables shorter cycle time
Enables better development Quality
Local feedback loops are as important as global ones (peer/BA/Team review)
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House of Lean
8. Decentralise Control
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Centralised decisions should be made for:
• Those that are made infrequently
• Those that can be applied Globally
Decentralise others:
• Ensures efficiency (time taken) to make decisions. Knowledge of Vision
and Roadmap here is important – so decisions can be made with context
• Local decisions have the right local context
• Teams should be empowered to make the right decisions in the best
interests of the team, the programme and the bank
• If it adds Value – do it; if it doesn’t, don’t
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Third Pillar – Continuous Improvement
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Kaizen: “Change for the Best”
We must be relentless in Reflection
Continuous Improvement
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Small, steady improvement
Use empirical data to make improvements (data off board or Rally)
Reflect at key milestones
Use tools like Retrospectives & root cause analysis 5 Whys
Protect knowledge base by keeping personnel stable and careful succession
planning – no key man dependencies
House of Lean
Foundation – Management Support
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If Management do not support or facilitate the process – it will not be very
effective!
This includes facilitating stakeholder participation in the process
In Summary then…
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Summary
Change mindsets – develop a lean culture
Continuously change and improve
Influence others
Always challenge – always ask why
Become a Lean Revolutionary and Evangelise!