Introduction to A3 Process

Adam Gilmore

Intro• “Landing Hot” is a complex problem to solve• May have multiple causes involving tools, processes, priorities, culture• It needs broad input from across the org• It needs a structured problem solving approach

• I’ve used A3 Process in my past to address these sorts of problem

Why A3 Process?• Lightweight & Structured• Incremental & Iterative• Common understanding • Business Impacts• Root Causes

Plan• Background• Why is it important?• Why should I care?

• Current Condition• How do things work today?• What’s the problem and how is it measured?

• Target Condition• What specific outcomes are expected and why?• What changes in measures can we expect?

• Root Cause Analysis• What are the root causes of the problem, not the symptoms?

Do• Countermeasures aka Experiments• What do we think we need to do to address each root cause?• What are the predicted results for each countermeasure?• Run the experiment

Check• Confirmation• What are the actual results of each countermeasure?• Did it move us towards our Target Condition?• Were there any unexpected consequences?

Act• Actions• What have we learned?• Should we change our way of working?• What should we do next?• Who needs to know?

Example - Plan• Background – in the past 3 releases the number of serious defects

getting into a release has been increasing. This has resulted in complaints from customers that have caused escalations.• Current Condition

• Target Condition – zero serious defects found in a release

Plan Code Release

3 weeks

TestMany serious defects found in release after 3 weeks

Test coverage is low

Root cause analysis

Problem

Consequences

CON

SEQU

ENCES

CAUSES

Causes

“So what?”

“Why?”

Consequences

Defects are getting into production

Customer is going to delay

launch

CON

SEQU

ENCES

“So what?”

Revenue targets won’t be met

Customer perceives low

quality

“So what?”

“So what?”

Causes Defects are getting into production

Don’t have time to test

Team isn’t grooming their

backlog

We aren’t testing

thoroughly“Why?”

CAUSES

3 weeks isn’t long enough

Stories are too big

“Why?”

“Why?”

“Why?”

“Why?”

“5 Whys”

Causes Defects are getting into production

Don’t have time to test

Team isn’t grooming their

backlog

We aren’t testing

thoroughly

CAUSES

3 weeks isn’t long enough

Stories are too big

Writing stable tests is difficult

Don’t have testing

framework

?

?

?Test framework isn’t a priority

Release test gate is not enforced

Example - Do• Countermeasure• Experiment - ”Team isn’t grooming their backlog”

• Have a team groom their backlog once per week for the next 6 weeks• Grooming involves the team splitting stories so they are smaller and writing acceptance

tests together• In the sprint spend time writing automated acceptance tests for the now smaller stories

before starting the next story – perhaps pair up to do this• Measures

• Test coverage will increase as we are spending time writing tests• Defects found in release should decrease for that team as defects are now found earlier

and fixed during the sprint• Velocity will reduce as stories will only be counted as done when they have automated

acceptance tests

Example - Check• Have the Defects found in a release reduced?• If so, what were the wider effects (Velocity, Test Coverage, other)?• If they didn’t reduce, why not?

Example - Act• What have we learned?• What other countermeasures do we need to implement?• Do we need to standardize and communicate? • If so, how and who?

Resources• A3 Template -

https://www.crisp.se/gratis-material-och-guider/a3-template • Cause-Effect diagrams -

http://blog.crisp.se/2009/09/29/henrikkniberg/1254176460000 • Search “A3 Process” – lots of info