Problem solving in “brain on” mode

Wolfgang Wiedenroth, it-agile GmbH wolfgang.wiedenroth@it-agile.de

@wwiedenroth

LLKD17, 3rd April 2017

Should we start using[practice, tool]

we just learned about?

Should we stop using [practice, tool]

we just learned about??

StandupsRetrospectives

PDCA

Theory of Constraints Cynefin

estimate

record data

digital tool

Kanban

Scrum

Review

WIP-Limits

Task Board Class of Service

Product Owner

Scrum Master

regression test

unit tests

well…

…it depends!

“brain on” mode

The team wants to keep its task board!

“I’ve never seen anything like it before!”

“brain on” mode• Does it hurt?

Nobody is affected.

• Will it help?It will help the team to go on.

• Let’s do it!

We get interrupted very often!

• Who is interrupting you and why?“We can’t say!”

• Do they know how it affects your work?“Nope!”

• Let’s find out and show them!

“brain on” mode

“There are lots of good ideas, we have already put effort into.”

It doesn’t seem we’ll work on them anytime soon.

“We can’t just throw them away!”

• Our goal was to get rid of tickets we won’t work on. “Let’s move them into a digital “think tank”!”

• Great!

“brain on” mode

We have a hell lot of stuff to move!

• How can we keep track of all the things?

• Like a Kanban board?

“brain on” mode

Hell yeah!

Visualize it!

Islands of knowledge prevent us from working as a team. I can’t learn everything!

• Would it be enough, if at least 2-3 know a system?Yes, that would be enough!

• Let’s list all systems and visualize who knows what system? Then let’s see where we have less than 2!

“brain on” mode

We don’t know what’s important and what’s not

• Let’s add the importance for every system to the list we just visualized next to the board.

“brain on” mode

I see potential for improvement/found a problem, what should I

do?

• Is it important to fix , when you see it?No, chances are high it has been like this for month.

• How can we keep track of it?We could keep the ticket on the board on a special place and discuss those tickets regularly.

“brain on” mode

Collecting data is sooooo “hard”!

• What do we want to track?

• Let’s stack those finished cards on a wall and add the week underneath the stack

“brain on” mode

Throughput

Every time we change a policy we need to print a new sheet

• We need an easy way (no printing) to change policies

“brain on” mode

We are blocked all the time!

• Let’s collect the blockers, analyse them every four weeks and get rid of them one by one.

“brain on” mode

So how does “brain on” mode actually work?

Ask yourself…

Will it solve a problem?

Will we learn something?

If not…

…don’t do it!*

*though don’t forget about it

If yes…

What’s the actual problem?

How do we know it’s a problem?What did we already try?

What would the world look like without it?What would make it worse?

Who is affected by the problem?

Do they know about the problem?

If we experiment with certain[practice, tool]…

…who will be affected by the experiment?

Can we involve them?How far are they willing to go?

Is their a way to bridge the gap? Do we need it now?

“brain on” mode1. Consciously thinking about the impact of

introducing a new practice or tool and its impact

2. Considering, if keeping a practice or toolwill help people to adapt to change

Thanks for listening!

Wolfgang Wiedenrothwolfgang.wiedenroth@it-agile.de

@wwiedenrothwww.agilemanic.com