Close the Loop!

Simplifying A3 Thinking for Team Retrospectives

Cara Turner South AfricaAgile Coach | User Group Chairman |

Facilitation Fanatic

Close the Loop! Simplifying A3 Thinking for Team Retrospectives

Who’s doing TDD?

Why define tests before you start?

What isContinuous Improvement?

… Some Questions …

Close the Loop! Simplifying A3 Thinking for Team Retrospectives

INSPECT

ADAPT

Close the Loop! Simplifying A3 Thinking for Team Retrospectives

How do we do that?

Scientific method

Retrospectives

A3 Thinking / Kaizen

Close the Loop! Simplifying A3 Thinking for Team Retrospectives

Assess implicationsLook clearly

Implement Experiment

Formulate an idea

The Improvement Process

Question and analyse

Check results

?

Close the Loop! Simplifying A3 Thinking for Team Retrospectives

A3 Thinking & Kaizen

Kaizen Memo – individuals, small

Cre

dit

: C

laudio

Perr

one

Close the Loop! Simplifying A3 Thinking for Team Retrospectives

A3 Report – organization level

A3 Thinking & Kaizen

Close the Loop! Simplifying A3 Thinking for Team Retrospectives

?Teams

A3 Thinking & Kaizen

Close the Loop! Simplifying A3 Thinking for Team Retrospectives

Product Environment

Where are we now?

TeamFactor

s

Product

Factors

Technical

Factors

OrgFactor

s

Current State

Close the Loop! Simplifying A3 Thinking for Team Retrospectives

Product Environment

Where should we be?

TeamFactor

s

Product

Factors

Technical

Factors

OrgFactor

s

Target Condition

then find a way to

measure our progress

Close the Loop! Simplifying A3 Thinking for Team Retrospectives

The Simulation

Creating & reviewing an experiment

Before & After Retrospectives(not the sprint)

Simulation AgendaStudy the problem

Retro 1: Define a goal … as an experiment “By [doing something], we expect [this result]”

Implement the goalWhat happens in our Sprint

Retro 2: Review the goalWhat happened? What did it change?

? ReflectOn the experiment

What are the factors influencing it?

Close the Loop! Simplifying A3 Thinking for Team Retrospectives

The Product

Close the Loop! Simplifying A3 Thinking for Team Retrospectives

The Context

Product, Technical,Team & Organisation Factors

+ Last Sprint

Close the Loop! Simplifying A3 Thinking for Team Retrospectives

Retrospective 1

Study the problem Create a testable

hypothesis

Close the Loop! Simplifying A3 Thinking for Team Retrospectives

Study the ProblemLook clearly

Product, Technical,Team & Organisation Factors

+ Last Sprint

Close the Loop! Simplifying A3 Thinking for Team Retrospectives

What Influences Change?

What will accelerate the rate of change?

e.g. resolve impediments escalating requirements

What will reduce the rate of change?e.g. stabilize code base discover impediments

Question and analyse

Close the Loop! Simplifying A3 Thinking for Team Retrospectives

Set the Direction

define a Target State(the long term ideal)

describe a Current State(the problem we have now)

Question and analyse

Close the Loop! Simplifying A3 Thinking for Team Retrospectives

Target State: Never have more than two open bugs

Example: Current / Target

Current State: The number of bugs is affecting our velocity, so we need to improve quality across the board

Close the Loop! Simplifying A3 Thinking for Team Retrospectives

The Retrospective Goal

“Pair Program on Integration Stories”

Formulate an idea

Short-term goal for the next sprint only

Close the Loop! Simplifying A3 Thinking for Team Retrospectives

Target > GoalFormulate

an idea

Close the Loop! Simplifying A3 Thinking for Team Retrospectives

Target > GoalFormulate

an idea

Close the Loop! Simplifying A3 Thinking for Team Retrospectives

Target > GoalFormulate

an idea

Close the Loop! Simplifying A3 Thinking for Team Retrospectives

Do Science! Hypothesis

“By [doing something] we expect [this result]”

Pass Conditions // Fail Conditions

(we try it and we’re right)

(we try it and we’re wrong)

Formulate an idea

Close the Loop! Simplifying A3 Thinking for Team Retrospectives

Target > GoalFormulate

an idea

Close the Loop! Simplifying A3 Thinking for Team Retrospectives

Target > Goal > Hypothesis

Formulate an idea

Close the Loop! Simplifying A3 Thinking for Team Retrospectives

Write a Goal hypothesis

“By [implementing our goal] we expect [this result]”

Pass Conditions // Fail Conditions

(we try it and we’re right)

(we try it and we’re wrong)

Formulate an idea

Close the Loop! Simplifying A3 Thinking for Team Retrospectives

Example: Hypothesis

By: sharing domain knowledge and technical skill while coding

Current State:The number of bugs is affecting our velocity, so we

need to improve quality across the board

We expect: to improve our code quality and decrease the number of bugs

Pass Condition: We note improvements and discoveries while pair programming, and our bug count decreases

Fail Condition: We pair program but there are still many new bugs being generated

You might have something like this

Close the Loop! Simplifying A3 Thinking for Team Retrospectives

“Real Life”

The sprint’s events How your goal is affected

Close the Loop! Simplifying A3 Thinking for Team Retrospectives

Week 1

The development manager expresses interest in your progress

You discover a dependency on another team’s architect

Implement Experiment

Close the Loop! Simplifying A3 Thinking for Team Retrospectives

Week 2

While grooming you discover a potentially large change that affects many

stories in the backlog

An integration issue takes 2 days to resolve

Implement Experiment

Close the Loop! Simplifying A3 Thinking for Team Retrospectives

Week 3

The dev manager is unhappy that you’re interrupting the

architect’s team

You make a breakthrough with an architecture change

Implement Experiment

Close the Loop! Simplifying A3 Thinking for Team Retrospectives

What happened…The development manager expresses interest in your progress

Accelerates change You hope the Dev manager will use your experiment to sell pairing to all the teams

You discover a dependency on another team’s architect

Decelerates change You invite her to pair with your team members

Goal Progress:Pairing has started, but not as you

expected

Implement Experiment

Close the Loop! Simplifying A3 Thinking for Team Retrospectives

What happened (2)While grooming you discover

a potentially large change that affects many stories in the backlog

Accelerates change You have to re-plan your release, and you need more time from the architect.

An integration issue takes 2 days to resolve

Decelerates change Your team slows down, but everyone learns a lot about your integration challenges

Goal Progress:Pairing on integration issue

improves knowledge

Implement Experiment

Close the Loop! Simplifying A3 Thinking for Team Retrospectives

What happened (3)

The dev manager is unhappy that you’re interrupting the architect’s team

Increases pressure You discuss ways to work with her team in return

You make a breakthrough with an architecture change

Accelerates change Take this into Release Planning, and thank the architect for all her help

Goal Progress:Pairing has helped you resolve a difficult

problem

Implement Experiment

Close the Loop! Simplifying A3 Thinking for Team Retrospectives

Retrospective 2

Study the results Review your hypothesis

Close the Loop! Simplifying A3 Thinking for Team Retrospectives

What happened…

You’ve missed your sprint

You have to re-plan your

release The architectural breakthrough will help save time

You had to deal with some

organization dynamics

Check results

You did manage to pair quite a

lot

Review your Experiment

“By doing [something] we expect [this result]”

Were our assumptions correct?

Assess implications

Pass Conditions // Fail ConditionsWhich of these did we see?What does that tell us?

Close the Loop! Simplifying A3 Thinking for Team Retrospectives

Example: Hypothesis

By: sharing domain knowledge and technical skill while coding

Target State:Never have more than two open bugs

We expect: to improve our code quality and decrease the number of bugs

Pass Condition: We note improvements and discoveries while pair programming, and our bug count decreases

Fail Condition: We pair program but there are still many new bugs being generated

Not clear yet

Our goal didn’t focus on bug counts

Close the Loop! Simplifying A3 Thinking for Team Retrospectives

Review your Experiment

“By doing [something] we expect [this result]”

Were our assumptions correct?

Assess implications

Pass Conditions // Fail ConditionsWhich of these did we see?What does that tell us?

Close the Loop! Simplifying A3 Thinking for Team Retrospectives

Review your Experiment

How much closer are we to our Target state?

What might we need to adjust to get there?

Assess implications

Close the Loop! Simplifying A3 Thinking for Team Retrospectives

Share with the team next to you

2 minutes each wayand then we’ll

debrief

Close the Loop! Simplifying A3 Thinking for Team Retrospectives

Review your Experiment

What adjustments do we need to get to our Target state?

What discoveries did you make?

Close the Loop! Simplifying A3 Thinking for Team Retrospectives

The EndAlmost

Close the Loop! Simplifying A3 Thinking for Team Retrospectives

debriefHow do tests help us?

How does reviewing both the outcome and the test, change how we think about improvements?

How can we bring this into our retrospectives?

Close the Loop! Simplifying A3 Thinking for Team Retrospectives

The EndReally

Thank You.

Close the Loop! Simplifying A3 Thinking for Team Retrospectives

Cara TurnerCape Town, South

Africa

Get in Touch

krs.co.za sugsa.org.za

twitter: @cara_faye facilitatingagility.com