more content in less time

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More Content in Less TimeApplying the secrets of Lean Thinking and

Agile Programming to the creation of content.

Mark Baker

Analecta Communications Inc

© Analecta Communications Inc. 2013 2

Productivity is key

• Manufacturing

• Product design

• Software development

• Content development

Lean product development

• Toyota produces a new vehicle in one year compared to two to three years for North American competition.

• Toyota produces better cars at competitive prices yet makes more money



Agile programming

• State of Florida Statewide Automated Child Welfare Information System– Started 1990, estimated $32M, delivery

1998– As of 2002, spent $170M, estimated

$230M, delivery 2013• State of Minnesota Statewide

Automated Child Welfare Information System– Started 1999, finished 2000, cost 1.1

million.


Lean thinking

• Toyota Production System (TPS)

• “Lean Thinking” study of TPS – James P. Womack– Daniel T. Jones– Studied Toyota and other

companies– Derived set of principles

dubbed “Lean Thinking”


Principles• Specify value: waste is any process that does not add value to the

customer. In order to identify waste, you must first specify what is of value.

• Identify the value stream: trace how value is added to a product at each stage of the productive process. Waste is all the steps in the process that do not add value.

• Flow: The productive process should flow without interruption, without waiting, and without unnecessary movement.

• Pull: Nothing should be produced until it is needed by the next step in the process.

• Perfection: An organization must be committed to building and maintaining a culture in which every employee is dedicated to reducing waste and improving quality.

Womack and Jones, pp 16-26.

Lean Software Development

• Application of Lean ideas to software development– Fusion with Agile

• Mary Poppendieck

• Tom Poppendieck


Principles

• Eliminate waste: Waste is any process that does not add value to the customer. In order to identify waste, you must first specify what is of value.

• Amplify learning: Product development is a learning process.• Decide as late as possible: The later you decide, the better

information your decision is based on.• Deliver as fast as possible: “Without speed, you cannot delay

decisions.”• Empower the team: Self direction is required to decide late and

execute quickly.• Build integrity in: Useful content must evolve over time.• See the whole: Optimize the system as a whole, not in pieces.


Lean Product Design

• Managing the Design Factory

• Donald Reinertsen

• Disciplined optimized approach to generating design information



Batch and Queue Manufacturing


Manufacturing Flow


Batch and Queue Content

Documentation beefs

• The spec keeps changing

• The developers won’t review the docs– Carrot approach– Stick approach



Content Flow

Promotes learning

• Errors are discovered sooner

• Errors in content result from defects in knowledge

• Fix the defects in your knowledge so you can produce better content faster


More efficient

• Better utilization of resources

• No crunch at the end of the project

• Errors detected sooner means better understanding, which means fewer errors are made


Catches more errors

• Reviewers can focus on one issue at a time

• Catch developers while details fresh in their minds


Improves completeness

• Reviewer reading a book can’t see the trees for the forest

• Focusing on one issue leads developers to ask where related issues are discussed


Builds awareness

• When work flows, workers can see how their work affects the rest of the process.

• With incremental review, developers can see how their work affects documentation

• More likely to inform writers of design changes



Waterfall design process

Requirements

System design

Analysis

Program Design

Coding

Testing

Delivery


Waterfall doesn’t work

• Keep trying to “get it right the first time”

• But we never do!• Insanity: doing the

same thing over and over and expecting different results

Einstein


Why waterfall fails

• Design generates information– Go from not knowing how

to knowing how– At the start you have little

information– At the end you have a lot

of information

• Decisions fixed at the beginning are based on very little information


Information theory

• Events that are less probable contain more information.

• The closer our first-pass success rate is to 100 percent, the lower the information generation rate. This means that if we succeed at doing things right the first time we will have driven all information generation out of our design process.

Reinertsen, Managing the Design Factory, pp 69,79


Embrace change

• Information will increase

• Designs will change

• Content requirements will change

• Content will change


Agile software development

• Iterative development

• User stories• Frequent deliveries

to customer• Keep your options

open• Do the simplest

thing that works• Refactor constantly


Agile content development

• Iterative development

• User stories• Frequent deliveries

to customer• Keep your options

open• Do the simplest thing

that works• Refactor constantly


Iterative development

• Develop content in small chunks

• Use incremental review

• Harmonize content development with product development


User stories

• Support user tasks

• Use personas

• Minimalism– Deliver only content

that is known to be of value to customers


Frequent deliveries to customer

• Publish continuously• Make sure content is

published to all alpha and beta tests, internal and external

• Mark pages as un-reviewed with appropriate cautions, but make sure they are read early and often

• Provide a feedback mechanism


Keep your options open

• Learn first, then write

• Start as late as possible– More information is

available later

• Isolate volatility– Media– Subject matter


Do the simplest thing that works

• Don’t try to guess what future needs will be.– You will guess wrong

and waste effort

• Do the simplest thing that works today

• The simplest solution will be easiest to change when future needs arise


Refactor constantly

• Maintain simplicity by refactoring to eliminate complexity and redundancy


Evenness

• You don’t win the Tour de France by trying to win all stages

• Different techniques optimize different parts of the process

• Strive for evenness• Optimize the whole

rather than the parts

No Best Practices

• “Best practices are only ‘best’ in certain contexts to achieve certain objectives. A change in either the context or the objective can quickly transform a ‘best practice’ into a stupid approach.”

Donald Reinertsen

Managing the Design Factory, p3.



Reading List

• Lean Thinking, James P. Womack and Daniel T. Jones, The Free Press, 2003.

• The Toyota Way, Jeffrey K. Liker, McGraw Hill, 2004.

• Managing the Design Factory, Donald G. Reinertsen, The Free Press, 1997.

• Lean Software Development, Mary Poppendieck and Tom Poppendieck, Addison Wesley, 2003.

Reading List

• Every Page is Page One• By Mark Baker• XML Press

– http://xmlpress.net/publications/eppo/

• The Every Page is Page One design pattern is well adapted to lean content development.


http://xmlpress.net/publications/eppo/


Contact information

• Mark Baker

• Analecta Communications Inc.

• www.analecta.com

• [email protected]

• @mbakeranalecta

• +1 613 422 9400

http://www.analecta.com/

mailto:[email protected]

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