Domain VII: Continuous Improvement: Part 1

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 Learning Objectives

By the end of this lesson, you will be able to:

Discuss the meaning and key aspects of Kaizen

Describe the principles of lean

Classify the seven types of waste in lean manufacturing and

lean software development

Identify the five steps in becoming a lean organization

Understand value stream mapping

Learn the purpose and benefit of agile retrospectives

 Introduction of Kaizen

• Kaizen is a Japanese word, which stands for

continuous improvement. Kai means change and Zen
means good or change for the better. This technique
is used across industries to help organizations
produce a competitive strategy
• Kaizen advocates the involvement of individuals at
all levels, and everyone is encouraged to produce
small improvements on a continuous basis
• One of the principles of Kaizen is that big results
come from small changes, which helps improve
kai zen productivity, effectiveness, and innovation, while
change good reducing waste
• To support the concept of continuous
improvement, organizations need to invest on
trainings, study materials, and constant supervision
 Introduction of Kaizen

Agile projects provide the perfect environment to

implement Kaizen.

The focus on continuous improvement through inspect and

adapt is supported in the scrum framework through three
key meetings:
• Daily stand-up
• Sprint review
• Sprint retrospection

Impediment log, one of the key artifacts used by a scrum

master, is a key input for Kaizen. Timely resolution of
impediments facilitates the implementation of Kaizen.
 Key Aspects of Kaizen

Future Thinking Waste Reduction High Quality Low Costs

Flexible
Empowerment Just-In-Time
Practices

Customer Focus Team Work

5
Lean
 Lean

Lean has origins in the Toyota production system in the early 1950s.

Lean:

• Focuses on value streams

• Identifies the steps in the value stream or process

• Increases throughput by eliminating activities that do not

add value

• Enables a culture for continuous improvement

 Lean Principles

Eliminate waste Amplify learning

Decide as late as possible Deliver as early as possible

Lean
Principles

Empower the team Build integrity

Lean focuses on speed-to-value by eliminating waste.

 Different Forms of Waste

Mary and Tom Poppendieck have done pioneering work in translating the forms of
waste from manufacturing industry to the software development industry.

Waste can constitute up to 90% of a process. Look for ways to eliminate it.

Manufacturing Software development

Overproduction Extra features

Excess inventory Partly completed work

Unnecessary processing Extra processes

Unnecessary movement of goods Task switching

Unnecessary movement of people Needlessly splitting resources across teams

Waiting time and defects Waiting time and defects

 Steps Towards Becoming Lean

Here is a simple 5-step process to become lean.

Manage using Kaizen –

Identify the
Specify Value Create Flow pull-based Continuous
Value Stream
system improvement
Value Stream Mapping
 Example: Value Stream Mapping

The IT department of a company studied the efficiency of its database provisioning process.

• Each step in the process was mapped with the completion time

• These steps represented the value added time in the process

• The time between each step was identified as non-value added

time since it involved waiting, which is recognized as a form of
waste in lean

Flow efficiency of the process = Value added time

Non-value added time

The team then identified ways to reduce the amount of non-value added time to
increase the efficiency of the process.
 Example: Value Stream Mapping

Request Request Specifications

raised approved developed

20% rework

Engineering Specifications
Design review
design approved

65% rework

Development Test Deployment

 Example: Value Stream Mapping

Request Specifications
Request raised
approved developed
0.5
80 0.1 80 60

80
20% rework

Engineering Specifications
Design review
design approved
2
40 1
40 80
80
65% rework 80

Development Test Deployment

80 40 3
80 80

Work/Value Added Time = 0.5 + 0.1 + 60 + 1 + 40 + 2 + 80 + 40 + 3 = 226.6

Total Time Spent = 226.6 + 8 * 80 + 40 + 0.2 * 40 + 0.65 * 80 = 966.6
Process Cycle Efficiency = 226.6 / 966.6 = 23.4%
Agile Retrospectives
 Agile Retrospectives

Principle 12
At regular intervals the team reflects on how to become more effective and
adjusts accordingly.

• Team reflects on what worked and what can be improved

• Every sprint finishes with a retrospective

• Team along with scrum master and product owner discusses the
delivery performance of the completed sprint

• The retrospective is timeboxed to 45 minutes for a sprint of one week

• Retrospectives help teams continuously improve

 Agenda for Agile Retrospectives

A retrospective should answer the following questions:

What went well? What could be better?

What did we learn? What still puzzles us?

The focus must be on identifying best practices and improvements in the process.
 Cargo Smells

Cargo smells are signs that there are issues with your agile practices

Teams can check if the agile practices need improvement during retrospectives
Types of Cargo Smells

Scrum Master Assigns Work

• The team must pull work that they can commit based
on the priority, understanding of the product
requirement, and their confidence in completing the
work

• The scrum master must enable the team and remove

impediments
Types of Cargo Smells

Specialized Job Skills

• A scrum must have only three roles: product owner,

scrum master, and the team

• Specialized job titles contribute to delays and increase

in wait times

• Teams must be functional and T-shaped

Types of Cargo Smells

Large Teams

• Teams that are greater than two pizza sizes increase

the information sharing costs of the team

• Larger teams lead to skill specialization, which may

cause delays
 Types of Cargo Smells

TACO Factories

• TACO factories refer to teams practicing Terms And

Ceremonies Only

• This includes teams that apply waterfall approach

to projects and conduct agile ceremonies

Scrum ceremonies
 Conducting a Retrospective: Factors

Retrospectives, attended by the team members and the facilitator, can be

conducted at the iteration, release, or project levels.

While conducting a retrospective:

• The facilitator ensures everybody in the team actively

participates in it

• The facilitator should be experienced, neutral, and

perceived by the team as non-threatening and
helpful

• The facilitator sets the duration, expectation, and

goals for the retrospective and sets the ground rules
for the meeting

23
Conducting a Retrospective: Five Steps

Set the Stage: The scrum master clearly defines the ground rules to ensure
individuals feel comfortable speaking about issues that impacted the
project. The team also agrees on what is not acceptable, such as personal
criticism or complaints

Gather Data: The team gathers data for the problems faced in the sprint.
The different techniques used for problem detection and resolution
(discussed in Domain VI) include: Fishbone diagram, 5 Whys, and control
charts

Generate Insights: Based on the collated data, the team can infer the root
cause of the issues being faced

Decide What to Do: Based on the insights from Step 3, the team decides
the improvement plans to be implemented in upcoming sprints to avoid the
recurrence of such issues

Close the Retrospection: In closure, the scrum master thanks the team for
their contribution. The team members thank their colleagues for their help
in resolving technical issues during the sprint
 Brainstorming Techniques
Round robin
• Everyone in the team is given a
chance to provide their views
using a round robin approach
• Team members can either
choose to expand on the
earlier issue or add a new
perspective
Free-for-All
• The team can participate without
any restriction and provide
inputs
• The only disadvantage is that the
quiet members of the team may
not be given any opportunity
Quiet Writing
• Team members write their
ideas and circulate to the
facilitator
• This method limits the
influence of members on each
other as the ideas are
generated in isolation
• This is a great method that
enables everyone to exchange
their ideas
 Process Analysis Technique

Process analysis is an important technique to be followed by an architect, product owner,

business analyst, or anyone who works on understanding a system

It provides a business or process-related

It defines or refines the requirements
solution

26
 Process Analysis Technique

The steps involved in the process analysis technique are:

Prepare functional
Identify system Define main user Define system solution to meet
user goals usage patterns user goals and
usage patterns

Define main
Create UI mockups Polish UI elements
navigation paths

27
Agile Process Tailoring
 Agile Process Tailoring

• Process tailoring involves customizing agile processes to a situation

• It can include roles, processes, or procedures

• Examples of project-specific tailoring are:

o Add or remove work products and tasks
o Alter project milestones and the work products completed at each milestone, along with the
expected extent of project or product completion at specific times

o Set responsibilities for review and approval using RACI table (RACI stands for responsible,
accountable, concerned, and informed)

o Establish detailed procedures for reporting progress, performing measurements, managing

requirements and change requests, and others
 Agile Process Tailoring: ShuHaRi

Shu: Follow the Rules Ha: Branch out Ri: Find your own approach

Teams that are in the initial Teams that have been using Teams that have gained

phase of implementing the agile guidelines for a sufficient mastery must create

agile must aim to follow the while and have a sufficient its own practices and guidelines

understanding must explore to suit the project dynamics.

guidelines provided by the
methodology without new techniques and

tailoring any process. practices.

The premise: Before tailoring the process, ensure the agile framework is correctly implemented and its
! benefits are obtained.
 Project Factors That Influence Tailoring
Project Factor
Demand pattern
Rate of progress required is large
Too many interruptions or work gets
stuck
Poor quality of increments
Resource intensive work
Inexperienced team members
Tailoring Options
• If the demand pattern is steady, a release cadence
(iterations) is preferred
• If it is sporadic, flow-based approaches (Kanban) may be
preferred
• Frequent retrospections and selecting improvements to
implement
• Visualization of the work using Kanban boards and
implementation of actions to improve the flow
• Test-driven development and good quality practices
• Agile program management or scaling frameworks
• Crafting an approach that fits project context
• Training the team members
• Coaching them as they learn the ropes
Knowledge Check
Knowledge
Check
Which of the following is NOT a characteristic of retrospectives?
1

A. They can occur for iterations, sprints, releases, or projects.

B. They occur near the end of a project as part of the lessons learned.

C. They are regular reviews conducted by the team to discuss the

team's progress.

D. They should include everybody in the project team.

 Knowledge
Check
Which of the following is NOT a characteristic of retrospectives?
1

A. They can occur for iterations, sprints, releases, or projects.

B. They occur near the end of a project as part of the lessons learned.

C. They are regular reviews conducted by the team to discuss the team's progress.

D. They should include everybody in the project team.

The correct answer is B

Retrospectives do not occur near the end of a project as part of the lessons learned. They happen throughout the
project life cycle.
Knowledge
Check
Which of the following is NOT a reason for holding a retrospective?
2

A. To reflect and learn from the past

B. To decide how the team will work in the future

C. To evaluate individual performance using a team perspective

D. To allow a team to own and drive their development process

 Knowledge
Check
Which of the following is NOT a reason for holding a retrospective?
2

A. To reflect and learn from the past

B. To decide how the team will work in the future

C. To evaluate individual performance using a team perspective

D. To allow a team to own and drive their development process

The correct answer is C

Retrospectives are not intended to apportion blame or to evaluate individual performance.

Knowledge
Check
How does test-driven development help developers?
3

A. It prevents them from avoiding the difficult task of writing tests.

B. It ensures that their code is always defect-free.

C. It reduces questions from the management on whether the code has been tested properly.

D. It reduces rework for developers and gives them the courage to refactor.
 Knowledge
Check
How does test-driven development help developers?
3

A. It prevents them from avoiding the difficult task of writing tests.

B. It ensures that their code is always defect-free.

C. It reduces questions from the management on whether the code has been tested properly.

D. It reduces rework for developers and gives them the courage to refactor.

The correct answer is D

Test-driven development reduces rework for developers and gives them the courage to refactor.
 Key Takeaways

Kaizen refers to continuous improvement and advocates the

involvement of individuals at all levels.

Lean enables continuous improvement and focuses on speed

to value by eliminating waste.

Retrospectives are regular reviews by the team to discuss

what works and what can be improved in the process.

Three important techniques to brainstorm during a

retrospective include free-for-all, round robin, and quiet
writing.

Process tailoring and Shu-Ha-Ri involves customizing agile

processes to a situation.