Using ITIL, Agile, LEAN, TOC principles for managing IT Operations. Presented at Agile Israel on April 11 2011

1. Breaking the Vicious Cycle in IT Operations using an Agile/Kanban Recipe Tal Aviv tal@AgileSparks.comTalaviv@hotmail.com

2. Forces that shape IT Services A little bit of history: Where are we today and how did we get here?

3. Growing Pains – How did we get here? Organizations started with a single Person IT department. Growth led to increased IT needs. Growth led to Complexity. Complexity led to splitting IT into specialized groups. Pressure for Cost cutting led to off shoring and out sourcing.

4. Customer satisfaction goes down while costs go up The organization is less flexible Local Optima is encouraged Matrices created for group performance Service Delivery Managers are brought on board to coordinate Cust/IT Additional rules and procedures are created Proj mgr added for coordination between groups Pressure to increase efficiency Quality of Service is reduced Delivery time is missed IT groups take longer to respond IT’s Current Reality Tree Coordination between team is more complicated Each team is specialized in it own area Communication with remote team is more complicated Use specialized teams to gain economy of scale Use less expensive resources Outsource IT groups Cut IT expenses Market forces demand cut in IT expenditure People are the most expensive resource IT is not a profit center Complexity in IT grows Additional IT Resources needed IT Dept growth IT Is Expensive Organization growth

5. Current State - Impact on Users

7. Delays.

8. Missed due dates.

9. System complexity.

11. Constant expediting led to conflicting demands.

13. Specialized teams led to complex coordination.

15. Current State - Impact on IT Groups Complexity leads to increase in operating costs.

16. Example How can we break the cycle?

17. Real life problems March 1st Req. Date < SLA Due Date missed Due Date missed Req. Date < SLA Req. Stuck in Queue Work in Progress even though we have lots of time

18. Requested Date before SLA Date no correlation between requested date to the projected date

19. Where do we start?

20. Define Services and SLA Service Is a user story that define the action from the point of view of the user and has a definition of done.

22. Special emergencies will be allowed only by approval from queue manager

24. Missed Due Date Many requests still miss their projected end date

25. Establish flow based on Prioritization and coordination scheme

26. What do we want? Self managed teams Reduced Multitasking Focus Increase flow

28. SLA is published

31. Green – More then 66% of time is available

32. Yellow – Between 10% - 66% of time is available

35. Visual Management - Cleaning up Visual Simplicity is the key for self management. You cant improve if you cant see. Start by cleaning up!

36. First, Clean Up the Queue Some of the Old work was removed New Due Date negotiated for some of the Black requests 2 Black requests are approved to be priority Cleaning up the mess makes it easier for the team member to understand what he/she needs to work on

37. Visualize the work , establish flow Kanban

38. Visualize the work - Kanban Queue manager transfer request from Service Center to Kanban board based on color priority Team members pull work based on order WIP limit is strictly enforced

39. WIP Limit 6 WIP Limit 3 Backlog Ready In Progress Customer Acceptance RM10864079 RM10864590 Use Kanban Board for Visual Self Management RM10866148 RM10818090 RM10856644 RM10846983 RM10866148 RM10839292 RM10866656 RM10867039 RM10866934 Definitions Queue Manager to ensure that no information is missing from the request before entering ready state Item pulled by a team member and is being worked on. All open requests waiting to be processed Item that was work completed and moved to customer for approval.

40. WIP Limit 6 WIP Limit 3 Backlog Ready In Progress Customer Acceptance RM10864079 RM10864590 Top 3 requests from the ready queue are pulled in to work in progress RM10866148 RM10818090 RM10856644 RM10846983 RM10866148 RM10839292 RM10866656 RM10867039 RM10866934 RM10867477 March 1st 2011 Tech Team Pull work while keeping WIP Limits

41. The Next Day – March 2nd The Red request and 2 black are completed 3 New requests came in

42. WIP Limit 6 WIP Limit 3 Backlog Ready In Progress Customer Acceptance RM10864079 RM10864590 RM10866148 RM10818090 RM10856644 RM10846983 RM10866148 RM10839292 RM10866656 RM10867039 RM10866934 RM10867477 March 2nd 2011 RM10869023 RM10869012 RM10869001

43. WIP Limit 6 WIP Limit 3 Backlog Ready In Progress Customer Acceptance RM10864079 RM10864590 RM10866148 RM10818090 RM10856644 RM10846983 RM10866148 RM10839292 RM10866656 RM10867039 RM10866934 RM10867477 As work is being completed, new work can flow into the queues, based on color priority RM10869023 RM10869012 RM10869001 March 2nd 2011

44. WIP Limit 6 WIP Limit 3 Backlog Ready In Progress Customer Acceptance RM10869023 RM10864590 RM10866148 RM10839292 RM10818090 RM10867039 RM10856644 RM10846983 RM10867477 RM10866148 RM10866656 RM10869012 RM10864079 RM10866934 RM10869001 March 2nd 2011

45. March 3rd 2 urgent requests came in

46. WIP Limit 6 WIP Limit 3 Backlog Ready In Progress Customer Acceptance RM10866656 RM10867477 RM10869023 RM10864590 RM10866934 RM10839292 RM10869012 RM10818090 RM10869001 RM10867039 RM10864079 RM10846983 RM10866148 RM10856644 RM10866148 March 3rd 2011 RM10869077 Color system keeps it simple RM10869097 RM10869101

47. WIP Limit 6 WIP Limit 3 Backlog Ready In Progress Customer Acceptance RM10867477 RM10869023 RM10864590 RM10869077 RM10839292 RM10869012 RM10869097 RM10818090 RM10867039 RM10864079 RM10846983 RM10866656 RM10866148 RM10866934 RM10856644 RM10869001 RM10866148 RM10869101 March 3rd 2011

48. WIP Limit 6 WIP Limit 3 Backlog Ready In Progress Customer Acceptance RM10869077 RM10864590 RM10839292 RM10869012 RM10869097 RM10818090 RM10867039 RM10864079 RM10867477 RM10846983 RM10866656 RM10866148 RM10869023 RM10866934 RM10856644 RM10869001 RM10866148 RM10869101 March 3rd 2011

49. RESULTS Standard flow Self Managed teams Clear priority system Reduced time to market Predictability – Trust – Customer Satisfaction

50. How do we coordinate several groups? Each Service will have tasks for one or multiple groups. Each task will have an SLA. Each group will use the color coding system to prioritize work towards a common Service due date (see example).

51. WIP Limit 6 WIP Limit 3 Backlog Ready In Progress Customer Acceptance RM10864088 Request RM10864079 has 3 tasks that go to 3 separate groups. Based on the Service SLA, each group will have a sub SLA for its task. RM10864079-1 RM10864079-2 RM10864099 If there are dependencies, the Queue Manager will not designate his task as ready until work on the previous task is in Customer Acceptance RM10864079-3 RM10867039 RM108640192 Use the same principles to coordinate between teams

52. WIP Limit 6 WIP Limit 3 Backlog Ready In Progress Customer Acceptance RM10864088 RM10864079-1 RM10864079-2 RM10864099 RM10864079-3 RM10867039 RM108640192

53. WIP Limit 6 WIP Limit 3 Backlog Ready In Progress Customer Acceptance RM10864088 RM10864079-1 RM10864079-2 RM10864099 RM10864079-3 RM10867039 RM108640192

54. WIP Limit 6 WIP Limit 3 Backlog Ready In Progress Customer Acceptance Color of task might have changed while in the works RM10864088 RM10864079-1 RM10864079-1 RM10864079-2 RM10864099 RM10864079-3 RM10867039 RM108640192

55. We gained even more Management oversight for coordination was reduced. Increase cross team collaboration. Increased transparency. Reduced Complexity and Operating costs.

56. RESULTS Standard flow Self Managed teams Clear priority system Reduced time to market Management oversight for coordination was reduced. Increase cross team collaboration. Reduced Complexity and Operating costs. Predictability Trust Customer Satisfaction

57. Questions?

58. Frequently Asked Questions What if the customer does not approve? Requests not approved by the customer will go back to the queue with priority Red and flow through the process again. Why do we need Ready queue? In order to ensure that work flows through the process, we need to ensure that all information is available to the technical staff. The ready queue is for work ready to be processed and all information is available

59. Frequently Asked Questions How do we ensure that Green tickets will be done on time? The color of the ticket will change with time. If we penetrate the buffer and the ticket becomes yellow or red, it will automatically move up on the priority list What about super urgent work such as incidents? Incidents might need to be a separate class of service. Prioritization of incidents might be based on Severity and not by due date

60. Frequently Asked Questions How do we find the right SLA? Too many green – SLA too big Too many Red – SLA too short

61. For Additional Information tal@agilesparks.com talaviv@hotmail.com

62. Thank you

63. About the Speaker Tal Aviv/Ovadia http://il.linkedin.com/pub/tal-ovadia/2/76/586 Blog: Duckmanagement.blogspot.com

64. Appendix

65. Cleaning up Phases of LEAN 5S 1.1 Sorting (Seiri) 1.2 Straightening or setting in order / stabilize (Seiton) 1.3 Sweeping or shining or cleanliness / systematic cleaning (Seiso) 1.4 Standardizing (Seiketsu) 1.5 Sustaining the discipline or self-discipline (Shitsuke)