1. Efficient or Just Busy?
Pawel Brodzinski
@pawelbrodzinski

2. Hi, I’m Pawel
Lunar Logic
http://llp.pl
Software Project
Management
http://brodzinski.com
Twitter
@pawelbrodzinski

3. Once upon
a time…

6. Why?

7. 100% utilization

8. Cost of multitasking
Source: Gerald Weinberg, Quality Software Management:
Vol. 1 System Thinking

9. Zeigarnik Effect:
Tendency to experience
intrusive thought about
an objective left
incomplete
Source: S. Greist-Bousquet, N. Shiffman: The effect of task
interrupton and closure on perceived duration

10. Cost of task
switching is rooted
in interference from
thoughts about the task
your are not doing
Eyal Ophir

11. Time to market

12. Catching up
UM… HOW DOES THIS
DARN CODE WORK,
AGAIN?

13. More
mistakes
Source: E. Ophir, C. Nass, A. Wagner:
Cognitive control in media multitaskers

14. On a highway

15. In a call center

17. Ball
Flow
Game

18. No WIP Limits

19. Using WIP Limits

20. Total time: 25% better
Average cycle time: 60% better
Predictability*: 90% better
*Standard deviation

21. Not the whole truth

22. Cutting
corners

24. Not sustainable

25. Why something that intuitive
seems so counterintuitive
when we talk about
management?

26. …and they lived
happily ever
after

27. 5O
WIP limits!

30. Average cycle time: 50% better
Pessimistic scenario: 53% better
Predictability*: 65% better
*80th percentile

31. Why?

32. Slack time

33. Automation

34. Code quality

35. Simple
configuration

36. Self-
balancing
team

37. Slack time introduced by
WIP limits drives continuous
improvement

38. When introducing
WIP limits start with
2x average WIP
Don Reinertsen

39. Cost of rejected work: 1% worse
Cost of idle capacity: 1% worse
Average cycle time: 28% better
Source: Don Reinertsen, #lkce12 keynote
WIP Limit = 2x Average WIP

40. Cost of rejected work: 13% worse
Cost of idle capacity: 11% worse
Average cycle time: 72% better
Source: Don Reinertsen, #lkce12 keynote
WIP Limit = 0.5x Average WIP

41. Are aggressive
WIP limits
useful?
2O

42. What’s the use
of slack time?

43. Idle
time
only?

44. Helping
others

45. Learning

46. System
improvements!

47. Cost of rejected work
What’s the value of rejected
work?

48. More than a half
the features in large
software products go
unused
Source: Victor R. Basili, Barry Boehm, COTS-Based Systems Top 10 List

49. Cost of idle capacity
Is that capacity really wasted?

50. Employees possess
the ability for creative
problem solving, but their
talents are underused in
most organizations
Source: Douglas McGregor, Theory Y

51. Average cycle time
What happens to cycle time
thanks to improvements?

53. COSTOFDELAY
LONG-TERM
VALUE

54. COSTOFDELAY
Project and
product
work
LONG-TERM
VALUE

55. COSTOFDELAY
Project and
product
work
System
improvements
LONG-TERM
VALUE

56. COSTOFDELAY
Project and
product
work
System
improvements
LONG-TERM
VALUE

57. Takeouts

58. 100% utilization is a myth
1OO%

59. Introducing WIP limits results
in improved efficiency

60. Slack time sets us on path of
continuous improvement

61. Efficient doesn’t mean busy
Busy doesn’t mean efficient

62. Thank you
Pawel Brodzinski
blog.brodzinski.com
llp.pl
@pawelbrodzinski