Presentation at Lean Software and Systems Conference in Atlanta, April 2010.

1. Making the Work Visible
The materialization of the evolution on the understanding of our working system
Alisson Vale
Software Designer Looking for Sustentability in
Coach / Independent Consultant Software Development
Twitter: @alissonvale
Blog: http://alissonvale.com

2. Study Case

3. we have started our Kanban
implementation in Feb/2008

4. From physical to electronic
Oct/2008

5. The Phidelis System Design
in Jan/2009

6. The Phidelis System Design
in Apr/2010
?

7. The Phidelis System Design
became an ecosystem
by continuously “making the work visible” in
response to new levels of system understanding

8. The Phidelis System Design
design focus
and discoveries

9. design focus #1
thinking in “ecosystems”
rather than in linear
processes

10. Discovery #1: visual structures help you when you are
designing ecosystems

11. design focus #2
contextualizing visual
information rather than
using traditional
reports

12. Discovery #2: Contextualizing visual information helps you
get the big picture

13. design focus #3
organizing the
system considering
interconnected
perspectives

14. Discovery #3:
Perspectives help to
comprehend
interconnections

15. Phidelis System Perspectives
customer
perspective system
perspective
team
perspective
personal
perspective

16. Perspectives also help to absorb
market profles
● Customer interest is ● Customer interest is
associated with smaller cost associated with flexibility and
● Lower revenue
customization, regardless cost
due resource sharing, ● Higher revenue
lack of commitment for compensates unacceptable cost
customization due pressure, commitments,
and estimations
● Easy to Scale ● Hard to Scale
● Enables grow ● Restricts grow
Homogenous Heterogenous

17. Perspectives based on market
aggregations

18. Demo
remind the presenter to show Point
● that this is not a
Kanban tool,
it's an environment for
getting system
understanding
● the ecosystem
architecture in a
nutshell
● the four perspectives
● the product line flter to
switch between
perspectives

19. making ...
| the nature of the work |
| the workfow |
| collaboration |
| time |
| information |
| engineering traceability |
| movements |
... visible

20. making the nature of
the work visible

21. the nature of demand
new
software
support
operations
Improvements on
problem
existing software
solving

22. Cards and other symbols are putted
together to represent units of work in
different contexts

23. levelling effort
T-Shirt sizing approach
Small Medium Large

24. Units of work fow in single pieces, but we also
need to persue business goals and other
achievements
business activities

25. Following high level achievements
Mini View

26. Demo
remind the presenter to show Point
● how work is
represented in different
ways
● the structure of a unit of
work
● the structure of a
business activity

27. making the
workfow visible

28. workflow
scheme
WIP
Waiting
in progress feedback for release
prioritization
release
enqueued inspection ready
IN OUT
Flow in WIP is no linear
backlog It is random due constant arrival of new delivered
information related or not to a given
unit of work

29. workflow: team member perspective
Limits per person
and state

30. workflow: team perspective
bidimensional
fow

31. workflow: customer/aggregation
perspective

32. Demo
remind the presenter to show Point
● fow and prioritization
in the input area
● fow in WIP, transition
to the inspection state
and output area

33. making
collaboration visible

34. Swarming behavior occurs as people
get involved with the work

35. “I have done “I have done
something to help him something to help them
on this work” on work they are involved”

36. a team member participation Conversation
in terms of comments applied to
each unit of work
the whole conversation of the
team

37. Full visibility of current involvement and
recent actions

38. Demo
remind the presenter to show Point
● Swarming e
conversation around a
card
● Individual collaboration
visible
● Visualization of team
involvement
● Team view and
conversation

39. making time visible

40. Getting time perspective

41. The “Cycle
Time” clock
stops when
the demand
arrives the
delivered
state

42. Demo
remind the presenter to show Point
● Time on delivery area
and card details
● the time view

43. making information
visible

44. Focus on contextual
information in order to
get a quick
understanding of the
system

45. Work leaving/entering
in the three systemic
areas
What has just been pulled to WIP
What has just left the system
What has just entered into the backlog

46. Getting information about the
relative volume of demand
regarding its nature
INPUT WIP OUTPUT
%
% %
% % %
%
% %
% % %
% + Undesirable economic effort
%

47. ...and regarding relevant customers
and aggregations
INPUT WIP OUTPUT
% % %
% % %
% % %
% % %
this information is used to help with capacity allocation

48. Individual involvement rather than
individual performance

49. Demo
remind the presenter to show Point
● information on the top
bar and rotator with
“Most Recent on”
information
● info rotator on the top
bar
● info on personal view
regarding individual
involvement
● performance view
● no hidden info neither
access control

50. making engineering
traceability visible

51. From the board to the Tracking System (Mantis)

52. From the board to
The Build System
(CruiseControl)

53. From the board to
the change in the source code repository
(subversion/trac)
53

54. making movements
visible

55. Broadcast channel #1
Instant desktop communication for team members

56. Broadcast
channel #2
Instant TV
communication for
the workplace

57. Final thought:
Making the work visible can be a really
good way to materialyze
the current understanding
of the system and to enable further
improvements

58. Thank You!
Read more...
Blog Articles
http://alis s onvale .com/e nglis hblog
Kanban: When Signalization Matters
alis s onvale .com/e nglis hblog/pos t/Kanban-Whe n-Signalization-Matte rs .as px
The History of a Kanban System (Portuguese)
http:// alis s onvale .com/e nglis hblog/pos t/A-His toria-de -um-Sis te ma-Kanban.as px
Interview on InfoQ Brazil (Portuguese)
http://www.infoq.com/br/ne ws /2009/01/bras il-re pre s e ntacao-confe re nc ia
Contact
Mail: contact@ alissonvale.com
Blog : http://alissonvale.com/englishblog
Twitter: @ alissonvale