dennis stevens - using agile and lean to lead business transformation

Strategically AlignedThroughput FocusedHuman Powered

http://www.synaptus.com

Executing Strategy as a Competitive Advantage:

Beam Team Case Study

Using Lean and Agile to Lead

An Organizational Transformation



Aligning Technology with the Business ModelThe Next Revolution in Productivity

Dennis StevensEnterprise Agile Coach

Portfolio, Program, ProjectPMI: OPM3

Scaling Agile DevelopmentRethinking the Agile Enterprise

Cost Cutting and Innovationre-th!nk

Contributed / Featured

web: http://www.synaptus.comblog: http://www.dennisstevens.comtwitter: @dennisstevensemail: [email protected]



Organizational Transformation

“In the long history of humankind (and animal kind, too) those who learned to collaborate and improvise most effectively have prevailed” – Charles Darwin



Organizational Transformation

• Why is organizational transformation difficult?

• Differentiate between all the “improvement” requirements to move the company towards it’s strategy?

• How do I solve problems in complex situations?

• How do I keep everyone focused on making progress?

• Case Study – The Beam Team



Different Perspectives – Competing Concerns

The Blind Men and The Elephant



Long Obscure Roadmaps



Unsuitable Problem Solving Approach

What are the business rules?

What is needed to achieve our

business goals?

Whose job will this be?

What is the right process?

Where should we put the servers?

How will we validate

everything?

What do the customers and

end-users want?

How will we account for

this?

How does this interact with the

other parts of the system?

Technology

ProcessPeople Customers

Business

Conversation



Lack of focus



Case Study: Situation

– $100 million retail service provider

– The economy and regulatory changes has drastically reduced core business

– They have just acquired a company of equivalent size

– The entire business focus was in an area that is not traditionally profitable – and the business processes and technology were not optimized to perform resets



Initial Findings: Organization

• Owners: Entrepreneurs – Six Brothers

• Management: Tactically Focused – Rose through the ranks

• Back office: Hardworking and committed

Overall: Not a demonstrated history of getting ideas from concept to implementation



Initial Findings: Technology

• 40% of technology developed over four years had not been deployed in the business

• Swivel Chair Integration

• Little useful management information

• Turmoil in technology organization



Approach

Two prong approach

• Get development under control

• Identify and deploy a focused set of changes in the business

• Deliver results really fast so company survives



Approach: Get Technology Under Control

• Established Kanban board for development - visualized their process

and all the existing work

• Established three classes of service based on source of funding

• Explicitly limited WIP

• Major bottleneck was in customer acceptance

Next Analysis Development Acceptance “Done-Done”

NPD

EnhanceCore System

Enhancex of 40



Refactoring the Development Board



Approach: Business

• Differentiate between all the “improvement” requirements to move the company towards it’s strategy

• We needed to create alignment and focus in a time of rapid shift, turmoil, and duress



Approach: Business

• Analyze business model to identify capabilities



Approach: Business

• Facilitated Strategy Articulation – based on Strategic Goals, COGS model and SWOT

analysisMEET THE CHALLENGE

Scale & Manage Labor

Improve & Stablize KeyProcesses

Align Incentives

Capture & Utilize

Valuable Information

Focusing Objectives

GrowthStrategic

Relationship Profitability Market ShareEmployee

Engagement

Standard Operating Objectives

Thematic Goal

PrepareTeam Leads for Success

Strengths WeaknessesA lot of talented people Organizational StructureReally know the retail industry/Experienced Field Team Scalable workforce to match demandExecution culture (get it done) Lack of actionable performance metricsAbility to Collect Field Data COGS is highCustomer Reporting HR - Labor onboarding isn't scalableHome Depot RelationshipAdaptability / Entreprenureal Spirit

Opportunities SO Strategies WO StrategiesExpand market share through acquisition Improve First Time Quality Strategic HR Initiatives.

Additional offeringsRecognize & Reward Field Performance Metrics (Vishal/Rick)

Address Organizational Structure

New customersPortfolio Evaluation Process Shared Labor Strategy. Improve logistics &

planning.Performance Metrics & Reports

Expand market share through organic growth Project Support & Reporting TeamMarket will recover and new construction will start again Capital Project TeamThreats ST Strategies WT StrategiesSingle main source of revenue ID & Promote what differentiates us Recruit Field TalentLow margins are being squeezed Understand competitive pricing and offerings Strategic Labor PartnersCompetition taking pods/marketshareHome Depot has taken work internal

The BeamTeam Strategy DevelopmentTOWS Matrix

Internal Factors (IFAS)

ExternalFactors



Approach: Business

High Value

Medium Value

Low Value

Low Performing

Medium Performing

High Performing

High Risk

Moderate Risk

Low Risk

KEY

Verb Noun(Action – Entity)

Assess the Capabilities Value (border) 1. How strongly does this affect

focusing objectives?2. How strongly does this affect

standard operating objectives?3. Is this value-added? Supporting?

Controlling?Performance (fill)4. How is this capability performing

today?5. Would a small improvement here

improve BT bottom line performance?

6. Do we understand how to improve performance?

Risk (dot)7. How difficult is this capability to

scale (for CR1)?8. Is this constrained by Customer (HD)

policy?9. Is the process complex? Highly

dependent on other capabilities? Subject to compliance issues?



Capability Value Performance Map



Assess the model

Capability Map gave us clarity on what the business did.

Assessing the model determined what was most important to the business.

The business was aligned with the outcome because they developed it.



Approach: Business

• Performed information flow analysis against current systems and processes

• Six systems and over a dozen spreadsheetsSwivel Chair Integration



Approach

• From our assessments we knew precisely what capabilities we needed to change and what processes and technology were employed in each capability

• Our strategy was clear and there was a shared context within the business

• Have combined different perspectives and competing concerns

• Have a clear near term road-map



Approach: Strategy to Execution

• Bring together the Business and Technology in A3 efforts focusing on the leverage point capabilities

• Facilitate discussion to align what we could rapidly deliver with needs of impacted management and performers• What is our target? What are the capability gaps relative to the

strategy?• What is the root cause? Five why’s – not granular 6 Sigma effort.• Evaluate Solutions• High Level Deliverables on the Implementation Plan• Assign Owners and Target Due Dates

• High level deliverables end up on the A3, with measurable outcomes, in the context of the strategy, and with the impacted capabilities clearly identified.



An A3 Plan: Strategy to Execution



Now the big challenge

• Execute the Strategy

– How can we get management to maintain focus?

– Technology is a small component of the solution - how can we rapidly get stable process changes in place across HR, the field, accounting, and operations?

– How can we get technology deployed so that the business realizes the value?



Strategy Execution Kanban Board

Next Analyze Prepare Execute Measure

Expedite

AcceptanceCriteria

AcceptanceCriteria

AcceptanceCriteria

AcceptanceCriteria

Development is fed stories based on active tasks in the prepare column

Expand / collapse tasks from the plan in each column



Strategy Execution Kanban



Ceremonies

• Walk the board with management once a week.

• Blocked items are flagged with a red tab with a note of who needs to unblock it.

• Management follows up (some actually do) with their line managers from their A3s.

• There is a lot of focus on getting stories on the technology board through acceptance now.

• We have an expedite column on the management board. We limit crisis to one at a time. Board ensures current projects maintain (regain) focus.



Results

• Achieved focus across the business

• Reduction in the crisis management tendency

• Technology deployed on time – continued to refine and deploy enhancements in flight

• Delivered the performance based incentive model

• Provide field management with real time status against their plan

• Trust has been established between us (effectively the technology group and PMO) and the business

• Strategy deployment model in place in the business



Success Attributed To

• Visual control of the Kanban board– Focus– Momentum– Shared Alignment

• Visual nature of the strategy articulation– Decisions by developers and management are made in a shared

strategic context

• Collaborative nature of the capability map, A3, and the Kanban board– Shared understanding– Participative design– Accountability

• Rapid maturing of the organization regarding strategy execution

• Courage and commitment of the Beam Team leadership



Time as a Strategic DifferentiatorThe new Bargain of Agility

Observe Orient Decide Act

Implicit guidance and control

Unfolding interaction with the environment

Feedback

FeedForwardObservations Feed

Forward DecisionAction(Test)

FeedForward

UnderstandCultureTraditionNew InformationPrevious ExperienceSynthesis

Unfolding circumstances

Outside information

Implicit guidance and control

The primary concept of the new Bargain of Agile is to expend the least resource possible to exploit the next most valuable opportunity.



Questions

• Reach out to Dennis Stevens– http://www.synaptus.com– [email protected]– Twitter: dennisstevens– Blog: www.dennisstevens.com

• We offer– Strategic Project Execution– Value Stream Mapping for Knowledge Work– Agile Enterprise Transformation– Kanban / Agile Project Management– Strategic Backlog Management

• Affiliations– Associate in David J Anderson and Associates

• http://www.djandersonassociates.com/

– Pillar Technologies for Agile Software Development• http://www.pillartechnologies.com

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http://www.synaptus.com/

mailto:[email protected]

http://www.djandersonassociates.com/

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dennis stevens - using agile and lean to lead business transformation

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