Case Studies Motivating Efficiency as a Spendable Quantity Alistair Cockburn Humans and Technology http: // Alistair.Cockburn.us

Purpose of the talk Update you on non-manufacturing “agile” work Convince you that purposefully allowing rework can be a winning strategy; ... that efficiency can be traded for improved overall schedule. These are known to work in design activities. Do they work in any manufacturing situations?

Agile in Software Development : History 1991 + 1991: Alistair Cockburn assigned to develop an effective software development methodology. He interviewed and studied project teams for 5 years, applied his results to $15M fixed-price, fixed-scope software project (which succeeded). Emphasis on “process-light” methodologies to improve software development efficiency. Emphasis on tracking “Running Tested Functions” (RTF) to improve visibility into project progress. Emphasis on “concurrent development” to shorten delivery times (this talk). ... Other people were producing similar results.

2001: The Manifesto for Agile Software Development “We are uncovering better ways of developing software by doing it and helping others do it. Through this work we have come to value: Individuals and interactions over Processes and Tools Working software over Comprehensive documentation Customer collaboration over Contract negotiation Responding to change over Following a plan That is, while there is value in the items on the right, we value the items on the left more.”

2005: The Declaration of Inter-dependence for agile-adaptive project management “We increase return on investment by making continuous flow of value our focus; ...deliver reliable results by engaging customers in frequent interactions and shared ownership; ...manage for uncertainty through iterations, anticipation and adaptation; ...unleash creativity and innovation by recognizing that individuals are the ultimate source of value, and creating an environment where they can make a difference; ...boost performance through group accountability for results and shared responsibility for team effectiveness; ...improve effectiveness and reliability through situationally specific strategies, processes and practices."

Question: You have isolated the bottleneck station Question: You have isolated the bottleneck station. ... Now what do you do with the OTHER stations? Have them --- 1. Sit idle (creates buffer and warning signal) 2. Do the work of the bottleneck station (increases the output of the bottleneck station) 3. Do work that simplifies the work at the bottleneck station (increases the output of the bottleneck station) 4. Rework material to improve quality going into, or reduce rework required at, the bottleneck station (speed meeting “quality” standards at bottleneck station) 5. Create multiple alternatives for the bottleneck workers to choose from (increases the output of the bottleneck station)

Strategy: Start downstream work early, accept limited rework penalty, deliver earlier than otherwise. Requirements Serial Development Design Program Test Requirements Concurrent Development Design Program Test Increased Rework Cost Schedule Gain

Principle: Choose the handover point according to the allowable rework penalty at the non-bottleneck Project Winifred case study Requirements Requirements Gatherer Requirements Gatherer Stability Designer/ Programmer DP DP DP DP DP Database Analyst (DBA) These designer/programmers have spare capacity (can do rework) DBA Time These DBAs are the bottleneck (little rework capacity)

The strategy works because of (and with careful attention to) relative spare capacities Fundamental Tension: Starting a downstream station early ... ...increases its rework ( lengthens its task time ) ...shortens (maybe) the overall schedule The balance point depends on the relative spare capacity of the two stations. The strategy also works when the upstream station is the bottleneck and the downstream station has spare capacity ! (the downstream station creates multiple solutions for the upstream to choose from)

End: Purposefully allowing rework can be a winning strategy ... ... and efficiency can be traded to improve overall schedule These are known to work in design activities. Do they work in any manufacturing situations? referenced web sites: http:// AgileManifesto.org http:// PmDeclarationOf Interdependence.org http:// Alistair.Cockburn.us