Best Practices - Lean and Agile

7/28/2019 Best Practices - Lean and Agile

1/7


2/7

Table of Contents

Lean and Agile ______________________________________________________________ Value Stream Mapping _______________________________________________________

2013 Informatica Corporation. All rights reserved. Velocity Methodology


3/7

Value Stream Mapping

Value Stream Mapping

Challenge

Data integration activities generally involve multiple teams working together in a coordinated fashion to

deliver a solution or provide a service. It is common to see 5-10 different functional groups involved in an

end-to-end process for a typical integration effort and frequently some of the groups involved arethird-party organizations, such as outsourced service providers or systems integrators. The challenges

associated with achieving a lean and agile integration process across multiple teams that is fast, has

minimal waste, high quality, and continuously improves, include the following:

* Gaining agreement across the teams about which activities are not adding value and should be eliminated, which are the

highest priority opportunities and how to go about changing the process.

* Limited metrics and no clear ownership for the end-to-end process; all teams may consider themselves green in terms

meeting their service levels or performance targets, yet the business owners view IT project delivery as red.

* The motivations and incentives of each of the teams are different so how can one convince a team to change how they d

their work that may be sub-optimal from their perspective but results in greater efficiency and speed in the end-to-end

process.

* There may be few (or no) useful metrics to compare teams as well as resistance to gathering metrics either because tea

view it as non-productive or because they fear being embarrassed by the results.

Description

Value Stream Mapping (VSM) is a technique that enables integration teams to achieve breakthrough performance

improvements by creating a better overall flow in an entire process rather than isolated improvements to a single point in a

process. The value stream mapping activity creates a blueprint for applying problem analysis tools, such as A3 Problem

Solving and improvement events. It brings disparate teams together to gain a common understanding of the end-to-end

process and helps people to see beyond the symptoms of waste and understand the root causes, so they can make

substantial and sustainable improvements.

This best practice is not a substitute for learning basic VSM concepts or practicing the techniques. To learn the concepts and

basic modeling and notation conventions, there are plenty of resources on the internet. The book Learning To See, by MikeRother and John Shook, is an excellent primer, and Informatica offers an Integration VSM Workshop on the Informatica

Marketplace .

The main focus of this best practice is to provide guidance on how to apply VSM concepts in a data integration context. VSM

concepts can be applied to virtually any repetitive integration process, but the approach varies somewhat depending on the

maturity of the process. All integration processes that are targets for improvement are at one of three stages of maturity base

on the 3-S model as follows:

1. Stabilize : In this stage, the integration processes are ad-hoc, inconsistent and may even be viewed as chaotic. In

the stabilization stage, the focus for improvements is on clarifying (or defining) who the customer is, how the process is

initiated, what exactly the deliverables are and when/how the work is considered complete. Key metrics that are

established at this stage include:

- Cost per deliverables- Lead time

- Customer satisfaction

2. Standardize : In this stage, the focus is on standardizing the steps in the end-to-end process, clarifying roles and

responsibilities, standardizing work products and templates, implementing consistent communications and monitoring

tools, and generally improving process quality. Key metrics that are established at this stage include:

- Cycle Time (of individual steps)

- Defects and Rework

- First Time Through Percentage

3. Simplify : In this stage, the focus is on eliminating waste, streamlining one-piece flow and establishing a culture of

continuous improvement. Key metrics that are established at this stage include:

Lean and Agile

3/7 2013 Informatica Corporation. All rights reserved. Velocity Methodology
http://psv28ips6.informatica.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&catid=152&id=519http://psv28ips6.informatica.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&catid=152&id=519https://community.informatica.com/solutions/1618https://community.informatica.com/solutions/1618https://community.informatica.com/solutions/1618https://community.informatica.com/solutions/1618http://psv28ips6.informatica.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&catid=152&id=519http://psv28ips6.informatica.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&catid=152&id=519


4/7

- Value Added Ratio

- WIP (Work In Process) Inventory

- Cycle Time for individual steps in the process

In stages 1 and 2, the processes are often unstable, inconsistent and ad-hoc which is a challenge to identifying consistent

metrics that are required for fact-based problem solving (such as in A3). In these situations, Informatica recommends using

VSM techniques by selecting a specific instance of an integration process/project, develop a current-state VSM, identify

improvement opportunities and initiate A3s (based on approximate or estimated metrics if accurate facts are not available) toaddress the major opportunities. Once the integration process has matured to stage 3 (Simplify), then lean techniques, such a

Control Charts, can be used to identify improvement opportunities on an ongoing basis.

VSM is essentially a four step process.

1. Define the product/service

2. Create the current state value stream map

3. Create the future state value stream map

4. Develop an action plan to address opportunities and achieve the future state

Step 1: Define the Product/Service

The first critical step is to develop a clear picture of the value stream to be analyzed. This can at times be challenging in IT,

especially in cases where integration processes are immature and informal, since every handoff in the internal company value

chain can be considered a customer-supplier relationship and every customer has yet another customer whom they serve. Th

questions that should be addressed in this step include:

* Who is the customer? The customer may at times be an actual customer of the organization, but frequently the customer

the integration value stream is an internal group like an application owner, a business intelligence competency center, a

project team or a data governance council.

* How does the customer define value, and are they currently satisfied? If the customer is satisfied there may still be room

for improvement, but they should not be the first priority. First, find a customer that isnt satisfied since its likely to find mo

significant improvement opportunities.

* How is delivery started? Does the customer submit a formal request for service or could an informal hallway discussion

result in the initiation of work? It is important to put a stake in the ground and define a clear point in time when the flow

through a value stream is considered to have started. This is necessary in order to measure lead time and to monitortrends over time.

* What is the actual product or service delivered to the customer and what is the definition of done? For example, if the

product being delivered is a new real-time data services implementation, is the product considered delivered once it

completes system test, or when it is first deployed to production, or once it has been fully rolled out to all the users? Once

again, it is critical to define done from the customers perspective and not the perspective of the value stream providers.

* Which functional groups or teams are involved in the value stream? Once the start and end of the value stream are

defined, it is necessary to identify all the groups involved in doing the work, approving the work, monitoring the work and

scheduling the work since the VSM must model both the flow of materials and the flow of information/governance.

Many organizations when first applying VSM have poorly-defined or inconsistent metrics to measure productivity, throughput

overall lead time. In this case, Informatica recommends selecting a recent integration project or service delivery that is

representative of a typical value stream flow and performing a detailed analysis of what actually happened. Then, identify key

participants from all the teams involved and arrange a kickoff meeting to explain VSM concepts in a non-threating way and to

describe the five step process.

Step 2: Create the Current State Value Stream Map

A key objective of VSM is to deepen one's understanding of a value stream by drawing a map of it. In current-state mapping,

this is done while observing the actual value stream as work is performed. For example, rather than asking how is the work

supposed to flow, ask how does the work actually flow.

Value stream maps are often drawn by hand on paper, white boards or post-it notes. The idea is to keep the mapping process

real-time, simple and iterative and not let technology get in the way. Software tools, such as Microsoft Visio, OmniGraffle (Ma

OS, iPad) and iGrafx, however, can also be used for creating the maps.

Lean and Agile



5/7

In order to do the VSM on the shop floor, the VSM analyst could walk around and meet with individual

staff involved in all the steps of a product/process. Alternatively, the VSM current state map can be developed in a facilitated

working session with a group of staff that represents each of the steps in the value stream. If a representative from each group

isnt available for a group session, then conduct the session with as many representatives as possible and follow up with the

missing teams separately. Some participants, like a project manager, may be able to represent several teams.

Key activities in this step include:

* Model both the flow of materials (requirements, designs, prototypes, code, tested code, etc.) and the flow of information

(status updates, architecture approvals, change requests, test scheduling activities, project reviews, etc.).

* Identify which activities are value added from the customers perspective and which activities are waste using three acid

test questions:

- Is this activity transforming a component for the eventual product/service?

- If the customer knew this was being done, would they be willing to pay for it?

- Is this being done once or multiple times?

* Make a rough outline of the initial map. If done in a group workshop, use group facilitation techniques, such as

brainstorming and Go-round. Draw in communication arrows between process steps and the end customer or other

stakeholders. Add push and pull arrows to designate whether information or product is being pushed or pulled between

process steps.

* Capture metrics about each step including cycle time, throughput, idle time, re-work, number of resources, etc. If metrics

are not readily available, then develop an estimate based on available informationeven if they are based on anecdotal

information. Approximate metrics are better than no metrics.

* Calculate overall value stream metrics including Lead Time, Value-Add Ratio and Cost per Unit of deliverable.

* Add other data as needed and to include exceptions noticed during walk through.

* Determine missing information and create an action plan to follow up.

Lean and Agile



6/7

Step 3: Create the Future State Value Stream Map

A future state map builds from the current state view and answers the question, what could be? The future state represents

an image of a process as if it was designed and developed from start to finish as the ideal process. It answers questions such

as:

* What does a perfect process look like?

* If there were no restrictions, how would the processes be designed?* What would the process look like if all waste was eliminated?

Note that there are two kinds of non-value added activities or waste: Non-Value Add and Non-Value Add But Required. Work

that falls into the first category should simply be stopped. Work in the second category may present opportunities for

improvement either by reviewing the policy to confirm that it really is required or by changing the process so that the impact on

the customer is minimized. The following table lists the seven forms of waste and provides some examples of each.

Forms of Waste Data Integration Examples

Transportation (unnecessary movement of

materials)

Data replication to a data warehouse rather than simply getting it from the syste

record Mailing around a MS-word document for team members to edit and revie

than using a central repository so that everyone edits the same document

Inventory (excess inventory including work in

progress)

Legacy data no longer being used Change request backlog is an inventory of us

requests that causes waste every time the list is reviewed and re-prioritized Codin production that no-one uses is wasted inventory of functionality

Motion (extra steps by people to perform the

work)

Unnecessary meetings Rekeying requirements from one tool (like Excel) into an

tool (like PowerCenter) Transferring work from one party to another Time and ef

arranging for work to be done (i.e., contract negotiations, quote meetings, comp

bidding, supplier selection systems, resource scheduling, etc.)

Waiting (periods of inactivity) Approval delays, change request backlog Waiting for data, answers, decisions,

events and capacity availability (human or machine) Waiting for work activities t

scheduled or acted upon

Overproduction (production ahead of

demand)

Data replication rather than real-time access Building more functions into a prog

the user requested (sometimes referred to as gold plating) System over utiliza

once a system reaches 80% utilization, small changes can have a dramatic effe

through put timeOverprocessing (rework and reprocessing) Reinvention waste: Recreating or rediscovering knowledge Redundant Tasks:

inspection points Re-work due to testing defects or design changes once data q

issues are detected

Defects (effort involved in inspecting for and

fixing defects)

Data and code defects External quality enforcement: effort and expenses exten

monitor quality that is never used Functionality that does not meet requirements

The goal is to build a value chain where the process is linked to the customer through continuous flow, and each step gets as

close as possible to processing only what the customer needs exactly when he or she needs it.

In mapping the future state, think outside of the box and develop the process with zero constraints. While the future state visio

might not always be achievable, it provides something to aim for and pushes the team to continually improve processes.

Step 4: Develop an Action Plan to Address Opportunities and Achieve the Future

State

Improvement opportunities can be identified either in walk-around or in one-on-one discussions with front-line staff, or as part

of a facilitated group discussion. The basic sub-steps are:

1. Develop a list of opportunities without judgment or qualification (use brainstorming or Go-around in a group setting).

2. Prioritize the list by assessing the expected benefit from each of the opportunities. A second level of prioritization can be

added by assessing the level of effort or complexity associated with each opportunity (use multi-voting or Go-around in a

group setting).

3. Develop a specific action plan for each improvement opportunity using A3 Problem Solving and improvement

events, such as Kaizen.

Lean and Agile

http://psv28ips6.informatica.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&catid=152&id=519http://psv28ips6.informatica.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&catid=152&id=519


7/7

It is also important to communicate the VSM findings and the action plan to the people that participated in

the process so that they see the results of their contribution. This feedback process is critical for organizational learning and fo

setting expectations when repeating the VSM process on a periodic basis to identify new improvement opportunities.

Lean and Agile


Documents

Best Practices - Lean and Agile