Leading your Business Customer

Using A3 Thinking for Effective Collaboration in Agile

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Why Lead your Business Customer?Chaos Report – IT Project Results

Where do you want to be?

SUCCESS!

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Why Lead your Business Customer?Chaos Report – Key Project Success Factors

User Involvement &Executive Support

“There is a reason we put Individuals and Interactions first.” Alistair Cockburn

Conversations are important!

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Important Conversations

• With Executives/Stakeholders– Project Level– Fund projects– Initiate and Close projects– Release Planning

• Involve Users– User Story Level– Specify and Accept Software– Iteration Planning

These are important

conversations

• Prioritization– What feature do we work on next?

• Scope– Should I add more functionality? Or is this done?

• Quality– Is it good enough?

• Trade offs– Will the easy solution be sufficient?

Important Conversations

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These are hard

questions

Important Conversations

• Provide Context

• Facilitate Discovery

• Focus on Value

• Promote Feedback

A3 Thinking will lead to better conversations

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WHAT IS A3 THINKING

What is A3 ThinkingFour Step Approach to Collaboration

Lean Consulting Mindset• Story Telling• Problem Solving• Communication/ Collaboration• Coaching/ Learning• Thinking Tool

Lead the customer to discover what they really need

• Identifies valuable requirements• Leads to better solution• Avoids the wish list

Situation

Analysis

Solutions

Action Plan

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A3 Looks Like

As Is Data Flow

Main Frame

DIO DataHTML FIles

E-Pricing Catalog

Spreadsheet

Frank’s Excel Spreadsheet

Image Files

DIO DataHTML FIles

LIO DataHTML Files

Doug’s Access Database

Data Warehouse

?

?

Review/Activate

?

xxxx Catalog Web Ap on

Portal

DIO Catalog Web Ap on

Portal

LIO Catalog Web Ap on

Portal

IDENTIFY WASTE: Lines in red indicate waste. 1. Manual work that takes more time than necessary and results in errors and missing information.2. HTML files difficult to manage automatically. Review of information problematic.3. Multiple catalogs cause dealer associates to toggle between LIO and DIO to gather information for customers. Customer desires one place to find all accessories for a model.

ELIMINATE WASTE: 1. Consolidate accessory information into one database. This eliminates to need to manually update a variety of HTML files.2. Eliminate HTML interface and pull information directly from the consolidated database.

SPECIFY VALUE IN THE EYES OF THE CUSTOMER: Consolidated catalog including LIO/DIO with accurate and complete information to facilitate the sales process.

FLOW WHERE YOU CAN, PULL WHERE YOU MUST

Post Accy Catalog -

Electronically

Promote Accessory at Dealership Proposed Data Flow

Main Frame

E-Pricing Guide Spreadsheet

Frank’s Excel Spreadsheet

Image Files

Consolidated Accessory Database

Data Warehouse

?

?

Review/Activate

?

LIO/DIO/xxxx Catalog

Web Ap on Portal

E-Pricing GuideLink on Portal

E-CatalogE-Catalog

Link on Portal

Alternative

CONTINUOUSLY IMPROVEShow the team what has been accomplished

INVOLVE & EMPOWER EMPLOYEESPartner a developer, an analyst, and an additional business resource with Kevin to automate product information management and convert data to the new process

FLOW WHERE YOU CAN, PULL WHERE YOU MUST

– Project Level: Business Process Improvement

– A one page report or action plan

– Project Charter

Used in HBR Case Study

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A3 Looks Like

Project Level: 20 Specific

Proposals for Bank

Executives

– Project Level: Executive Brief– A brief proposal– Tailor format to your audience

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A3 Looks Like– User Story Level– Whiteboard Thinking– Pictures, Numbers & Words– Sufficient to support

conversations

Grasp the Situation(User Story Card & Confirmation)

Analysis(Pictures, Numbers & Words)

Action Plan(Tasks)

Solution(Consider multiple solutions)

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FOUR STEP APPROACH

Grasp the Situation

Why are my $&##% reports

late?

The copier jammed!I need to clarify

a few things.

Situation

Analyze

Solutions

Action Plan

Grasp the SituationProvide Context

Problem Attributes Briefly explain what is needed

Business Benefit/ Outcome Produce paper copies of reports reliably

Value Necessary to support business needs but certainly not strategically important

Expectation/ Test Copies on demand

Performance Gap Paper in copier recently started to jam

Risk Very low relative to other business activities… but still important

– State the problem or opportunity in a few sentences

– Include key details & facts– Consider pictures and

numbers

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Grasp the Situation

Iteration Planning• User Story

– Card– Confirmation– Conversation

• Supporting Project Artifacts on the Information Radiator

Release Planning• Agile Capability Analysis• Lean Value Stream Analysis• Use Case Diagram• Product Roadmap

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Why it Works #1 Go and See

• Observe the problem and its context first hand

• Seek to learn and understand

• Confront assumptions, misconceptions and biases

• Draw a picture to illustrate the current situation

Analyze5 Why Analysis

BUY A NEW COPIER!

Before we do, why did the copier jam?

Well… the paper was

sticking together.

Situation

Analyze

Solutions

Action Plan

Analyze5 Why Analysis

Good question.

Why was the copier paper

sticking together?

The copier people said the jam was

probably caused by moist paper.

Analyze5 Why Analysis

BUY BETTER PAPER!

Why is the paper moist?

Humidity can cause moist paper. Paper should be stored in an air conditioned

space.

Analyze5 Why Analysis

BUY A NEW AIR CONDITIONER!

Why isn’t the paper is an air conditioned

space?

It used to be. We moved it to a

closet without A/C.

Analyze

• Facilitate Discovery

– What is the real problem or opportunity

– Consider Pictures, Numbers and Words

– Keep it simple

• Conversations– Goals & interaction– Discuss the problem

• 5 Why Analysis• Process Analysis

– Process Maps, Workflows – Cause & Effect

• Data analysis– Pareto (80-20 Rule)– What can we measure– How can we measure success

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Appreciate the System Cynefin Framework

Why this is important• Used to establish context of

problems, situations or systems

• Solution approach is different for each quadrant… sort of

• Failure to understand leads to wrong solutions

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Why it Works #2 Seeking the Root Cause

• Observe and experiment

• Look for cause and effect

• Fix the problem, not the symptom

• Gain a systems view point, avoid local optimization

Potential Solutions

Let’s discuss some options to solve the problem.

Situation

Analyze

Solutions

Action Plan

Potential Solutions

Air condition the space where the

paper is now?

Move the paper to an air

conditioned space?

Buy a copier that can use moist

paper?

Potential Solutions

Let’s start with the least

expensive option

We can free up some space in an air conditioned

closet

Potential Solutions

So, I don’t have to spend any

money

Let’s try that and see how it

works.

I really wanted a new

copier

Potential Solutions

• Consider multiple potential solutions

• Customer deserves options (expert judgment)– How well will it work?– What effort?

• Feedback both ways is important– Generate options– Validate solutions

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Why it Works #3 Set Based Decision Making

Generate Options• Simplest to use• Simplest to develop• Good, Better, Best

• Make the solution good enough– Value is benefit / cost– Help discover a good enough

solution

Validate Solutions• Are we solving the

problem?• Is the User satisfied?

• Are we doing more than necessary to solve the problem?

• Is the Sponsor satisfied? Can you tell a coherent story?

Action Plan & Validation

GREAT!

Is our copier solution

working for you?

Seems to be good enough.

Situation

Analyze

Solutions

Action Plan

Action Plan

• Ensure fidelity of context– Value– Expectation– Performance– Risks

• Plan for a Demo to validate value

• Focus on Value– But I really wanted a

new copier– We need to store the

paper in an air conditioned space

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Action Plan

Learn about the project- to write good User Stories

Learn about the User story- to write good code

Situation

Analyze

Solutions

Action Plan

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Why it Works #4 Pull Based Authority

Learn to tell a coherent story

Earn the Authority to Lead your Business Customer

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Further Reading

Important Conversations

• Provide Context

• Facilitate Discovery

• Focus on Value

• Promote Feedback

A3 Thinking will lead to better conversations

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“Make everything as simple as possible, but no simpler.” … Albert Einstein