Practices for Scaling Lean & Agile Development
Large, Multisite, and Offshore Product Development with Large-Scale Scrum
Craig Larman, Bas Vodde

Bij Bol.com | Managementboek

Ordinary people think merely how they will spend their time, a man of intellect tries to use it.

Arthur Schopenhauer

Scaling Lean
Mastering the Key Metrics for Startup Growth
Ash Maurya

Bij Bol.com | Managementboek

Efficiency with people is ineffective. With people, fast is slow and slow is fast.

Stephen R. Covey

In het artikel Managing for Business Effectiveness beschrijft Peter F. Drucker het Pareto-principe:

Business enterprise is not a phenomenon of nature but one of society. In a social situation, however, events are not distributed according to a ‘normal distribution’ of a natural universe ... In a social situation a very small number of events at one extreme—the first 10 percent to 20 percent at most—account for 90 percent of all results; whereas the great majority of the events accounts for 10 percent or so of the results.

This is true in the marketplace: A handful of large customers out of many thousands produce the bulk of orders; a handful of products out of hundreds of items in the line produce the bulk of the volume; and so on.

It is true of sales efforts: A few sales people out of several hundred always produce two-thirds of all new business. It is true in the plant: A handful of production runs account for most of the tonnage.

It is true in research: The same few people in the laboratory are apt to produce nearly all the important innovations.

It holds true for practically all personnel problems: The bulk of grievances always comes from one group of employees (for example, from the older, married women or from the clean-up people on the night shift), as does the great bulk of absenteeism, of turnover, of suggestions under a suggestion system and accidents. 

Bron: Managing for Business Effectiveness, Peter F. Drucker

No matter how detailed the plan, it cannot make the uncertain certain.

Eliyahu Goldratt

Art Smalley en Durward K. Sobek II beschrijven in hun boek Understanding A3 Thinking het belang van een goede en grondige grondoorzaken-analyse (Root-Cause Analysis) binnen de A3-methode:

Root-Cause Analysis

The author of an A3 Report should continu the investigation of the current condition until he or she uncovers the root cause of the problem symptoms identified in the current condition diagram. Failing to address the deeply rooted seed of the problem means it will likely recur. The common technique for root-cause analysis is the 5 Why's methode. Using this deductive technique, the problem-solver simply asks a why question approximately five times in series, each time probing the next level of causality. Experience has shown that stopping at two or three whys usually means that the inquiry has not gone deep enough. Finding the root cause may also entail some experimentation. In other cases, an Ishikawa or fishbone diagram might be usefull to determine some of the potential root causes.

...

Toyota practioners have learned that rarely is the first insight correct and is almost never the ultimate cause of the problem. Thus problem solvers must develop the discipline of going beyond the superficial level.

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In practice, real problems often have multiple causes or have causes that are well hidden and cannot be deduced up front using the 5 Why's method. Thus, experimentation may be required to establish cause-and-effect relationships.

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Regardless of the techniques used to determine the root cause, the goal of the root-cause analysis section is to show either through logical deduction or experimentation that cause and effect have been established. Most problem-solving efforts fall incredibly short of this goal. Problem-sovling teams we have observed often list items that are perceived to be problems without establishing any basic level of proof, or they list items that are easy or popular.This is not acceptable in A3 thinking. Either a cause-and-effect relationship should be established or a structured set of experiments performed to test for cause and effect. Otherwise the problem-solver is just guessing at the issues and practicing a form of the "ready, fire, aim" school of problem solving.

(...)

Here are some items to consider in drafting the root-cause analysis section:

• Be sure to show the root cause of the problem(s) identified in the current state.
• Separate symptoms and opinions from cause and effect determination.
• Consider what techniques are most useful for explaining root-cause insight: 5 Why's, Fishbone analysis? Other?
• Identify what tests might need to be performed in order to establish some level of certainty pertaining to cause and effect.
• Summarize the main findings of the root-cause analysis, visually, if possible.

Bron: Understanding A3 Thinking, Durward K. Sobek & Art Smalley

Mindfulness gives you time.

Time gives you choices.

Choices, skillfully made,

lead to freedom

Henepola Gunaratana