chapter 3

Use agile to keep improving

“Even perfection has room for improvement.”

Ty Warner

A sneak preview of Chapter 3

Agile constantly puts the spotlight on learning from experience and continuous improvement, getting benefits from the good, the bad and the ugly.

• Look back and learn: What do you do well? What can you do better? How to learn from all experience.
• Check the production line: See how to analyse the current ways of working and tease out improvements.
• Get to the root cause: Discover how to deal with underlying issues instead of the symptoms.
• Constantly improve as a way of life: Techniques to help build learning into the daily regime.

In search of a better world

Standing still in life, commonly referred to as resting on your laurels, is a dangerous option – this applies to both organisations and individuals. The corporate graveyard, in particular, provides plenty of examples of what can happen when there’s an inability to adapt and improve – companies snuffed out and people surplus to requirements.

There’s always room to do better. It’s only a question of how much scope there is. There are occasions when improvement opportunities are pretty obvious and others when it requires a moment of pure genius to come up with a winning idea. Even fine-tuning can make a big difference, especially a series of small tweaks over a long period of time. If there’s any doubt about all of this, then look no further than Apple as a prime example.

Searching for improvements is a central part of the agile way of life. The underlying philosophy is to be constantly on the lookout for ways to get better at what we do. This search is in no way meant as implied criticism. There’s no suggestion intended that things aren’t well and there’s a need for people to pull their socks up. Part of the challenge is creating an environment where constantly searching for improvements is the norm.

This builds on the agile framework for defining and managing work, with the capability of taking it to even greater heights. Once again, as you’ll see, there’s no rocket science involved, and the process can begin straightaway.

Begin right now

One of the founding principles of agile is to continually inspect and adapt – and the perfect way to look for improvements is to ask the people already doing the work. There’s no need to get in consultants or an independent time and motion expert to find out what can be done better. Without doubt, the existing gang will have plenty of ideas if they’re asked.

Look to engage the members of the team you’re in or a collection of close individuals with similar interests. As long as they have something tangible in common, give it a go. For maximum effect, it must be done collaboratively in a mini-workshop, not via a series of individual interviews. An hour is enough to get the ball rolling.

Only two very simple yet fundamental questions are needed: What do we do well? And what can we do better? The aim is to identify generic lessons that can be acted on, preferably immediately. Concentrate on positive recommendations that anyone can act on and avoid finger pointing even when blatant bad practice is the spark. This is not about getting people together to pinpoint blame or to pursue personal vendettas.

It’s important to keep a watchful eye on any negative elements, especially in the first ever session. It can smooth proceedings to start with a round of positive points (what went well), before diving into those things that didn’t go so brilliantly. Admittedly, there’s usually a tendency for people to find it easier to look back and be critical but don’t let that set an unconstructive tone.

The idea of learning lessons from experience isn’t new but is usually seen as an optional nice-to-have. Agile however attaches great importance to this as a regular event and this type of reflective gathering is widely known as a Retrospective. It can be used at anytime and anywhere.

One of the biggest risks is in generating too many recommendations and not being able to see the wood for the trees. Less is more, especially with early Retrospectives. A handful of highly effective actions is far better than reams of half-baked ideas. If each of the participants ends up with a follow-up action, that’s perfect. And a fine indicator of success is when there are comments like “We should have done this yonks ago”.

Get to the root cause

Getting folk together and extracting the maximum out of their collective experiences can pay big dividends. But be careful to identify what’s at the heart of the points raised and pinpoint the root cause of everything good, bad and ugly. Don’t get hung up with the symptoms. It’s also important to distinguish between simple issues with obvious solutions and more complex matters that need looking into more closely.

Think like a doctor. When you visit the local GP most of the time the diagnosis is straightforward. Maybe an appointment at the fracture clinic, a course of antibiotics or even a verdict of nothing to worry about as it’s a bug that’s going around. But there are times when there’s a symptom that needs more investigation as a precaution or a complex issue that requires much more thinking about.

The same applies to analysing observations made during Retrospectives. Don’t be suckered into assuming an issue that is simple to describe has a no-brainer solution. A sixth sense for when there might be deeper roots will build up over time but until then be inquisitive about the underlying cause of everything noted, especially anything with a big impact.

Don’t forget to follow up

It’s important that people feel they are being heard, and it can be therapeutic to let off steam from time to time. But it’s even more important that the contributors see their feedback is taken seriously and acted on. Even when a treasure trove of material is generated, success or failure depends on what happens immediately after the main event. So, get cracking on the actions and get the ball rolling within days.

It’s equally important that Retrospectives aren’t one-offs or happen once in a blue moon. Build on the momentum from the first session by booking regular slots. If your team is enthusiastic then keep it snappy at 45 minutes or an hour max. If the team opt for monthly or more, then never miss a session, even at Christmas when the eggnog is flowing.

Continuous improvement is the lifeblood of agile. It keeps the processes alive and fresh by tapping into the hands-on experience of the people who know best. Get into the habit of treating learning lessons as an essential must-have and don’t fall into the trap of treating them as a negotiable nice-to-have.

Check your production line

Retrospectives are a rich source for improvements, but the focus is very much on recent activities. An excellent add-on to this is to widen the net and take a closer look at the production line in its entirety. To scrutinise how stuff is produced from end-to-end and see if there are any problem areas and bottlenecks.

This is what Toyota pioneered under the Lean umbrella in the 1950s. Producing high-quality cars remained its top priority but it ingrained into daily life a desire to improve its vehicles, to shave delivery times and to reduce costs. Lean at Toyota is seen as the forerunner of the modern movement and is referred to in revered tones for the trailblazing search to reduce waste.

It lit the blue touch paper for the agile movement, partly because Lean techniques are so easy to replicate in any organisation. Admittedly, your workflows may not be as clearly defined and regimented as an assembly line for cars but there’s always an element of repetitive cookie-cutting in what we do – typically starting at A and ending up at Z with pre-defined steps along the way. Maybe a few slight variations, yet always a hard core of repeated processes.

Don’t be overawed at the prospect of following in the footsteps of Toyota. There’s absolutely no need to pin down everything in one fell swoop. Review something pivotal to what you do that is known for being a bit problematic at times. Get all the key players involved in the evaluation and begin with a simple overview of the end-to-end steps – the flow of work. Include who-does-what and any important decisions along the way.

A written, descriptive narrative works reasonably well but the best bang for buck is one of the many variations of Process Map Diagrams that visually show the work activities and the people involved. Mapping a process is done by simply drawing a box for each step and connecting them with arrows to show the flow.

Less is more with this. Keep it simple and keep it high level as it’s extremely important to be able to see the wood for the trees. It’s perfectly adequate to use a whiteboard, a selection of coloured pens and plenty of common sense.

The flow of work needs to be in an optimum, efficient sequence and must add business value each step along the way. Every situation where this isn’t the case is a candidate for improvement. Be on the lookout for any of the following:

• Time lags between steps, especially if they’re long or unpredictable.
• Transfers of responsibility where misunderstandings regularly occur.
• Activities that appear unnecessarily complicated.
• Missing must-have functionality or features.
• Anything that’s a bit of a mystery.

Just the act of mapping a business process is usually enough to spark fruitful discussions. There’s very little chance of it being a waste of time and every chance of it generating a series of eureka moments. And if the current process is pretty much perfect then plenty of praise is deserved as it’s such a rare occurrence.

Power of the union

Retrospectives and process-mapping are two specific set pieces where looking to inspect and adapt is very much centre stage. But more importantly, searching for improvements is baked into the day-to-day stuff too. There is a reflective ethos at the heart of agile whereby solid ideas are validated and polished up, while half-baked ones are dissected and thought through. The full potential is teased out when there’s a communal spirit.

This united approach is a central theme and permeates into everything on offer. Although it’s possible for one person to work alone in an agile way, the approach is usually a team-based joint activity. From the moment when the Vision is first discussed there is a sense of community and a collective determination to get things right. Yes, there will be elements of individual brilliance along the way, but it’s primarily a team game.

This doesn’t mean the creativity is stifled either – quite the opposite. Blue-sky, left-field thinking is actively encouraged, and all ideas are treated with respect. Many innovations evolve from a slightly wacky starting point. There’s no danger of going off on a pointless tangent because the team is there for protection from outright madness. There’s a freedom of expression and confidence that comes from knowing that someone always has your back.

The desire to inspect and adapt permeates the standard working practices, quite often in a subtle way. As examples, let’s take a closer look at the popular technique of peer-to-peer reviews and the widespread use of Product Demonstrations:

Peer-to-peer reviews

This is where a colleague, a peer, looks over work-in-progress (WIP) with a fresh pair of eyes. Usually this is done as a final check, but it can be done at any point along the way. This is very different to bringing in a quality assurance specialist (usually an outsider treated with mistrust) to complete an independent review. A peer review is the chance for a colleague with a fresh pair of eyes to spot any glaring errors and to recommend tweaks.

Peer-to-peer reviews are expected to be thorough and robust. They require a climate of trust, mutual respect and honesty. In an agile environment this happens with all work of any significance, so the roles are likely to be reversed at some point in the very near future. The unwritten rule is to treat others as you’d want to be treated yourself.

Although these checks aren’t considered mandatory, they’re an inexpensive way to ensure nothing has been missed or overlooked before a delivery gets handed over to the business community. As a very important part of this review, there are nearly always improvements suggested, usually small tweaks, but sometimes much, much more.

Product demonstrations

Keeping the business community engaged is central to the agile ethos too, and with this in mind they get frequent demonstrations of the fruits of the team’s labours. Someone with close connections to the business usually drives these sessions and shows the stakeholders what’s coming very soon. Feedback is encouraged and this is another great way to foster a spirit of collaboration.

Once again, this is carried out in a climate of trust and mutual respect with an open mind regarding the observations made. The stakeholders almost always have additional thoughts on seeing the finished article and there are times when there’s been a misunderstanding about a point of detail. This is a review, not a pre-flight check, so comments are normally fed into future plans, except in exceptional circumstances.

The agile philosophy is to build towards the final solution, not to try and get it spot on first time. At this late stage, it’s recommended to go with what’s on offer and feed the suggestions back into the system as candidates for improvements down the line. Usually, previous checks along the way mean only nice-to-haves are uncovered, but if anything’s urgent then the next delivery is only a matter of weeks away.

Learn from big fails

Learning from the experience of others is a winner, especially any major mishaps and outright disasters. Tasks, endeavours and projects may have been failing big time for years and usually for the same old reasons. So, it’s well worth looking at how agile mitigates against the classic big fail scenarios that crop up time and time again.

Late, very late or never arrives

Missed delivery dates is a very common malaise. This is true across the board but especially with the bigger stuff. Sometimes it’s a constant series of minor delays, seemingly one step forward and two steps back at times. Or at other times things seem fine right up to the last minute, then a huge delay is announced. Occasionally the train gets cancelled.

This can’t happen with agile. Work is structured, chunked up and produced in a totally different way which means significant delays are impossible. Instead of putting all the eggs in one basket, smaller chunks are released regularly. It puts an end to the risk of late, very late and cancelled endeavours.

Eye-wateringly expensive

Spiralling costs is another run-of-the-mill malady, and once again the big stuff is the most at risk. Not only a case of a few quid here and there, but quite often a seemingly never-ending series of financial bombshells. As the money pit gets deeper, it gets harder and harder to cut losses and run for the hills.

Once again, big financial meltdowns can’t happen with agile. An early first delivery checks whether the concept stacks up and funds are invested incrementally from there – only if it does. The option to bail out at any time is built in.

Delivery not as expected

Late deliveries and budget increases are frustrating but it’s heart-breaking when the goods arrive, and they’re not as expected. This comes in many forms: essential features missing, unwanted features and unnecessary gold-plating, to mention a few of the most common bugbears. In summary, not fit for the intended purpose and sometimes as much use as a chocolate teapot.

Yet again, this can’t happen with agile. Well, in honesty, there might be slight disappointments from time to time but nothing that can’t be fixed within a matter of weeks if really necessary. Constant business involvement and incremental deliveries put paid to anything earth-shattering.

Finally, it’s worth noting that these biggies are like buses and all come together: spiralling costs, delivery delays and then a disappointing final outcome as the icing on the cake. A huge waste of precious time, hard-earned funds and a massive missed business opportunity.

None of the above can happen when agile is implemented in the right way. What more can anyone ask for?

The final word

Agile places a big emphasis on learning from experience and being on the lookout for improvements – always wanting to get better at what we do. It’s not an afterthought or a nice-to-have, as with some other ways of working, it’s built into the how-to mechanics for getting work done – an integral and non-negotiable part of the lifestyle.

There are many processes and techniques on offer to support this, a smorgasbord to choose from. Some, like Retrospectives, are almost exclusively geared up to teasing out improvements. With others, like Product Demonstrations, it’s more of a spin-off. The main thing is that inspect and adapt is a central ethos and has been from the early days of Lean at Toyota.

It takes time to build up to a position where looking for improvements is part of the daily regime, an almost subconscious activity. Regular set events certainly help to ingrain this as a habit but it’s the agile spirit of co-operation and collaboration that underpins it more than anything. There’s an underlying sense of collective responsibility, a united determination to seek out the positive from whatever life throws at us. This isn’t a solo mission – this is a team thing.

Getting to grips with the tools and processes is an important first step. But for optimum results it’s essential to constantly get better at what you do and that’s an adage that can be applied to everything. Learning from experience and searching for improvements isn’t just part of the agile lifestyle – it is the agile way.