GLOSSARY

A3: Named after the international paper size of 11 x 17 inch (297 x 420 mm) piece of paper, an A3 is used to structure discussions to gain understanding and agreement.

AGILE: Incremental and iterative improvements done on a regular cadence; an alternative to traditional project management methods, suggests frequent reassessment and adaptation of plans.

BOOLEAN LOGIC: A form of algebra in which all values are either true or false and represented in the binary numbering system where each digit has a value of either 1 or 0.

BUILD: When code is collected from a source code repository, compiled into executables, and packaged up with all the necessary parts to be installed into a place where the resulting new functionality is seen by others.

CAPACITY UTILIZATION: The percentage of the total possible capacity that is used. If a person has the capacity to work 10 hours a day and they work 7 hours, then their capacity utilization is 70%.

CHURN: Customers or subscribers who cut ties with your service or company.

CONSTRAINT: A bottleneck in the system; something preventing forward movement.

CONTEXT SWITCH: The act of stopping work on one thing to start work on a different thing, due to an interruption.

COST OF DELAY (COD): A way of communicating value and urgency, CoD is a measure of the impact of time on valuable outcomes.

COUNTERMEASURES: Actions taken to counteract a problem.

CYCLE TIME: The elapsed time it takes to complete a request from the time the work began to the time the work was delivered.

DEPENDENCY: Files required in order for source code to compile; people with specialized skill-sets needed to do something; an event that needs to occur before something else can be achieved.

DEPLOYMENT LEAD TIME: The elapsed time it takes to build and deploy a change once code is checked in to source control.

ECONOMIES OF SCALE: A concept in economics that relates a decrease in cost with an increase in production; the cost advantage that arises with increased output of a product.

ENTERPRISE RESOURCE PLANNING (ERP) SYSTEM: A management information system that integrates elements such as planning, purchasing, inventory, sales, marketing, finance, and HR.

ENVIRONMENT ISSUES: Problems with the configuration of servers that prevent websites and other things from working correctly.

FAILURE DEMAND: Demand caused by a failure to do something or to do something right for the customer.

FEATURE DRIVEN DEVELOPMENT: A type of Agile development focused on cross-functional, collaborative, and time-boxed activities to build features.

FIRST-IN, FIRST-OUT (FIFO): A prioritization method where work is processed in a first-in, first-out fashion.

FLOW: Value pulled through a system smoothly and predictably; the positive aspects and joy of being “in the zone.”

FLOW EFFICIENCY: The percentage of time where work is done vs. waiting for work to be done. Calculate it by dividing work time by work + wait time.

GANTT CHART: The illustration of the start and finish dates of all steps in a project.

KANBAN: Japanese word for visual signal; used throughout this book to refer to a visual management pull system for knowledge work.

KINGMAN’S FORMULA: Used to calculate a utilization percentage from the relationship between WIP and flow times. It shows how wait times increase dramatically as utilization approaches 100%.

LEAD TIME: A measure of the elapsed time it takes to work on a request from when it was first requested to when it was delivered to the customer.

LEAN: A Socratic philosophy used to make improvements. Lean puts just-in-time practices and visual management front and center.

PULL SYSTEM: When new work is pulled into the system based on available capacity to handle it; where the people doing the work have autonomy to start it when they have time.

QUEUE: A pileup of work waiting on attention to be worked on; work that is in a wait state.

RESOURCE EFFICIENCY: The percentage of time that resources are busy. Sometimes referred to as keeping people busy all the time.

SCRUM: An Agile framework used to complete projects.

SILVER BULLET: An urgent request to do something right away; usually, initiated by someone in a leadership position.

SMOKE TEST: A test to ensure that code functions as expected after a build is completed.

SOURCE CONTROL: A place where developers check in their code for safe keeping.

STAND-UP: A brief (usually 15 minutes) meeting where a team discusses issues. Because it’s only 15 minutes, people stand up for it.

SUNK COST FALLACY: When you keep doing something because you’ve put a lot of effort into it and you don’t want to waste that effort.

SYSTEM: A network of interdependent components that work together to try to accomplish a goal; includes the people doing the work and the impacting rules and tools.

SYSTEMS THINKING: A holistic view of the system where the goal is to optimize the whole system versus just individual functions or silos.

TECHNICAL DEBT: Extra effort required to fix software bugs and develop new features because of previous quick and dirty design choices.

THEORY OF CONSTRAINTS (TOC): A way to identify the most important limiting factor (the constraint) that stands in the way of achieving a goal and then systematically improving that constraint until it is no longer the limiting factor.

THROUGHPUT: The number of things completed over a period of time.

TIME-BOX: A specific period of time with a distinct start and end time. Ex: Pencils down after the two hour exam that began precisely at noon.

VALUE STREAM: The activities done from beginning to end for a specific product or service in order to provide business value.

VELOCITY: The number of story points completed over a period of time (usually two weeks).

WATERFALL APPROACH: A traditional software development method where work cannot proceed until all the parts of the entire previous stage complete.

WEIGHTED SHORTEST JOB FIRST (SWJF): A prioritization method where the job that has the shortest duration is processed before other jobs of equal value.

WORKFLOW: The flow of work through the pipeline (or system) from beginning to end.

WORK-IN-PROGRESS (WIP): All the work started but not yet finished.

WORK ITEM: Anything being worked on; work that encompasses effort both large and small.

WORK STATE: The state that the work is in. Work flows through different states on its way to completion. The work states show us where the work is in the pipeline.