Playmobile Castle Building Instructions

SOLVING A PROBLEM FOR A BETTER VIEW OF PRODUCTION PRACTICES

When we approached the Lean to put into practice on our development projects, we will discuss in the following areas:

• the definition of value ,
• the value stream mapping ,
• the streaming ,
• the stream and pulled
• the development.

This approach, very focused on the process, led us to resume tools from Lean that were effective in others and to implement them at home: value stream mapping , kanban, just in time , autonomation , jidoka , andon , etc. ...

This has been grafted onto our already long practice of agile software development , centered on the -eXtreme Programming (first!) And Scrum (for shape ) . Naturally, the meeting ground of these two approaches was the Lean Software Development.

We are proud to have achieved very good results on large projects in areas in principle not very receptive to these practices and have been welcomed by our customers for keeping the milestones, the quality of our products and transparency.

Yet we still hang out longstanding problems (in terms of years!) we slow down, reduce our performance and attack our morale.

How is this possible when we practice Agile software development and Lean which has slowly evolved to adapt to our field? Are we really on track?

foreign aid and research helped us realize that we practiced a Lean school. This practical approach is to enrich our after-eXtreme Programming and Scrum with Lean tools that have proven without assimilating the heart of Lean .

Since we are trying the Lean approach as follows:

• visualize the output to reveal problems ,
• respond immediately, then
• solve the problems one by one
• to improve practices.

Our previous initiatives have already led to "visualize the production to reveal the problems and respond immediately." We continue to refine this practice. By cons, we are now trying to seriously tackle the pan of Lean we neglected, ie solve problems one by one to improve practices .

Warning, this is not the retrospective iteration or the collection of obstacles by the ScrumMaster at daily meetings with the aim of smoothing the road in front of the team!

This is a discipline every day for everyone at all levels , which is to always have a problem to solve. This problem must be analyzed, dissected and understood to be resolved eventually if the return on investment warrants.

For tough problems, the approach is structured . For example, for us it is to follow the following steps:

• describe the problem as we perceive;
• identify and quantify the impacts the problem for our customer and our organization
• describe how things should proceed, and describe how they actually occur. Describe the gap between the two.
• identify the root causes of the problem and weigh their impact on the problem;
• for each root cause, identify solutions candidates who would eliminate ;
• classify the candidate solutions based on their cost of implementation and their impact on solving the problem;
• implement solutions by return on Investment descending until the payback is worth no more pain;
• if they were effective, standardize the implementation of new practices;
• connect lessons.

This individual discipline and team helps us now to solve (among others) a problem that we drag the past year. For the first time in years, we see a real improvement of this phenomenon and for a very low investment. This opens up good prospects for improvement!

The most motivating in my opinion is that this discipline is an expert school. Indeed, since it requires going through a deep and comprehensive understanding problems it pushes players to develop their approach to expertise. Even if the resolution of the problem is not triggered by lack of ROI, the players will not make the same mistake next time. Since all are involved in this discipline, all are encouraged to develop their skills.

Finally, it is no more than apply a "good process makes a good product" but rather "to apply an approach that develops experts who will develop a good process that makes a good product " (you still following me?) . The primary effect sought is the involvement and the skills development . The side effect is improved practices .

With this new perspective, we try to move from an approach of improving discontinuous made personal initiatives based on intuition to a collective process of continuous improvement rigorous and disciplined.

This discipline also clarifies the role of "leaders". For them, this is teaching approach to their team and "challenger" to their teammates that they analyze and solve problems. The "leader" is itself "challenge" by its leader / coach / manager / mentor, and so on ...

A future post will be dedicated to it leadership, as described by Scrum, by the extreme Programming, by Lean and as we practice it.

Thanks again for foreign aid!