Notes from Oct 14:

Ted Myhre & Kim Britton – Improving tech processes using low tech tools

There are processes all around us in everything we do, and we usually don’t think about that process until something goes wrong with it. Usually this is done from the customer’s perspective, and the customer is the first to notice when something goes wrong – retail places like McDonalds, clerical work when paperwork is delayed, custodial stuff when something is dirty, hospitals, manufacturing. In IT, though, where are the processes? Who are our customers? Who’s going to be the first to notice when something goes wrong in our area?

(That’s a question for each group to answer for themselves, because the answers can be very different in different IT groups.)

We need a different way of thinking – we often think in terms of technology solutions rather than focusing down to the root cause of issues in the processes.

w. Edwards Deming – “If you can’t describe what you are doing as a process, you don’t know what you’re doing.”
He’s famous in Japanese manufacturing sectors.

About processes

Processes need to be:
Repeatable
Reproducible
Effective
Efficient

Bill Gates – if you automate an efficient process, you magnify the efficiency. If you automate an inefficient process, you magnify the inefficiency.

Lean thinking & six sigma

Lean thinking & six sigma – lean is looking at efficiency & six sigma is looking at effectiveness.

Peter Drucker:
Efficiency = doing things right
Effectiveness = doing the right things

Most of these principles are derived from manufacturing, but have been adapted for other industries including IT.

Speed & Quality –
Speed = efficient
Quality = effective

Lean tools – list of 12 tools (probably won’t get through all 12 today)

Six Sigma – 7 tools (so why’s it SIX sigma?😀 ) Very useful for identifying root sources of problems.

The difference between 99% and 99.9999% – 99% = 50 newborn babies dropped by their doctors every day. 99.9999% = 3 newborn babies dropped by their doctors every hundred years.

Work

Work = VA + NVA + BVA
VA = value added
NVA = non-value added (waste)
BVA = business value added

Waste

Manufacturing view says that motion is waste, hand-offs are waste, underutilization of people is waste, time should be perfectly managed

View of motion and hand-offs as waste vs. ergonomics and the desire to refresh and refocus – not as simple as it looks in manufacturing. Taking a break and getting away from the project can help in IT more than it does on a physical assembly line.

Removing waste

To get rid of waste – 5 Why’s – root cause analysis
Makes a difference between conventional problem solving (broad but shallow) & quality improvement problem solving (narrow but deep)

Everyone says “we have too much to do, let’s band-aid it for now and fix it later” but we never, ever get to fixing it later. Take the time to do it right the first time and it doesn’t come back.

Ishikawa / Fishbone / Cause and effect diagram – see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Ishikawa_Fishbone_Diagram.svg

(Assignment: Make a fishbone diagram)