One of the very efficient tools I have used for many years to do visible, focused and shared planning is to create a task board on a whiteboard. When working in an iterative process, like Scrum, it is a good way for the team together to plan the iteration, create tasks and share knowledge.
In this post I have different examples of task boards and Kanban boards.
Figure 1: Task board extended with a visible state for Review
Figure 2: Example of Task board (see the max limits on QA)
Figure 3: Another Task board with more review states
Figure 4: Web based Task board for a global team with integration to Microsoft Team System
Describing the process on a whiteboard and moving into a Kanban board.
Figure 5: The process on the initial kanban board
Figure 6: Kanban board implemented, already with improvements
How do you more efficiently improve your software development?
There are many different silver bullet methodologies about the "right" way to make software development (XP, Scrum, Crystal Clear, DSDM, Prince2, RUP, MSF, CMMI, IPMA, Lean etc.), often categorized as either waterfall, or agile.
But basically it is not about using the hottest, newest or most used methodology or framework. It is about making more efficient software development.
Don't go for the silver bullet framework, but build your own recipe and look at some of the different candidates to do more efficient software development. . Based on my experience, I see a pattern to look at:1) Development craftsmanship, 2) Processes and 3) Requirements Management. Also the A) Management System and the B) Culture in the company is important to focus on, if you want to have more efficient (continuously improving) software development. Of course there is an interrelation between the different areas, which is not that easy to work with.
I have tried to visualize it in the following diagram:
- Processes - "How do we work together?"
In a team, between specialists, department, with the rest of the organization and with external partners and customers. How do we make sure that we work on the most important tasks at the right time? What makes most business value?
- Craftsmanship - "How do we make the software?"
Good development practices supported by an efficient development infrastructure to establish different feedback loops with builds and automated testing. Using patterns, emergent design, TDD, CI, Refactoring, done-done etc.
- Requirements - "What business needs do we solve?"
Managing of business requirements and to make sure the solution is created to solve the right business needs. Including planning, goals, business value, acceptance criteria etc. What is enough? When is it done?
A. The Lean-Agile Management System
Between and around the three areas, there is the Management System in the organization and with a Lean-Agile mindset, it support and improve the flow of value and establish more focus and rhythm for all people. Establishing focus on the key value streams and moving more responsibility to the people performing the actually work makes much more productivity and improved quality. It is hard, a mindset change of old management practices, but it is so great to see more engaged people working on creating more optimal business value.
B. The Culture in the Organization
What is the culture? It is the combination of many things and hard to define. It is for example how we trust each other, collaborate, and use feedback on tasks and behaviors. Why are people motivated (or not)? Is it just a job or a passion, do we make a difference on our job? Do we respect each other? Are we pushing or pulling work between each other? Do we let people be innovative in their work?
When changing to new ways of performing our work, this strange thing called culture has an impact on the change. Can the culture be changed? I think it can, but it often takes a lot of time, because people like to do what they are used to do.
I will write much more on this topic in the future, because there are so much more for me to say :-).