Agile Fashion

For me, it’s all about getting the backlogs together and putting strict limits on WIP. It is a mess to find a bottleneck, or get to done, when too many things are in flight. Remember: there is one expedite slot to override WIP, but only one.

Two ways to limit WIP:

1. With the value stream mapped, look at the resources within a certain step and ensure there are no more slots than people in that step.
2. If there is an inability to get the value stream map, or while you’re going there, write a sticky for the name of each developer
   1. With all the things in flight, have a person put their sticky name on the WIP
   2. Have them move their name to whatever they are working on
   3. Don’t allow more things to be allowed in to WIP until there is no way they can put their name on something
   4. Only allow for one WIP per person
   5. Cut the WIP slots in 1/2 for pairing

If you’re trying to enforce pair-programming, or otherwise get cross-functional and more collaborative teams, limit WIP to half the number of developers. There should be a minimum of 2 slots for any one step in the process.

In throttling down in this way, and trying to get a handle on what’s in flight, make this request:

Put your name on what you’re working on
Nothing to work on? Ask if you can help someone else.
Don’t have the right skills for that? Find the bottleneck and work to release it.
Don’t have the right skills for that? Pull in work from the fixed queue.
Don’t have the right skills for starting anything in the queue? Ask the PO if there is anything lower priority to work on.
They don’t have anything? Go find other interesting work.

Last weekend my wife and I went to Body Worlds 2 in San Jose. It is a show we saw in Denver a couple of times, once for free as a preview for educators in the area. There is plenty of controversy surrounding the show, and I couldn’t help but compare the height of the bodies to myself, and they do seem very small in stature.

There is a difference in the show this time, with a focus on the brain and nerve activity. Erica had just been to a conference for teaching gifted children and a lot of the information was repeated at the show, such as the fact that the brain continues to develop until a person is 25 years old. It explains that the reason a teenager is not so tactful is because the connections in the brain is still forming. The show also explained that at around age 60, the brain starts shrinking, and connections are lost. It made me think about the ramblings I worte in this post, and how we may just not be able to take on new concepts, after a certain age.