There are many ways to describe what makes an organization Lean and Agile. I find that constantly focusing on the principles of; Value (for the end user), Flow (end-to-end) and Waste (…reduction) is highly effective, especially when working with improvements.
These principles can be translated to a series of questions you can ask about any improvement. The order of the questions is very important in order to not sub-optimize the organization.
- Does this contribute to us delivering value to the end user?
- Does this contribute to us creating a flow from requirements collection to realized end user value that is as quick as possible?
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Tip: If you want to sell the principle of reducing waste to higher management I recommend that you instead talk about reducing delays.
Does this contribute to us reducing the waste we have in the sub-processes, for example in
- The size of batches of changes
- Queues
- Parallel work
- Re-work
- Cycle-times
- Setup-times
If you use these guiding principles and questions daily I believe you will see that a lot will fall into place; the risk of sub-optimizing parts of the organization will decrease and the focus on improvement will increase.
Emil Vikström
My specialities are efficiency in IT, leadership, management innovation and people development
Latest posts by Emil Vikström (see all)
- “Big 5” dangers for your software company - March 10, 2015
- How to produce successful change - November 19, 2014
- Guest blog: Stepping Stones into the Future through Leadership Agility at Ericsson - September 1, 2014
Copyright © 2014 Emil Vikström. All Rights Reserved.
