Continuous Development for Commercial Impact and Growth

Improving a product in the market is essential for several reasons. Enhancements increase customer satisfaction by addressing pain points and adding desired features, leading to loyalty and recommendations. Continuous improvement helps maintain a competitive edge, adapt to market trends, and utilize customer feedback for better alignment with user needs. It can attract new customers, encourage upgrades, and lead to cost efficiency in manufacturing. Staying updated on regulations ensures compliance and safety, while sustainability initiatives appeal to eco-conscious consumers and enhance the brand's image. Overall, continuous improvement fosters innovation, responsiveness, and market adaptability, crucial for long-term success.

Small Projects – Background

The Small Project Model is based on a combination of an Agile software method, Scrum and a Lean inventory management method, Kanban.

Scrum is an iterative way of working, where work happens in a so-called Sprint. A Sprint is a timebox of two to four weeks where the team works focused to achieve clearly set goals. Each Sprint ends with a Sprint Review (demonstration meeting) where the working result is demonstrated.

Kanban is a tool for managing the flow of materials or information (or whatever) in a process. Not having the materials, whether it is a component, a document, or customer information, at the time you need it causes delay and waste. On the other hand, having too many parts on hand or too much work in progress (WIP) is also a form of waste. Kanban is a tool to learn and manage an optimal flow of work within the process.

Planning

Planning is Multi Layered

Here we are going to use layers to plan the projects. The high level is in the Backlog, where projects are sequenced based on their importance to the business. One way of viewing the backlog is as a roadmap where the projects are sequenced.

The second, or middle, layer happens during Refinement, where the team and the Product Manager works on the Project Charter to agree on key deliverables.

The third, and final layer happens during Planning, where the team uses the key deliverables to identify the tasks that they need to perform during the following 2–4-week Project Cycle.

Refinement

During a product backlog refinement meeting, the team and product manager discuss the top items on the product backlog. The team is given a chance to ask the questions that would normally arise during planning.

By asking these questions earlier, the product manager is given a chance to resolve these questions before planning begins.

The Project Kanban

So, Refinement informs planning on new projects, the Project Kanban informs planning on ongoing projects.

A well functioning Kanban, with both explicit rules and well defined WIP limits, is the place to start when planning the next project cycle.

Due to the WIP limits, planning must start from the end, we begin to plan the project that is closest to completion, and then the second closest to completion and so on.

When all ongoing projects has been planned, and the team feels they can take on more work during the project cycle, then a new project can be pulled into the project Kanban.

Planning Event

Project planning is a timeboxed working session that lasts roughly 1 hour for every week of the planning horizon (if you have a 4-week project cycle you probably need 4 hours of planning). The entire team agrees on what can and will be done during the project cycle.

Who

Project planning is a collaborative effort between the Team Leader, who facilitates and drives the meeting, the Product Manager, who ensures that business objectives are reached, and the entire Team, who defines what and how the work will be done.

A Typical Agenda

The agenda for the Project Planning event will be slightly different depending on context but should cover the same basic elements.

Why – The Product Manager presents the business context for the projects at hand.

What – The Team agrees on success criteria for the Project Cycle, to be presented during the Inspect & Review.

How – The Team defines tasks to perform and roughly estimates work effort.

Execution

The Project Cycle

They are fixed length events of one month or less to set a cadence that drives consistency. A new Cycle starts immediately after the conclusion of the previous Cycle.

All the work necessary to complete the projects, including Planning, Daily Stand-Ups, Inspect & Review, Refinement, and Reflect & Adapt, happen within the Project Cycle.

During the Project Cycle:

No changes are made that could endanger delivery
The Backlog is refined as needed, and,
Project scope may be clarified and renegotiated with the Product Manager as more is learned.

Working in Cycles enable predictability by ensuring inspection and adaptation of progress at least every calendar month. If the planning horizon is too long complexity may rise, and risk may increase. Shorter Cycles can be used to generate more learning and limit risk of cost and effort to a smaller time frame.

Daily Stand-Up

The purpose of the Daily Stand-Up is to inspect progress and adapt the Tasks as necessary, adjusting the upcoming planned work.

The Daily Stand-Up is a 15-minute event for the Team members, facilitated by the Team Leader. To reduce complexity, it is held at the same time and place every working day of the Project Cycle.

They can select whatever structure and techniques they want, as long as their Daily Stand-Up focuses on the progress of the Projects and produces an actionable plan for the next day of work.

This creates focus and improves self-management.

Closing

Project closure is the last phase of a project, the phase where verification happens to ensure that the project has fulfilled its acceptance criteria.

The closing phase of project management typically involves several steps.

Confirm project completion

Confirm that the project is completed. The team and stakeholders needs to agree on completion before the project can be formally closed.

That is, all stakeholders must agree that the team delivered on all parts of the project plan.

Review documentation

CIn the Small Project Model, we use light documentation, but it still has to be reviewed. Is all drawings released, is the project charter completely filled in?

Release resources

Formally release resources from the project, including suppliers, contractors, team members, and any other partners. Notify them of the end of the project, and officially release them so they are free to work on other projects.

In the Small Projects Model, we have a continuous process, so we keep the team intact.

Conduct a post-mortem

A post-mortem or project review is one of the most valuable steps of the project closure process. This is a time to review the successes, failures, and challenges of the project and identify opportunities for improvement going forward.

In the Small Projects Model, we use the Reflect & Adapt to do this continuously.

Roles

PRODUCT MANAGER

… Acts as the customer and ensures that the team works on the right things from a business perspective.

The product manager administers a Backlog - a changeable to-do list where all requirements and wishes are listed according to how valuable they are.

The backlog is visible to the entire organization so that everyone is aware of what can be expected in future releases of the product.

STAKEHOLDERS

… Support the Team by removing impediments that the Team or Team Leader can not do themselves. They participate in Inspect & Review meetings to see the progress firsthand.

TEAM LEADER

… is a combination of a coach, problem solver and bouncer, with the focus of providing the team with the best possible conditions to achieve the set goals. After each Project Cycle, the Team Leader facilitates evaluation meeting (Review), and continuous improvement meeting (Retrospective) with the Team.

The Team Leader also facilitates the Planning and Refinement meetings.

THE TEAM

… Performs the actual work as problem solvers and performers. How the work is set up and how the tasks are distributed is determined by the team members. The team is cross functional, meaning that all the skills needed to carry out the work must be in the team. They share the responsibility for the delivery.

Events

Planning happens frequently, that is every 2-4 weeks. It is a Team activity where the Product Manager sets priorities. the Team makes the plan, while the Team Leader is facilitating.

Planning focuses on defining the tasks the team needs to perform during the cycle that leads up to the next planning event.

Planning

The daily stand-up is a short, 10-15 minutes meeting that happens every day, where the Team informs each other about the completion of tasks, and if there’s any impediments that prevents the tasks from being performed.

Daily Stand-Up

The team reflects with the aim to adapt the way work is performed. It is a formal analysis where the team take an honest look at what they do well and what needs to be improved.

It should provide one or two improvement ideas the team can work on during the next cycle.

Reflect & Adapt

Refinement is about creating shared understanding on what to work on, and what not to work on, and the effort it will take to implement it, and the order in which it will be done.

Refinement

Artifacts

Project Kanban

Kanban, which means ‘visual signal,’ is a method for visualizing and managing workflow.

The Kanban system contains a series of states in which the progress of the projects is tracked.

The Team agrees on specific work in progress limits for each state and change them when necessary to improve flow.

Explicit policies are adopted to specify how mature work needs to be before changing state.

Visual Execution

Visual project management makes knowledge work visible, so we can see it, react to changes, and keep the project flowing quickly to completion.

A generic Kanban uses three stages:

To Do, where all planned tasks are collected and prioritized

Doing, where all tasks that are currently being worked on are visualized

Done, where are executed tasks are collected

This allows a continuous flow of tasks

Risk Matrix

Prevention before re-action!

The risk matrix is used to visualize and assess risks, based on: How severe it is, and the probability that it will occur.

The key idea is not to wait passively until a risk materializes and becomes a problem, but to try to foresee what could happen and actively work to reduce probability and/or reduce consequences if risk occurs.

Project Charter

A project charter is an elevator pitch of project objectives, scope, and responsibilities, it is used to create alignment between team and key stakeholders.

The charter provides a short explanation of the main elements of the project and is used by the team during planning.

Continuous Development for Commercial Impact and Growth

Small Projects – Background

Planning

Refinement

The Project Kanban

Planning Event

A Typical Agenda

Execution

Closing

Confirm project completion

Review documentation

Release resources

Conduct a post-mortem

Roles

Events

Artifacts

Lean Project Leadership