All you need is a pack of cards…
Ask people what kind of typical things happen to get a user story from the backlog to in the hands of users. Agree on the most common 3-5 things, such as: exemplify/design/build, or story/TDD/accept/deploy, or the typical todo/wip/done or the traditional analysis/build/validate/deploy Group people by this same number at a table. The grouping of will make more sense in next exercise.
As prep for the next exercise, also count out 4 aces, three twos, two threes, one four and one five. Set aside from the 20 used here.
Maximize what is done
The example shown involves groups who went traditional with the value stream of 4 and 20 cards per group. Best to use a deck per group, with those other cards set aside.
| Analysis | Output | Build | Output | Validate | Output | Deploy | |
| Step1 | Flip 20 | Wait | Wait | Wait | |||
| Step2 | Done | Flip 20 | Wait | Wait | |||
| Step3 | Done | Done | Flip 20 | Wait | |||
| Step4 | Done | Done | Done | Flip 20 |
Start timer
person 1 to flip all 20, pushes to output area. Person2 flips them all, pushes to output area.
Person 3 flips them all, pushes to output area. Person4 flips them all. Stop timer.
While all are in progress, ask how many items are in progress.
Debrief. How much is in progress (20) how much wait time? How long did it take to get done?
Do again, but this time 1 card at a time, in parallel
Remember to ask how how many things are in flight, once all 4 people are flipping cards.
Stop timer
Debrief. How much is in progress (4) how much wait time? How long did it take to get done?
| Analysis | Output | Build | Output | Validate | Output | Deploy | |
| Step1 | Flip 1 | Wait | Wait | Wait | |||
| Step2 | Flip 1 | Flip 1 | Wait | Wait | |||
| Step3 | Flip 1 | Flip 1 | Flip 1 | Wait | |||
| Step4 | Flip 1 | Flip 1 | Flip 1 | Flip 1 | |||
|
Etc… until… |
|||||||
| Step 23 | Done | Flip 1 | Flip 1 | Flip 1 | |||
| Step 24 | Done | Done | Flip 1 | Flip 1 | |||
| Step 25 | Done | Done | Done | Flip 1 | |||
Pull Work Through
Did you set aside the cards from the last game? If not, count out 4 aces, three twos, two threes, one four and one five.
Turn one face up for every two face down or so.
Still have the groups of 4? If not, re-form groups of 4. Call out again roles of analysis, build, validate, deploy. Redefine the output areas.
Responsibilities:
First person (analysis) makes sure they are all face down
Second person (build) makes sure all are face up
Third person (validate) flips them down and up to number on card. Flips the aces down and up, the twos down-up-down-up, etc.
Fourth person (deploy) groups by number
Two passes, TIME EACH!
First time a person works when the workspace is empty, and puts work in output queue as quickly as possible
Second time, work is done only when output queue is empty
Should take almost the same amount of time.
| Analysis | Output | Build | Output | Validate | Output | Deploy | |
| First time | Turn Face down | Couple of cards here | Turn face up | BIG pile of cards here | Flip number of times on card | Couple cards here | Sort by face value |
| Second time | Wait a bit, turn a card down | Empty | Wait a bit, turn one face up | Empty | Working the same as before | Empty | As soon as a card emerges, sort it |
Lesson learned, go as fast as constraint.
How can we exploit constraint?
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Of course, there are other lessons to be learned, and variations that can be performed. I’m just trying to provide the basics here. This is a messy post and would be better explained through example. At some point, I’ll video these and post here, too.