I got Trapped! Systems thinking traps of IT Teams and how to battle them @ expand

Donella Meadows book, Thinking in Systems, is a concise and crucial book offering insight on how to think about systems, how to control systems and how systems change and control themselves. A system is a group of interacting, interrelated or interdependent parts unified to have a purpose. Examples can be a heating system, a tree, a human, a social system, an IT system, and IT Teams working as a part in a company which is also again a system.

For me, the most interesting part of the book is about system traps. They are traps in where systems can go wrong without notice. Since reading the book I started observing these traps in my day to day work. Traps like seeking the wrong goal with a code coverage threshold, shifting the burden to an intervener by letting a separate QA team be responsible for quality. Join me in this talk where I will go into more of these system traps I observed in IT teams, and what I did to get out of these traps.

Transcript

1. I got Trapped!
   Systems thinking traps
   of IT Teams
   and how to battle them
   

   View Slide

2. 2
   @kenny_baas
   

   View Slide

3. 3
   @kenny_baas
   The hands that manipulate it
   suppress or release some behaviour
   that is latent within
   the structure of the spring
   

   View Slide

4. 4
   @kenny_baas
   A system is an interconnected set of
   elements that is coherently organized in
   a way that achieves something.
   (Function or Purpose)
   

   View Slide

5. 5
   @kenny_baas
   Some systems examples
   

   View Slide

6. 6
   @kenny_baas
   Element
   Interconnections
   Function/Purpose
   Most easy to observe
   and change
   Changes greatly
   alters the system
   Least obvious and
   changes can be drastic
   

   View Slide

7. View Slide

8. 8
   @kenny_baas
   Inflow Outflow
   Water in tub
   (Stock)
   

   View Slide

9. 9
   @kenny_baas
   

   View Slide

10. 10
    @kenny_baas
    Inflow Outflow
    Water in tub
    (Stock)
    desired temperature
    Discrepancy
    B B
    

    View Slide

11. 11
    @kenny_baas
    

    View Slide

12. View Slide

13. View Slide

14. https://medium.com/@Smrimell/it-s-a-trap-systems-traps-in-software-development-dc6341022795
    

    View Slide

15. Kenny
    Baas-Schwegler
    Strategic software delivery -
    Socio-technical architect -
    Domain-driven design -
    Facilitator
    @kenny_baas
    Baasie.com
    xebia.com/blog/author/kbaas/
    

    View Slide

16. 16
    @kenny_baas
    

    View Slide

17. 17
    @kenny_baas
    

    View Slide

18. View Slide

19. Shifting the burden to the intervener
    

    View Slide

20. 20
    @kenny_baas
    The way out
    Take the focus off short-term relief and put it on
    long-term restructuring.
    

    View Slide

21. A group of people is not a team,
    focus on collaboration as a team.
    

    View Slide

22. 22
    @kenny_baas
    Guiding heuristic
    Focus on team collaboration
    

    View Slide

23. View Slide

24. 24
    @kenny_baas
    Other examples
    “Temporary code or fix”
    Hire more manual testers
    Hire more developers
    Security
    Operations
    Consultants
    

    View Slide

25. View Slide

26. 26
    @kenny_baas
    Drift to low performance
    

    View Slide

27. 27
    @kenny_baas
    The way out
    Keep performance standard absolute.
    Let standards be enhanced by
    the best actual performance.
    

    View Slide

28. 28
    @kenny_baas
    Guiding heuristics
    Make agreements on team standards,
    improve collaboration by mobbing and pairing.
    Keep repeating and reiterating
    on made agreements.
    

    View Slide

29. View Slide

30. 30
    @kenny_baas
    Other observations
    Sprint forecasting
    

    View Slide

31. 31
    @kenny_baas
    

    View Slide

32. Success to Successful
    

    View Slide

33. 33
    @kenny_baas
    The way out
    Diversification
    

    View Slide

34. 34
    @kenny_baas
    Guiding heuristics
    Pair up with new team members
    

    View Slide

35. 35
    @kenny_baas
    guiding heuristics
    Focus on (neuro)diversity,
    everyone is an individual and different.
    Focus on equality,
    equal access to opportunities
    Focus on inclusion,
    create a sense of belonging.
    

    View Slide

36. 36
    @kenny_baas
    guiding heuristics
    Create collective autocracy within teams.
    

    View Slide

37. 37
    @kenny_baas
    

    View Slide

38. 38
    @kenny_baas
    Other observations
    Maturity models and job hierarchy with promotions
    can lead to:
    Peter principle
    Social darwinism
    

    View Slide

39. 39
    @kenny_baas
    

    View Slide

40. Policy Resistance
    

    View Slide

41. 41
    @kenny_baas
    The way out
    Bring in all the actors and
    seek out mutually satisfactory ways
    for all goals to be realised
    

    View Slide

42. 42
    @kenny_baas
    

    View Slide

43. 43
    @kenny_baas
    

    View Slide

44. 44
    @kenny_baas
    How many beans?
    

    View Slide

45. 45
    @kenny_baas
    

    View Slide

46. 46
    @kenny_baas
    How many beans?
    

    View Slide

47. 47
    @kenny_baas
    

    View Slide

48. 48
    @kenny_baas
    How many beans?
    

    View Slide

49. 49
    @kenny_baas
    Guiding heuristic
    Create a shared mindset
    of how software is delivered.
    Use visualisation and measure the delivery.
    

    View Slide

50. View Slide

51. 51
    @kenny_baas
    http://thepaulrayner.com/eventstorming-team-flow
    

    View Slide

52. 52
    @kenny_baas
    https://baasie.com/2019/04/30/a-quest-in-finding-the-perfect-eventstorming-backpack/
    

    View Slide

53. 53
    @kenny_baas
    

    View Slide

54. 54
    @kenny_baas
    Guiding heuristic
    Create a shared mindset
    of how software is delivered.
    Use visualisation and measure the delivery.
    

    View Slide

55. 55
    @kenny_baas
    https://leanpub.com/measuringcontinuousdelivery
    

    View Slide

56. 56
    @kenny_baas
    Other observations
    Technical debt vs quick delivery
    

    View Slide

57. 57
    @kenny_baas
    http://verraes.net/2013/07/managed-technical-debt/
    

    View Slide

58. View Slide

59. Seeking the wrong goal
    

    View Slide

60. 60
    @kenny_baas
    The way out
    Reflect the real welfare of the system.
    Don’t confuse effort with result.
    

    View Slide

61. 61
    @kenny_baas
    Guiding heuristics
    The team should be autonomous,
    focus on result rather than effort.
    

    View Slide

62. 62
    @kenny_baas
    "When a measure becomes a target,
    it ceases to be a good measure."
    - Goodhart's law
    

    View Slide

63. 63
    @kenny_baas
    Other observation
    unrealistic deadlines
    Ops solving incidents
    

    View Slide

64. View Slide

65. Tragedy of the commons
    

    View Slide

66. 66
    @kenny_baas
    Other observations
    Shared data to reports
    Shared database
    end to end (chain) testing
    

    View Slide

67. 67
    @kenny_baas
    The way out
    Educate, exhort and create awareness,
    so people understand
    the consequences of abusing the resource.
    Restore or strengthen the feedback loop
    by privatizing or giving direct consequences.
    

    View Slide

68. 68
    @kenny_baas
    Guiding heuristics
    Make a team owner of the shared library.
    

    View Slide

69. 69
    @kenny_baas
    Guiding heuristics
    Put in place proper CI/CD
    Only change the software when
    other team(s) collectively reviewed it.
    

    View Slide

70. View Slide

71. 71
    @kenny_baas
    If we have a system of improvement
    that is directed at improving the parts
    taken separately.
    You can be absolutely sure that the
    improvement of the whole
    will not be improved.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OqEeIG8aPPk
    Russ Ackoff
    

    View Slide

72. 72
    @kenny_baas
    

    View Slide

73. 73
    @kenny_baas
    Order Payment Packaging
    

    View Slide

74. View Slide

75. @kenny_baas
    Big Picture EventStorming
    https://leanpub.com/ddd_first_15_years
    

    View Slide

76. @kenny_baas credits: Ruth Malan
    

    View Slide

77. @kenny_baas
    When you start judging,
    you stop listening and learning
    

    View Slide

78. @kenny_baas
    #CatTax
    @kenny_baas
    Baasie.com
    xebia.com/blog/author/kbaas/
    https://speakerdeck.com/baasie
    

    View Slide