Time Theft with a focus on Unplanned Work

his talk comes in response to a request on how to address Unplanned work. For many of us now, our physical work environments consist of constant mumble jumble of screens & zooms, meals & schooling, deliveries & random disorder – all of which makes way for more unplanned & hidden work – more surprises & interruptions that catch us off-guard.
This talk looks at how and why to make unplanned work visible & measurable and discuss actionable strategies you can takeaway to improve your situation.

Transcript

1. Master Software at Scale © 2020 Tasktop Dominica DeGrandis Principal Flow Advisor Time Theft How Unplanned & Hidden Work Create the Perfect Crime
2. Master Software at Scale © 2020 Tasktop The 5 Thieves of Time
3. Master Software at Scale © 2020 Tasktop The problem with Unplanned Work • Creates interruptions & context switching • Inserts uncertainty to the teams demand • Increases Work-in-Progress (WIP) • Generates conflicting priorities
4. Master Software at Scale © 2020 Tasktop Why Unplanned Work Matters • Steals time away from work that creates value • Unexpected WIP results in delays of business value to customers • More WIP contributes to the vicious cycle of doom https://itrevolution.com/book/the-cornerstone-for-winning/ The Cornerstone for Winning
5. Master Software at Scale © 2020 Tasktop 7 Things to do about Unplanned Work 1. Define Unplanned Work 2. Make Unplanned Work Visible 3. Understand the Impacts 4. Identify Causes 5. Allocate capacity for Improvements 6. Use Science 7. Continuous Improvement
6. Master Software at Scale © 2020 Tasktop 1. Define Unplanned Work Outages & Break-fix work Urgent audit documentation Security Breach Rework from poor process Disrupted functionality Organizational changes Special VP Requests Looking for stuff
7. Master Software at Scale © 2020 Tasktop Help people understand what they're looking at if you have boards or dashboards that show Unplanned Work.
8. Master Software at Scale © 2020 Tasktop 2. Make Unplanned Work Visible
9. Master Software at Scale © 2020 Tasktop Visibility on Work Category along with Unplanned How much unplanned work is defects vs. features vs. security? Categorize different types of work and then tag or label to show unplanned.
10. Master Software at Scale © 2020 Tasktop There will always be Unplanned Work We don’t know always know what we want or need until we see it. It’s hard to repair invisible problems Making Unplanned Work visible exposes the experience & helps teams to uncover the unknowns.
11. Master Software at Scale © 2020 Tasktop 3. Understand the Impacts
12. Master Software at Scale © 2020 Tasktop How does Unplanned Work impact you or your organization?
13. Master Software at Scale © 2020 Tasktop Impact of Unplanned work on revenue generation work
14. Master Software at Scale © 2020 Tasktop 4. Identify Causes
15. Master Software at Scale © 2020 Tasktop
16. Master Software at Scale © 2020 Tasktop http://videolibrary.doesvirtual.com/?video=467489121 Getting back up when you’ve been knocked down - Lessons Learned by Erica Morrison
17. Master Software at Scale © 2020 Tasktop Mistakes are Unplanned Investments “Incidents are inevitable by-products of the complexity that comes with growing a successful business.” John Allspaw – Adaptive Capacity Labs.
18. Master Software at Scale © 2020 Tasktop 5. Allocate Capacity for Improvements
19. Master Software at Scale © 2020 Tasktop . Flow Distribution: A measure to see tradeoffs A decision to do one thing is a decision to delay something else.
20. Master Software at Scale © 2020 Tasktop Context influences strategy If just deployed a big release, may want to allocate more capacity to fix risks & defects. If you continue to do more feature work, you can’t expect it won’t take away from doing risk work. Is WIP aligned with strategy?
21. Master Software at Scale © 2020 Tasktop 6. Use Science
22. Master Software at Scale © 2020 Tasktop Experiment Example
23. Master Software at Scale © 2020 Tasktop A3 Templates for Experiments
24. Master Software at Scale © 2020 Tasktop 7. Persist with Continuous Improvement
25. Master Software at Scale © 2020 Tasktop Psychological Safety for Experimentation
26. Master Software at Scale © 2020 Tasktop
27. Master Software at Scale © 2020 Tasktop Find nuggets of uninterrupted time Office hours Do Not disturb hours
28. Master Software at Scale © 2020 Tasktop What’s the Point Communicate Responsibly Make Work Visible Data brings Credibility Identify cause(s) Allocate time for Improvements Find the “Coalition of the Willing” Psychological Safety
29. Master Software at Scale © 2020 Tasktop Q & A
30. Master Software at Scale © 2020 Tasktop • Email: dominica@SendYourSlides.com • Subject: flow • To receive: • copy of this presentation deck • Skills Matrix: Do you have the right team? • Full Stack Teams, Not Engineers • Bold Moves You Can Make • DOES 2020 video – “The Flow Dr will see you now” • excerpts of Making Work Visible • Forrester Wave Q3 2020 report on Value Stream Management.