Agile @ Home Agila Sverige 2012
Henrik Kniberg Agile/Lean coach www.crisp.se
Let me show you how some of the ideas from Agile and Lean software development can be used in a different context: At Home!
We have 4 small children, age 1-8.
Needless to say, that can get complicated sometimes.
Over the years, we’ve found that many of the practices and ideas from the Agile/Lean toolkit can really improve life at home!
Here are some examples of things that have worked particularly well.
Henrik Kniberg
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Definition of Done
Travel Spike
Kitchen WIP Limit
Agile party planning
Clothes WIP Limit Homework Burnup chart
Kitchen Value Stream Map
BigFamilyTrip Kanban board
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This is my focus board. Some would call it a Personal Kanban system.
The stickies on the bottom half are independent actions, such as ”buy a new shaver” or ”call client X”
The index cards on the top half are ”projects”, with stickies showing the next 1-2 actions for that project. Let’s look closer...
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For example preparing this talk
Or writing a foreword to someone’s book
Or playing with my band at a wedding Some actions have deadlines The goal is to focus on at most 1 or 2 projects at a time, and minimize multitasking.*
Henrik Kniberg
5 *Multitasking sucks. See www.crisp.se/henrik.kniberg/multitasking-name-game
This part of the board is for practing new habits
I try to practice one new habit at a time for several weeks... ... until it becomes, well, a habit!
Right now I’m trying to learn to start each day by finishing the most important thing for that day, BEFORE opening the inbox and getting sucked into the void.
Henrik Kniberg
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We use focus boards for family stuff too. Here is a party that we were preparing. 3 sections on the left refrigerator door ”Must be done”, ”Should be done”, ”Bonus stuff”
As things get done, we move the notes to the other refrigerator door. The ”Done Door” so to speak...
Henrik Kniberg
Here is when we were preparing for Big Christmas Invasion with lots of friends and family staying for several days. This board even had a time plan!
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This board was for a BBQ party a few years ago. Guests would pair up with somebody they don’t know too well, grab a card, and get going! I know. But seriously, guests actually like to help :o)
To our surprise, small kids (even 3 year olds!) quickly decoded our system and hacked it!
”Hey, things that go on the board actually Happen!” ”We can make grownups Do Things!” So... ice-cream cards starting appearing on the board...
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So now we use this quite often :o) Here the kids are planning and preparing a birthday party
As usual, things that are Done go on the right refrigerator door
Each stickynote is a ”feature” of the party.
Henrik Kniberg
When time started running out, the kids automatically started descoping. ”What’s more important, balloons, or cake? We won’t have time to finish both!”.
Imagine if all project managers could learn to do that to! :o)
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Once Dave (7 yrs at the time) was behind on his homework, and had quite a few pages to do
Henrik Kniberg
He found it hard to stay focused and motivated
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So I showed him how to create a burnup chart.
Here’s the page numbers he had to finish This is the ”finish line”. If he crosses this before bedtime, the remaining time is play-time!
”Every 5 minutes or so, check the time and put and write X for the page number that you are working on”
This is the ”timebox” – bed time at 8pm
After 15 minutes he noticed something upsetting: ”Time Keeps Going even when I’m Not Focusing!”
Here’s the timeline. Each number is a 5 minute interval (big hand of the clock)
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The chart helped him get back into focus, without me having to nag or remind him.
A clear and obvious visualization, showing the benefit of focusing.
Even project managers can get it :o)
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He finished in record time, and had time to play!
However, we should have made sure testing & validation was included in Definition of Done, since there were some ”defects”... oh well, next time :o)
Henrik Kniberg
Sometimes when he has very much homework to do, he says ”Daddy, I’d like to create one of those graph thingies again, because I want to get my homework done quickly!”
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We recently came back from a BigFamilyTrip – a 6 month trip that took us through 8 countries.
A trip like that takes quite some planning and preparation. We used this planning board for the 8 months or so we had to prepare for the trip. Very useful.
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We decided on a departure date (Oct 1) from the very beginning, just to make sure the trip happens. Timeline, with red arrow that moves. Reminds us that time keeps going.
The columns are ”To do”, ”Next”, ”Ongoing”, and ”Done!”
Yellow stickies show when we plan to be in which country
Clearly defined purpose of the trip
The three horizontal swimlanes are ”Must do”, ”Should do”, and ”Bonus stuff” Dreams & visions. We downloaded some inspiring pictures from Google images, to exemplify the type of things we were hoping to experience during the trip.
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We did a �spike� (practice run), a 4 day trip to London.
Our hope was that, anything that can go wrong, will go wrong on this trip.
...so we can learn from it and avoid problems during the Big trip.
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We learned what kind of stuff to pack. And we learned that the kids (even Emma, 3 yrs) can carry their own stuff. We learned that our baby carriage sucked and needed to be replaced (broke after 1 check-in!). And more!
Henrik Kniberg
Oh, and we had fun too :o)
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After coming we could already cross some things off the Dream Gallery (such as the double decker bus)...
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... and we could turn our learnings into concrete actions (such as �buy a better baby carriage�).
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Oct 1 – Off we went!
Hej då, vi ses i vår! Följ med på resebloggen: bigfamilytrip.posterous.com
Hälsningar Henrik & Sia & David & Jenny & Emma & Peter
Japan Västindien Peru Nya Zealand
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We had an awesome trip! Read more on http://bigfamilytrip.posterous.com, we wrote down we we’ve learned about travelling with kids.
The long-lived planning board and the 4 day London ”spike” really helped us set the trip up for success.
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When we got home, 6 months later, we were surprised at how quickly the house got completely messed up, especially the kids’ rooms.
Henrik Kniberg
They wanted to pull out all the toys and clothes they had missed Just about impossible for them to take responsibility for their own stuff. It was just too much.
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We didn’t really have that problem during the trip.
... because look: the kids could only fit so much stuff in their bags. And they had to carry their own stuff!
There’s a term for that in the lean community: A ”WIP Limit” (work-in-progress limit).
WIP limits stop things from getting out of hand!
Henrik Kniberg
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At home there were no WIP limits.
So we decided to change that.
The drawers + the closet = The WIP limit. You can only keep as many clothes as you can fit there. And there should be extra slack in each drawer, it should not be crammed.
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To implement this, they put all their clothes in one place (a �temporary inbox� you might say)
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I handed them one item at a time and asked ”In or Out?” ”In” means: decide where that particular thing lives, and put it there now.
Slack rule: no drawer is allowed to be crammed full ”Out” means: throw it in the box (to be sold or given away or trashed at a later time).
I was impressed by how much stuff the kids were willing to do away with (many boxes! let us know if you need anything!)
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Voila! Tidy room!
And, more importantly, a room that has few enough things, so the kids can realistically take responsibility for keeping it tidy.
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We had the same problem in the kitchen It was a mystery! Why were we spending so much time in the kitchen, cleaning dishes, filling and emptying the dishwasher, etc? Felt like hours every day. Why didn’t we have this problem while travelling? Heck, we didn’t even have washing machines while travelling! Answer: WIP limits! In our rental houses and apartments, there were only a few plates and utensils, barely enough for everyone in the family. So we decided try WIP limits in our kitchen at home.
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A quick calculation revealed that each one of us uses about 8 things per meal (plates, utensils, cups, etc).
8 With 3 meals per day, that is about 24 things.
8 8
8
8
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8 160+
With 6 people in the family, plus some shared stuff like pots, that adds up to over 160 things per day!
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8 160+ things to take out, wash up, and put back in again. That’s a lot!
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If we instead Limit WIP to one ”set” per person (one of each type of thing, total of 8 things)...
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16 8 And each person washes their own stuff....
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8 (except Peter, he’s only 1 yr old...).
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Here’s what we did
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Each person has their own �set� of 8 things, in a dedicated place in the drying tray.
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”Definition of Done” for a meal is when your set of things are back in it’s place, clean.
Henrik Kniberg
If you forget to wash your stuff then, well, you’ll regret it next mealtime.
A simple rule that even a 3 year-old can learn easily
... because your plate will be icky and hard-toclean :o)
Effective feedback loops beat nagging any day :o)
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The new system worked surprisingly well! Why? 1-2 days!
Because with the old system, a single item, such as a cup, would take up to 2 days (or longer!) to make it out and back into the cupboard.
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With 160+ items in play, each taking 2 days or so to pass through the kitchen... well, no wonder the kitchen was often a mess! Mon 7:00
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Mon 22:00
Mon 11:00
Tue 22:00
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Typically we’d take out the old batch and insert the next batch in the evening. ...because filling/emptying dishwashing machines is boring, so we resisted it ’till the last responsible moment.
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With the new system, we skip the cupboard
<1 hour!
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Instead, everything lives in the drying tray, comes out for the meal, and is back in the drying traywithin an hour! The kitchen mess never has time to build up! M책n kl 7:00
M책n kl 7:30
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... and we skip the dishwasher! Ironic huh?
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The new system works great! We spend MUCH less time doing dishes
And the kitchen is for the most part nice and tidy
The system is a bit brittle though.
It breaks down when we have guests coming over, for example. In those cases we temporarily revert to the old system, with dishwashing machine and batching.
But the new limited-WIP system has become our â&#x20AC;?default systemâ&#x20AC;?, for everyday use.
Henrik Kniberg
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Definition of Done
Travel Spike
Kitchen WIP Limit
Agile party planning
Clothes WIP Limit Homework Burnup chart
Kitchen Value Stream Map
BigFamilyTrip Kanban board
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