Shulou(Shulou.com)06/01 Report--

Today we talk about how to use site meetings to better promote effective team collaboration and focus, facilitate the smooth flow and delivery of value, and expose problems and risks in a timely manner.

Note: video tutorial on Lean Kanban method can be found at: https://yq.aliyun.com/live/717

The goal of the station meeting

Speaking of the station meeting, people are most familiar with the Scrum station meeting, the typical form is the team gathered in a circle, in turn to answer three questions: what did you do yesterday? What are you going to do today? Are there any obstacles or problems? Through the site meeting, Scrum team members learn about the work of other members, so that they can better collaborate and achieve iterative goals.

With the proper application of Kanban method and the implementation of visual value stream practice, the above three questions can be clearly displayed on Kanban, so there is no need to answer these questions. What is the goal of the station meeting?

Back to the goal of the lean Kanban approach itself: to deliver useful value smoothly and continuously with high quality. Accordingly, Kanban stations will focus on the flow of value rather than personal work.

The goal of the station meeting is to promote effective collaboration and focus of the team, to promote the smooth flow and delivery of value, and to put the visual value stream practice into place by synchronizing demand progress and exposing problems and risks.

The premise of standing meeting

After establishing the visual value flow of the lean Kanban system in the following figure (take Cloud effect Kanban as an example), clarifying the circulation rules and limiting the number of work-in-process, it is also necessary to manage the value flow and establish a closed loop of performance feedback and continuous improvement. The flow of management value includes the process of management value flow, the input and output of value. A very important practice about the process of management value flow is the daily Kanban meeting.

On how to build a lean Kanban system, the follow-up cloud effect will have a special article to explain in detail.

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Cloud effect Kanban example: entrance

Organization form of station meeting

1. Frequency: every day (every working day), the duration is no more than 15 minutes, usually in the morning. The specific time can be adjusted according to the actual situation. It is recommended to start at 9:45 or 10:00.

2. Three are the same: the same team has a daily station meeting in front of Kanban at the same time and in the same place. After forming a fixed rhythm, it will become a habit of the team.

3. Coordinator: team members stand in front of the Kanban, and a coordinator leads the team from right to left (⬅️) to read Kanban one by one; the coordinator can be fixed or take turns.

4. Computers: in order to make the station more focused and efficient, the students responsible for screen casting and recording can bring computers, while others do not need to bring computers.

Before the meeting: the status of requirements and tasks has been updated

1. The team has updated the priority, secondary priority, status, expected date, etc., of the requirements according to the specification of uniform priority.

2. The developer updates the status of the requirements and tasks according to the actual situation (the task is aligned to the requirements).

The requirement manager is responsible for coordinating the split of the requirements under development into tasks (as shown in the figure below) and coordinating the requirements from the completion of development, testing, and release.

Split tasks need to be assigned to individuals with a granularity of 1-2 days of workload to ensure visible progress every day and timely exposure of risks and problems

The person responsible for the task has updated the status and deadline of the task

If there is outsourcing-interface cooperation: outsourcing students also need to update their status before the station meeting, and the interface will transfer the status according to the transfer rules.

The information that the station will focus on.

There is no need to review every card at the station meeting. For the purpose of "promoting the smooth flow and delivery of value", we should focus on the problems and obstacles that affect the flow of value. As shown in the following figure, most of the questions will be marked orange or red. Can be clearly reflected on the cloud effect Kanban.

Bottleneck and queue: when a link is not smooth, the demand backlog forms a queue, which is the bottleneck. The bottleneck is the first focus of the station, because the flow of the system is often determined by the bottleneck. Only when the bottleneck problem is solved, value can flow smoothly. The performance on the Kanban is that there are a large number of demand cards in a certain column.

Key defects: defects will hinder the flow of demand, and defects are prone to demand backlog, thus hindering the flow of other requirements. Defects blocking demand flow need to be resolved in time, and defects in Fixed status (defects have been repaired, to be verified by those who propose defects) need to be verified and closed in time. Keep defects found and closed immediately, keep stock defects at a low water level. When you stand at the meeting, you need to take 1-2 minutes to go over the overall defect.

Focused needs: refers to key requirements involving key business interests or risks, highlighted with a red label on Kanban.

Obstacles and problems: requirements that cannot flow properly due to external (such as dependency) or internal (such as design defects) reasons. The team needs to focus on blocked requirements, track and drive problem resolution, and restore their flow in a timely manner. Red hindrances will be marked on the Kanban.

Demand that is due or about to expire: some requirements have clear completion time requirements, such as the need for external commitment. If they are about to expire or have already expired, special attention is needed to ensure that commitments are met. The demand that is about to expire on the Kanban will highlight the time in orange, and the demand that has expired will highlight the time in red.

Interruption: when the supply of a step is insufficient and the value stream is interrupted, as in the figure above, there is no demand for the column ready (to be developed), and the upstream queue needs to be supplied to this column as soon as possible.

Questions not reflected on Kanban: after reading Kanban, you also need to add a question: "whether there is a need to communicate for the problems reflected on Kanban". Of course, the team needs to pay attention to issues that are not reflected on Kanban, and at the same time, team and site coordinators need to consciously think about whether such issues can and should be reflected on Kanban to improve visualization and execution.

Standing in the meeting: promoting the smooth flow of value

At the station meeting, the team examines the columns from right to left according to "Station focus Information 6: 1" to promote the smooth flow of value, while avoiding spending too much time on an issue, and long-time discussions should be held in a small area after the meeting.

Within 15 people of the team, the station will be able to complete within 15 minutes, in reality, the effect is not good station meeting, often take a long time.

The changes brought about by the discussion in the station meeting need to be updated to the Kanban immediately, and if there are any questions, they also need to be recorded in time.

The following figure shows the problems that should be done and avoided in the station meeting:

It should also be clear that the station meeting is only a scene of team communication, and more communication should take place on a normal and smaller scale, rather than relying too much on the station meeting.

After the meeting: information transparency, risk and problem follow-up

What the station needs to achieve:

Kanban is in the latest state, reflecting the results of the discussion at the station.

Identify problems that hinder demand flow and resolve on-site or arrange follow-up Action after the meeting

Team members understand the overall progress and status of the project

Team members are aware of the priorities of their work

After the meeting, we will discuss on a small scale the problems that take a long time to solve.

Summary:

The goal of the meeting is to promote effective team collaboration and focus, and to promote the smooth flow and delivery of value.

The station will take value delivery as a clue, examine the status of demand from right to left, and focus on discovering and dealing with problems in value flow.

Should not rely on the station to check everyone's work, the status and problems of value delivery should be clearly reflected on Kanban, well-designed and applied Kanban is the basis of efficient station meeting.

More collaboration should happen immediately, and should not rely entirely on the station for team cooperation.

A good station will help the team understand the overall value flow, promote effective collaboration, and even deal with the problem of value flow to ensure the smooth flow of value.

Attachment 1: station meeting Checklist:

The status of requirements and tasks has been updated before the station meeting.

Remind the students with the computer to close the computer. Only the students who throw on the screen use the computer.

View the columns from right to left, according to the 61st category of concern

Whether the number of requirements in development has exceeded the limit on the number of cards

Whether the tasks in development are aligned to the requirements

Whether the demand is transferred in accordance with the established circulation rules

Take a quick look at the overall situation of the defects individually and keep the defect inventory low.

Record issues and dependencies to be tracked

After the meeting, the remaining problems to be solved were discussed on a small scale.

Attachment 2: problems that will be encountered in the station meeting:

Q: in the Scrum station meeting, the typical form is that the team forms a circle and answers three questions in turn: what did you do yesterday? What are you going to do today? Are there any obstacles or problems? Why do you no longer need to answer these three questions on Kanban?

A: with the proper application of the Kanban method and the implementation of the visual value stream practice, the above three questions can be clearly displayed on the Kanban, so there is no need to answer these questions. at the same time, we need to organize the station meeting according to the demand, pay attention to the value flow, rather than organize the station meeting by person.

Q: the developer talked a lot at the station meeting, but the product manager did not understand, and the progress of the demand was not very clear.

A: according to the Scrum way, answer three questions, developers often talk about technical implementation and details, the product manager will naturally do not understand. Requirements as value is the input of product managers. Kanban focuses on the flow of value, not the completion of tasks. The status and problems of requirements can be clearly reflected on Kanban. At the same time, the requirements in development will also be divided into tasks of each end or module to facilitate the coordination between the roles of technology. In this way, we can see not only the flow of value, but also the progress and alignment of tasks, and students of products and developers can know the current progress and problems at a glance.

Q: why does Kanban view columns from right to left instead of from left to right?

A: from right to left, on the one hand, it reflects the direction of value pull, on the other hand, it is to better implement the principle of "suspending the start and focusing on completion", so that the requirements nearing completion can be completed as soon as possible, rather than starting more demand development. For example, the Bug found in the test, from right to left, it is more convenient to solve Bug first.

Q: it's time for the station meeting, but there are still some students who haven't arrived. Do you want to wait for him or not?

A: the team needs to agree on the mechanism by which this kind of thing happens to prevent it from happening. When individual members are indeed late, it is generally recommended that the station meeting should be held at a fixed time and place, of course, the team can have a team way to deal with lateness, such as inviting late students to buy fruit for everyone, and so on.

Q: how do you hold a station meeting when the team is in two or more places?

A: the advantage of Yunxiao electronic Kanban is that it is convenient for remote development. Members from all over the country open the Kanban page and access it by teleconference at the same time to hold remote station meetings. At present, Cloud effect Kanban can synchronize instantly after the demand card is moved.

Q: nearly half of both requirements have been carried out but neither of them can be mentioned. The figure below is as follows

A: the two requirements circled in red boxes in the figure, one is that the front-end task has been completed and the back-end task is being processed, and the other is that the front-end task is in processing and the back-end task has been completed, which needs to be avoided. The team needs to focus on one of the requirements to be completed quickly, instead of starting two, so that both are only half or 90% complete.

Attachment 3: photos of the team opening meeting:

Cloud collaboration domain team

Information platform litigation team

Ali Yun Feitian an industrial brain

Station meeting of physical Kanban of CEM customer operation platform

Many people bring computers at the station meeting, so the efficiency will be relatively low. It is not recommended that this happen.

The author introduces:

Hong Yongchao (nickname: she Wei), currently works for the Aladdin team of Alibaba's R & D Department, has been responsible for the efficiency improvement of various Ali departments such as Mobile Cat, Mobile Amoy and Tmall New Retail, and has served as a lecturer at MPD, GIAC, RSG, DOIS and other conferences.

About cloud effects:

Yunxiao, an one-stop enterprise collaborative R & D cloud, stems from Alibaba's advanced management concepts and engineering practices for many years. It provides end-to-end collaborative services and R & D tools support from "demand-> Development-> Test-> release-> Operation-> Operation". Support collaborative research and development of public cloud, private cloud and hybrid cloud to facilitate rapid innovation iteration and R & D efficiency upgrading of enterprise products.

Cloud effect products:

Project collaboration https://www.aliyun.com/product/yunxiao-project

Code managed https://promotion.aliyun.com/ntms/act/code.html

Maven public warehouse https://m.aliyun.com/markets/aliyun/ali-repo

Product warehouse https://m.aliyun.com/markets/aliyun/repo-manage

Continuous delivery of https://www.aliyun.com/product/yunxiao-cd

Test platform https://www.aliyun.com/product/yunxiao-testing

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