The Book of TameFlow
The Book of TameFlow
Theory of Constraints Applied to Knowledge-Work Management
About the Book
The Book of TameFlow, Theory of Constraints Applied to Knowledge-Work Management
This book describes advanced applications of the TameFlow Approach.
The TameFlow Approach is a pragmatic systems-thinking approach for creating breakthrough performance-innovation in knowledge-intensive digital-businesses. TameFlow is an original management paradigm that helps goal-oriented businesses to focus on the fewest things that make the greatest impact on performance, leading to happier people and higher profits, without compromising sustainability, quality or humanity.
Reading this book, you will learn how to apply the Theory of Constraints to knowledge-work, and in particular to handle coordination, synchronization and prioritization in "PEST" environments, where you have multiple Projects or Products; multiple Events or deadlines; multiple Stakeholders; and multiple Teams.
Focus is on producing business outcomes and customer value with tangible bottom line results.
The TameFlow Approach provides business agility to change direction at speed and at scale by dramatically improving organizational performance beyond that of mainstream Agile or "agile-like" methods and frameworks (Kanban, Scrum, SAFe, LeSS, Nexus, Scrum@Scale, Enterprise Scrum, etc.), and providing new means to tame the volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity (VUCA) of modern knowledge-work.
About the Author
Table of Contents
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About this Book
- Is this book for you?
- What you need to know before reading this book
- Scope of applicability the TameFlow Approach
- Relevance of this book
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How this book is organized
- Getting More for Nothing with Flow Efficiency
- Acting on the Archimedean Lever that Boosts Performance: the Constraint
- Maximizing Business Value in Knowledge-Work
- Preparing for High Performance Execution and Operational Governance
- Achieving High Performance Execution and Operational Governance
- Credits
- Typographical Conventions
-
Disclaimers
- Author Views
- Quotations
- Acknowledgements
-
Forewords
- Foreword by Eli Schragenheim
- Foreword by Daniel S. Vacanti
- Introduction
-
Prologue
- The Story of Herbie
- Herbie and Your Work Flow
-
The Five Focusing Steps
- Step 1: Identify the Constraint - “Herbieeeee!”
- Step 2: Exploit the Constraint - “C’mon Herbie! Speed up!”
- Step 3: Subordinate to the Constraint - “Everybody stays behind Herbie!”
- Step 4: Elevate the Constraint - “Everybody carries a piece of Herbie’s gear!”
- Step 5: Repeat!
- The Unstated Step 0
- The Extra Step 6
- The Secret of all Steps
- PART 1—Getting More for Nothing with Flow Efficiency
-
1—The Power of Explicit Mental Models
- What is this TameFlow, anyway?
- What is Flow and Throughput?
- Decision-Making through Explicit Mental Models
- A Mental Model to Explain the Business Value of Flow
- The Desire to Increase Performance
- Increasing Performance through Effort Bears Many Downsides
- The Rate of Demand is Important Too
- The Difference Between Demand and Delivery is Even More Important
- Why Companies are Always Overburdened
- The Hideous Effects of Multitasking
- The Business Value of Matching Delivery to Demand
- Thinking about the Demand Line instead of the Delivery Line
- The Quest for Stability and Predictability
- Unintended Consequences of Good Intentions
- Takeaways
-
2—Postpone Commitment and Limit Work in Process
- Limiting Work in Process
- Postpone Commitment - But We Cannot Wait!
- Takeaways
-
3—Flow Efficiency, Little’s Law and Economic Impact
-
Touch Time and Wait Time
- Controlling the Wait Time
- Getting the Flow Efficiency Calculation Right
- Wait Time and Options
-
The Perspective of the Work Item
- Thinking about Touch Time and Wait Time in Practice
- Work Faster or Deliver Sooner?
-
What is Flow Efficiency?
- Flow Efficiency, Multitasking and Other Time Snatchers
- Beware of Sprints - A Big Time Snatcher
-
What is Little’s Law?
- Assumptions of Little’s Law
- Stability and Mental Models
- Little’s Law and the Theory of Constraints
- Little’s Law and Flow Efficiency
- Economic Impact
- Takeaways
-
Touch Time and Wait Time
-
4—Utility of Flawed Mental Models
- Flawed Mental Models are not Necessarily Bad
-
A Good Wrong Reason to Accept a Flawed Mental Model
- Misunderstanding the Effect of Wait Time on Little’s Law
- Alleged Economic Benefits for the Wrong Reasons
- Why the Flawed Model has Utility
-
The Shortcomings of the Model
- Reducing Wait Time does not Increase Throughput (Directly)
- The Real Beneficial “Side Effect” of Improving on Wait Time
- The Importance of Proper Metrics
-
Effects and Limits of “Deliver Sooner”
- Reducing Wait Time vs Touch Time
- Effect of Removing Multitasking
- Overall Effect of Reducing Wait Time
- When to Switch from Wait Time to Touch Time
- Improving Flow Efficiency is a Low Hanging Fruit
- Takeaways
- PART 2—Acting on the Archimedean Lever that Boosts Performance: the Constraint
-
5—Where to Focus Improvement Efforts
-
On Bottlenecks and Constraints
- Bottlenecks are not Constraints
- Constraints are not only Bottlenecks - There are Other Kinds of Constraints
- Where to Improve, Where to Invest
- Takeaways
-
On Bottlenecks and Constraints
- PART 3—Maximizing Business Value in Knowledge-Work
-
6—Constraints in the Work Flow and in the Work Process
- VUCA and PEST
-
The Work Flow Constraint and the Work Process Constraint
- Where is the Constraint?
-
The “Painting Gadgets” Example
- From Work Flow to Work Process
- Shape and Form of Demand
- Special Cause Variation and Common Cause Variation
- Takeaways
-
7—Understanding PEST Environments
- A Mental Model: the TameFlow Simulation
- Simulating a PEST Environment: Initial Setup
- The Work Flow and Work Process for a Single Project and Four Teams
- Round 1 - The Warm Up
- Round 2 - First Estimation
-
Round 3 - Two Projects and Conflicts of Interests Immediately Emerge
- Skipping the Line Becomes the Norm
- Bonuses, Rewards and Budgets Create Conflicts of Interests
- Round 4 - Ten Projects and Three Product Owners
- Takeaways
-
8—Finding the Constraint in PEST Environments
- Impact of the Shape and Form of Demand
- Expose all (Virtual) Queues of Work Load without WIP Limit Distortions
- Focus on the Work Flow Constraint First, then on the Work Process Constraint
- Takeaways
-
9—Drum-Buffer-Rope Scheduling
- Reflections on Column WIP Limits
-
Introducing Drum-Buffer-Rope in the Work Flow
- Drum-Buffer-Rope in Practice
-
Drum-Buffer-Rope Portfolio Kanban Boards
- Location vs. Visualization of the Work Flow Constraint
- The Minimum Number of Work Items in the Buffer
- The Work Process Constraint of the Work Flow Constraint
- Takeaways
-
10—Prioritization and Selection in PEST Environments
- Prioritizing for Business Value
- Quantifying the Work Load
- Economic Prioritization and Selection via Throughput Rate
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Cost of Delay and CD3
- Further Notes on Cost of Delay and CD3
-
The Need for Estimation Practices
- Estimation/Forecast of duration, not of due dates
- T-Shirt Sizing
- Probabilistic Forecasting with Flow Metrics
- Advanced Application: Estimate the Flow Time on the Constraint alone
- Takeaways
- PART 4—Preparing for High Performance Execution and Operational Governance
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11—Flow Efficiency, DBR and TameFlow Boards
- New Types of Kanban Boards
-
Flow Efficiency Board
- Full-Kitting
- Explicit Waiting for… and …In Process Columns
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Managing Flowbacks
- Flow Efficiency Inflation with Flowbacks and Conventional Kanban Boards
- Flowbacks with Flow Efficiency Boards
- How to Manage Flowbacks in TameFlow
- Flow Efficiency Boards and Complex Work Flows
-
Drum-Buffer-Rope Board
- Using Flow Efficiency Boards to Identify the Work Process Constraint
- From Flow Efficiency Boards to DBR Boards
- Buffer Zones and Buffer Signals
- The TameFlow Throughput Management Board
- Revisiting the Portfolio Board
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Acclamation of Idleness
- The Unresolvable Conflict between Idleness and Cost Accounting
- Cultural Impact of the TameFlow Boards
- Psychology of Wait States
- Takeaways
-
12—Outcomes, Values and Efforts in PEST Environments
- The Virtue of Minimalism: the Minimal Outcome-Value Effort (MOVE)
-
What is a MOVE?
- A Unit of Business Outcome
- A Unit of (Financial) Throughput Value
- A Unit of Costing and Reporting
- A Unit of Work and Delivery
- A Small Target-Scope Work Package
- The Balance of Two Opposing Forces
- Unit of Commitment
- Mechanism to Limit Work in Process
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Risk Managed via Time and not Scope Adjustments
- A Note on Agile
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Managing Scope Variation
- Target-Scope is not Fixed-Scope
- A MOVE View of the Simulation
- Takeaways
-
13—Introduction to Execution Management Signals
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The Logic of Critical Chain Project Management (CCPM)
- Point Estimates vs. Probability Distributions
- Critical Chain Planning
- The Critical Chain Plan
- The Critical Chain Buffer
- Buffer Zones
- Buffer Consumption and Buffer Burn Rate
- Execution Management Signals
-
Visual Execution Management and MOVEs
- The MOVE Buffer
- Visual Execution Management
- From One Team and One MOVE to One Team and Many MOVEs
- From One Team and Many MOVEs to Many Teams with Many MOVEs
- Takeaways
-
The Logic of Critical Chain Project Management (CCPM)
-
14—Introduction to Full-Kitting
- Introduction to Full-Kitting
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We don’t have time for this!
- Capitalizing on Excess Capacity
- Seizing a Zero-Cost Benefit
- Improving the Work Process
- We Cannot Do Big Up-Front Design in a VUCA World and be Agile
- Dedicated Roles
- The Nature of Full-Kitting
- Simulating Full-Kitting on the Client-Side
- Simulating Missing Information
- Round 1 - Heads or Tails as Bearer of Information
- Round 2 - Avoiding Flowbacks
- Round 3 - Simulating Full-Kitting on the Team Side
- Takeaways
- PART 5—Achieving High Performance Execution and Operational Governance
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15—Full-Kitting as Ongoing Executive Activity
- Failure Demand
- The Full-Kitting Work Flow
- The Backlog Column
- The Full-Kit Column
- The Prioritization Column
- The Ranking Column
- The Committed Column
- The In Flow Column
- Operational Full-Kitting
- Takeaways
-
16—Execution Management in PEST Environments
- Many Moving MOVEs
- Virtual Integration Points
- Planning with Respect to the Constraint
- Monitoring the MOVE Buffers’ Consumptions
- The Constraint Caused by Execution Issues
- Full-Kitting with an Eye on the State of Execution
- Takeaways
-
17—Operational Governance in PEST Environments
- Constraints Everywhere!
- Early Detection Signals
- Focused Governance
- The Meaning of Red
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Overload Detection
- Thinking is Still Required
- Full-Kitting Revisited
- Management by Exception - Limit Meetings
- Management by Exception - Ad-hoc Meetings
- Effective and Focused Standup Meetings with the TameFlow Approach
- MOVE Reviews and Retrospectives
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Notes on Cadences
- Specific Kanban Cadences
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A Vocabulary for Thinking about Constraints
- Work Flow Constraint
- Work Process Constraint
- Work Execution Constraint
- Takeaways
-
Epilogue - It is Never “Done!”
- What Have we “Done?”
- The Prevalence of Mental Models
- Mindsets and Attitudes to Win in a VUCA World
- Bibliography
- About the Author
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