ASPE SDLC Division

COURSE 4900 | 2-DAY SESSION
Hands-On Lean Agile Project Management

Course Outline

Section I: What is Lean?

1. Lean Defined and Implemented
Lean is a process that was first developed by Toyota and implemented in the Toyota Production System (TPS) as a method for constantly improving its internal process and product. The tools that apply to manufacturing have a direct analog to the software process as well.

Understand and eliminate the seven ‘speed bumps’ that define non-value added waste in your processes:
- Over-production
- Excess Inventory
- Waiting
- Unnecessary movement of work products
- Unnecessary movement of employees
- Unnecessary/incorrect processing
- Defects
Define and document your value stream
Analyze the elements for their non-value added effort, delay or re-work
Redesign the flow

Hands-on exercise:
Examine a software process in a real case study and analyze the effects of the ‘7 Wastes’ on the software implementation. Find the NVA (nonvalue added activities) and identify remediation to the issues .

2. How Lean concepts directly map to the software process
Identify the 5 wastes addressed by Lean: over-production, excess inventory, waiting, unnecessary movement of work product, unnecessary movement of employees and how they hamper the software process.

3. Implementing lean processes in your organization

Finding the ‘Hidden Factory’
Discover the costs of poor quality
Use measurement to determine your true throughput yield

Hands-On Exercise:
Participants will analyze a real case study and apply lean principles to gain an understanding of what elements can be improved. Discover the real probability that the process will flow end-to-end defect free and calculate the cost of poor quality.

Section II: Effective Tools for Improvement – the Essential Lean-Six Sigma Toolkit

1. Six Sigma and its role in Lean

Lean addresses 5 of the seven wastes. Six Sigma provides the tools to address the final two:
- Unnecessary/incorrect processing
- Defects

2. Statistical Process Control Tools

Are you math challenged? Don’t worry, no degree in statistics is necessary – let the software do the crunching for you! You will discover how to set up your data in Excel and let the SPC software do the rest:
- X Bar R and X Bar S charts
- p, np, c and u charts
- Pareto charts
- Balanced Scorecard
- Ishikawa/Cause-and-Eff ect diagrams

Hands-On Exercise:
Use the included software package* to help you identify key improvement areas, measure total defects, find defects per unit, measure process capability, assess trends in your processes and discover root causes – instantly!
*A 30 day trial of QI Macros® is included in your participant Guide

3. Implement the Key Improvement focuses for your business

Work on your department – not in it
Observe your customers, not your employees
Examine your process, not your employees
Watch your product, not your employees
Utilize a proven improvement system

Hands-On Exercise:
Review the case study and determine where the key improvement processes for your organization can occur.

III. Agile Project Management Processes

1.What is Agility?
Agile methods work to help high risk product or process implementations succeed. In environments where customer needs can change quickly due to market forces, paradigm shifts or the necessity to quickly realize a competitive advantage, Agility enables an organization to be nimble and adaptable while delivering high quality

Survey of current Agile practices
Why Agility works

2. Scrum and Agile processes

Scrum as a project management approach
Scrum Scalability
Role of the ScrumMaster

3. Where Agility can help almost any software process

Address unknown risks (Discovery!)
Be adaptable in volatile business environments
Product, process, and service development
Eliminate Scope Creep
Find out why time estimates are usually wrong (65% of the time) and how Agile addresses the issue

Hands-On exercise:
Compare a traditional waterfall project to an Agile implementation. Look at each project element and see where Agility can help the project achieve higher customer satisfaction, higher quality levels and increased overall profitability. Run simulated sprint cycles side-by-side with a standard waterfall approach and compare the results.

4. Agile estimation and planning

Iteration Planning
Release Planning
Estimation Basics
- Stories
- Features
- LOE sizing using Story Points
- Planning Poker

Hands-On exercise:
Perform an actual Agile estimating process. Elaborate stories, features and use Planning Poker to create the initial estimates.

5. How to be Agile in non-Agile environments

Other departments are not Agile
Business partners that resist Agility
Management issues with Agility
Government contracts – how to address the fixed price vehicle

Hands-On Exercise:
Examine some real life scenarios and identify areas where Agile ideas and concepts can be successfully applied in traditional project environments.

IV. The Fusion of Lean Six Sigma and Agile

1. Customer Satisfaction

‘It’s the Fast that Eat the Slow’ – customers love SPEED!
Reduce variation and improve customer satisfaction
Immediate profitability boost with defect reduction and increase in throughput

2. Continuous Improvement

Metrics for continuous improvement•
Listening to your customer
How 10% of the SPC tools can help you for 90% of your projects

3. Holding the Gains

Pragmatic use of Lean-Six and Sigma-Agile processes
- How Plan-Do-Check-Act maps to the empirical Agile ‘sprint’
- How Poka-Yoke (mistake-proofing) improves the software development process
- Why improving the process using a proven method beats common sense and trail-and-error processes every time
Design for one-piece flow

Hands-On exercise:
Apply Lean and Six-Sigma tools in an Agile project case study. Evaluate
the project from a Lean perspective and uncover areas of waste and
identify where mistake-proofing and defect reduction will improve the
entire software process.