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Lean Software Development: Seeing the IT and Software Development Gemba

Pete Abilla — Mon, 27 Jun 2011 11:21:45 +0000

I’m pleased to present this guest post from Jason Yip, a respected thought-leader on Agile and Lean Software Development. Jason Yip is a Principal Consultant for ThoughtWorks, a global IT consulting firm. You may learn more about him through his blog and by following him on twitter @jchyip. In this post, Jason Yip will discuss the concept of the “Gemba” and what it means in the context of software development. For example, he will consider the following question: How does one exactly “see” to “go the actual place” when software development is in large part virtual? Read to learn how.

One of the strongest messages in Lean is to go and see. Get out from behind your desk, go to the gemba, and look.

But what I deal with are software development and IT support organisations. This is knowledge-based work. The work items are all virtual. What does it mean to see in this context?

Let’s imagine that I drew a circle in the middle of the office and stood there until I could identify opportunities for improvement. What might I see?

I might notice that the cubicle walls prevent everyone from seeing each other. I might notice that no one ever leaves their seat unless getting a drink, taking a washroom break, or heading out to lunch. I might notice that everyone is wearing headphones. I might notice that at no point in the day does the “team” ever physically get together. I might notice that other stakeholders rarely visit the team nor does the team visit them. Every so often I might notice some senior stakeholder drop by, disrupt the team with some request, and leave.

The last thing I might notice is what I can’t see… Who’s working on what? What is the most important thing to do at the moment? What are the current problems? Is the current system build working? How is the overall project / operation doing?

How sure are we that everyone in the team, never mind other stakeholders, know the answers to those questions?

Let’s imagine that I now close my eyes and listen. What might I hear?

Silence… no, not quite… people hitting keys on their keyboards… someone starts playing music to fill the silence… but no talking… no, not quite… Every so often I might hear the team leader direct a team member to work on this or that…. and there’s scattered conversation… but never about the work, never about coordinating, never asking for, or offering to, help.

Now I need to leave the circle because in our world, at the end of the day there are things you can’t see unless you’re at a computer…

So I sit with each of the team members and observe… he’s unfamiliar with the editor shortcuts even though another person on the team knows them better than I do, she’s making assumptions rather than validating with the subject matter expert, he’s repeating the same task that could easily be automated with a simple script, everyone seems to do the same task in a completely different way.

I look at other things . . . alert logs: It seems that most alerts are ignored and resolve themselves without intervention… ticketing systems: A significant number of tickets are over 1 year old… the source code: Significant amount of duplication, unclear naming, no tests
And that might be it for the first day or two.

What does it already tell us about opportunities for improvement?

The IT and software development context is different from physical manufacturing in many aspects. But there is still something definitely in common . . . get out from behind your desk, go to the gemba, and look.

Lean Software Development: Seeing the IT and Software Development Gemba is a post from: Lean Six Sigma Consulting

Lean Manufacturing Concepts: The Gemba

Pete Abilla — Wed, 23 Mar 2011 13:24:55 +0000

Publishers send me a lot of books, magazines, etc., and I’m thankful for all of it. Understandably, I can’t and won’t read everything I’m sent. From time to time, I do receive a book for which I’m excited. This is one of those times.

Last week, my copy of Jim Womack’s Gemba Walks arrived at my house. I’ve read through some of it already and I am really enjoying it. I highly suggest this book to the lean practitioner, learner, and newcomer.

As a reminder, I wrote an article about 4 years ago that explains a little bit about what “Gemba” means in the context of lean manufacturing entitled The Gemba is the Dojo.

John Shook, the current CEO of the Lean Enterprise Institute, provides a great introduction to the book, which I cite here:

“The first time I walked a gemba with Jim was on the plant floor of a Toyota supplier. Jim was already famous as the lead author of The Machine That Changed the World; I was the senior American manager at the Toyota Supplier Support Center. My Toyota colleagues and I were a bit nervous about showing our early efforts of implementing TPS at North American companies to “Dr. James P. Womack.” We had no idea of what to expect from this famous academic researcher.

[ad#Chitika-1]“My boss was one of Toyota’s top TPS experts, Mr. Hajime Ohba. We rented a small airplane for the week so we could make the most of our time, walking the gemba of as many worksites as possible. As we entered the first supplier, walking through the shipping area, Mr. Ohba and I were taken aback as Jim immediately observed a work action that spurred a probing question. The supplier was producing components for several Toyota factories. They were preparing to ship the exact same component to two different destinations. Jim immediately noticed something curious. Furrowing his brow while confirming that the component in question was indeed exactly the same in each container, Jim asked why parts headed to Ontario were packed in small returnable containers, yet the same components to be shipped to California were in a large corrugated box. This was not the type of observation we expected of an academic visitor in 1993.

“Container size and configuration was the kind of simple (and seemingly trivial) matter that usually eluded scrutiny, but that could in reality cause unintended and highly unwanted consequences. It was exactly the kind of detail that we were encouraging our suppliers to focus on. In fact, at this supplier in particular, the different container configurations had recently been highlighted as a problem. And, in this case, the fault of the problem was not with the supplier but with the customer – Toyota! Different requirements from different worksites caused the supplier to pack off the production line in varying quantities (causing unnecessary variations in production runs), to prepare and hold varying packaging materials (costing money and floor space), and ultimately resulted in fluctuations in shipping and, therefore, production requirements. The trivial matter wasn’t as trivial as it seemed.

“We had not been on the floor two minutes when Jim raised this question. Most visitors would have been focused on the product, the technology, the scale of the operation, etc. Ohba-san looked at me and smiled, to say, ‘This might be fun.’”

It’s a great book to add to your lean library. Go get it. Here’s the book’s official description:

“The life of lean is experiments. All authority for any sensei flows from experiments on the gemba [the place where work takes place], not from dogmatic interpretations of sacred texts or the few degrees of separation from the founders of the movement. In short, lean is not a religion but a daily practice of conducting experiments and accumulating knowledge.”

So writes Jim Womack, who over the past 30 years has developed a method of going to visit the gemba at countless companies and keenly observing how people work together to create value. Over the past decade, he has shared his thoughts and discoveries from these visits with the Lean Community through a monthly letter. With Gemba Walks, Womack has selected and re-organized his key letters, as well as written new material providing additional context.

Gemba Walks shares his insights on topics ranging from the application of specific tools, to the role of management in sustaining lean, as well as the long-term prospects for this fundamental new way of creating value. Reading this book will reveal to readers a range of lean principles, as well as the basis for the critical lean practice of: go see, ask why, and show respect.

Womack explains:

why companies need fewer heroes and more farmers (who work daily to improve the processes and systems needed for perfect work and who take the time and effort to produce long-term improvement)

how “good” people who work in “bad” processes become as “bad” as the process itself

how the real practice of showing respect comes down to helping workers frame and solve their own problems

how the short-term gains from lean tools can be translated to enduring change from lean management.

how the lean manager has a “restless desire to continually rethink the organization’s problems, probe their root causes, and lead experiments to test the best currently known countermeasures”

By sharing his personal path of discovery, Womack sheds new light on the continued adoption and development of the most important new business system of the past fifty years. His journey will provide courage and inspiration for every lean practitioner today.

Lean Manufacturing Concepts: The Gemba is a post from: Lean Six Sigma Consulting

Before Checking Email, Go To The Gemba

Pete Abilla — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 10:09:05 +0000

At work, before you do anything else, go see your customer (internal or external), go see your team or staff – see how they are doing, go see and spend time where the work is done.

Guess who benefits the most when you do this? That’s right, you. By practicing “go and see” (genchi genbutsu) at “the place where value is added” (gemba), you learn empathy, you demonstrate trust and care, and you become informed, which helps your judgment as a leader.

Most, or some of us, who find home in an office or a cube and also on the factory floor or some other hands-on setting, are tempted to check email or voice mail when we first get to work. Fight the temptation – before checking your email or checking your voice mail, Go to the Gemba.

For you, this might mean:

If you’re doctor, go see your patients first.
If you’re a consultant, go see your clients first.
If you’re a manager in a factory, go see the people at the factory floor first.
If you’re an emergency room nurse, go see the folks in the emergency room first.
If you’re an executive, go see your staff or team members first.
If you’re like the rest of us and, just plain normal and nothing special, think about your customer – probably not the end customer, but most likely your downstream customer. Are you meeting their needs? Quit playing Farmville, Mafia Wars, or Frontierville – get up and talk to your internal, downstream customer – are you meeting their needs?
If you’re a customer service agent, go and see your co-workers and see what the customer’s are calling about. What’s the current pulse of the customer?
If you’re a marketer, go and see how your team is doing; how are your products and services doing? are they meeting the needs of your customers?

Here’s the point:

Before you get too comfortable in that ergonomic chair, dual monitor screens, spend time where the value is added. That usually means spending time where the work is truly done and with the people who are doing it. And, that usually doesn’t mean, in your cube or office.

Before Checking Email, Go To The Gemba is a post from: Lean Six Sigma Consulting

The Gemba is the Dojo

Pete Abilla — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 03:38:06 +0000

In my Wing Chun training, my Sifu emphasizes the “learn as you go” philosophy — that is, I learn the material slowly, but my way of learning is also emerging — that is my capability to learn gets better and my capacity to learn increases. This notion is very much what I also experienced at Toyota and, might help to explain, why so many companies outside of Toyota are now trying to adopt The Toyota Production System — from healthcare to government to ecommerce (such as Amazon.com — Jeff Bezos is a Lean Manufacturing fanatic). Today, I want to explicate on the Toyota notion of how the Gemba is the Dojo.

Let me first explain Gemba and Dojo, before explicating how one relates to the other…

What is The Gemba? What is The Dojo?

Gemba is the Japanese word for “the actual place” or “the place where virtue or truth is found.” In a business setting, Gemba is often referred to “the place where value is added.” For example, in a factory, the production floor is where value is added.

The Dojo is a place of training. The Dojo is formally a place where martial arts is taught, but generically refers to any place where teaching and learning happens. Historically, the learning and teaching had to do with more holy or spiritual teaching.

The Gemba is the Dojo

Unlike most companies, when an associate begins at Toyota, most often the first thing the associate does is actually go out on the factory floor and begin working — without much training, except for the safety module — in other words, the first place of training for a new associate is the Gemba.

This is quite unusual — but there is a reason: the new associate needs a fertile heart and mind to become teachable — there is no better way to achieve that than to humble the new associate by throwing them on the production line, allowing them to struggle, be scared, be lost, and wish they had some training. From my experience, Toyota allows the new associates to go through this experience for about 1 hour during their first week, prior to entering the Dojo.

After the “trial by fire” exercise, the humbled associates’ heart and mind are ready to be taught. The formal teaching happens in what is called the Dojo. The Dojo is a training location that has miniature production lines, video cameras, and nurturing teachers — but very tough teachers. The new associates go through formal training, where the training is by example and practice: the teacher teaches by example and the practice is repetitive, wherein the associates are also video-taped and, in formal feedback sessions, the teacher compares the new associate against a seasoned associate in a side-by-side video, focusing on the finer points of body mechanics, flow, and motion.

The Way

Excuse the spiritual overtones, but they are almost inescapable when speaking of Toyota — The Toyota Production System is, at bottom, rooted in the philosophy and spirituality of the East.

As part of my Wing Chun training, I am reading the Chinese Classics, beginning with Confucius. I finished reading “The Great Learning”, written ~500 BC. In that text, Confucius says the following:

The ancients who wished to illustrate illustrious virtue throughout the kingdom, first ordered well their own states. Wishing to order well their states, they first regulated their families. Wishing to regulate their families, they first cultivated their persons. Wishing to cultivate their persons, they first rectified their hearts. Wishing to rectify their hearts, they first sought to be sincere in their thoughts. Wishing to be sincere in their thoughts, they first extended to the utmost their knowledge. Such extension of knowledge lay in the investigation of things.

If you follow the 5-Why’s on Confucius’ logic above, you get the following:

[Investigating All Things] leads to [Extension of Knowledge]
[Extension of Knowledge] leads to [Becoming Sincere in Thought]
[Becoming Sincere in Thought] leads to [Rectifying Your Heart]
[Rectifying Your Heart] leads to [Cultivation Of Your Person]
[Cultivation Of Your Person] leads to [Regulation Of The Family]
[Regulation Of The Family] leads to [Order Well Their States]
[Order In The State] leads to [Virtue Throughout The Kingdom]

The Gemba is the Dojo — precisely because the heart and mind need to be ready for teaching; the student must be humble enough and teachable enough to be taught.

The Gemba is the Dojo is a post from: Lean Six Sigma Consulting

Bill Marriott walks The Gemba

Pete Abilla — Wed, 17 Jan 2007 20:41:33 +0000

Bill Marriott launched a blog yesterday — and, it’s very good.

Here is what is good about it:

“Now I know this is where the action is if you want to talk to your customers directly — and hear back from them.”

That is exactly right. Bill Marriott has traveled the world speaking with employees and customers. Now, he gets to do that from his desktop and the world can talk back to him. Currently, his first post has 49 comments. Bill Marriott shows that he truly cares about listening and speaking with his customers and his employees.

Blogging will allow me to do what I’ve been doing for years — on a global scale. Talking to the customer comes easily to me. I visit 250 hotels around the world every year. This year I’ll be traveling once again to China where we have 27 hotels, 16 under construction and many more in our development pipeline. At every hotel, I talk to associates, from housekeepers to general managers, to get their feedback. I call it “management by walking around.” Like my parents, I value the input from our associates at all levels. I make lots of notes — and my best ideas almost always come from our people in the field.

“Truth be told, I’m not very good with computers, although I couldn’t do business in today’s fast-paced economy without my cell phone, and my grandchildren have gotten me hooked on my iPod.”

His posts are sincere, not PR-filled garbage, stuffed with rhetoric. He’s sincere. He has on a human face and his customers, employees, and the world will love and trust him for that.

“At every hotel, I talk to associates, from housekeepers to general managers, to get their feedback. I call it “‘management by walking around.’”

He calls it “management by walking around”, but that concept is an old one. At Toyota, this concept is called “Gemba“, or “walking the gemba.” In other words, “go and see” and spend time where value is created and contribute. That is, go and see where transactions are processed, people are served, and value is created. Good stuff.

Bill Marriott might not be doing the Toyota version, but he is still spending time with the front-line folks and spending time where value is being created. That’s an excellent way of leading your people.

“Our 143,000 associates are truly the people who make Marriott a world-class business. I want to share some of their stories with you in future blogs. We are a company that is built on opportunity, and that foundation has made us successful.”

Again, he’s sincere and genuine. That’s the hallmark of a blog. He wants to show the human faces behind a company — awesome.

“Occasionally, I’ll blog about current events — even touch on controversial topics. Every American and everyone who wants to be an American deserves a chance to pursue the American dream of financial independence. That’s why I’m passionate about immigration reform and offering people a path to citizenship. I’ll share my ideas about that in a future blog.”

Again, more honesty and sincerity.

“Bottom line, I believe in communicating with the customer, and the internet gives me a whole new way of doing that on a global scale. I’d rather engage directly in dialogue with you because that’s how we learn and grow as a company.”

Customer obsession at its best. Great job Mister Marriott. I’ve already subscribed to your feed. I’m looking forward to learning from you. By the way, I’m a Silver Elite member — 50 more stays at a Marriott Hotel and I’ll be a Gold Member.

Bill Marriott walks The Gemba is a post from: Lean Six Sigma Consulting