RE: Value Chain Mapping

They are not currently using XP. Their inner cycle varies widely. They
are very proud of their ability to expedite critical changes (the dialog
could have been straight out of The Goal.) We mapped the "normal" cycle.
 
I have worked several places where the upfront planning and the
deployment of QAd code both took longer than programming (like large
Swiss banks.) I was shocked by the numbers on the map and what they
added up to (29 weeks of (occasionally marginally) value-add activities
and 10 weeks of waiting), but not as shocked as they were.
 
The diagram looked something like this (working backwards in time):
 
Deployment, 1 day <- Customer approves model changes, 4 weeks <- We make
model changes, 2 weeks <- Customer specifies model changes, 1 week <-
Final code deployment QA, 2 weeks <- Waiting for QA, 4 weeks <- Code
"freeze" QA (and development), 6 weeks <- Development, 8 weeks <-
Project planning, 4 weeks <- Waiting for marketing approval, 2 weeks <-
Marketing requirements document, 4 weeks <- Engineering initial
estimates, 2 weeks <- Waiting for engineering initial estimates, 2 weeks
<- Marketing vision document, 1 week.
 
It took us about 1/2 hour to come up with this (don't spend longer than
that or you'll have too much detail.)
 
Kent

-----Original Message-----
From:
sentto-8007113-315-1039026821-kent=threeriversinstitute.org@returns.grou
ps.yahoo.com
[mailto:sentto-8007113-315-1039026821-kent=threeriversinstitute.org@retu
rns.groups.yahoo.com] On Behalf Of Arien Malec
Sent: Wednesday, December 04, 2002 10:34 AM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [SIP] Value Chain Mapping



--- kentlbeck <[email protected]> wrote:
> I just tried value chain mapping for the first time as a way to 
> measure and influence SIP, copying 
> http://www.lean.org/Lean/Community/Resources/thinkers_start.cfm (the 
> articles are in reverse order). I was amazed at the results. We laid 
> out the map, then I asked the team for ideas for reducing SIP. 1) 
> the resulting ideas were obviously good, regardless of SIP and 2) 
> none of the ideas had anything to do with XP. The blocks in the flow 
> of value were organizational and deployment oriented. We have a fair 
> bit of progress to make before test-driven development becomes the 
> next most important thing to work on.

Is this a company that is not currently using XP? What is their
inner-cycle
development time (requirements available to software produced)? I ask
because
the companies I have worked for have had that inner cycle at something
like
9-12 months, and there was nothing outside of that that was a bigger
constraint. I would expect that moving to XP would *immediately* expose
other
constraints, where further cycle-time improvements in the inner cycle
would be
counterproductive, but I'm surprised that the outer cycle inefficiencies
were
already the constraint.

Do you have a (perhaps sanitized) diagram you could share with us?

Arien


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