The Book of TameFlow

About this Book

1. Is this book for you?
2. What you need to know before reading this book
3. Scope of applicability the TameFlow Approach
4. Relevance of this book
5. How this book is organized
6. Getting More for Nothing with Flow Efficiency
7. Acting on the Archimedean Lever that Boosts Performance: the Constraint
8. Maximizing Business Value in Knowledge-Work
9. Preparing for High Performance Execution and Operational Governance
10. Achieving High Performance Execution and Operational Governance
11. Credits
12. Typographical Conventions
13. Disclaimers
14. Author Views
15. Quotations
16. Acknowledgements

Forewords

1. Foreword by Eli Schragenheim
2. Foreword by Daniel S. Vacanti

Introduction

Prologue

1. The Story of Herbie
2. Herbie and Your Work Flow
3. The Five Focusing Steps
4. Step 1: Identify the Constraint - “Herbieeeee!”
5. Step 2: Exploit the Constraint - “C’mon Herbie! Speed up!”
6. Step 3: Subordinate to the Constraint - “Everybody stays behind Herbie!”
7. Step 4: Elevate the Constraint - “Everybody carries a piece of Herbie’s gear!”
8. Step 5: Repeat!
9. The Unstated Step 0
10. The Extra Step 6
11. The Secret of all Steps

PART 1—Getting More for Nothing with Flow Efficiency

1—The Power of Explicit Mental Models

1. What is this TameFlow, anyway?
2. What is Flow and Throughput?
3. Decision-Making through Explicit Mental Models
4. A Mental Model to Explain the Business Value of Flow
5. The Desire to Increase Performance
6. Increasing Performance through Effort Bears Many Downsides
7. The Rate of Demand is Important Too
8. The Difference Between Demand and Delivery is Even More Important
9. Why Companies are Always Overburdened
10. The Hideous Effects of Multitasking
11. The Business Value of Matching Delivery to Demand
12. Thinking about the Demand Line instead of the Delivery Line
13. The Quest for Stability and Predictability
14. Unintended Consequences of Good Intentions
15. Takeaways

2—Postpone Commitment and Limit Work in Process

1. Limiting Work in Process
2. Postpone Commitment - But We Cannot Wait!
3. Takeaways

3—Flow Efficiency, Little’s Law and Economic Impact

1. Touch Time and Wait Time
2. Controlling the Wait Time
3. Getting the Flow Efficiency Calculation Right
4. Wait Time and Options
5. The Perspective of the Work Item
6. Thinking about Touch Time and Wait Time in Practice
7. Work Faster or Deliver Sooner?
8. What is Flow Efficiency?
9. Flow Efficiency, Multitasking and Other Time Snatchers
10. Beware of Sprints - A Big Time Snatcher
11. What is Little’s Law?
12. Assumptions of Little’s Law
13. Stability and Mental Models
14. Little’s Law and the Theory of Constraints
15. Little’s Law and Flow Efficiency
16. Economic Impact
17. Takeaways

4—Utility of Flawed Mental Models

1. Flawed Mental Models are not Necessarily Bad
2. A Good Wrong Reason to Accept a Flawed Mental Model
3. Misunderstanding the Effect of Wait Time on Little’s Law
4. Alleged Economic Benefits for the Wrong Reasons
5. Why the Flawed Model has Utility
6. The Shortcomings of the Model
7. Reducing Wait Time does not Increase Throughput (Directly)
8. The Real Beneficial “Side Effect” of Improving on Wait Time
9. The Importance of Proper Metrics
10. Effects and Limits of “Deliver Sooner”
11. Reducing Wait Time vs Touch Time
12. Effect of Removing Multitasking
13. Overall Effect of Reducing Wait Time
14. When to Switch from Wait Time to Touch Time
15. Improving Flow Efficiency is a Low Hanging Fruit
16. Takeaways

PART 2—Acting on the Archimedean Lever that Boosts Performance: the Constraint

5—Where to Focus Improvement Efforts

1. On Bottlenecks and Constraints
2. Bottlenecks are not Constraints
3. Constraints are not only Bottlenecks - There are Other Kinds of Constraints
4. Where to Improve, Where to Invest
5. Takeaways

PART 3—Maximizing Business Value in Knowledge-Work

6—Constraints in the Work Flow and in the Work Process

1. VUCA and PEST
2. The Work Flow Constraint and the Work Process Constraint
3. Where is the Constraint?
4. The “Painting Gadgets” Example
5. From Work Flow to Work Process
6. Shape and Form of Demand
7. Special Cause Variation and Common Cause Variation
8. Takeaways

7—Understanding PEST Environments

1. A Mental Model: the TameFlow Simulation
2. Simulating a PEST Environment: Initial Setup
3. The Work Flow and Work Process for a Single Project and Four Teams
4. Round 1 - The Warm Up
5. Round 2 - First Estimation
6. Round 3 - Two Projects and Conflicts of Interests Immediately Emerge
7. Skipping the Line Becomes the Norm
8. Bonuses, Rewards and Budgets Create Conflicts of Interests
9. Round 4 - Ten Projects and Three Product Owners
10. Takeaways

8—Finding the Constraint in PEST Environments

1. Impact of the Shape and Form of Demand
2. Expose all (Virtual) Queues of Work Load without WIP Limit Distortions
3. Focus on the Work Flow Constraint First, then on the Work Process Constraint
4. Takeaways

9—Drum-Buffer-Rope Scheduling

1. Reflections on Column WIP Limits
2. Introducing Drum-Buffer-Rope in the Work Flow
3. Drum-Buffer-Rope in Practice
4. Drum-Buffer-Rope Portfolio Kanban Boards
5. Location vs. Visualization of the Work Flow Constraint
6. The Minimum Number of Work Items in the Buffer
7. The Work Process Constraint of the Work Flow Constraint
8. Takeaways

10—Prioritization and Selection in PEST Environments

1. Prioritizing for Business Value
2. Quantifying the Work Load
3. Economic Prioritization and Selection via Throughput Rate
4. Cost of Delay and CD3
5. Further Notes on Cost of Delay and CD3
6. The Need for Estimation Practices
7. Estimation/Forecast of duration, not of due dates
8. T-Shirt Sizing
9. Probabilistic Forecasting with Flow Metrics
10. Advanced Application: Estimate the Flow Time on the Constraint alone
11. Takeaways

PART 4—Preparing for High Performance Execution and Operational Governance

11—Flow Efficiency, DBR and TameFlow Boards

1. New Types of Kanban Boards
2. Flow Efficiency Board
3. Full-Kitting
4. Explicit Waiting for… and …In Process Columns
5. Managing Flowbacks
6. Flow Efficiency Inflation with Flowbacks and Conventional Kanban Boards
7. Flowbacks with Flow Efficiency Boards
8. How to Manage Flowbacks in TameFlow
9. Flow Efficiency Boards and Complex Work Flows
10. Drum-Buffer-Rope Board
11. Using Flow Efficiency Boards to Identify the Work Process Constraint
12. From Flow Efficiency Boards to DBR Boards
13. Buffer Zones and Buffer Signals
14. The TameFlow Throughput Management Board
15. Revisiting the Portfolio Board
16. Acclamation of Idleness
17. The Unresolvable Conflict between Idleness and Cost Accounting
18. Cultural Impact of the TameFlow Boards
19. Psychology of Wait States
20. Takeaways

12—Outcomes, Values and Efforts in PEST Environments

1. The Virtue of Minimalism: the Minimal Outcome-Value Effort (MOVE)
2. What is a MOVE?
3. A Unit of Business Outcome
4. A Unit of (Financial) Throughput Value
5. A Unit of Costing and Reporting
6. A Unit of Work and Delivery
7. A Small Target-Scope Work Package
8. The Balance of Two Opposing Forces
9. Unit of Commitment
10. Mechanism to Limit Work in Process
11. Risk Managed via Time and not Scope Adjustments
12. A Note on Agile
13. Managing Scope Variation
14. Target-Scope is not Fixed-Scope
15. A MOVE View of the Simulation
16. Takeaways

13—Introduction to Execution Management Signals

1. The Logic of Critical Chain Project Management (CCPM)
2. Point Estimates vs. Probability Distributions
3. Critical Chain Planning
4. The Critical Chain Plan
5. The Critical Chain Buffer
6. Buffer Zones
7. Buffer Consumption and Buffer Burn Rate
8. Execution Management Signals
9. Visual Execution Management and MOVEs
10. The MOVE Buffer
11. Visual Execution Management
12. From One Team and One MOVE to One Team and Many MOVEs
13. From One Team and Many MOVEs to Many Teams with Many MOVEs
14. Takeaways

14—Introduction to Full-Kitting

1. Introduction to Full-Kitting
2. We don’t have time for this!
3. Capitalizing on Excess Capacity
4. Seizing a Zero-Cost Benefit
5. Improving the Work Process
6. We Cannot Do Big Up-Front Design in a VUCA World and be Agile
7. Dedicated Roles
8. The Nature of Full-Kitting
9. Simulating Full-Kitting on the Client-Side
10. Simulating Missing Information
11. Round 1 - Heads or Tails as Bearer of Information
12. Round 2 - Avoiding Flowbacks
13. Round 3 - Simulating Full-Kitting on the Team Side
14. Takeaways

PART 5—Achieving High Performance Execution and Operational Governance

15—Full-Kitting as Ongoing Executive Activity

1. Failure Demand
2. The Full-Kitting Work Flow
3. The Backlog Column
4. The Full-Kit Column
5. The Prioritization Column
6. The Ranking Column
7. The Committed Column
8. The In Flow Column
9. Operational Full-Kitting
10. Takeaways

16—Execution Management in PEST Environments

1. Many Moving MOVEs
2. Virtual Integration Points
3. Planning with Respect to the Constraint
4. Monitoring the MOVE Buffers’ Consumptions
5. The Constraint Caused by Execution Issues
6. Full-Kitting with an Eye on the State of Execution
7. Takeaways

17—Operational Governance in PEST Environments

1. Constraints Everywhere!
2. Early Detection Signals
3. Focused Governance
4. The Meaning of Red
5. Overload Detection
6. Thinking is Still Required
7. Full-Kitting Revisited
8. Management by Exception - Limit Meetings
9. Management by Exception - Ad-hoc Meetings
10. Effective and Focused Standup Meetings with the TameFlow Approach
11. MOVE Reviews and Retrospectives
12. Notes on Cadences
13. Specific Kanban Cadences
14. A Vocabulary for Thinking about Constraints
15. Work Flow Constraint
16. Work Process Constraint
17. Work Execution Constraint
18. Takeaways

Epilogue - It is Never “Done!”

1. What Have we “Done?”
2. The Prevalence of Mental Models
3. Mindsets and Attitudes to Win in a VUCA World

Bibliography

About the Author