Food Trucks and the Theory of Constraints.

The food truck can teach us about theory of constraints

In the global economy, events are moving at the speed of light.  An order placed in Singapore triggers a cascade of events in Tokyo and then at the corporate headquarters in Chicago.  Technology makes this kind of speed and accuracy possible.  To many people who use this technology, it is like magic.  To people who build and maintain these systems, it is hard work.  So the biggest challenge of our time is how to balance the desires of people who think technology is magic with the reality of innovation being hard work.  This week an introduction to the theory of constraints and what it means to a scrum master.

I have been reading a book entitled, “The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement,” by Eliyahu M. Goldratt.  It puts the reader in the shoes of a plant manager of a failing company.  His wife is unhappy with all the responsibilities he has which keep him away from his family.  His boss threatens to shut down his plant in 90 days.  He is also dealing with his children and his aging parents.  It is a trifecta of stress which would grind down any person. 

The main character has to juggle these competing demands on his time and energy while confronted with the collapse of his marriage and loss of his job.  He decides to concentrate on saving his job to provide for his wife and family.  Over the course of the book, the protagonist learns about the theory of constraints and how to use it to save his plant.  I will let you find out for yourselves if his marriage survives. 

I am personally surprised that I did not get exposed to this idea sooner in my career.  In layman’s terms, the theory of constraints posits that a system can only operate at the speed of its slowest sub-unit.  For instance, if you have a food truck, you have someone taking orders, someone doing food preparation, and someone plating finished products and delivering them to customers.  I realize that this example features a crowded food truck but stay with me.  The cashier can take an order every two minutes.  The owner can prep food for about 10 minutes per items on the menu.  Plating and delivering food takes five minutes. 

In this simple example, it is clear the slowest part of the process is preparing the food.  If there are ten items on the menu, it takes 100 minutes or almost two hours.  If done in a just in time fashion, then it takes 10 minutes.  So, a busy developer visiting the food truck outside of the office has to wait almost 20 minutes to get a meal.  This kind of service would put the food truck out of business.  The bottleneck is food prep.  Most food trucks avoid this issue by doing food prep in advance.  It reduces meal time from 20 minutes to seven. It is a major improvement, and it might keep the food truck in business. 

As a scrum master, it is important you recognize the bottlenecks which slow down the flow of value through the organization.  Are product owners not writing stories?  Are developers not doing test-driven development?  Maybe the release process is taking too long.  A good scrum master will figure this out and try to smooth worth through the system. 

The theory of constraints contains plenty of mathematics and ways to measure flow through the system, but the general idea is to find the slowest part of the system and maximize it to find the slowest part of the system and maximize its output while preventing work from stacking up before the bottleneck and slack gathering behind it.  Like many discoveries in science, engineering, and project management it is pretty simple once we understand it. 

Until next time. 

It is time Agile crushes magical thinking in business.

Working in Technology is like taming a dragon.

In the contemporary business world, one of the things which surprised me the most is how divorced people are from the technology which their careers depend upon.  Arthur C. Clark, the author of “2001: A Space Odyssey,” said, “…and sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.”  Today, in a world moving at the speed of the internet, tens of millions of people are wandering the world behaving like magicians.  I want to talk about what this means for you the scrum master or agile coach. 

At the click of a smartphone, a human being can summon a ride, book restaurant reservations, order clothing, and find potential romantic partners.  News and gossip travel around the globe.  We can even live in virtual spaces reshaping our bodies ignoring concepts or gender and aging.  Thanks to the world of technology and algorithms we can live in a curated rich world where there are no opposing opinions and everything is quick and convenient.  It is a seductive world. 

The world I describe is the product of millions of hours of labor and the application of fifty years of merciless engineering to make systems better, faster and cheaper.  It is the application of silicon wafer technology, advanced mathematics, and smart people doing smart things.  It is the unwritten story of our time.

Now imagine people who live in the magical age who want to implement a new payroll system or create a better way to get products to customers.  Since they are accustomed to systems which are quick and compliant, they think it is possible to spin up systems which behave the same way with the speed of downloading a phone application.  These magicians take it for granted that the data will always be correct and they do not need to proofread the work. 

This is not the reality of technology.  Developers need to get involved, and they need to be managed, so the code is clean and scalable.  Data needs to be placed on Oracle or Microsoft SQL servers.  Network accounts need to be created, and all of this costs time and money.  It is not magic.  It is hard work.

As a former web developer, it always troubled me when people told me how they expected a website to look and behave without understanding a lick of HTML code.  It is my experience these individuals rise in organizations and get budget authority.  So you have the ignorant paying the bills while someone more ignorant is giving orders to the development team.  It falls to a technology lead or scrum master to transform ignorance and magical thinking into code.   It is just as disheartening as it sounds. 

It is also why so many technology projects fail because the people involved do not conceptually understand the labor it takes to get the job done.  A construction project is easy to understand compared to a software project because the people paying the bills realize what is happening.  A typical business person does not understand the difference between Java-script and JAVA; so how are they going to know what it takes to successfully construct a web application.

As a scrum master, it is your responsibility to crush magical thinking.  Tell the truth about how long it is going to take to get something done.  Show people work in progress and ship code periodically so if adjustments need to be made they can happen in a timelier manner.  You will have to say no, and you will have to create trust between the development team and business.  This means enforcing one of the central tenants of Agile; their business sets the project priorities, and the development team says how long it is going to take.  If this social compact is not upheld, then any agile implementation will collapse into dust. 

So in this magical world, it is up to the scrum master to create a much-needed dose of reality.  Otherwise, you are confronted with an evil magic act which does nothing but disappoint. 

Until next time.

Reputation is not licence to be a jerk

We know lots of people like this.  A few of them 
 set the conversation of the technology world.
 Image courtesy of Slate.com.

The world of technology is filled with plenty of smart, talented and colorful personalities.  This dynamic was one of the reasons why I was drawn to the business.  This week I want to talk about of these colorful personalities and how he represents some of the worst impulses in the technology business.

There are plenty of stereotypes in the technology business.  These are reinforced by popular culture in productions as diverse as James Bond movies, the Fox series 24, and the HBO program Silicon Valley.  Having over 18 years’ experience in the business, I have seen many of these stereotypes in real life.  I have also met plenty of great people who are unique and innovative in every way.

By any standard, Alex St. John should be seen as one of the leading minds in the technology field. He was self-educated and self-taught.  He created the DirectX technology which powers Xbox and just about every PC game on Windows.  His work helped make Microsoft the power house it is and he earned further accolades founding his own company.  This kind of achievement should make St. John a good will ambassador for the technology field instead, he is coming off as a colossal jerk.

I can provide numerous examples which have already been articulated elsewhere on the web.  These offenses break down into three categories.

• He does not see the value of women in technology.  Exhibit A.
• He thinks that exploitative work conditions in the software business, particularly, the game business are acceptable.  Exhibit B.
• Finally, anyone who disagrees with him is a “whiner” of not willing to work hard.  Exhibit C.

I have stated repeatedly, technology needs more women.  The fresh perspective they provide to technology is essential to improving product quality.  It also makes the office less like a Mongol raiding party and more like a 21st century work place.  The less testosterone in technology the better.

Next repeated studies have shown that long hours are a hindrance to productivity rather than a boon.  Notions of “crunch” time and working eighty hour work weeks are exploitative and boarder on the illegal practice of wage theft.  Additionally, the twelve principle of Agile discourage this mindset stressing development should sustainable.  To St. John and others developer burn-out, turnover, and alienation are the cost of doing business.  Technology workers are not different that sweatshop workers and they should be grateful for the conditions.

Finally, St. Jon has ridiculed people who disagree with him about issues of diversity and exploitation of tech workers by claiming they are not ambitious enough or smart enough to understand his arguments.  In St. John’s world, I would have died of a heart attack because I would be living on steady diet of caffeine, pizza, and stress.  The technology world has undermined two of my marriages because of high stress, turn over, and uncertain employment conditions.  It is hard to keep good employees if they don’t see or sleep with their significant others.  I consider myself a valuable professional to any organization, but to St. John, I am just a pencil to be ground down into a nub to be replaced by someone else just as disposable.

Bottom line, if you do not agree with St. John, then you are neither smart nor talented enough to work in technology.  This may explain why he is spending more time coaching CEO’s and HR professionals on how to recruit technology talent than actually managing technology talent.  I have worked for people like St. John who are convinced of their intellectual and moral superiority. It is not fun and I consider those periods the low points of my career.  Technology is changing thanks to agile and efforts to improve diversity.  Faced with the changing environment you can, lead, follow, or get out of the way.  I think that St. John is about to get trampled to death.

Until next time.

My Commencement Speech

If I gave a commencement speech this is what I would say.

This time of year is filled with commencement speeches and pockets of wisdom from many public figures directed at college students.  My favorite was by Senator Elizabeth Warren. Twice in my academic career, I asked to be a commencement speaker when I received my associate’s degree and when I received my masters.  Both times, academic and community politics got in the way with me sharing that message.  Someday, I am going to be a successful entrepreneur and when I am there this is the speech I am going to give.  Enjoy.

Thank you Madam President and fellow students, I am deeply honored to be here and to be a small footnote to your lives.  You see on a day like this you have a lot more things on your mind that what some middle aged portly man has to say about life, the universe and everything.  As many of the fine arts students who have read Douglas Adams can attest the answer is 42.  All kidding aside, you are more interested in where you are going to have dinner, visiting with your parents, and figuring out what to do with the rest of your lives.  This is heady stuff and important.  You know how hard it is to get a dinner reservation in this town tonight.
 
That said I do want to leave you with something besides my vain attempts at humor.  Today is one of the biggest successes in your life you have entered a very elite group of people you are college graduates.  According Harvard and the Asian Development Bank, only 6.7 percent of the world population holds a bachelor’s degree.  You are not quite the 1% but you are damn close.  You are roughly the one in twenty people on this planet that can boast this kind of education and experience.   But you didn't get here on your own it took your family and community to get you here.  So for a brief moment can all the parents, siblings, spouses, friends, and significant others please stand up.  Give yourself a hand because these graduates are here because you helped them get here.

Like I said, today is a big deal.  This may be the biggest success you have in your entire life but I want to leave you with a little nugget wisdom on this big day.  Today you embrace success, but now that you are graduates you will be confronted with failure.  How you deal with failure and hardship will define you for the rest of your lives.  I am sorry, I am harshing this happy occasion but it would be wrong of me not to share the wisdom I have accumulated over the years.  Failure is necessary.  Failure is pure.  Failure educates in ways that will remain with you the rest of your life long after your American Literature finals.  Many of you have been scared of failure and have done everything in your power to avoid it.  I have some bad news for you.  Failure will find you and grasp you in its unjust embrace.

My father had a sign on his desk which said, “The only people who never fail are those who never try.”  It was a dose of wisdom that as a twenty year old graduate, I mocked.  As a middle aged man launching his own business, I understood.  As a culture we are frightened of failure.  I have known people who have failed who were treated like those afflicted with leprosy by their friends because they were afraid that failure was contagious.  I have seen careers end because of failure. I have seen people end their own lives because they could not cope with failure.  It is sad because I have learned that failure is just another way that human beings learn and grow.

I have failed in so many ways in my life.  I am twice divorced.  I do not have any children to carry on my name.  I have been fired from several jobs because I struggled to conform to what I thought were ethically dubious situations or take grief from someone I though was not my equal.  On paper, my life looks like a failure.  I beg to differ.  I am my own boss and lead an organization that employees many people.  I have finally earned some financial independence and I can support my parents in their old age.  Finally, I wake up in the morning and can look myself in the mirror without feeling profound levels of contempt and rage for the petty compromises I have made in my life.  I have gotten to this point because of failure.

The playwright Arthur Miller said, “…possibly the greatest truth we know, have come out of peoples suffering.”  This from a man who was married to Marilyn Monroe; I get the feeling he did lot of suffering.  We suffer because of failure.  People are greedy, mean, selfish, and crazy.  And that folks is just on the good days.  Add personal pride, money, and sexual gratification to the mix and you have a recipe for suffering and failure.  I know.  I have been in those situations and I am sad to report they don’t sell t-shirts.

What I have discovered is that during these profoundly dark moments, I have learned something.  Failure educates in ways that cramming for an exam does not.  It enlightens because I illustrates who your friends are.  They are the ones who will stand by your side and support you went others will turn away.  Failure shows you what your limits are and what you need to do to overcome them.  Failure is the reset button of your life because when you fail the only way to go is up.

It is said that there is nothing worse than a failure.  I disagree.  There is nothing worse that someone who doesn't learn from failure.  There is nothing worse that someone who doesn't grow after failure.  There is nothing worse than someone who repeats the same mistakes to fail.  Finally, there is nothing worse than someone who wallows in failure.  It is not wrong to fail.  It is wrong to fail and not gain something anything from the experience.

I come from a community of technologists known as the agile community and our motto is to fail early and often.  So today on one of the greatest days of success in your life, I want to remind you that failure is coming.  Fail early and fail often.  Don’t quit trying.  Don’t give a crap about what others think; because at the end of the day you sleep with yourself and you better learn to like that experience.  Look in the mirror and know that you have done your best and then do better the next day.  Life is unfair, cruel, and short.  Don’t be like life.  It is not a question of if you will fail but when.  It is that test of your character which will define you for the remainder of your life.

Fail early and fail often, because inside each failure is a nugget of wisdom which will lead you to greater success.  God Speed, go forth and fail.  I will see you on the other side and then we will have stories to share and a world to change.

Congratulations and God bless you and your families.

Watch Me Pull a Rabit Out of My Hat

Pulling a Rabit Out of a Hat is Hard!

One of the biggest constants in software development is failure.  Projects fail to get completed on time.  Software fails to work as expected and software developers fail to keep their jobs.  It is a vicious cycle and it takes an emotional toll on the people who spend their time working on it.

People want to be successful and competent.  Software humbles the smartest and best of us.  Add to the mix unrealistic time pressures, unhealthy lifestyles, and marketing professionals forcing me to keep their promises and you have a blueprint for mental illness.

Shortly after my wife moved out of the house, I sat in a planning meeting and I had a revelation.  A business analyst was talking about improving the click ratio for a page and it just dawned on me.  I was living in a bizarre world where people were making decisions about my work and life and they had no understanding of web development or the challenges it entailed.  To them, it was just like magic.  All I had to do was pull out a rabbit from my hat each day and hope I could correctly guess the exact color, size, and fur quality these people expected. 

I was not a professional with an opinion to be respected.  I felt like a birthday clown making balloon animals for ungrateful children.  Something had to give and I slowly began to start planning for the launch of E₃ systems. 

In the almost two years since, I have been writing code after hours and on weekends.  I put together a business plan and I have rounded up a board of directors to help me.  I even have a sales person.  All that is left are customers, because contrary to popular believe, just because you build something they may not buy it. 

I am not deterred because this has given me time to refine my production and this month we will be doing a 2.0 release of our Sully® Warehouse Management System.  I am pretty proud of it.  We now make it possible to manage inventory, bills of madding, addresses, invoices, packing slips, and not purchase orders.  I even have a movie version of the application which works with Microsoft Tag so that a piece of paper automatically communicates with a smart phone or tablet. 

What makes this so fantastic is that is less expensive than most software packages on the market.  There is not software to install and it works on most modern browsers and smart phones.  It is cloud based computing without the hype. 

I will have more news about the release of Sully® 2.0 as we complete testing.  We also have YouTube videos going up and we are putting together a training manual.  We are also going to start a full court press for customers. 

Two years ago, I looked and felt like a clown.  Now, I am on the cusp of being a full-fledged entrepreneur.  It is worth the wait. 

Until next time.