The Importance of Batch to Optimise Flow

Duration

60 Minutes

Purpose

This workshop is designed to help groups of people realise the effect of breaking down large Backlog Items into smaller pieces of value has on the ability to deliver. This is part of queuing theory!

Prepared Materials

Read the instructions carefully in the Mural.

• Mural Template: https://app.mural.co/template/19dff71c-2bba-4202-aae0-0662f6310329/ad063642-f4db-4b1f-a23a-c773b3d06083 

Facilitation Steps

Part 1: A Scrum Team

Feel free to show your real data, this is a visualization of a typical scrum team. Walkthrough each day, asking people what they see, what stands out.

• Day 1: Last two items are leftover from the previous sprint.
• Day 2: Everything has started
• Day 4: Everything started, nothing done
• Day 6: Still everything started, nothing done
• Day 8: Still everything started, nothing done
• Day 10: Just in time! Magic
• Burndown: Looks good, but was it…

Part 2: Coin Game

• Round 1 Instructions

  1. When the customer starts the timer, the first team member changes the colour of each coin individually to their colour.
  2. Once all coins have changed to the relevant colour, then the first team member can move the whole batch to the second team member. The second team member changes the colour of each coin individually to their colour and once all coins have changed, move the coins over to the third team member, and so on.
  3. When the last team member is done changing the colour of each coin, he/she passes the full batch back to the customer.
  4. The customer stops the time when he/she has received the full batch and add the ‘score’ to the board on the right.

Note: Before you start, estimate how long it will take to get the full batch of coins from the first team member all the way to the customer. Add your estimate to the board on the right

• Round 2 Instructions - work in batches of 5

  1. When the customer starts the timer, the first team member changes the colour of each coin individually to their colour.
  2. Once 5 coins have been changed to the relevant colour, then the first team member can move those 5 coins to the second team member, and starts the next batch of 5 coins and so on. The second team member changes the colour of each coin individually to their colour, and once they have a batch of 5 coins changed, they can move to the third team member, and so on.
  3. When the last team member passes the first batch of 5 coins to the customer, the customer writes down the time of arrival of that first batch on the board.
  4. When the last team member has passed all the coins to the customer, the customer writes down the time of arrival of the full batch on the board

Note: before you start estimate how long it will take to get the first batch of 5 coins from the first team member all the way to the customer. Additionally, estimate how long you think it will take for the customer to receive all the coins.

• Round 3 instructions Make one (and only one) change to the process to make it better (with some exceptions*). The goal is to improve the time it takes for the 1st batch to get back to the customer as well as improve the time it takes for all coins to be done. The customer can be a part of the discussion and still tracks two times in this round: time for the first batch and time for all coins.

*Coins can only have their colour changed when in a “workstation” square and can only be changed to the colour of that workstation Coin colour can still only be changed one at a time Coins must still pass through each workstation and progress through all the colours

Part 3: Flow Exercise Debrief & Explore Implications of Batch Size

• Step 1: Debrief the groups.
• Step 1: Explore Implications of Batch Size

Takeaways

• Smaller Batches increase your flow which increases your predictability.

Facilitation Tips

• In-person use coins.

Useful Files

n/a