Clarke Ching - Split Infinitives and Beyond.

New Conference: Waterfall 2006

http://www.waterfall2006.com/

[via my Agile Scotland friend Colin Mackay]

[RollingRocksDownhill] Chapter 12 Crosby, Defects and Nash

Chapter 12 is here: http://www.rollingrocksdownhill.com/2006/01/chapter_12_cros.html

This is the end of Act I!  In terms of our hero’s journey, we’ve setup a fairly impossible but important crisis, we’ve found a mentor, we’ve considered other options, we’ve found the direction of the solution.  Now all Steve, the hero, has to do is not waste the crisis. 

To be honest, I wasn’t sure if I’d ever get this far, but I’m quite pleased with how this is coming together!  Only 18 months (less time off for baby) and I’ve got the hardest 12 chapters done.  That is 28,500 words if you care …

Save yourself a little time and read the full chapter in pdf.  It is much easier for me (and, I imagine, you) now that I’ve found the delightful and free pdf995 converter.  I’ve stopped publishing the whole chapter in html because it’s so painful to do the conversion of pictures etc and there’s something dodgy with how blogjet or typepad or someone else handles words clever quotes.

I’d love to hear your comments  

Oh, and if you’ve published before, I’d be interested in any advice or recommendations you can give me wrt finding an agent and getting the book published.

Theory of Constraints in Health

I moderate the TocHealthNetwork yahoo group where we discuss Theory of Constraints applications in HealthCare.

One of our groups more active members, Philip Bakker, has compiled a list of articles and resouces related to TOC and Health.  He has given me permission to share the list:

• Gary Bartlett: TOC applications in health care. A draft article compiled by Gary Bartlett especially for TOC Health Net. 2001.
• http://groups.yahoo.com/group/tochealthnet/.
• Website Productivity Solutions (formerly known as Probsolv): www.prodsol.co.nz 
• Garner, Karen M. & Bailey, Rona N.: Using Constraint Management to Reduce Congestion in a Fracture Clinic: Preliminary Analysis. In: DSIR Physical Sciences Report 58. Applied Mathematics Group, DSIR Physical Sciences, Wellington, New Zealand, June 1992. Keywords: Application, Health, Scheduling, Simulation.
• Goldratt UK: Healthcare Current Reality Tree: Substantially based on a paper on 'Organisational Constraints' presented by Eli Goldratt at the TOC International Symphosium, May 1998. http://www.goldratt.co.uk/succ/healthcare.htm. 
• Russ Kershaw: Using TOC to "cure" healthcare problems. Accounting Management Quarterly (Spring 2000). Russ Kershaw, Ph.D., is an assistant professor of accounting at Butler University in Indianapolis, Ind. He can be contacted at rkershaw at butler.edu. http://www.manag.com/spring00/sp00kershaw.htm 
• Alex Knight: Healing the National Health Service. In: Directions, the Ashridge Journal, Winter 2000/2001.
• Gary Luck: Beyond the call for more funding to breakthrough performance. In: Innovations in executive and organisation development. Ashridge. 2002.
• Jaideep Motwani Donald Klein & Raanan Harowitz: The theory of constraints in services: part 1 - the basics. In: Managing Service Quality, Vol 6, issue 1, pgs. 53-56, 1996. ISSN 0960-4529.
• Motwani, J. & Klein, D. & Harowitz, R.: The Theory of Constraints in Services: Part 2 - Examples from Health Care. In: Managing Service Quality (UK), Vol. 6, No 2, 1996: 30 - 35. Keywords: Application, Health Care, Scheduling.
• Richard E. Peschke, Ph. D. and Kathleen M. Austin: Experiences Using Theory of Constraints in a For-Profit Medical Practice. Published in the APICS CM-SIG Symposium Proceedings, March 22-23, 1999. Phoenix, Arizona. The Educational Society for Resource Management
• http://www.aptconcepts.com/Articles/OB_GYN.html
• Belinda Phipps: Hitting the bottleneck. This article was originally published in the February 1999 issue of the U.K. magazine Health Management. It appears on the AGI Website with the permission of Health Management.
• http://www.goldratt.com/hlthmgmtmn.htm
• Sally Reid: Focusing on ophthalmology waiting lists. Using the 'Theory of Constraints' methodology to improve services to patients. 1999.
• http://www.ebando.co.uk/impact/imp06/i6-2.html.
• Joseph Roccisano: Theory of Constraints Applications to a Human Services Provider. July 22, 2001 (trcjrocc at alltel.net)
• Roadman, Charles, H. & Benge, James M. & McGinnis, Lloyd P. & Yurkosky, Theodore P. & Adams, David V. & Cockerham, Glenn, C. & Flowers, Steven, H.: Theory of Constraints and the United States Air Force Medical Service. In: APICS Constraints Management Symposium and Technical Exhibit; Proceedings. Phoenix, Arizona, USA, April 26 - 28, 1995: 107 - 115. Keywords: Application, Health Care, Military, Thinking Processes. APICS stock number 01513.
• Helene Roybal, Sidney J. Baxendale and Mahesh Gupta: Using Acitivity-Based Costing and Theory of Constraints to guide continuous improvement in managemed care. In: Managed Care Quarterly 1999; 7(1):1-10. Aspen Publishers, Inc.
• Lt Col David E. Womack & Lt Col Steve Flowers: Improving system performance: A case study in the application of the theory of constraints. In: The Journal of Health Care Management. J Healthcare Man v.44, no.5, p. 397-407, Sept/Oct 1999.
• http://www.ache.org/pubs/jhm445.cfm 
• Dr. Kelvyn Youngman: A Logistical Solution to Surgical Waiting Lists. Submitted to June 1999 Health Manager (New Zealand) .
• Col D.E. Womack & Lt Col S. Flowers: Improving Access to Healthcare: Exploiting Constraints in Removing the Bottlenecks to Primary Care Services Access.
• Website: www.tocreview.com.  2001.
• Midrange ERP: TOC Case Study - United States Air Force Healthcare System TOC Thinking Processes. 1999.
• http://www.goldratt.co.uk/succ/usaf.htm
• http://www.goldratt.com/for-cause/usaffco.htm
• Anne M. Breen, Tracey Burton-Houle, and David C. Aron: Applying the Theory of Constraints in Health Care: Part 1 - The Philosophy. Spring 2002 issue (Volume 10, Number 3) of Quality Management in Health Care. It appears on the AGI Website with the permission of Aspen Publishers, Inc.
• http://www.goldratt.com/for-cause/applyingtocinhcpt1fco.htm
• Tracey Burton-Houle: "What if my organization's goal is not to make money?". TOC Times Quarterly Newsletter. September 2001 issue of AGI's newsletter, TOC Times. http://www.goldratt.com/for-cause/partnerperspsep2001toct.htm
• David C. Aron & Tracey Burton-Houle: Using Theory of Constraints (TOC) to Improve Healthcare. 2001. http://www.ihi.org/conferences/natforum/handouts/E22.pdf
• Habitat For Humanity World Record Set Using Critical Chain Scheduling. A Four Bedroom House in Three Hours, 44 Minutes & 59 Seconds. AGI.  http://www.goldratt.com/for-cause/habitatfco.htm 
• Tracey Burton-Houle: AGI Continues To Steadily Make Advances With The Adaptation Of TOC Into Healthcare. The TOC Times, August 2002.  http://www.goldratt.com/toctquarterly/august2002.htm#healthcare 
• Sally Reid: NHS Learning Network. Focus on Ophthalmology Waiting Lists. Using the 'Theory of Constraints' methodology to increase improve services to patients. ImpAct (2000) http://www.jr2.ox.ac.uk/bandolier/painres/download/ImpAct6.pdf.   
• NHS Executive: Action on Cataracts. Good Practice Guidance (February 2000) P.53-54: Techniques for bringing about change. 12.1 Theory of Constraints.  http://www.doh.gov.uk/pub/docs/doh/cataract2.pdf. 
• Frans van Eijnatten, Anne-Marie Poorthuis & Jaap Peters (editors): "Inleiding in Chaosdenken: Theorie en Praktijk". 2002. Koninklijke Van Gorcum, Assen. ISBN 90-232-3859-1. (Chapter nr. 8 by Philip Bakker on waiting lists in Dutch health care, in relation to TOC and chaos thinking)
• Bakker, Philip & Van Aalst, Stefan (2003). Waiting lists in hospitals. What do we need to know to reduce waiting lists? www.flow4u.com/Articles
• Videotapes Goldratt Institute:  Lt. Col. Steve Flowers and Maj. Devin Satz (United States Air Force): TOC for Health Care. Jonah Upgrade Workshop and TOC Symphosium, November 10-13, 1998, Memphis, TN. JMT-3. 43 min.
  Tracey Burton-Houle (Avraham Y. Goldratt Institute): Health Care. Jonah Upgrade Workshop and TOC Symphosium, July 7-11, 1999, Chicago, Illinois. JCI-6. 60 min.
• TOC and medical decision-making (Myriam Hunink) http://www.epib.nl/faculty/hunink.html 
  1. M. G. Myriam Hunink, MD, PhD & Gabriel P. Krestin, MD, PhD: Study Design for Concurrent
  Development, Assessment, and Implementation of New Diagnostic Imaging Technology. In: 614  Radiology, March 2002.(In the article she uses the Thinking Processes, mainly the cloud)
  2. MG Myriam Hunink, MD, PhD. IN SEARCH OF TOOLS TO AID LOGICAL THINKING AND COMMUNICATING ABOUT MEDICAL DECISIONS. Ideas at Issue. March 9, 2001. (Don't know the paper, only have the article. She describes how to use the evaporating cloud (conflict resolution diagram) to help analyze whether to perform carotid endarterectomy prior to coronary artery bypass grafting in a patient with both symptomatic coronary and asymptomatic carotid artery disease.)
• There is an interesting book that applies a number of TOC principles to health care operations.  "Reducing Delays and Waiting Times Throughout the Healthcare System",  from the Institute for Health Care, ISBN 1-890070-00-9, Tel. (617) 754-4800.

Philip Bakker 

Amsterdam, The Netherlands

 

First draft:       8 November 2002

Updated:         14 January 2006

Three ways to enable transforming excahnges

I was thrilled last year when I opened Sanjiv Augustine’s brilliant new book “Managing Agile Projects” when found a reference Fernando Flores. 

Flore’s was a very young finance minister in Chile before being imprisoned during the Pinochet regime.  It seems he spent most of his spare time in prison thinking, as you would, and when he was finally released he went on to become a very rich consultant, practicing his special and unique form of managing and design businesses – what is now known as Commitment Based Management.  I joined VISION Consulting specifically because they (I mean we) are one of the few organizations practicing Commitment Based Management.  CBM compliments the TOC, Lean and Quality thinking perfectly and it provides an elegant  framework for understanding Agile too.  I’m slowly learning the Flores approach and working with my colleagues to join up the thinking between Agile and Commitment Based Management.  Some of this work will appear in my book.

Anyway, as I was saying, Sanjiv’s book has a section on Flore’s work.  His book is fascinating because he looks at both project management and Agile just a little differently – a little more profoundly even – than most other Agile books.  I liked what he’d written about Flore’s work and Sanjiv has kindly sent me some copy to share with y’all.

Today, we kick of with a brief introduction.  It refers to 3 ways to enable transforming exchanges, one of which is linking language with action, but future postings will only cover linking language with action.

TRANSFORMING EXCHANGES

Transforming exchanges are exchanges of information between people that result in personal transformations: each person participating in the exchange gleans some new insight, some new experience or some new learning. 

Take the example of an acceptance test, when a customer first sees a demonstration of a requested feature.  The customer may learn something from the ex-change about the restrictions in system implementation.  Or she may get some new insight into further possibilities.  The development team may learn something from the customer's initial response.  Was the feature exactly as she had imagined it, or was it implemented differently from the way she had described it? The customer's reaction usually speaks volumes to the development team, and they will learn much as a result.  The acceptance test serves as a great vehicle for transforming exchanges of information. 

If there aren't sufficient transforming  exchanges between team members, their work will be disjointed and lacking in end-value. Agile methodologies enable transforming exchanges through several practices covered above.  However, there is still a need for Agile Managers to recognize transforming exchanges as such and enable them in  fuller fashion.   The three activities presented next: encourage feedback, build trust, and link language with action; all con-tribute towards amplifying the intensity of the transforming exchanges on your agile team.

Anyway, thanks for sharing Sanjiv.  More to come.

New draft book: Lean Software Development: A Field Guide

Yipee!  Mary Poppendieck is working on a sequel to the wonderful Lean Software Development: An Agile Toolkit.  This time it’s a field guide – more “how to” this time rather than “why to”.

Here’s the website where Mary will be posting drafts and here’s the yahoo group for discussion. 

Mary says:

I am working on a new book (as opposed to a new version of our old book).  While I am working on it, draft chapters will be posted on http://www.poppendieck.com/lsd.htm.  This page is an evolving table of contents, and the chapters ready for review are attached with links to the chapter names.

If you have any comments or suggestions, you can send them to me directly or post them on this list.  Changes to the chapters will be made frequently, so please note the version number with your comments.

RollingRocksDownhill - my business novel in PDF

Hi everyone,

Here’s a pdf of my book as published on line so far: http://www.rollingrocksdownhill.com/2006/01/pdf_version_of_.html

It should be much easier to print and read.

Clarke

Working with Dull Knives

Look out for my article "Working with Dull Knives" in the latest Better Software Magazine in which I wonder why as an IT guy and as a consultant it too often feels like we're working with half-arsed tools.  A good chef can and will sharpen his own knives, but we usually don't have that luxury.

Sadly there is no online version ... but it's a great magazine, nonetheless.

Creativity under the Gun

I’ve just read the most amazing article. 

Not amazing in the sense that I learned all that much new, but amazing from the point of view that

• it confirms something I’ve figured out over the years, something that a lot of managers just don’t get. 
• Plus it’s in the HBR which gives it credibility and
• it concerns a theme central to my book: motivation by time pressure.

Here’s the details from my last chapter:

After lunch, Craig sat us down at the his visitors table.  He handed me about a dozen neatly bound, photocopied pages.  It was an article from the August 2002 Harvard Business Review called “Creativity under the Gun”, by Teresa Amabile, Constance Hadley, and Steven Kramer.

Craig said, ‘You might find this article interesting.  It is related to the conflict between time pressure and quality that we discussed before lunch.’

I looked at the paper and saw that Craig had highlighted a section on the front page.  It read “If you are like most managers, you have almost certainly worked with people who swear that they do their most creative work under tight deadlines.  You may use pressure as a management technique , believing that it will spur people on to great leaps of insight.  You may even manage yourself this way’.

He had highlighted and underlying the next sentences. ‘Based on our research, the short answer is “no.”  When creativity is under the gun, it usually ends up getting killed.  Although time pressure may drive people to work more and get more done, and may even make people feel more creative, it actually causes them, in general, to think less creatively.” 

Interesting, I thought.

I scanned the rest of the page and noted that the authors quoted diary entries from a software development project that was working impossible hours.  It sounded just like VSP. 

I thanked Craig and then put the article to one side.

Rolling Rocks Downhill = 2 new Chapters

Guess what I’ve been doing over Xmas and New years …

Two new chapters of my business novel posted at www.RollingRocksDownhill.com – chapter 10 and chapter 11.

Chapter 12 is on its way soon.  I’ll probably pop a pdf version of all the current chapters as well.

Martin Fowler discusses design

The Itunes install thingy is forcing me to close firefox, so I want to save this article in case which I’ve been meaning to read since xmas time …

http://www.martinfowler.com/articles/designDead.html