The discussion to now:
- Resource Efficiency vs. Flow Efficiency, Part 1: Seeing Your System
- Resource Efficiency vs. Flow Efficiency, Part 2: Effect on People
- Resource Efficiency vs. Flow Efficiency, Part 3: Managing Performance
- Resource Efficiency vs. Flow Efficiency, Part 4: Defining Accountability
When you move from resource efficiency (experts and handoffs from expert to expert) to flow efficiency (team works together to finish work), everything changes.
That “everything” includes the organizational culture.
The system of work changes from the need for experts to shared expertise.
The time that people spend multitasking should decrease or go to zero because the team works together to finish features. The team will recognize when they are done—really done—with a feature. You don't have the “It's all done except for…” problem.
Managers don't need to manage performance. They manage the system, the environment that makes it possible for people to perform their best. Managers help equip teams to manage their own performance.
The team is accountable, not a person. That increases the likelihood that the team will estimate well and that the team delivers what they promised.
If you are transitioning to agile, and you have not seen these things occur, perform a retrospective. Set aside at least two hours and understand your particular challenges. I like Agile Retrospectives: Making Good Teams Great, Getting Value out of Agile Retrospectives – A Toolbox of Retrospective Exercises, and The Retrospective Handbook: A Guide for Agile Teams for creating a retrospective that will work for you. You have unique challenges. Learn about them so you can address them.
I hope you enjoyed this series. Let me know if you have questions or comments.
My Reflections Several Years Later
I wrote these original posts in 2015. Later, I realized resource efficiency is a cultural problem. However, any organization can only exhibit agility when they have a culture of flow efficiency. All my books from 2016 on describe this organizational culture problem. If you want to read more specifics, please read Project Lifecycles: How to Reduce Risks, Release Successful Products, and Increase Agility. (Or the Modern Management Made Easy books.)