Problem-Solving Workshop Special
Scaled Agile, Inc.
Provider of SAFe?, the world's leading framework for business agility
Introduction
Problem-Solving Workshop within Inspect and Adapt is a key element in enabling systemic improvement of ART Performance. Through structured root-cause analysis ART members collaborate cross-functionally and learn together, these learnings result in actionable outcomes. To obtain the most benefits the Problem-Solving Workshop should be prepared, strongly facilitated and, probably one of the key elements of success, the outcomes shall be acted upon.
Problem-Solving Workshop Anatomy
Problem-Solving Workshop follows a predefined structure with a set of technics masterfully mixed to achieve desired transparency, alignment and foster systemic improvement. Let us go through each part of the workshop and identify the elements that RTEs shall leverage.
Data Gathering and Problem Identification:
As per design of the Inspect & Adapt Event, you will identify a problem to solve during a brief (30 minutes) retrospective that you would place during the event, just after the metrics analysis. Although efficient it may give you a weak input for this structured brainstorming session, particularly if your ART members are not yet used to perform this exercise.
Charles Kettering (an American inventor) is credited with once saying: "A problem well-stated is half-solved." There are a few tactics you can use to achieve this well-stated problem:
In case a problem to solve has been agreed upon prior to the workshop, distributing pre-workshop material and data ahead of time, helps to create alignment and start off in full transparency on what is known and what is not.
Performing Root Cause Analysis
Once you have agreed on the problem to solve, it is now time to move to problem solving using fishbone diagram and “5 whys”. You may choose to run multiple groups brainstorming about one problem or have several problems and invite ART members to choose which group to join based on their preferences. This type of workshop renders best results when you manage to bring together different perspectives, mixing Agile Teams members, Business Owners, other stakeholders, members of other departments and, sometimes, even clients, brings the ultimate value.
Good facilitation is important to keep the groups on track, you should enlist a group of volunteers who would support this exercise and train them on the use the tools beforehand.
Fishbone diagram, also known as Ishikawa diagram, is used to show potential causes of a specific event, to guide the discovery, start with the five recommended categories, or fishbones: “People”, “Process”, “Tools”, “Program”, and “Environment”. This basic model shall work in most of the environments; however, you should adapt it to suit your own. Changing the categories of the fishbone to reflect your environment will help your ART members to be more on point in identifying the underlying root causes of the problem you have agreed to solve.
Although, fishbone diagram is a powerful tool on its own, you can take it a step further with “5 whys”. This technique allows to explore root causes of the problem further. Once a root cause for one of the categories has been proposed, keep on asking “why” five times. Sometimes fewer number of whys would lead you to the answer, sometimes a few more than five is required, it is important to keep in mind though that the further you go the additional value might become marginal.
Apart from techniques it is important to keep the workshop engaging and ensure that all voices are heard.
Some additional facilitation techniques can help you to improve the flow of the workshop, however I would suggest do not overengineer it. Practice with the original flow first and as you master it, see if bringing in some more elements will help you to keep your participants engaged.
Identifying the Biggest Root Cause
How do you decide what is the biggest root-cause, the root-cause that you will guide your workshop participants into resolving?
This is the moment to use collective intelligence one more time. After all the discussions that have taken place, participants shall be aligned and are given an opportunity to express their opinion via voting. The technique most used is dot voting, the root-cause with the highest number of votes is the root-cause that shall be address.
Restating the problem
Restating the problem for biggest root-cause identified using the “what”, “where”, “when”, and “impact” format helps to summarize the discussions that have taken place and draw the efforts to the most important problem to address. The Pareto rule states 20 percent of causes are responsible for 80 percent of the problem, and by choosing the biggest root cause and restating it as a new problem, we are seeking to find a 20/80 for the original problem stated.
Brainstorming the solutions
This is the moment to create a solution, but slow down just for a second before guiding participants into this part of the workshop. There was a lot of discussions going on throughout the workshop already and you need to bring everyone onto the same page again. The goal is to generate solution with varied points of view and tap into collective intelligence once again. This part of the workshop has different dynamic, and you need to ensure that the participants are ready to switch from analyzing and questioning to unleashing imagination and exploring opportunities.
Align participant by reminding that the solutions generated are addressing the new restated problem and not the original one, ask for acknowledgement that the problem is clear.
I would say this is the moment when bringing fun into this session becomes crucial, as your workshop participants are accumulating fatigue. There are multiple techniques that could be used. I particularly like a variation of “Six Thinking Hats”, a technique that involves looking at a problem form six distinct perspectives: logical (white hat), emotional (red hat), cautious (black hat), optimistic (yellow hat), creative (green hat), and management (blue hat). This technique helps to explore solutions from different angles and find a balanced proposition of improvement. Depending on the nature of the problem we are figuring out solution for a different sequence of the hats can be used, however for the Inspect and Adapt solution brainstorming part: Blue, White, Black, Green, Blue hats sequence is a good start.
Now that everyone is aligned at the start line of the timebox, it is the moment to generate and capture diverse ideas, that could also be combined.
Creating an Improvement Backlog Items
Inspect & Adapt without an action taken as an outcome of it will result in deterioration of the trust and motivation of your ART members, as well as possible frustration on the stakeholders’ side. It is crucial for the continuous improvement and for building the culture of transparency anchored in trust to create and dedicate time in the upcoming PI for execution of the Improvement Backlog Item. Hence depending on a capacity that realistically can be dedicated to this type of work, you, as RTE, might guide the workshop participants in shaping the Improvement Backlog Item and ambition it pursues.
The candidate Improvement Backlog Items suggested, whether they are large as features and involve multiple teams to implement or small and nimble as stories and would be worked on by a single team, are voted for by the workshop participants. As an RTE you may have a ready to go list of improvement items ordered by use of collective intelligence. Only a few will get to be implemented during the upcoming PI, at the end of which, you can measure the outcomes and evaluate whether the problem has been resolved. Shall the problem persist and still be the most important problem to solve, you might reiterate on it in the next Inspect & Adapt and pull the next idea from the list, thus continuing the journey of relentless improvement.
Conclusion
Problem-Solving Workshop as part of Inspect and Adapt can be the strongest driver of the relentless improvement journey or an obstacle to adoption of Lean-Agile Mindset. As a Release Train Engineer or Solution Train Engineer you should leverage the power of it and ensure necessary support to make it an impactful event. The support you may require comes from multiple sources:
?Whenever you are preparing the workshop or working on improvement items, do fall back to the values and principles. Inspect and Adapt and the Problem-Solving Workshop should embody and serve as a demonstration of Relentless Improvement, however this is an outcome of instilling Transparency, achieving Alignment and doing it with Respect for People.
Each potential Improvement Backlog Item shall be weighted with application of systems thinking (principle #2), not forgetting to take an economic view (principle #1) and remembering that we are looking for improvements to make the value from without interruptions (principle #6).
Additional Resources
The 5 Whys Technique:
Ishikawa diagram:
Kaoru Ishikawa “Guide to Quality Control”, Quality Resources, 1986
Facilitation Techniques:
?Lean Coffee
?Liberating Structures
?Basic Patterns of Inspect and Adapt
Thinking Hats