How to Measure All Your Work in Progress to Make Better Decisions

Pulled in Too Many Directions Signs Stress AnxietyAt a recent client, a senior leader, Tim, said, “We realize we can't do everything, but we don't know how to get a handle on what we need to do.” We talked about what they measured and how long it took them to make decisions. (See Why Minimize Management Decision Time.)

Tim explained that they measured schedule variance, because all the projects took so long.

I asked if the teams measured their cycle time. No.

I asked if they measured their WIP, all the Work in Progress. Tim asked, “For the teams?”

“No,” I said. “For the managers.”

“Oh. No, we don't.”

I had a hunch that Little's Law via the organization's WIP was preventing any useful throughput. And all that WIP was making it difficult for anyone to think, never mind deliver value.

When I teach the project portfolio management workshop, we spend a good chunk of time getting all the projects down on cards and then organizing them. But because everyone felt pulled in too many directions, they needed to make some decisions now, even before a portfolio workshop.

We decided to gather some data about their WIP.

Gather Project In-Progress Data

Here's what I asked them to do:

  1. Add up all the projects in progress. Don't worry about their state. If someone has started anything for that project, it's in progress.
  2. Add all the pre-planned projects. Those are the projects they planned to do next.

How many projects were in progress and then pre-planned for next?

They had 30 projects underway, and 10 more already planned. And that was for just six teams of about seven people each. Yes. They had a maximum of 42 people and 40 projects already in progress or planned. (They did have cross-functional teams that stayed together, so people did know how to work with each other and move as teams to the next piece of work.)

Now we needed data about the feature WIP, the number of in-progress features.

Gather Feature In-Progress Data

Back when I started discussing an engagement with these people, Tim said, “We seem to have a lot of features in progress, not just projects in progress.” So I asked them to gather this information, too:

  1. Add up all the feature sets underway. This is related to the projects in progress, but sometimes, teams start feature sets as research for not-yet-planned projects.
  2. Approximately how many features they tended to have in a single feature set. When they looked at me as if I had three heads, I said, “Please guess a number, such as 10, 20, or 30. I realize your feature sets vary in size, but I'm looking for a gross estimate, a ballpark. A guess.”
  3. The number of quarters they already planned in their roadmaps.
  4. The number of feature sets they already pre-planned as “next” in some form.

Here's their data:

  • Approximately 25 feature sets in progress.
  • After some discussion, they decided that any given feature set was closer to 20 stories than any other number.
  • Their roadmaps tended to be 12-18 months in duration.
  • They had at least 20 more feature sets planned for each of their desired 10 products.

That's when I said it was time for strategic decisions. With 30 people, they could not develop and maintain 10 products. Their WIP told us they needed a strategy, not just tactics.

Understanding WIP Can Drive Better Decisions

If we had stopped with the number of projects and the number of products, they might have been able to make better decisions. However, when they saw all the WIP, both in the project portfolio and the roadmaps, they realized how long it had been since they had a coherent strategy.

While this client isn't yet capable of articulating what they want to do, they know what they don't want to do. They canceled all the “don't want to do” projects. That was a great decision.

Here's what else they decided:

  • Toss all those long roadmaps. Instead, they have four-to-six-week rolling wave product-based roadmaps.
  • The short-term roadmaps help them realize what they can deliver each month. As they finish and deliver, they can adjust for this coming year.
  • To focus on customer acquisition and satisfaction as a way to increase revenue.

They had to see all the WIP, but then they made much better decisions.

You can, too.

(If you're wondering, yes, I offer this kind of work as part of my consulting business, either as a consultant for your Agile Transformation or as a Trusted Advisor.)

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.