Getting people to work together may be difficult. Knowing whether what you are doing is moving you in the right direction isn’t. There are two mantras to follow:
- minimize cost of delay (deliver the most value quickly)
- flow when you can, pull when you must (avoid handoffs and focus on what’s most important)
The first deals with working on the right things, the second working on them the right way. Both are implemented by:
- using Minimum Business Increments
- organize your team to lower handoffs and queues
- have a workflow that provides feedback up front (test-first)
Not attending to these makes a difficult challenge seriously difficult. When you drive from these you can avoid people working at odds with each other through lack of visibility and misalignment.
See the Value Stream Impedance Scorecard for even more.