Process Learning, Process Maturity and Project Closeout

1. Process Learning, Process Maturity and Project Closeout James R. Burns

2. Learning vs. Maturity • Learning is very different from maturing • Learning is similar to the concepts of Lean • Learning is not measured directly, but its effects are measured by profit, cost, quality, cycle time, productivity, etc. • Maturity is measured on a scale of 0 to 5 using a maturity model

3. Learning • Has its origins in systems thinking • Was popularized by Peter Senge in his book • THE FIFTH DISCIPLINE

4. The Potential of Wisdom Teams • Bill Russell’s Experience of Alignment and Synergism • His play would rise to a new level • He would be in the white heat of competition, yet not feel competitive • Every fake, cut and pass would be surprising, yet nothing could surprise him • Like we were playing in slow motion

5. Alignment • A necessary condition for EMPOWERMENT • Empowering non-aligned individuals worsens the chaos and makes managing the team even more difficult • For Jazz musicians, it is called “being in the groove”

6. Alignment and Synergism • Meetings will last for hours, yet fly by • No one remembers who said what, but knowing we had really come to a shared understanding • Of never having to vote (because there is so much CONSENSUS)

7. Team Learning: A definition • The process of aligning and developing the capacity of a team to create the results its members truly desire • It builds on the capacity of shared vision • It also builds on personal mastery • Knowing how to play together • Teams are the key learning unit in organizations

8. The Discipline of Team Learning • The team’s accomplishments can set the tone and establish a standard for learning together for the larger organization • Has three critical dimensions

9. Three critical dimensions • First, there is a need to think insightfully about complex issues • Teams must learn how to tap the potential for many minds to be more intelligent than one mind • Second, there is a need for innovative, coordinated action • Third, there is the role of team members on other teams • A learning team fosters other learning teams through inculcating the practices and skills of team learning

10. The discipline of team learning • Is a collective one • It is meaningless to say that “I,” as an individual, am mastering the discipline of team learning • In the same sense that it is meaningless to say “I am mastering the practice of being a great jazz ensemble.” • Involves mastering the practices of dialogue and discussion

11. Dialogue and Discussion • Are potentially complementary, but most teams lack the ability to distinguish between the two • Teams must learn how to deal creatively with the powerful forces opposing productive dialogue and discussion • Argyris: defensive routines--ways of interacting that protect us from threat or embarrassment, but which also prevent us from learning

12. Skills!! Dialogue Discussion Reflection Inquiry

13. Defensive postures • Systems thinking is especially prone to evoking defensiveness because of its central message, that our actions create our reality • The problems we perceive are caused by our actions, not by external, exogenous forces outside of us

14. Practice • The discipline of team learning requires practice • Teams do not practice enough, generally • A great play or great orchestra does not happen without practice • Neither does a great sports team • Such teams learn by continual movement between performance and practice

15. The State of Team Learning • TL is poorly understood • We cannot describe the phenomenon well--no measures • There are no overarching theories • We cannot distinguish team learning from groupthink • There are few reliable methods for building team learning

16. Need for Team Learning • Has never been greater • Complexity of today’s problems demands it • Actions of teams must be innovative and coordinated

17. Skills Underlying Team Learning Team Learning Personal Mastery Shared Vision Systems Thinking

18. Werner Heisenberg • Science is rooted in conversations • Cooperation of different people may culminate in scientific results of the utmost importance • Collectively, we can be more insightful, more intelligent than we can possibly be individually

19. David Bohm • A leading quantum theorist • Developed a theory and method of “dialogue” when a group “becomes open to the flow of a larger intelligence” • Quantum theory implies that the universe is basically an indivisible whole

20. Bohm’s most distinctive contribution • Thought is “largely a collective phenomenon” • Analogy between the collective properties of electrons vs. way our thoughts work • Leads to an understanding of the general counter productiveness of thought

21. Bohm’s contribution, continued • “our thought is incoherent… and the resulting counter-productiveness lies at the root of the world’s problems” Prepared by James R. Burns

22. Dialogue and Discussion • Suspending assumptions • Seeing each other as colleagues • A Facilitator Who Holds the Context of Dialogue • Balancing Dialogue and Discussion • Reflection, Inquiry and Dialogue

23. Dialogue and Discussion • Their power lies in their synergy • No synergy without an understanding of their distinctions • DISCUSSION--like a ping/pong game where the topic gets hit around • subject is analyzed and diagnosed from many points of view • Emphasis is on winning--having one’s view accepted by the group

24. More Dialogue and Discussion • A sustained emphasis on winning is not compatible with giving first priority to coherence and truth • To bring about a change of priorities from “winning” to “pursuit of the truth”, a dialogue is necessary

25. Dialogue • From the Greek, it means “through the meaning”; “meaning passing or moving through” • Through dialogue, a group accesses a larger “pool of common meaning” which cannot be accessed individually. • “The whole organizes the parts”

26. More Dialogue • Purpose is not to win, but to go beyond any one individual’s understanding • In dialogue, individuals gain insights that simply could not be gained individually • In dialogue, individuals explore difficult, complex issues from many points of view • Dialogue reveals the incoherence in our thought

27. The Purpose of Dialogue • To reveal the incoherence in our thought--three types of incoherence • Thought denies that it is participative • Thought stops tracking reality and just goes, like a program • We misperceive the thoughts as our own, because we fail to see the stream of collective thinking from which they arise • Thought establishes its own standard of reference for fixing problems

28. Incoherent thought • Thought stands in front of us and pretends that it does not represent • We become trapped in the theater of our thoughts • Dialogue is a way of helping people to “see the representative and participative nature of thought” • In dialogue, people become observers of their own thinking

29. Suspending Assumptions • [HOLDING THEM IN FRONT OF YOU] • Difficult because thought deludes us into a view that this is the way it is

30. Seeing each other as Colleagues • Necessary because thought is participative • Necessary to establish a positive tone and offset the vulnerability that dialogue brings • Does not mean that you need to agree or share the same views

31. Dialogue, Colleagues, and Hierarchy • Choosing to view “adversaries” as “colleagues with different views” has the greatest benefits • Hierarchy is antithetical to dialogue, yet is difficult to escape in organizations

32. Dialogue, Colleagues, and Hierarchy • People who are used to holding the prevailing view because of their senior position, must surrender that privilege in dialogue, AND CONVERSELY • Dialogue must be playful--playing with the ideas, evaluating and testing them Prepared by James R. Burns

33. A Facilitator Who “Holds the Context” of Dialogue • In the absence of a skilled facilitator, our habits pull us toward discussion and away from dialogue • Carries out many of the basic duties of a good “process facilitator”

34. A Facilitator, Continued • But the facilitator is allowed to influence the flow of development simply through participating • As teams develop skill in dialogue, the role of the facilitator becomes less crucial Prepared by James R. Burns

35. Balancing Dialogue and Discussion • Discussion is the necessary counterpart of dialogue • In discussion different views are presented and defended, which may provide a useful analysis of the whole situation • In dialogue, different views are presented as a means toward discovering a new view • Thesis – Antithesis, leading to Synthesis

36. Dialog Vs. Discussion • Dialogue established the view that leads to courses of action • Discussion leads to new courses of action without establishing that new view • Teams that dialogue regularly develop a deep trust that cannot help but carry over to discussion

37. Great Teams vs. Mediocre Teams • A team that is continually learning is the visible conflict of ideas • In great teams, conflict becomes productive, inducing the need for ongoing dialogue • Argyris: the difference between great teams and mediocre teams lies in how they face conflict and deal with the defensiveness that invariably surrounds conflict

38. Defensive Routines • Entrenched habits we use to protect ourselves from the embarrassment and threat that come with exposing our thinking. • Form a protective shell around our deepest assumptions • Forceful, articulate, intimidating CEO’s • Cannot be seen

39. Defensive Routines • In some organizations, to have incomplete or faulty understanding is a sign of weakness or incompetence • IT IS SIMPLY UNACCEPTABLE FOR MANAGERS TO ACT AS THOUGH THEY DO NOT KNOW WHAT IS CAUSING A PROBLEM • To protect their belief, managers must close themselves to alternative views and make themselves uninfluenceable

40. Defensive Routines • Defensive becomes an accepted part of organizational culture • We are the carriers of defensive routines and organizations are the hosts • Defensive routines block the flow of energy in a team that might otherwise contribute toward a common vision

41. Maturity Models • Software Quality Function Deployment • Capability Maturity Model • Project Maturity Model

42. Quality Function Deployment • Translates the “voice of the customer” into technical design requirements • Customer is King • Displays requirements in matrix diagrams • First matrix called “house of quality” • Series of connected houses

43. 5 Importance Trade-off matrix 3 Design characteristics 4 2 1 Customer requirements Relationship matrix Competitive assessment 6 Target values Quality House

44. Competitive Assessment Customer Requirements 1 2 3 4 5 Presses quickly 9 B A X Removes wrinkles 8 AB X Doesn’t stick to fabric 6 X BA Provides enough steam 8 AB X Doesn’t spot fabric 6 X AB Doesn’t scorch fabric 9 A XB Heats quickly 6 X B A Automatic shut-off 3 ABX Quick cool-down 3 X A B Doesn’t break when dropped 5 AB X Doesn’t burn when touched 5 AB X Not too heavy 8 X A B Irons well Easy and safe to use

45. Energy needed to press Weight of iron Size of soleplate Thickness of soleplate Material used in soleplate Number of holes Size of holes Flow of water from holes Time required to reach 450º F Time to go from 450º to 100º Protective cover for soleplate Automatic shutoff Customer Requirements Presses quickly - - + + + - Removes wrinkles + + + + + Doesn’t stick to fabric - + + + + Provides enough steam + + + + Doesn’t spot fabric + - - - Doesn’t scorch fabric + + + - + Heats quickly - - + - Automatic shut-off + Quick cool-down - - + + Doesn’t break when dropped + + + + Doesn’t burn when touched + + + + Not too heavy + - - - + - Ironswell Easy and safe to use

46. - - Energy needed to press Weight of iron Size of soleplate Thickness of soleplate Material used in soleplate Number of holes Size of holes Flow of water from holes Time required to reach 450º Time to go from 450º to 100º Protective cover for soleplate Automatic shutoff + + +

47. Energy needed to press Weight of iron Size of soleplate Thickness of soleplate Material used in soleplate Number of holes Size of holes Flow of water from holes Time required to reach 450º Time to go from 450º to 100º Protective cover for soleplate Automatic shutoff Units of measure ft-lb lb in. cm ty ea mm oz/s sec sec Y/N Y/N Iron A 3 1.4 8x4 2 SS 27 15 0.5 45 500 N Y Iron B 4 1.2 8x4 1 MG 27 15 0.3 35 350 N Y Our Iron (X) 2 1.7 9x5 4 T 35 15 0.7 50 600 N Y Estimated impact 3 4 4 4 5 4 3 2 5 5 3 0 Estimated cost 3 3 3 3 4 3 3 3 4 4 5 2 Targets 1.2 8x5 3 SS 30 30 500 Design changes * * * * * * * Objective measures

48. Capability Maturity Model • Developed in preliminary form by Watts Humphries (published in a book he wrote that appeared in 1989) • Refined by the SEI (Software Engineering Institute) , a spin-off of Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh • Known as the CMM • Discussed in Larson & Gray, Ch. 16, page 575

49. Immature Software Organizations • Processes are ad hoc, and occasionally chaotic. • Processes are improvised by practitioners ON THE FLY. • Testing, reviews and walkthroughs usually curtailed under stress. • Quality is unpredictable.

50. Immature Software Organizations, Cont’d • Costs and schedules are usually exceeded. • Reactionary management is usually firefighting. • Success rides on individual talent and heroic effort. • Technology benefits are lost in the noise.