designing a process that works for your team

Affordance-Driven Process Improvement

Michael Keeling @michaelkeeling

Designing a Process that Works for Your Team

Ariadna Font @quicola

Workshop Agenda

•  The Theory of Affordances •  Affordance-Driven Process Improvement •  Workshop Time!

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FYI -- We’ll spend about the last hour hands-on

Goals for this Workshop

1.  Unlock your mind so you can identify affordances in your team’s process

2.  Practice affordance-driven improvement in a retrospective simulation

3.  Map typical team behaviors to common agile practices

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Warning

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THE  THEORY  OF  AFFORDANCES  

You’ve seen these concepts before…

•  Software Architects •  Object Designers •  User Experience Experts •  Kanban Experts •  Agile Coaches •  “Systems Thinkers”

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Goal:    Design  an  object  that  makes  it  feel  natural  and  easy    

to  do  the  right  thing.  

What is an affordance?

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 An  affordance  is  any  perceivable  element,  such  as  an  object  or  idea,  that  directs  a  person’s  thinking  toward  a  specific  set  of  acAons.  

J.  J.  Gibson,  The  Ecological  Approach  to  Visual  Percep:on.  Psychology  Press,  1986.  

Donald  Norman,  The  Design  of  Everyday  Things.  Basic  Books,  1998  

What is an affordance?

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 An  affordance  is  any  perceivable  element,  such  as  an  object  or  idea,  that  directs  a  person’s  thinking  toward  a  specific  set  of  acAons.  

J.  J.  Gibson,  The  Ecological  Approach  to  Visual  Percep:on.  Psychology  Press,  1986.  

Donald  Norman,  The  Design  of  Everyday  Things.  Basic  Books,  1998  

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The  Dutch  Airport  Problem  

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The Urinal Fly “It improves the aim. If a man sees a fly, he aims at it. Fly-in-urinal research found that etchings reduce spillage by 80%. It gives a guy something to think about. That’s a perfect example of process control.”

Robert  Krulwhich,  “There’s  a  Fly  in  my  Urinal”  hJp://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=121310977   13

Good Affordance..Bad Affordance Push   Pull  

Good  Affordance  14

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Bad  Affordance  

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Gary  Larson  The  Far  Side  

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QualiAes  vs.  FuncAonality  

Example: Blend a Drink

•  Functions – Prepare the blender – Blend – Clean the blender

•  Qualities – Countertop-ability – Clean-ability – Transportability

Galvao and Sato, “Affordances in Product Architecture: Linking Technical Functions and Users’ Tasks” Proceedings of IDETC/CIE 2005 21

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Gas  Engine  Motorcycle  ThroJle  

Portable…  but  noisy.  

Application to Software Process

•  Example Process Functions – Write software, test software, release software

•  Example Process Qualities – Plan-ability – Predictability – Changeability – Quality

– Performance – Reliability – Estimate-ability – Harmony

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AFFORDANCE-­‐DRIVEN  PROCESS  IMPROVEMENT  

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Goal:    Design  a  process  that  makes  it  natural  and  easy    to  do  the  right  thing.  

Affordance-Driven Change •  Observe and Evaluate Behaviors

– What is your team doing? – Positive, Negative, Neutral

•  Identify Affordances – What nudged your team’s behavior?

•  Alter Affordances – Change the negative affordances, keep the

positive ones

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Affordance-Driven Change

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Observe  Behaviors  

Evaluate  Behaviors  

IdenAfy  Affordances  

Alter  Affordances  

Affordance-Driven Change

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Observe  Behaviors  

Evaluate  Behaviors  

IdenAfy  Affordances  

Alter  Affordances  

What  is  your  team  doing?  

   How  do  they  act?  

Affordance-Driven Change

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Is  this  the  behavior  you  want?  

 PosiAve  NegaAve  Neutral  

Observe  Behaviors  

Evaluate  Behaviors  

IdenAfy  Affordances  

Alter  Affordances  

Affordance-Driven Change

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What  nudged  your  team  to  act  the  way  the  did?      

Observe  Behaviors  

Evaluate  Behaviors  

IdenAfy  Affordances  

Alter  Affordances  

Affordance-Driven Change

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Keep  the  good  affordances,  

change  the  bad  affordances  

Observe  Behaviors  

Evaluate  Behaviors  

IdenAfy  Affordances  

Alter  Affordances  

Example: Team Square Root

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ObservaAons:    Arguments  about  tasking    Team  over-­‐commiang    Resist  giving  up  tasks  

Michael  Keeling,  “Process  Affordances:  Ignore  at  your  own  Peril”  hJp://neverletdown.net/2009/03/process-­‐affordances-­‐ignore-­‐at-­‐your-­‐own-­‐peril/  

Values: Baseline for Evaluating Behavior

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As  a  team  we  valued    Predictability    Adaptability    Respect    Open  CommunicaAon  

Evaluate Behaviors

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ObservaAons:    Arguments  about  tasking    Team  over-­‐commiang    Resist  giving  up  tasks  

+  –  –  –  

Identify Affordances

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ReflecAng  on  our  pracAces…    “Milestone  Owners”          Nudge:  Aatude  of  lone  responsibility    No  backlog          Nudge:    Anxiety  over  future  tasks  

Alter Affordances

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Created  a  backlog    Abolished  “Owners”    New  burndown  chart  –  show  

 progress  against  commitments  

Team Values: Evaluating Behaviors

“Qualities your team values” •  Examples:

– courage – predictability – sustainability –  improvability – measurability

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– scalability –  responsibility –  feedback –  face-to-face

communication

Examples of Good Affordances

•  Iterative planning, light documentation – Nudge: changeability

•  Pair programming – Nudge: knowledge sharing, performance,

quality

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Examples of Bad Affordances

•  Large planning buffers – Nudge: procrastination

•  Developer Branches – Nudge: solitary development

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LET’S  PRACTICE!  

What is an affordance?

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 An  affordance  is  any  perceivable  element,  such  as  an  object  or  idea,  that  directs  a  person’s  thinking  toward  a  specific  set  of  acAons.  

J.  J.  Gibson,  The  Ecological  Approach  to  Visual  Percep:on.  Psychology  Press,  1986.  

Donald  Norman,  The  Design  of  Everyday  Things.  Basic  Books,  1998  

Goals for this Workshop

1.  Unlock your mind so you can identify affordances in your team’s process

2.  Practice affordance-driven improvement in a retrospective simulation

3.  Map typical team behaviors to common agile practices

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Ground Rules

•  When your team is ready to move on, have somebody wear the party hat

•  Manage your time, watch the clock!

•  Raise your hand if you have a question

•  Have fun!

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Workshop Agenda

1.  Establish context, agree on team values 2.  Evaluate behaviors 3.  Identify affordances nudging your team

4.  Propose changes to your team’s practices

5.  Finish posters and share findings

6.  Wrap-up

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QualiAes  your  “team”  values  

Summary  of  pracAces  nudge  your  team’s  

behavior  

AcAon  items  –  how  to  change  behavior?  

Establishing Context – 2 min •  Task: Introduce yourselves to one another

– Briefly share some interesting facts about yourself and your role(s) at work

•  Context: – You are now a team, working together to build a

new awesome piece of software.

– You’ve gathered together for a team retrospective….

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Get your package

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Send  one  team  member  to  the  front  to  retrieve  workshop  materials.  

Agree on Team Qualities – 5 min

•  Task: Agree on the 3 – 5 core qualities you value most as a team. – Annotate worksheet and add to poster

•  Goal: You are going to focus on these through the workshop and use them to evaluate behaviors and determine what improvements to pursue first.

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QualiAes  your  “team”  values  

Start    

Start  populaAng  your  poster!  

Affordance-Driven Change

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Observe  Behaviors  

Evaluate  Behaviors  

IdenAfy  Affordances  

Alter  Affordances  

Evaluate Behaviors – 10 min

•  Task: Decide whether your team’s behaviors (Blue Cards) are positive, neutral, or negative relative to your values.

•  Goal: Learn to observe and analyze team behaviors in your work environment.

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Affordance-Driven Change

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Observe  Behaviors  

Evaluate  Behaviors  

IdenAfy  Affordances  

Alter  Affordances  

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Identify Affordances – 15 min •  Task: Map practices to negative behaviors. What affordances nudged your team?

– Try the “5 Whys” technique

–  If there is no practice in your deck that you think leads to this bad behavior, use one of the wildcards

•  Goal: Have a handful of patterns like this on your poster

<Practice> nudges <Behavior> because ____ 57

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QualiAes  your  “team”  values  

Start    Don’t  forget  your  poster!  

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Summary  of  pracAces  nudge  your  team’s  

behavior  

Affordance-Driven Change

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Observe  Behaviors  

Evaluate  Behaviors  

IdenAfy  Affordances  

Alter  Affordances  

Propose Key Changes – 10 min

•  Task: Create 2 or 3 action items for your team and document why you think they will get rid of the negative behavior

•  Goal: Add or remove affordances to your team’s

process. Turn the undesired behaviors into desired ones.

Practice P(Bad Behavior) è Practice P’ Ø / Good Behavior

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Example…

Free dinner nudges developers to stay late…

Change the Free Dinner affordance Free breakfast – nudge developers to come

to work early, not waiting for a signal to mark the end of the day

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Propose Key Changes – 10 min

•  Task: Create 2 or 3 action items for your team and document why you think they will get rid of the negative behavior

•  Goal: Add or remove affordances to your team’s

process. Turn the undesired behaviors into desired ones.

Practice P(Bad Behavior) è Practice P’ (Ø / Good Behavior)

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QualiAes  your  “team”  values  

Summary  of  pracAces  nudge  your  team’s  

behavior  

AcAon  items  –  how  to  change  behavior?  

Share your findings! – 15 min

•  Task: Share your poster!

•  Goal: Tell a story so that others can learn from your thinking process

•  Reflection – Any surprises in you practice/behavior map? – What can you take back to your team?

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WRAP-­‐UP  

Goals for this Workshop

1.  Unlock your mind so you can identify affordances in your team’s process

2.  Practice affordance-driven improvement in a retrospective simulation

3.  Map typical team behaviors to common agile practices

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Practices vs. Affordances?

We simplified things a little for the simulation…

The world is not this simple.

Affordances can be subtle, tricky to identify.

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Tools for Retrospectives

•  Identify valued team qualities •  “Like to Like” game

– Create your own behaviors and practices card decks

•  Affordance Awareness –  It’s not your fault!

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“A  bad  system  will  beat  a  good  person  every  Ame.”  

-­‐  W.  Edwards  Deming  

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Go  forth  and  design  GREAT  systems!    

Thank you!

Michael Keeling @michaelkeeling http://neverletdown.net

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Ariadna Font @quicola http://ariadna.font.cat/

References •  Robert Krulwhich, “There’s a Fly in my Urinal”

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=121310977 •  Donald Norman, The Design of Everyday Things. Basic Books, 1988 •  J. J. Gibson, The Ecological Approach to Visual Perception.

Psychology Press, 1986. •  Galvao and Sato, “Affordances in Product Architecture: Linking

Technical Functions and Users’ Tasks” Proceedings of IDETC/CIE 2005

•  Michael Keeling, “Identifying Process Affordances: Nudging Toward Change” http://neverletdown.net/2010/03/identifying-process-affordances-nudging-toward-change/

•  Michael Keeling, “Process Affordances: Ignore at your own Peril” http://neverletdown.net/2009/03/process-affordances-ignore-at-your-own-peril/

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