TOC 4 Software

Welcome

Hello and welcome to the TOCSoftware blog:  http://clarkeching.blogs.com/tocsoftware/.

This blog has a companion to the Yahoo group  http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/TOCSoftware/.

They will be used together to complete a Theory of Constraints analysis of traditional Software devleopment (i.e. waterfall).  The yahoo group will be used for group discussion and this blog will be used as a central repository and archive of the various artifacts (documents and diagrams).

Clarke Ching

 

RSS feed for yahoo group

Here's the RSS feed for the yahoo group: http://rss.groups.yahoo.com/group/TOCSoftware/rss

 

Invites sent

I've sent invites to the cmsig, SellingAgile, ShareholderValue lists and a few special invitees.  Let's see what happens.

I'll wait until tomorrow (Wednesday) morning to post the first stage of the process.

The WhiteBoard 1

These are the UDEs written on yellow stickies and put on our virtual whiteboard.  As I stuck them up I instinctively grouped  - it helped me get my head around things.

 

The process - part 1a - The undesireable effects

Here's the list of undesirable effects I came up with.  I really probably only need 5-7, but I got carried away.  Many of them a related.

Statement	Is it a complete sentence?	Does it exist?	Is it negative?	Do we care about it?
10  Projects often miss their promised deadline.	Y	Y	Y	Y
20  Projects often fail, late in the project, during the integration phase.	Y	Y	Y	Y
30  The software produced contains many features that are never used (45%) , or rarely used (19%)  [Johnson, 2003]	Y	Y	Y	N
40 The software produced often misses many high-priority features that weren’t included in the original requirements specification.	Y	Y	Y	Y
50  Projects often seem to spend 90% of their duration at 90% complete.  Unpredictable	Y	Y	Y	Y
60  Many requirements in the original requirements specification are de-scoped during the project.	Y	Y	Y	Y
70  The change management process (i.e. where changes are assessed then approved or rejected) is time consuming.	Y	Y	Y	Y
80  The relationships between various roles and staff is often stressful (e.g. between customer and developer).	Y	Y	Y	Y
90  Cash flow from the project is delayed until the end of the project.	Y	Y	Y	Y
100  Projects take too long to deliver.	Y	Y	Y	Y
110  Many changes throughout the project are approved, causing rework.	Y	Y	Y	Y
120  Many changes throughout the project are rejected, protecting the schedule but annoying the customer.	Y	Y	Y	Y
130  Relationships between IT and their customer (“The business”) are poor.	Y	Y	Y	Y

Jim took me through this list and together checked that each was a complete sentence, it existed, was negative and we cared about it.

Can I ask each of you to consider each entity and see if you agree with our assessment? 

 

Converting UDE 040 into a Cloud.

Over the last few days I've been working, with Jim's help, and attempting to convert each UDE into a TOC cloud.

Jim is currently helping me to review those, but in this note I'm going to demonstrate the process using UDE 040. 

Turning the UDE into a cause-effect-cause tree

Having converted UDE 40 into a cloud Jim then showed me how to convert the cloud into a fragment of the current reality tree.  You've already seen the current reality tree I ended up with in my dissertaiton - this is similiar, but a fragment.

The top of the tree

Following Jim's process I've now started working on the top of the tree.  Jim suggested picking 1 UDE, or since I had quite a few, a collection of related UDES and mapping out the effects of the UDE(s) and any links between them.

Continue reading "The top of the tree" »

Jim took a look at my last diagram (that started with UDEs 21, 22 and 23) and made some tweaks.

Here are the comments I got from John Sambrook about yesterdays tree.  I've put my initial comments in-line, but this would be an excellent time to get more input especially about 280

 

> Email Address: john_sambrook@yahoo.com
> URL: http://www.common-sense.com
> I'd like to offer some scrutiny, if that's of interest.  It would help if you could number all entities on the tree, instead of just the UDEs. 

[done by Jim]
>
> 1. Cause insufficiency from 10 to [280] "Sometimes project just take too long and are cancelled."
> 2. I guess I have a clarity reservation on "Sometimes projects just take too long and are cancelled as well."  Maybe break it up into "Sometimes projects take too long" leading to the effect that "Sometimes projects are cancelled."

 

 

Yes. I agree.  On reflection 10 obviously doesn't cause 280. 

 

Howabout: IF 10 AND [a differently worded 280] THEN 300.

 

 

 

Any one have any better suggestions for the wording of 280? 

 

 
> 3. Clarity on "Projects are sometimes cancelled late in the project due to insurmountable problems."  In this effect, I'd suggest not saying what this is "due to."  The CRT is supposed to be telling us what causes this.  Having this restated as text in the effect itself is redundant.

Jim did this already!

 
> OK, my build just finished, so I have to get back to work.  I'll offer more scrutiny in the future, if it's helpful.
>
> John
>

A little scrutiny

Jim took a look at my last diagram (that started with UDEs 21, 22 and 23) and made some tweaks.

John Sambrook's comments

Here are the comments I got from John Sambrook about yesterdays tree.  I've put my initial comments in-line, but this would be an excellent time to get more input especially about 280

 

> Email Address: john_sambrook@yahoo.com
> URL: http://www.common-sense.com
> I'd like to offer some scrutiny, if that's of interest.  It would help if you could number all entities on the tree, instead of just the UDEs. 

[done by Jim]
>
> 1. Cause insufficiency from 10 to [280] "Sometimes project just take too long and are cancelled."
> 2. I guess I have a clarity reservation on "Sometimes projects just take too long and are cancelled as well."  Maybe break it up into "Sometimes projects take too long" leading to the effect that "Sometimes projects are cancelled."

 

 

Yes. I agree.  On reflection 10 obviously doesn't cause 280. 

 

Howabout: IF 10 AND [a differently worded 280] THEN 300.

 

 

 

Any one have any better suggestions for the wording of 280? 

 

 
> 3. Clarity on "Projects are sometimes cancelled late in the project due to insurmountable problems."  In this effect, I'd suggest not saying what this is "due to."  The CRT is supposed to be telling us what causes this.  Having this restated as text in the effect itself is redundant.

Jim did this already!

 
> OK, my build just finished, so I have to get back to work.  I'll offer more scrutiny in the future, if it's helpful.
>
> John
>