![]() ![]() This isn’t a green-field endeavour, lots of information already exists from which to draw upon, so the journey stated by examining the existing Portfolio Kanban proposed in SAFe. I will not mourn those that fall, they are just names it is what they represent that is more important. They now need to be tested in the heat of battle to see whether they survive or fall. The names that I have chosen are the best I can do at this precise moment in time. Names must be chosen have I picked the right names?Īlmost certainly not. If state and process are separate then you can assess whether alternate or evolved processes might enact a state change quicker and easier, an important consideration in Agile organisations where evolution of the processes is a desirable attribute to help meet business needs. The mantra repeated by my colleagues that have more knowledge of Essence than I is “Separate state from process.” This derives from the observation that it may take many little processes to enact a change of state on an item and equally some processes, particularly inspection processes don’t change the state at all. What I started with at the beginning is not where the states are now, there has been an evolution from the exploration of the other Lean Portfolio Management topics. I started thinking about this 2 years ago, admittedly other topics, as well as the day job, have consumed my time and brain-power in the intervening months. What are the states that an Epic goes through? You could measure from a step before where you changed to a step after where you changed but what if those steps are also changing? Where are the points of stability to measure from and to?Īt Ivar Jacobson International our work on Essence and SEMAT has led us the realisation that it is the States of the thing being manipulated, in this case an Epic, that are the points of stability, and that allows the process, or series of processes, that move the thing between states to evolve and change without affecting the measurement points of when the thing enters and leaves a state. The challenge comes when the processes change, how can you measure whether improvements have been made when the process that is being measured is now different? The new data points are not directly comparable to the old data points. ![]() ![]() Kanban boards visualise process, and by making the process visible through visualisation they are invaluable at helping manage that process. Typically those processes are visualised on what is known as the Portfolio Kanban board so exploring how that behaves is another topic. Processes do work to move the Epic between it’s states, so those processes should be investigated. An Epic has a series of states that it goes through in its lifecycle, which should be explored. The concept that is driving the next few posts is the separation of state from process. Those ideas have evolved as other explorations have evolved as the series has explored other topics but now it’s finally time to get something on paper, or its electronic equivalent. I first sketched out some ideas for discussions about the lifecycle of Epics around 2 years ago when this blog first started. There is work to be done to progressively elaborate a business case and if the Epic is approved then there is further work to progress the Epic through implementation. Epic LifecycleĮpics have a lifecycle, they don’t magically appear fully formed. There are no guarantees that these discussions are correct, but I am hopeful that the journey of exploration itself will prove educational as things are learnt on the way. It is not intended to be a fait-accompli presentation of the solutions within Lean Portfolios but an exploration of the Problems to understand whether the solutions make sense. It is the thought processes running through my mind, exploring the possibilities so that I understand why things are happening rather than just doing those things blindly. This series of blog posts “On the Nature of Lean Portfolios” is an exploration of Lean Portfolios. “Always show your working out!” was the mantra of my maths teacher in senior school.
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