Training & Coaching
Session 1: Visualise the Work - Mindset
In the first session, participants will focus on understanding and applying the core principles of visualising work to enhance team transparency and efficiency. They will learn to utilise visual tools such as Jira, Whiteboards, and Confluence to map workflows and tasks effectively. The session will cover the importance of identifying information gaps and ensuring comprehensive work processes from top to bottom. Participants will connect visualisation techniques to strategic planning, roadmaps, and designs for broader organisational alignment. By the end of the session, teams will create visual artefacts representing their work processes, improving clarity and communication across various teams.
Leader messages will emphasise the significance of visualising work for improved team collaboration and project management. Leaders are encouraged to highlight how visual tools can bridge the gap between strategy and execution, ensuring alignment and clarity. Additionally, they should promote a culture of transparency and continuous improvement through visualisation, stressing the value of identifying and addressing information gaps to ensure comprehensive and accurate workflows. Teams will be encouraged to set up and maintain visual boards, whether physical or digital, to track their work effectively.
Post-training activities will involve practical exercises that challenge participants to visualise current projects while identifying and addressing any gaps or bottlenecks. Workshops will also be conducted to create and manage project spaces and workflows. Teams will develop action plans for integrating visualisation techniques into strategic planning and execution processes, culminating in problem-solving sessions to overcome any issues encountered in visualising work processes and enhance team collaboration.
Session 2: Identify the Work - Decomposition & Work Types
In the second session, the focus will shift to creating a Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) to decompose projects into manageable work items. Participants will learn to define and apply the "Definition of Done" (DoD) concept, ensuring clear task completion criteria. The session will guide participants in understanding their roles and distinguishing between various work types, such as user stories, tasks, and service requests. Establishing standard naming conventions for work items will facilitate effective communication and a system for ensuring work traceability from strategic objectives to execution will be implemented.
Leaders will highlight the importance of breaking down work into manageable parts for better planning and execution. They will emphasise the role of explicit and well-defined completion criteria in maintaining high-quality outcomes and stress the need for consistent terminology and definitions to enhance team communication and collaboration. Using standard naming conventions will help avoid confusion, ensuring everyone is on the same page. Leaders will also reinforce the value of traceability in aligning daily tasks with strategic goals and tracking progress effectively.
Post-training activities will include practical exercises in creating and refining WBS for current or upcoming projects. Group workshops will be held to develop and review DoD criteria for various work types at different levels. Assignments will encourage teams to categorise and define work items using standard naming conventions while engaging in activities to map work items to strategic objectives, ensuring traceability from planning to execution. Problem-solving sessions will address any issues encountered in identifying and categorising work types.
Session 3: Analyse the Work
Participants will develop and apply success and acceptance criteria in this session to ensure their work meets quality standards and stakeholder expectations. The session will involve creating and using personas to understand and address the needs and behaviours of end-users, alongside conducting practical estimation and prioritisation of tasks to enhance planning and resource allocation. Teams will implement triage processes to manage and prioritise tasks based on urgency and importance while being encouraged to empower team members to make delegated decisions and say "no" when necessary.
Leader messages will promote a culture where teams feel empowered to make decisions based on strategic priorities. Leaders will emphasise the importance of clear success and acceptance criteria for delivering high-quality outcomes and highlight the value of personas in guiding work analysis to ensure user-centric solutions. Additionally, leaders will stress that estimates are guides rather than fixed commitments, promoting flexibility in managing expectations. They will encourage teams to effectively prioritise and triage tasks to focus on high-value work while managing their workload.
Post-training activities will include practical exercises defining and applying success and acceptance criteria for current projects. Workshops will be conducted to create detailed personas and integrate them into work analysis processes. Estimation and prioritisation drills will enhance planning accuracy, while triage simulations will practice quick decision-making and task prioritisation. Teams will work on developing strategies for delegated decision-making and workload management, with regular reviews of estimation and prioritisation techniques to ensure ongoing improvement.
Session 4: Plan the Work
The fourth session will focus on developing and utilising visual planning tools to enhance project transparency and alignment. Participants will learn to create comprehensive roadmaps that outline strategic direction and milestones. They will formulate detailed release plans to manage the delivery of project increments and construct iteration plans to organise and prioritise tasks within specific time frames. Integrating visual planning, roadmaps, release, and iteration plans into workflows will improve project management and execution.
Leader messages will emphasise the importance of visual planning for team alignment and project visibility. Leaders will highlight how roadmaps provide a clear strategic direction and facilitate stakeholder communication. They will stress the role of release plans in managing expectations and ensuring timely delivery of project increments, underlining the necessity of iteration plans for effective task organisation and prioritisation within development cycles. Encouragement for continuous improvement and adaptation of planning tools and processes will ensure teams meet evolving project needs.
Post-training activities involve creating visual plans for current projects and developing roadmaps for upcoming initiatives. Group workshops will be organised to build and refine release plans, and team-based iteration planning sessions will practise prioritising and organising tasks. Problem-solving sessions will address any issues encountered during the implementation of these planning processes.
Session 5: Teamwork, Team Work & Continuous Improvement
In the final session, participants will clearly define and understand the roles and responsibilities within their teams. The session aims to develop and enhance cross-functional skills to increase team versatility and resilience while fostering a collaborative environment that emphasises effective communication and teamwork. A social contract will be created and upheld to guide team interactions and behaviours, and practices for continuous improvement will be implemented to drive ongoing team development and performance enhancement.
Leader messages will highlight the importance of clearly defined roles and responsibilities for team efficiency and accountability. They will emphasise the value of cross-functional skills in creating adaptable teams while promoting a culture of collaboration and effective communication to strengthen teamwork. Leaders will encourage developing and adhering to a social contract to ensure positive team dynamics, stressing the need for continuous improvement practices to maintain high performance and drive team growth.
Post-training activities will include practical exercises to define and document team roles and responsibilities. Workshops will identify and develop cross-functional skills within the team, while team-building activities will enhance collaboration and communication. Sessions will focus on creating, reviewing, and refining the team’s social contract alongside continuous improvement workshops to identify areas for development and implement action plans. Meetings will be held to review and update the social contract based on team experiences and feedback.
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Coaching Questions Required
After Training
What do you remember from the last training session?
Since the training, what did you notice more or less?
Visualising The Work
What is the value of visual reference models?
Why would we visualise the work?
What type of work visualisations have you seen
What decisions do we make based on work visualisation?
What is the value of seeing/understanding the strategy?
What challenges or successes have you uncovered by visualising the work?
Who "else" (i.e. someone not usual) did you talk to about visualising the work?
Why would we identify the "type" of work we are doing?
What is the value of understanding the Governance Model? (hint....no surprises!)
Why bother thinking about the "maturity" of an idea?
What is the use of understanding the thinking modes?
Has your team built a backlog in Jira?
Has your team got a space in Confluence?
Has your team got a BVC that shows our current work and our progress towards our goals?
Is your team able to classify our work in terms of thinking modes?
Work Types
Is your team able to classify all our work?
Has your team met with our business partners to discuss our work types?
Has your team collaborated to create a road map with metrics?
Collaborative Problem Solving
Has your team defined a problem-solving approach?
Has your team got a social contract?
Does your team consider capacity during iteration planning?
What cadence of decisions do you follow?
Has your team created a visual plan as an artefact of the iteration planning ceremony, and changes to the iteration plan can be tracked visually?
Can your team demonstrate a regular cadence of prioritisation as part of the iteration cadence?
Risk Management
Does your team have a risk register, and has it been reviewed by the team in the past week?
Does your team have a list of stakeholders that is used by the team to understand what an acceptable delivery is?
Does your team have a forecast of demand for skills based on road maps?
Has your team identified single points of failure and captured them in the risk register?
Feedback & Retrospectives
Does your team record how many items have been completed each iteration and use the trend to help plan and get better?
Does your team know how it will celebrate success and learn from mistakes?
Does your team have a public display of feedback cycles?
As a team, have you reviewed the backlog in the last two weeks?
Does your team's DoD include the automation of remedial tasks?
Does your team have a defined and agreed set of quality attributes and mechanisms to assess them?
Has your team showcased your latest work to your stakeholders in the last month?
Has your team reflected on your practices and processes in the form of a retrospective in the last month?
Does your team have a list of stakeholders that is used by the team to understand what an acceptable delivery is?
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