From Framework to Practice: Investigate Bottlenecks and Improve with Focus
The roles have been assigned, the meetings are scheduled and the framework has been introduced. Even so, priorities keep shifting, results fall short or teams feel they have little grip on their work. In this training you investigate a bottleneck from your own practice and design a small improvement experiment that you carry out over two to four weeks.
The Framework Is in Place, the Work Keeps Stalling
When a way of working does not deliver what was expected, a quick diagnosis is tempting: more discipline, a different meeting, a new tool. Such a diagnosis is often based on an assumption. In this training you first learn to look closely at what is actually happening before you change anything. You then test one improvement on a small scale and decide on the basis of what you have observed.
What You Will Learn in This Training
The training alternates between your own issue and a practice case. At each step you fill in a worksheet, so that by the end of the day you have a worked-out analysis and an experiment you can start right away.
Make Your Bottleneck Researchable
A complaint such as "our team is chaotic" cannot be investigated. You translate it into an observation, for example: in six of the last eight sprints, the agreed scope changed during the sprint.
- What exactly is happening, and how do you know?
- What do you expect, and what is the difference?
- Who notices the consequences, and what are they?
- The four aspects of a way of working: purpose, steering, behaviour and system
Investigate Explanations
A plausible explanation is not yet a proven cause. You explore several explanations and look for what supports and contradicts each one.
- A scan of operational management, framework and agreements, knowledge and systems
- Separating evidence, assumption and missing information
- A practice case in which information arrives step by step
- Adjusting hypotheses as soon as new data comes in
Measure What Is Useful
A number of completed tasks does not in itself say anything about quality, effort or customer value. You choose a measurement that fits the question you want to answer.
- What exactly do you measure, and what counts or does not count?
- Which source do you use, and who collects the information?
- Over which period do you measure, before and during the experiment?
- What can you not conclude from this measurement?
Design an Improvement Experiment
You design a small intervention for two to four weeks and decide before the start how you will assess the outcome.
- A hypothesis: if we do this, we expect that
- Owner, mandate and permission arranged
- Baseline, follow-up measurement and side effects in view
- Decided in advance: when do we continue, adjust or stop?
Why Choose This Training?
You leave with a problem analysis, a measurement plan and an improvement experiment with an owner, a mandate and evaluation criteria, all worked out for your own situation.
Your Own Issue at the Centre
You work on a recurring bottleneck from your own work, one you can influence or for which you can arrange permission. What you work out on the training day, you can use the following week.
Observations and Assumptions Separated
You learn to distinguish between what you see happening and what you think the cause is. That reduces the risk of a team introducing an improvement based on an explanation that does not hold.
A Case That Unfolds
A fictional software company with three Scrum teams: management is missing targets, the teams experience chaos. The information arrives in parts, and with each addition you adjust your explanation.
Measuring What Answers the Question
Velocity or the number of completed stories does not prove productivity on its own. You learn to define a measurement so that it says something about the question you are asking, and you know what you cannot infer from it.
An Experiment You Can Start
At the end of the day every participant states their first action, with an owner and a date. The experiment is small, and you know in advance who needs to give permission for it.
Online Follow-up Session
About a month after the training, the group meets again online. You discuss what you have observed and decide whether to continue, adjust, stop or investigate further first.
Is This Training Right for You?
The training is intended for people who work with Scrum or a comparable way of working and see that the work does not run as intended. Basic knowledge of your own way of working is enough.
Team Leads
You see that agreements are not kept, or that urgent work pushes planned work aside. You learn to investigate that pattern before you step in, and to test an improvement together with your team.
Scrum Masters
The events take place, but the retrospective keeps producing the same points. You learn to make a recurring bottleneck researchable and to propose an experiment with a clear decision point to the team.
Product Owners
Customer feedback, bugs and internal ideas compete for priority and the sprint scope keeps shifting. You investigate which agreements and trade-offs explain that pattern and what you can do about it.
Operations Managers
You are missing results while the teams say they are working hard. You learn to look at the work through figures and observations, without drawing conclusions the data cannot support.
Everything You Need to Know
Approach
The training is interactive. You alternate between your own issue and a practice case, working individually, in pairs and as a group. Participants first give each other feedback on their experiment, after which we discuss the uncertainties together. The trainer guides the investigation and holds back premature diagnoses.
Prior knowledge
Basic knowledge of your own way of working is sufficient. You bring a recurring bottleneck that you can influence, or for which you have access to someone who decides on it.
Intake and preparation
Beforehand we hold an intake with the client. We discuss which situation the training should help investigate, which roles take part, what they can influence and which information may be shared within the group. A week before the training, participants receive a short questionnaire that takes about fifteen minutes. Existing data is welcome; there is no need to collect new data beforehand.
Format and duration
The training takes one training day, for example from 10:00 to 15:00; we agree the exact times with you. After the training you carry out your experiment for two to four weeks. About a month after the training day, the online follow-up session takes place. You submit your completed evaluation page no later than three working days beforehand.
Course materials
Every participant receives a workbook with four worksheets: practical problem, investigating explanations, measurement plan and improvement experiment. You can fill it in digitally or on paper and use it while carrying out the experiment. An evaluation page for the follow-up session is included.
What the training does not cover
The training is not individual coaching and not a study of your organisation. Building or connecting dashboards is also outside its scope. In the follow-up session we discuss a selection of the cases; an extensive assessment of every experiment is not included. If you would like additional support, we arrange it with you separately.
From Intake to Follow-up Session
The training day is the centrepiece. The intake beforehand and the follow-up session afterwards make sure you work on an issue that can actually be acted on, and that you really make a decision about the result.
Intake
With the client we discuss which situation the training should help investigate, who takes part and who enables the experiments to be carried out.
Preparation
A week beforehand, participants receive a short questionnaire of about fifteen minutes. That way everyone arrives with a concrete example from their own work.
Training day
You investigate your bottleneck, practise with the case, draw up a measurement plan and design your experiment. You finish with a first action, an owner and a date.
Experiment and follow-up
You carry out the experiment for two to four weeks. In the online follow-up session you discuss the outcome and choose: continue, adjust, stop or investigate further.
All About the From Framework to Practice Training
For team leads, Scrum Masters, Product Owners and operations managers who work with Scrum or a comparable way of working. Basic knowledge of your own way of working is enough. You bring an issue you can influence, or for which you have access to someone who decides on it.
No. The practice case is set in Scrum teams, but your own issue can come from any comparable way of working. What matters is that agreements, roles and meetings have been introduced and the work still does not run as intended.
A week before the training you receive a short questionnaire. It takes about fifteen minutes. You describe the bottleneck you want to investigate, a recent example, who is involved and what you can change yourself. Existing data is welcome; there is no need to collect new data beforehand.
Then you simply join the follow-up session. You look into what held the experiment back, such as mandate, time or dependencies on others, and you choose a smaller first step that is feasible.
In the follow-up session we discuss two or three cases in depth, with the permission of the participant involved. Everyone exchanges findings in small groups and decides on a next step. An extensive assessment of each individual experiment is not part of the training. Additional support can be arranged separately.
Yes, existing data about your work is welcome. We do not use confidential personal data or customer data in examples. During the intake we agree with the client which information may be shared within the group.
The training is in-company and takes place at your location. The follow-up session, about a month later, is online.
Let Your Team Investigate a Bottleneck and Improve with Focus
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