After Action Reports

Most armed forces worth the name have "After Action Reports" (AAR).

All learning organizations have to have a similar practice, done at regular intervals, as part of their process. A Causal Analysis Meeting, done after every defect fix, was once such practice that we had at acmet.

Recently I came across a misapplication of the term.

A pilot run had some problems. These were identified. Corrections are to be be made for the next lot to be produced.

This is defect correction. An AAR is about defect prevention. For that to happen root causes need to be identified. Taichi Ohno's 5-Whys need to be asked. It needs deliberation

Just In Time for Software

As a readers of this blog would know, I am a great admirer of the Toyota's quality process. I believe that the processes are applicable to software development and renovation.

What puzzled me for a long time was this: How can Just In Time (JIT) apply to software? Software production does not depend upon inventory. To make the second copy of a software product does not require another set of parts to be procured.

Then one day I was talking to my son Vijay, who is a supply chain guy, about Just In Time. He said, "Daddy, Just In Time is about showing up problems in the process".

That was it. I had been looking at the mechanism, not the purpose it was meant to serve.

A software process that exposes defects early is a JIT process.

Which of course begs the question: What is it that keeps defects hidden?

The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) Needs to ask 5 Why

Our Foreign Minister, SM Krishna, commenced his address to the UN Security Council by reading out the address of the Portuguese Minister, translated copies of which would have been distributed in advance to all delegates attending the meeting. The Deccan Herald in Bangalore carries opinions about the faux pax. I hope the MEA does not adopt a similar attitude. People will wonder if our Nuclear Button is clearly marked. Won't do to have it confused with the button on some minister's office coffee machine :-)

The MEA needs to do 5-Why analysis. Here is what it might look like

1. Why did the Minister read out the wrong speech?

1. His own speech could not be distinguished from other documents in front of him.

2. Why could they not be distinguished?

1. Because his speech too was printed on the same stationery and the same printer as all other speeches and documents.

3. Why could the document not be printed on the Government of India stationery and put in a separate folder marked prominently as, "Address by the Foreign Minister of India, Shri SM Krishna, to the UNSC, on

"?

1. No sanction for special stationery.
2. Funds for getting special folders exhausted.

4. Why could funds, or sanction not be obtained?

1. Because the Indian Mission at the UN is not the CWG Organizing Committee.

5. Bingo! That's the solution: Make Suresh Kalmadi the head of the Indian Delegation at the UN.


Explanation of hiatus from Blogging
For those who were wondering what happened, since early January, I was attending to my mother, in Bangalore. She is much better now. Hopefully I should be back in Noida in a couple of weeks with more time on my hands. The couple of weeks that I spent in hospital, attending to my mother, gave me lots of time to reflect and read - I had no access to my laptop. I will blog about some of that.

Who is your Customer?

This is a question I frequently used to ask our new inductees. Invariably the answers gave one of the company's customer.

Whoever uses a team member's output is that team member's customer. If  the member has written a class, then any other member who uses that class is a customer. If the customer has problems in using the class it must be treated as a "customer" complaint, attended to promptly, and the root cause found and rectified. The customer is not to be lectured and told as to how he can change his code.

If the code is hard to understand, or not well documented, or with incomplete unit tests, then the customers (those who will review the code) are being treated badly.

Then there are people who will maintain the code long after you are gone; they too are your customers.

Growing and nurturing such an attitude is a defining part of team and company culture.

Kaizen: The Key To Japan's Competitive Success. (I have the international Edition of 1991.) On page 51 it has a sub topic, "The Next Process Is The Customer". Then on page 135, while describing cross functional management at Toyota - "The overriding goal is to never inconvenience downstream customers."

There is a lot that software companies can learn from Toyota.