Measurement and Muda

Measurement and Muda

Arunabha

(continuation from Charting Uncontrolled Territories)

“Well, there are several areas of this initiative to apply statistics which may be done away with because it does not really make any sense,” the Statistician says bravely. “For example, most of the projects measure schedule and effort deviation …”
“Yes, of course. Schedule, Effort and Defect are the fundamental measures …,” the Priestess hastens to say.
“Yes, I know, but Schedule is mostly dictated by the client. Effort is important because it is linked to cost, and I have not seen the company worry unnecessarily if the employees spend sixteen hours or twenty four hours in office as long as they get the work done in time and log eight hours in their time sheets. Again, time sheet data, filled in every fortnight, hardly reflects the actual things that the people do.”
Priestess looks haughtily at the young man blabbering away in front of her. How does one do business with these types?
“So, you mean that we should not measure schedule and effort at all?”
The Statistician sighs.
“It hardly makes sense. Serves no purpose.”
“They are the easiest things to measure,” offers the Junior Priest, speaking for the first time, but a piercing glance from the Priestess shuts him up for good.
“You see, we cannot go and tell the CMMi assessors that effort and schedule measurements don’t make sense. They will take the certification away. We have launched several initiatives for ensring Data Quality. We have already had many rounds of Quality Inspection of Data. Didn't we just have the 77th round of QIDding?”
“Oh yes, I have seen them …,” the Statistician answers. “What you check there is whether there is data in the online tools for data capture. There is no way that it ensures Data Quality. People just have to go ahead and fill the tools to avoid non-compliances. The fact remains that most of the data captured are meaningless and offers no value to the project or to the business.”
The Priestess smiles in spite of her growing irritation.
“You are wrong there. It definitely adds value to business. We showcase this to our Assessment Team Members and clients and gain accolades. That’s good for business.”
The Statistician is puzzled. He looks at the Priestess to detect a glint of mischievousness in her eyes, but he may as well look for action in a Merchant Ivory production. Helpless, he turns towards the Junior Priest.
“Well, you see,” the Junior Priest hastens to explain. “The Assessment Team Members are not Statisticians and neither are the clients. So …”
“In that case you have perfected a self satisfying system,” the Statistician remarks. “Why bother about asking me?”
“You are for showcasing too,” the Junior Priest explains. “When the Assessment Team sees our statistical initiatives reviewed by a genuine statistician …”
“We want to add value to the process and projects and that is why you are here,” the High Priestess says in a loud and steely voice, with a penetrating look at the Junior Priest which chills him to the marrow. “We want improvement suggestions. Is there anything that you can suggest for us to improve the measurement process?”
Her tone implies that the Statistician has not made any suggestion of note as yet. This gets on his nerves.
“One would be to measure skill level. Most of the work is being done by freshmen recruited from college … some being colleges of dubious reputation. I’d definitely advice for coming up with a Metric for comparing the Desired Skill Level against the Available Skill Level in different projects. This can be a useful Metric for Risk prediction …”
The Junior Priest thinks this is a bright idea, but hesitates to note the reaction of High Priestess. He fears the worst for himself.
“Doesn’t the CMMi advice us against measuring people?” she asks.
“Well, strictly speaking you are measuring the project’s skill attribute, not the individual.”
The Priestess considers this.
“Okay,” she turns to the Junior Priest. “Make a quantitiative template for this. Mail it across to Project Leads and get the data. We need to launch a weekly audit of .... let's say .... Measurement Observed for Levels of Essential Skill and Training …” She consults the calendar. “… Let us target July as the month for completion of the 50th MOLEST Audit. Get on to it. And each mail announcing the MOLEST Audit should have the number of the audit in red and bold.”

She turns to the Statistician with a half smile touching her lips now, as Junior Priest sinks lower in the chair and in self esteem. “That should be useful. What else?” Get on to it. And each mail announcing the Skill Quality Audit should have the number of the audit in red and bold.” She turns to the Statistician with a half smile touching her lips now, as Junior Priest sinks lower in the chair and in self esteem. “That should be useful. What else?”
The Statistician looks at the Junior Priest and his expression. He recounts the number of hapless PLs. His demeanor undergoes a change. Compassion fills his heart. He takes up cudgels for the oppressed.
“Did you cover Lean in Six Sigma training?” he asks.
The Priestess is surprised. Six Sigma is a hallowed sphere in which she and some beings of her caliber are allowed to tread. Younger up starts can solve their online Examinations for them, but cannot wear the invisible, but prestigious, black belts. It is her domain and she cannot tolerate trespassers.
“Yes, of course,” she says haughtily, stealing a glance at the Junior Priest to ensure that he is alert to answer any poser that this unpleasant academic may throw at her.
“So, you have doubtless heard about Muda or waste …,” the Statistician continues.
“Yes, but that’s more related to the Manufacturing industry,” the Priestess responds, glancing quickly at her reportee for affirmation. However, Junior Priest is still reeling from the announcement of the 50 MOLEST Audits.
“True, this came from the manufacturing scene … from Toyota to be more specific. However, Waste Reduction benefits any industry. And Software Industry is no exception. Maybe the definitions of the Waste categories may need to undergo changes here. But, I have identified several that should go down as profoundly time and effort consuming endeavors that sum up to zero benefit in this organization, and many others …”
“Yes?” the High Priestess looks on expectantly.
“77 Quality Inspection of Data Audits, whose outcome is to list around 500 projects that have issues. The effect of these have been to make people spend uncountable person hours filling data sheets which are of no practical use.”
“That’s muda?” ask the High Priestess and the Junior Priest in chorus.
“Yes … look at the enormous number of person hours absolutely wasted in filling meaningless data to escape non-compliance. Look at the graphs generated by your own team and reports compiled that no one will read – because everyone knows it’s useless. Add to it the number of person hours spent by employees to create rules that will automatically take the mails sent with QIDding as subject to the Junk Mail Folder. And alternatively the amount of time spent by the other twenty thousand employees to see the mail pop up, curse and press Shift and Delete. Look at the man hours spent by the Middle Management trying to justify failing this senseless non-compliance to the quota of bull headed Senior Management every company is blessed with … and finally consider the number of hours spent by the employees, especially people of your group, to gather around the coffee machine, or huddling in smoking zones to cut this idea of the Audits to ribbons … Why, some of them might even have had to go out for some fresh air on receiving these mails … Some might have taken the time off to consult the Thesarus for adequate sobriquets … All these add up to waste that would make Shingo shiver in his shoes… And the process also comes under Muri – overburden and unreasonableness – outlapping takt time several times over.
“This is just one example. The entire measurement policy is littered with examples of Muda and Muri. Schedule, Effort, Defect. Control Charts. We have dealt with them. And in an environment when most of the people shout out the defects to the developers who fix them immediately, you expect documented defects with twenty seven parameters including things as irrelevant as the name, address and social security number of the person who logged the defect … Using this defect data you not only come up with control charts, but also fill in a template to predict the number of defects in upcoming projects and phases. This … well …”
“Thank you very much, that will be all,” the Priestess, with her sense of timing capitalizes on a moment that the Statistician has paused to catch his breath. The Junior Priest leaps to his feet, justifiably hopeful that the striking speech has affected the Priestess enough to reverse her decision on the 50 MOLEST Audits.
The Statistician gets up and makes a quick getaway as the phone on the desk of the High Priestess starts ringing.

“As it is my mother is down with partial paralysis,” the Junior Priest grumbles. “77 QIDding Audits ensure that I have to stay till ten each night. Now 50 MOLEST Audits would make sure I would not be able to watch her die.”
The Statistician shakes his head.
“You want your mother to live?” he asks. “The preventive action that you can take is to stop your boss from taking a day long first aid course…”
“Eh?”
“If she does, she’ll try to cure her.”

Charting Uncontrolled Territories

Charting Uncontrolled Territories

Arunabha

The Statistician looks at the expressionless face of the High Priestess of Process and Quality and sighs. If only he had heeded the well meaning words of warning of the Junior Priest and the hordes of PLs, he would have been enjoying his day, reading a couple of eccentric emails that was part and parcel of the Software world and getting ahead with his own research. New generation network technology allowed you to get connected to your work from anywhere. So what if this company had engaged him as a week-long consultant to review their ‘High Maturity’ initiatives. He could have stamped his ‘Reviewed OK’ on all the endeavors and lived happily ever after. Instead he had tried to be honest, and hence was here, looking at the austere expression of the fanatic female who sat in front of her.

“You mean to say our approach has some loopholes?” Priestess asks.
The Statistician sighs. If the general opinion of the company is anything to go by, this promised to take a long time.
“Well, I’d say the initiatives have been innovative to say the least …,” he begins.
“Yes,” the Priestess is pleased. “We are a level 5 organization. And Organization Innovation and Deployment is a Process Area that we satisfy.”
The Statistician steals a glance at the Junior Priest seating beside him, with a guarded expression which suggests, “I told you so.”
“Well, let me elaborate on that. I’d say the innovative use of statistics in your measurement program stretches the subject a bit … well, sometimes alters the shape of the subject altogether.”
“I am not sure I understand you,” the High Priestess looks at him with a challenging expression. Unmindfully she straightens a framed certificate on her desk, which proclaims her to be one of the company’s internal Six Sigma Black Belts. Statistician or not, she knows to deal with data too.
The two young men sitting in front of her wince on seeing the certificate, for entirely different reasons. The Statistician has the foreboding of strenuous argument against the ominous signs of little knowledge. The Junior Priest remembers the sleepless nights he had spent in office while preparing for the High Priestess’ online Black Belt examination.
“What about the Statistical Process Controls on defects that we have in place? I heard you have some reservations about them …,” The Priestess has championed the Process Improvement Graphically group - and she is the Leader of the PIG Heads in the organization.

The Statistician steels himself for a battle. This is one area about which he feels strongly and is not about to give up without a fight.
“Well, madam, let us take your System Test Defects. You want to plot the number of System Test Defects generated per day in a c-chart.”
“Yes,” the Priestess is confident that she will be able to generate a c-chart at the click of a button using MiniTab.
“Well, madam, Let us consider what c-chart is all about. It deals with the number of defects found in a fixed number of units of samples – where several such samples are observed. There are two constraints. One, the sample size of each sample is fixed and two, each unit of the samples is similarly produced.
“Now, tell me something. How doe we define sample size here? We are testing the same application… and hence the sample size for all intents and purposes is 1 – which in itself is an anomaly. The sample does not vary from day to day, so tabulating defects for multiple days makes no sense … all the defects belong to the same sample”
“You are making things complicated,” the Priestess says.
“Okay, let us suppose that these are different units of development and independent, tested separately. The first unit is tested on the first day, the second on the second day and so on…Firstly, this is not how business takes place
The samples themselves are different, and does not match the basic assumption of the c-chart that these generated samples are identical. So comparing their defects on the same c-chart again makes no sense.”
The Priestess looks long and hard at the Statistician. She has lost the train of argument long back, and what simmers inside her is boiling anger that the Junior Priest has not done his job in warning her about what was coming. Suddenly, drawing up from inspiration imbibed in the Bullet Proof Manager Training, shifts her delegation gaze towards the Junior Priest, who winces.
“Please explain it to him,” she says in a freezing tone.
Junior Priest swallows and looks apologetically at the Statistician.
“Actually, when we were asked to generate control charts by hook or … I mean … well, for generating control charts, we thought of the c-chart. And the sample size in this case is the number of test cases a testing team executes per day.”
The Statistician thinks hard.
“So, how big is the testing team in general?”
“Well, six to eight members in some projects. More in some, less in some. In the same project it may vary from day to day too, because the testing team handles multiple projects per day,” the Junior Priest says.
“So, you mean to say that all these variable number of testers come up with the same number of total tested test cases each day? To keep the sample size constant? Is that possible? And what do you compare it with the next day? Where do you get the next data point? From a different application?” the Statistician is bordering on the sarcastic now.
“Well, no …,” the Priestess interjects. “We expect the code to be debugged and then tested again. We plot the defects of the test cases tested on the debugged code…”
“What?”
The Priestess shrugs. “The point is to make the control chart show improvement. So, in a debugged code, the number of defects go down, hence showing improvement.”
The Statistician holds on to the table for support.
“So, you test the application and plot the number of defects as the first point in the control chart. And then the application is debugged and the number of defects from this application is plotted as the next point.”
“That’s right,” the Priestess sighs in relief. At last she has been able to make this academic understand the business. She looks unfazed. Unless one has practical experience, academic knowledge amounts to nothing. After all it is she who is planning on submitting a paper to ASQ on the Realistic Applications for Process Enhancement using Statistics (RAPE Statistics in short).
“In that case you are tampering with the basic assumption that the populations are the same. Forget the peculiar sample size. The populations themselves are different. You are changing the population from which samples are drawn on the second day. How on earth can you plot it in the same control chart?”
The Junior Priest avoids the eyes of the High Priestess this time. He makes a show of speaking on his cell phone. The Priestess fumes. The argument is against all she has worked hard for, and what infuriates her is that the whipper-snapper spewing Statistics in front of her seems to utter many things which she has never heard of, yet things which he implies are axiomatic. No doubt some upstart out to demonstrate his statistical skills.
She decides to end the tirade on Control Charts.
“Now, what about the other measurement initiatives?”
The Junior Priest sighs. "That's another blog," he thinks.

Analyse This

Analyse This
- Statistical Mayhem

Arunabha

The manager winces as the High Priestess of Quality Assurance walked into his room with her junior priest in tow.
Motioning them to sit, he keeps clutching that object of sustenance which has become his tormentor, friend and refuge at different times of the day since his promotion – the telephone. He does not try to wind up quickly – in fact he prolongs the conversation so much that the resource management group representative at the other end of the line has peculiar ideas. From time to time our manager peeps at the chairs out of the corner of his eye, half-hoping that the Priests have left to haunt him later, but the Priestess is there, patient, persevering and purposeful. The Junior Priest is itching to go for a long overdue smoke, but the icy expression of his lady boss freezes his desires to impotence.
When he cannot continue the conversation any further without his orientation being brought up for scrutiny, the manager turns to face the evangelists. He forces a smile onto his face.
“Yes madam,” he charms the Priestess. “What can I do for you?”
Madam smiles. People say she is attractive, but oddly enough the manager’s basic instincts are reminded of a hand inching towards an ice pick.
“The Metrics Analysis for CB25 …,” the Priestess starts. The incantation finds its target and the manager winces again.
“Yes, I saw your mail,” he says, eager to nip it in the bud.
“I mailed twice,” the Priestess complains. The manager averts his eyes. “After his mails,” she points at her Junior Priest, “Were not answered by your Project Lead.”
“Well … er … he’s not only the Project Lead,” the manager tries to chuckle, but the sound is of someone trying to cough out an unwanted frog from the trachea. “He’s also the only member of the Project. It’s a one member team, you know?”
The Junior Priest nods vigorously and the Priestess with disdain. She has the print out of the Project’s numerical details with her. She can rattle them off without the manager’s help … 1 person week’s effort, 1 resource who was also allocated 20% to project CB26, Schedule Variation of 0% and 1 post production defect.
“And he is also allocated to another project …,” the manager mumbles and the Priestess cuts him short.
“CB26. 20%. But the Metrics have to be captured.”
“Well, the project lasted one week and there being only one person ...”
The Priestess looks at him with reproach. She bangs her thick Scriptures on the desk. The fine print announcing 06TR008 Capability Maturity Model Integrated for Development intimidates the manager. His eyes dart for cover.
“CMMi tells us that Metrics need to be …,” the Priestess begins even as the Junior Priest weighs the pros and cons to take up cudgels for the Manager.
The manager has had enough. The little free time that he gets for himself are spent guzzling beer and watching cricket, both of which he does with a lot of passion. Cricket has taught him an invaluable lesson. The most dangerous position on the field is the forward short leg, where a powerful pull off the bat can take off one’s head. And invariably the rookie in the side gets to field there.
He picks up his phone and calls for the Project Leader.

The PL is a year out of college. He is awed by the countenance of importance on the severe good looks of the High Priestess. He has exchanged pleasantries once or twice with the Junior Priest who is not too intimidating. However, he has never encountered the formidable female. He has seen men more senior and experienced than he rush out at escape velocity to the haven of the smoking zones at the mere mention of her name.
“Did you do some analysis on your defects?” she asks him as they sit around his PC in his cubicle.
The PL blinks. “Defects?” he mouths. He is not too sure what his defects were.
The Junior Priest speaks for the first time.
“You had a post production defect, didn’t you?”
“Er… yes,” the PL mutters cautiously. “That’s fixed. I delivered it to the client …”
“Did you do some RCA?” the Priestess asks.
The PL looks blankly at the two. “Did I do what?”
“RCA,” repeats the High Priestess slowly. “It’s required for CAR.”
The PL squeezes a pimple at the tip of his nose. The Junior Priest notices it and suddenly realizes that the PL is young enough to have pimples. He is filled with compassion.
“Root Cause Analysis,” he says. “She wants to know if you found the root cause of the defect.”
“What is CAR?” asks the PL, still dazed.
“Causal Analysis and Resolution. It’s a PA of CMMi,” says the Priestess.
“Process Area of Capability Maturity Model Integrated,” explains the kind hearted Junior Priest.
“We are going in for CMMi re-certification at version 1.2,” the High Priestess informs the kid. “You know that, don’t you?”
Something in her tone suggests a menace, and the PL thinks he would do better to nod. He does. The Junior Priest generally puts down this intimidation of his boss to menopausal madness. He looks at the PL kindly.
“It’s all there in the latest QAG newsletter,” he says.
The PL’s head swims. “You know what QAG is, don’t you?” asks the High Priestess.
“Quick Acronym Guide?” the PL asks hopefully.
“Quality Assurance Group,” the Junior Priest hastens to say before the High Priestess can react. “So, defects … did you do any root cause analysis?”
The PL wipes a bead of sweat that appears on his forehead in spite of the air conditioning.
“Er … there was a defect and I fixed it. Now everything is okay.”
The Priestess notes something down in her pad. The PL winces at the formidable and fat Holy Writ that she is carrying with her.
“But, what was the cause of the defect?” she asks.
“Well, I was confused about the parameter that was returned by the business layer,” the PL confesses. Junior Priest thinks he sees a glistening tear in his eyes. “So, the result was off by a factor of hundred. I did not know the middle tier produced percentage figures.”
The Priestess writes some more. “Did you use any tool for this analysis?”
“Tool? Requirement Analysis?”
“No, Defect Analysis. Did you use a fishbone?”
The PL has reached his saturation limit. “Fishbone?” he asks. “I am a vegetarian.”
Junior Priest steps in again, filled with compassion.
“Fishbone diagram. Or Ishikawa diagram.”
“Ishi what?”
“Ishikawa or fishbone … It is Japanese.”
The PL stares at them, battling with the problem.
“You mean Sushi?”
The High Priestess has had enough ignorance for a day. She turns to her protégé.
“Show him and get it done,” she decrees.
“But, the project has ended,” protests Junior Priest feebly, the objection dying a painful death at the steely gaze of his boss.
He produces his pad and proceeds to draw the fishbone diagram. He explains the Five M’s and the cause and the cause of cause as the High Priestess watches like a hawk.
The PL, having given up the losing battle of trying to equate his week long project to the esoteric elucidation of the fishy technique, nods cautiously.
“Can you do one of these for your defect now?” asks the Priestess once the Junior Priest is done.
The PL looks desperately at the Junior Priest who looks consolingly with pity in his eyes. He agrees.
“And you need a Pareto,” the Priestess sums up.
“Pareto?” the Junior Priest cannot keep from asking aloud.
The PL wonders whether this is a role, a tool or another acronym.
“Yes, Pareto,” articulates the High Priestess. “Do I need to explain what that is?” she looks haughtily at her underling.
“But, there is just one defect!!”
“Can’t one fill the defect in the template?” she retorts back.
“It makes no sense,” the Junior Priest cannot restrain himself.
“What does not make sense?”
“An 80-20 breakup of one solitary defect,” begins the Junior Priest, but he gives up. The High Priestess is too high in the echelons of Process and Quality to indulge in such frivolous pastimes like making sense.
“Okay, I’ll sit with him and get it done,” the Junior Priest offers.
The PL, who had got as much as “Process And Reality’s Eternal Troubled …” in his expansion of Pareto, looks at him with heartfelt gratitude.
The High Priestess gets up, eager to catch up on more errant projects and forcing some statistical analysis on to them.
“Thanks … and make sure there is Corrective and Preventive Action for the Root Cause,” she says.
“Preventive … but the project is over and done with,” the Junior Priest mumbles, but then the PL steps in.
“It’s okay, I have a Preventive Action from the last documentation project that we did. We used it for every defect. We’ll use that.”
This gladdens the heart of the High Priestess. Reusing Process Assets has been one of her pet themes. She makes a note to put this in as a Best Practice.
She turns around just as she was on the verge of leaving. Both the men wince.
“By the way, what was your size?”
“Size?” the PL ponders. He remembers having seen the Quality Group flaunt similar tee-shirts in an office gathering. He remembers QAG being embossed on the chest. So, is he to be presented one of those for his cooperation? He could always patch the QAG sign with something trendy. “Large or Extra Large, both fits,” he says with a grin.
The High Priestess inhales and exhales with restraint. The Junior Priest hastens to intervene.
“She means size of your project.”
“Size?”
“Did you estimate?”
“It’s a one week project,” the PL says helplessly.
The High Priestess sighs. “So, you have no size measure? How did you get the predicted number of defects?”
“Predicted …?” the PL now had visions of the High Priestess performing some cabalistic chants in a Japanese temple, throwing fishbones into a cauldron, coming up with divine prophecies about the number of defects.
The Junior Priest steps in again.
“CMMi asks us to do some prediction … based on historical data …,” he nods reassuringly at the High Priestess that he will get everything done for the project. The lady leaves, shaking her head in exasperation. The PL lets out a sigh of eternal relief.
“Historical data. That allows us to predict defect. Where is the data?” he asks.
“The Organization’s repository,” the Junior Priest answers, again instigating visions of a cauldron in the now feverish mind of the PL. “There’s nothing there of course. No data whatsoever other than a post facto sprinkling from time to time. But, then, we need to predict.”
The PL tries hard to understand.
“Predict what? Based on what? And where does size come into the picture? You…you can predict better by reading the PL’s palm.”
The Junior Priest considers this.
“You can raise it as a PIS. I’m sure my boss will consider it and put it up for review.”
“Now, what the hell is this piss?”
“Process Improvement Suggestion. But, then, you are too worked up. Let’s go for a smoke. When we come back, we’ll do the prediction, analysis, prevention and mitigation at one go.”
The two of them walk out of the bay, holding on to each other in mutual symbiosis in a fatiguing world.