Example Reflection – Learning Launch

Challenge

I am part of Release and deployment department in my organization and my/our challenge is to  improve the workflow (activities and steps) within the organization in order to reduce the release and  deployment cycle time for the applications. The project scope includes the Release & Deployment  department and other department was well i.e. Business & IT department with whom we work closely.  The project duration was planned for 60 days durations keeping in mind the multitude of departments  involved in the project. The focus of the project was to view the as is approach and then come up with  new ideas and improve the ways of working to reduce the overall release cycle time.

Selection

We had a brain storming session on the design thinking tools and activities but came up with  conclusion to leverage the learning launch tool the main reason for choosing this tool was to fail early  and learn quickly as the overall release and deployment process was at stake.

Application

For our first learning launch, our focus was on the current as is process and to discuss the factors that  leads to the delay in the deployment cycle also Business stakeholders were part of workshop of the 2- day workshop. Complete end to end deployment cycle was reviewed and opportunities were identified  which could be addressed e.g. Delay in Business approval for change, Stories are not updated in JIRA  board on Time. This tested our assumption that the current structure and way of working of the release  were the mail causes of the delay for deployment. At the end of the workshop a detailed  documentation was prepared along with the actions to be taken and a new workflow which was  specifically designed to reduce the approval cycle for the stories and changes

For our second learning launch, we came up with a proposal to increase the number of release cycles  in a month (from 1 to 2), although there were challenges regarding the interdependencies between the  various software departments for these new releases. We decided to keep the least conflicting solution  and only stand along changes will move forward with these new releases. Hence improving the  customer confidence in bridging the gap between IT & Business. We introduced bi-weekly releases to  reduce time to market and improve overall business satisfaction.

Insight

By applying the learning launch tool, our team identified our assumptions and designed launches to  test these assumptions. Additional we were not sure that we would be able to implement the  additional releases (Bi-weekly) that will be beneficial for both Business & IT. While the design team was  more focused and concerned in improving the as is process this thought of adding new releases came  on fly was like liked by everyone in the workshop. Now the minds were racing towards achieving the  goals and possible remove the barriers as there were hell lot of bottlenecks to put to an end to these  new releases. We designed the process diagram for these new releases and seeking additional approval

from respective stakeholders. We have now decided to meet at lease for a workshop every 6 month  and follow the design thinking process for new improvements and opportunity that will add value.

Approach

Team already spent some time for several design thinking tools like mind mapping etc. but learning  launch came out to be the winner as the mail reason if to fail early and cheaply. We will try to stick to  learning launch tool itself for future discussion but keep our mind open for others tool as well as they  are also well recognized in delivering results. The retrospective done after learning launch was effective  and few observations were made which will make a difference next time.

