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The fallacy of efficiency Dan North ThoughtWorks
The fallacy of efficiency
Dan North
ThoughtWorks
Dear Michael...
“So here's the thing, I don't believe in efficiency. It's our obsession with efficiency that has got us into the current technology mess, and which has led almost directly to heavy waterfall processes.
“Efficiency is how you let the big vendors sell their bloated technologies to the poor CIOs.”
2© Dan North, ThoughtWorks
Efficiency (n)
1. The state or quality of being efficient; competency in performance.
2. Accomplishment of or ability to accomplish a job with a minimum expenditure of time and effort.
3. The ratio of the work done or energy development by a machine, engine, etc., to the energy supplied to it, usually expressed as a percentage.
3© Dan North, ThoughtWorks
How do we measure efficiency?
Budget/revenue targets
Effort targets
Time targets
Activity targets
What does % complete on a Gantt chart tell us?
4© Dan North, ThoughtWorks
A brief history of efficiency
Pre-industrial
Industrial revolution
Rise of capitalism in America
Frederick Winslow Taylor
Management Science
...You are here...
Richard Durnall – the IT Division Refactored
5© Dan North, ThoughtWorks
Meet Mr. Taylor
“It is only through enforced standardization of methods, enforced adoption of the best implements and working conditions and enforced cooperation that this faster work can be assured.
“And the duty of enforcing the adoption of standards and enforcing this cooperation rests with management alone.”
Frederick Winslow Taylor
6© Dan North, ThoughtWorks
Effectiveness (n)
1. Adequate to accomplish a purpose; producing the intended or expected result.
2. Actually in operation or in force; functioning.
3. Producing a deep or vivid impression; striking.
7© Dan North, ThoughtWorks
A brief history of effectiveness
Blah blah capitalism in America
W. Edwards Deming
Lean
begat TQM and some other monsters
Systems Thinking
...You are here...
8© Dan North, ThoughtWorks
Meet Mr. Deming
“All anyone asks for is a chance to work with pride.”
“A bad system will beat a good person every time.”
W. Edwards Deming
9© Dan North, ThoughtWorks
Systems Thinking – “thinking in circles”
Factors influence one another in loops
balancing or reinforcing, feeding back or forwards
The shower being too hot
or too cold
The amount I move the dial
Being addicted to drugs Committing
crime to pay for drugs
Being in prison with easy
access to drugs
10© Dan North, ThoughtWorks
You get what you measure
“Everyone is trying to help” – Virginia Satir
11© Dan North, ThoughtWorks
Let’s game!
Exam pass rates in schools?
Test pass rates in builds?
Prison inspections?
Test coverage?
12© Dan North, ThoughtWorks
How can we measure effectiveness?
Understand you are working with a systemin fact a system of systems, of systems, of turtles
Identify the goal of the systemwhich is sometimes just its own survival
Step outside the system to observe its effect
How well does its goal align with yours?
13© Dan North, ThoughtWorks
How can we measure effectiveness?
Throughput accounting
investment, operating cost, profit
Cycle time for end-to-end customer journey
“From concept to cash”
Cost of end-to-end process
including opportunity costs, factoring in time
14© Dan North, ThoughtWorks
Effectiveness is often inefficient
Cross-functional teams
Pair programming
Promiscuous pairing
Parallel spikes
Experimentation (aka Innovation)
Theory of Constraints
Efficiency is the enemy of effectiveness!
15© Dan North, ThoughtWorks
But it gets worse...
What influences your organisation?
CompetitorsMarkets
TechnologyStaff
Customers
These are all changing outside your control!
16© Dan North, ThoughtWorks
Change happensPe
rfo
rman
ce
Choice
x x’
John Roberts – the Modern Firm
17© Dan North, ThoughtWorks
If you focus on efficiency...
You get better at being increasingly less effective
until one day
you notice
about 2 years down the line
so you have your next corporate overhaul
18© Dan North, ThoughtWorks
Ouch!
“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it”
George Santayana
19© Dan North, ThoughtWorks
Some vendors feed off this
Product vendorshave tools that hog the spotlight
want you to buy bloatware
Services vendorswant you to outsource, ideally off shore
Process vendorswant you to buy their rigid methodology
20© Dan North, ThoughtWorks
Some would rather help you
Product vendors
tools that keep out of your way... and your wallet
Services vendors
want to co-source, and Share Knowledge™
Process vendors
want to sell you self-sufficiency and adaptability
21© Dan North, ThoughtWorks
If you remember one three things...
You get what you measure
Not all the vendors are bad guys
Figure out whether they are helping or hindering
Efficiency isn’t effective
22© Dan North, ThoughtWorks
Bibliography
The Art of Systems Thinking – Joseph O’Connor
The Modern Firm – John Roberts
24© Dan North, ThoughtWorks
