Metrics
Derek Huether
Most Important Metric for an Enterprise

As an executive, you will be faced with the choice to do the pivot (if you can) or persevere (if you have no other choice). This will lead to a series of “bets”. You lead with a hypothesis that the things you change will allow you to operate at pre-event levels. But, how long will it actually take for you to validate your hypothesis and have a bet pay off with pre-event levels? If you run out of time to figure it out or run out of bets you can place, then you either lose your standing in the market or worse risk going out of business.

Derek Huether
How to identify dependencies with Tableau and ...

Regardless of the organization or institution, there will always be dependencies. The larger the organization, the greater chance of the existence of dependencies.
This template is available for download from Tableau Public

Video
Derek Huether
Value Stream Management

In the following interview (both video and audio), Dave Prior and I explore why Value Stream Management is so important, how it works, the connection to Value Stream Mapping, and how you can get started with it.

Derek Huether
Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

Key performance indicators (KPIs) are metrics that are used to evaluate the performance of an organization or individual. They are used to measure progress towards achieving specific goals or objectives and to determine whether an organization or individual is meeting their targets.

Enterprise Insights, Jira Align, Metrics, Tableau
Derek Huether
How Atlassian Jira Align Supports Flow Metrics

I keep getting asked, does Jira Align support Flow Metrics, as defined in the Flow Framework and SAFe? The short answer is yes. If you believe these metrics will help unlock the potential of your teams, use this community post to see working examples of Tableau reports I have created using Jira Align and Enterprise Insights.

How Atlassian Jira Align Supports Flow Metrics

Telework

Office of Zombie Personnel Management

You can talk to a zombie but don't expect them to listenA few days ago, we had a snow storm come through the Washington DC area.  Just a few hours before it hit, the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) announced Federal Employees should depart 2 HOURS earlier than their normal departure time from work.  Unfortunately, if you were anyone in the Washington DC metro area and you left 2 hours earlier, you were screwed!  I heard of people being stuck in traffic for up to 12 hours, trying to get home.  It was a combination of people not using their own brains and OPM not knowing how to react to the weather.  There were a lot of people angry at OPM for making the late call and underestimating the volume of people leaving at the same time (due to the storm). One issue is the Federal Government has been really slow to adopt telework.  When there was a threat of pandemic flu, they appeared to be paralyzed with fear, at the thought of people actually working from home.  Many of us (contractors) tried to explain we would actually get more work done, if we had the opportunity to telework.  If more people were teleworking, fewer would be out there messing up traffic.  Last year, when the Federal Government shut down for 4 days due to snow, many of us sat at home and did nothing.  It wasn't by choice, mind you.  We were not authorized to do any work outside the office.

Part of my frustration rests with the fact that in the corporate world, teleworking or having distributed teams is not uncommon.  It's not perfect but I would say it works.  We've figured it out, leveraging a combination of communication tools and approaches.

The other main issue is the lack of practical wisdom or the desire to just take care of people supporting the Federal Government.  I've previously quoted the definition of Practical Wisdom as

Have the moral will to make right by people. Have the moral skill to figure out what doing right means.

As a contractor, for the last 2 days, I've been in the office.  If I was not, I won't be paid.  For the last 2 days, this notice has gone out.

With forecast conditions for [date] highly variable and may include ice, sleet, and freezing rain, concern for safety is paramount. To protect the safety of Federal workers and our community, maintain continuity of operations and assist employees in planning accordingly, OPM has announced for [date], the option for unscheduled leave/telework.

Well, the freezing rain did not come.  Yes, the parking lots yesterday morning were icy.  But, the roads were fine yesterday and they were fine today.  If fact, the forecasted high temperature for today is 54 degrees!

Because OPM announced all Federal workers could either take leave or telework, most did.

Let's see how much work gets done today.

Like the image? Find it at pictofigo

The FedGov Fail Day 3

As we enter the 3rd day of Washington DC being shut down, I ask myself why.  It's 2010, for crying out loud!  You'd think they would find a way to keep things operational.  Just because government employees can't report to physical locations, doesn't mean they can't work, right?  From the OPM.gov website, Federal agencies in the Washington, DC, area are CLOSED. This means...

  • Federal agencies in the Washington, DC, area are closed. Nonemergency employees (including employees on pre-approved leave) will be granted excused absence for the number of hours they were scheduled to work. This does not apply to employees on leave without pay, leave without pay for military duty, workers' compensation, suspension, or in another nonpay status.
  • Telework employees may be expected to work from their telework sites, as specified in their telework agreements.
  • Emergency employees are expected to report for work on time.
  • Employees on alternative work schedules are not entitled to another AWS day off in lieu of the workday on which the agency is closed.
Now, this post isn't necessarily about government employees, a majority of whom will just stay at home and get paid.  Don't get me wrong, I care a lot about my government counterparts.  Some of them work darn hard and are up late at night keeping things running.  This is about all of us who support the government.  In a day and age when the government needs to be nimble and innovative, I sit here knowing I'm not necessarily going to get to bill an hour of my time, while the Federal agencies in the Washington DC area sit idle.  No, I certainly can't do 100% of what I was hired to do but I have things I could have caught up on.  I have a constant rotation of priority deliverables that arrive in my inbox, ready for my review and recommendations.  I don't need to be on site to read a document about cost and schedule variance on CLIN 123, in order to deliver value.  But guess what, that's exactly the case.  If I'm not physically on site, I have to get special approval to do any work and bill any time.

As Jhaymee (@TheGreenPM) Wilson tweeted today, the recent Snowmageddon in DC brings visibility to the Federal Government's lack of a risk management policy, which includes teleworking.  I believe the policy should include contractors.  My FedGov PMO identified a strategy to keep us operational, in the event H1N1 hit the agency.  The strategy was a mandate from higher in the government.  So why then wouldn't there be a plan to keep us operational in the event of inclement weather?  This just proves, in cases like this, the Federal Government doesn't plan to fail; It just fails to plan.