The Merchant Stand a blog by Bob Williams 3

Mapping software development to Lean IT.

Posted on April 18, 2017 by Bob Williams Posted in Business and IT Alignment, Business Process Management Leave a comment

The right process will produce the right results. A core concept of the Toyota Production System is the right process will produce the right results. The “right process”. What exactly is that? Software development practitioners spend entire careers in search of it. Everyone has ideas and rationale to support various methods including Waterfall, Agile, and Hybrids. But there is more here than a methodology match. As I consider how to adopt and grow Lean business principles in IT, I face a classic dilemma; how do I influence standardized tasks and visual controls into a software development process? Software developers are a different breed of office worker. Many of them have personality traits which make consistent processes quite a challenge. Are software developers rule followers? Here’s what I know about guys and gals that write code for a living: They are puzzle solvers They are inspired by writing code not documenting

Roku 3 stuck on update from 5.6 to 7

Posted on April 7, 2017 by Bob Williams Posted in Technology Leave a comment

I solved a problem with a Roku 3 update this past weekend. The Roku box was a freebie from my internet provider when I signed-up for their streaming service package. The initial setup worked fine, but after a few weeks the system froze. I had to power cycle the unit to get it back online. After a second-time freezing I checked manually for system updates. At this point the online prompts told me there was an update available to version 7 of the Roku OS. It looked like the update successfully applied. However after a reboot, the system went back to version 5.6. The solution I found was to do a factory reset of the device. During the reset the system automatically updated to version 7 of the Roku system software. I did have to re-authenticate with my Roku apps, but that was much better than the system freezing and

IBM reverses course on work-from-home

Posted on March 26, 2017 by Bob Williams Posted in Business and IT Alignment, Business Process Management, Career Leave a comment

We can improve business results with this change! IBM recently announced the end of work-from-home for the Marketing department as it moves towards regional offices for co-locating the Big Blue workforce. They aren’t the first to do this. Yahoo reversed course in 2013 by banning work-from-home and Best Buy followed their lead. Could this be another business cycle forming? Companies have been centralizing and decentralizing organizational layout for years as they switch between shared service cost-savings and greater focus on customer needs. Now it appears working-from-home, telecommuting, and flexible work arrangements may start going through similar cycles. The debatable points. Working-from-home has many characteristics and touch-points to create debate: Team collaboration vs private think-time Consistent schedules vs flexible schedules Meetings together vs conference calls Productivity of the group vs productivity of the individual Commercial office cost vs home office cost Relationships and culture Employee retention Commute time The irresistible force

Visual Management Board for Lean IT

Posted on March 12, 2017 by Bob Williams Posted in Business Process Management, Ideas Leave a comment

A note from my Lean journey A few years ago I was introduced to Lean concepts and principles at work. After several months of studying the topic I realized that many of my professional activities for both managing processes and people already mapped to some of the core components of Lean. That makes sense as many of the leading management philosophies and programs of our time share foundational elements. One of the important principles of a Lean is visual management. Visual controls are used to communicate information to people that indicate if the current condition of a system is acceptable. The Toyota Production System says to use visual controls so that no problems are hidden. It’s like the old phrase, “you can’t fix what you can’t see.” On my personal Lean journey, my next task is to develop a Flow and Performance Board. This will be a form of visual

Work for something bigger

Posted on March 9, 2017 by Bob Williams Posted in Career Leave a comment

“Work for a cause, not for applause. Live life to express, not to impress. Don’t strive to make your presence noticed just make your absence felt.” – Unknown I pinned these words on my board at work because they describe a work ethic I see in some people. I admire colleagues that create work as an extension of themselves rather than an object that is simply sold for purchase. These are workers who approach their craft thinking about relationships, processes, and flow. They understand and realize they are a single player in a team sport. They recognize the value that all team members bring to the effort and they don’t value their own work higher than what others contribute. Technical skills such as programming and configuration are important. But technical skills are replaceable. There is always another programmer for-hire to write code. But real value is added when we create

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