Announcing the Lean-Agile A3 Community

Next week, on monday, november 29, will take place the first meeting of the “Lean-Agile Problem Solving A3 Community” initiated by Operae Partners and led by Antoine Contal, with the assistance of Sandrine Olivencia and myself.

A “Problem Solving A3” is a lean tool designed to guide someone in leading a thorough problem solving effort on a given topic. It is used to tackle complex problems, and at the same time to develop the expertise of its author in both the general PDCA problem solving process and the specific domain in which the problem takes place.

Writing an A3 is far from a form-filling exercise. It’s a rigorous process which will guide the author through a series of key questions:

• What is the topic and what are the stakes of the problem? Why is it important for the organization?
• What is the historical data that confirms the problem?
• What is the context of the problem, and its main points of causes?
• What is the target condition we want to reach?
• What are the main root causes of the problem?
• What are the possible counter-measures? What are the strengths and weaknesses of each approach?
• What is the selected action plan?
• What are the results?
• What did we learn? What are the open points and the next steps?

Done well, an A3 is a very good opportunity to spend lots of time on the gemba to deeply grasp the situation, interact with all the actors of the activity to build a consensus on both the problem and the counter-measures, and exchange with one’s sensei to further the understanding of the whole process.

Participants of this lean/agile community will each write their own A3, working on their own problems, and will meet once a month for six months to complete and present their A3. They will be challenged both by the lean coaches and their own peers, helping them deepen their analysis, improve their problem solving skills, and get measurable improvements on their own projects.

The A3s of the community will be united by a common theme: “Delivering software on time to meet the needs of our customer”. Working on this topic will lead the community to explore the main causes of delay in real-world agile development projects, and then identify what counter-measures emerge as effective solutions to reduce these delays. I believe this is an important opportunity to bring the agile community forward.

In addition, we are honored to have Art Smalley, a world-class A3 expert and author of Understanding A3 Thinking, as the champion of this community. He will give us his feedback on the most promising A3s.

The best A3s will be presented at the Agile France conference in Paris, in may 2011.

If you are interested in joining the community and can meet us in Paris next week, it’s not too late. You can get in touch with me, and we’ll arrange a phone call this week.

For further details, see the press release for this event.