The Fractal Beauty of Process
There is something about a well designed process that I find mesmerizing. It really doesn’t matter if it’s XP, Scrum, Lean, or Kanban the end result is the same: for some brief period I find myself seeing the patterns of the process everywhere I look. For example, a few months ago I finished reading yet another book on Lean (Poppendieck’s latest or something like that). There I was in the kitchen washing the dishes after dinner and wondering…
…why I always did the dishes in such large batches?
…and what would happen to our dish throughput if everyone washed their own dishes? Is that one piece flow?
…and would my family understand the benefits that would accrue from such a change? Would an experiment back this up?
…should I use a kanban board to reflect my weekly dishwashing progress?’
And so it goes. Sometimes it’s like a fever. Process Geekitus. I guess for some folks a process has the allure of helping to explain how the world should work. That’s a pretty seductive proposition when you stop and think about it. What’s wrong with being passionate about your work? Nothing! I can think of some great examples:
These are examples of processes that people have incorporated into their day to day lives. They’ve managed to take a process that works for groups and make it work for individuals or vice versa. I’ve seen it done both ways and I find it equally compelling. Patterns within patterns. It’s really rather lovely.