If you’ve made it to this point using Visible Ops to help you get a handle on your process, you have stopped firefighting and are starting to lead your business. After all, that was the original goal of going through these steps.
Some benefits you will see at this point include:
- Instead of spending 50% or more of your time on expensive, unplanned work, you are now spending 15% or less on unplanned work.
- You’ve replaced your snowflakes and created fuses. In other words, you can now replace your devices faster than you can repair them.
- Your junior people can handle most of your operation, while your senior people work on tasks that provide a higher ROI.
What Remains to Be Done
Although at this point you are no doubt feeling pretty good about yourself and your organization, there is more work to be done. Remember, what we have done to this point is to stabilize the operation. We now need to work on improving it.
Metrics to Consider
Like anything else you want to improve, you have to measure what you want to manage. “We have created a minimal closed-loop system that is capable of improving itself. What do we mean by that? By completing the previous three phases, we can now generate metrics for the three key process areas (release, controls and resolution)…” (Visible Ops page 59).
- Release metrics. I use time to build as my main release metric. To test this, I’ll randomly walk in and announce that a site is down and that we have to prepare a device for deployment. I have one engineer get the device ready and another check it for accuracy.
- Controls metrics. I use change success as my main controls metric. Were we able to design, test, document and successfully put the change into production? I report this as a percentage.
- Resolution metrics. I use MTTR as my main resolution metric.
Your Challenge
I’ve shared with you how I’ve used the information in the Visible Ops Handbook to stop fighting fires; now it’s your turn. I hope this series has inspired you to look at how you can use these steps to improve your processes and reclaim some of your valuable time. Buy the book, refer to this series, or join organizations that are working on process improvements such as the good2great Twibe.
Most of all remember that there is a way out of constant firefighting mode. You can do this.
Related Posts
- 4 Simple Steps to Stop Fighting Fires and Start Leading Your Business
- 4 Steps to Stop Fighting Fires and Start Leading: Introduction
- 4 Steps to Stop Fighting Fires: Step 1 Stabilize the Patient
- 4 Steps to Stop Fighting Fires: Step 2 Identify Fragile Artifacts
- 4 Steps to Stop Fighting Fires: Step 3 Create a Repeatable Build Library
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