This quick tip comes from a webinar I recently watched called “An Introduction to Lean Test Management”. I took a couple of notes from this, one of these being pick charts, something I’d never heard of surprisingly until then. As our team had an issue with task management in that we had no formal method for this I thought it would be interesting to mock up a quick example in a spreadsheet for how we could potentially use this.
You can have a look at this example here, notice it’s slightly modified from the standard format in that I removed the words “Possible, Implement, Challenge and Kill”. I personally felt these weren’t needed & could potentially confuse a simple example.
So you get the general idea of these, we want to map out our tasks in a format that allows someone to come along and pick easily a task. Knowing how much time they have they will be able to pick something of high value within their time constraints.
You could improve the example by adding in some clever macro’s to automate the chart aspect or write some php scripts to improve it and make it available via a website for your team. Either way I like them since their simple and easy to use.
Alternatively you could use the popular RTM, something which we are trailing out just now.
If you have another suggestion let me know we’re open to idea’s.
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The concept of Pic Chart is quite commonly used in Lean Six Sigma where you have two scales running either axes as difficulty (easy to hard) and pay-off (low to high) levels. Each qudrant represents as implement, challenge, possible and kill depending on where they are on the scale and enforce the implementation. In your representaion this information is removed to simply the diagram. A picture is worth a thousand words and looking at it does not convey that message to me. I would use the text ‘just do it’ where it is implement without much effort and payoff is high, which top left quadrant in your case. Where payoff is low although it is easy to implement, I would put the text ‘possible’ in the top right quadrant.
Hi Mohinder,
Thanks for the comment. It worked for us at the time. I don’t think people got the initial traditional concept, which is why like I said in the article that I changed the wording and order slightly.
You’re probably right though, it may be better with the traditional implementation for others.
Not really a biggie for me on how it is done, as long as the concept of picking tasks and making it visually appealing remains, then they can be an excellent method of visual communication.
I am thinking about using a pick charts again to communicate ideas for improving testing within my new organisation. I think it’ll work well for highlighting quick initial wins that we can work though, before tackling the bigger more challenging rewards.
What about yourself, how do you find using them? Are they helpful to you?
Thanks,
Darren.
Wunderlist is pretty cool (and free)
Hi Rosie,
I had never heard of that one before, it’s very easy to use. Thanks for the heads up.
Darren.
Hi Darren,
Cynefin Framework described by David Snowden is a good way of partition the complexity of your problem and assigning them the status as complex, complicated, simple and chaotic depending on how much you know about it. You can then shift them around when you know more. It is a good way of assigning task depending on the expertise required and value delivered. John McFadyen’s talk on The Cynefin Framework has further references at the end relevant to the subject. If you ever get time to read it, you will find it useful than the simplistic approach of pic chart. Although there is more thinking involved but it pays off in the end. Isolating problem in categories help target resources effectively.
Interesting, I had never heard of this before. Thanks for sharing Mohinder.