Decouple stages

…you have a proper visual workflow in place.

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Stages should be independent to reduce coupling, increase cohesion, and promote autonomy.

You aim for maximum cohesion, minimum coupling and disciplined autonomy, yet autonomy and independence also:

• • create opportunities for parallelism; and
  • hamper information flow.

Therefore:

Serialize the steps and set up an agile contract between stages, especially if they involve another party. Impose a blocker count limit that, when exceeded, pulls the andon cord to swarm the issue.

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Handoffs between steps should take place via well-defined interfaces. This enables to automate one or more of the steps, or to let inexpert staff carry out the step.

The andon cord is similar to the boom buffer.

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[[so::Serialize the steps and set up an agile agreement between stages.|]]