Waste management - admin tasks

Available in versions: 16.0.200 and later

ALM Octane helps you track waste time for features, epics, and other backlog items, and analyze the scope of waste per work item, release, or team.

The following sections describe how to define waste and enable waste tracking. For details on how to analyze waste, see Measure waste.

Define waste

You can define waste with the help of specific waste categories. Waste definition depends on the methodology adopted by your team, and can include: waiting, overproduction, transportation, overprocessing, inventory, unnecessary motions, or defects.

The following waste categories are predefined in ALM Octane:

Category Details
Waiting time

Associate the Waiting time category with phases that imply waiting for a certain team to start working on an item, for example Ready for QA.

Tip: You can create a separate Waiting time category for every team assigned to an item. This will help identify bottlenecks in a release workflow.
Overprocessing Associate the Overprocessing category with phases that may involve multiple changes to an item design before the work on the item starts.
Rework Associate the Rework category with phases during which the team effort was invested in unnecessary tasks. There may be different reasons for a rework, such as a wrong design or requirements misunderstanding.
Partially done work Associate the Partially done work category with phases that were repeated, for example due to incomplete or low quality work.
    Note:
  • If your waste definition diverges, create new waste categories. You can deactivate or deprecate any of the predefined or new waste categories by clicking the ellipsis to the right of the category row.
  • You can neither deactivate nor deprecate the default waste category of None.

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Enable waste tracking

Waste tracking is based on a work item's phases or certain conditions that are associated with waste. Depending on an item's phase or condition, the business rule associates the item with a specific category from the Waste category list. ALM Octane then decides whether to track waste based on the item waste category.

To enable waste tracking:

Step Details
Define waste categories

Use any of the predefined categories from the Waste category list, or create new categories. For details, see Set up lists.

The categories are further specified in business rules, and help identify where the item time is wasted.

Default category: None.

An item is associated with the None category when the item's phase is not associated with any of the waste categories specified in the business rule.
Design business rules

Business rules help monitor an item's transition between phases associated with waste, and trigger waste tracking.

When designing business rules, consider the following:

  • A business rule's action should associate a work item with the category from the Waste category list, and trigger waste tracking when an item meets the condition.
  • A business rule's condition should specify the phase or condition that must trigger waste tracking.

Example: You can design a business rule to trigger waste tracking as follows:

  • On the Action tab, set the fields with the following values:

    Action: Select Set field value.

    Timing: Select When saving an entity. The waste category is not available for other timing options.

    Field to change: Select Waste category.

    Change > Set value: Select the necessary waste category, for example Waiting.

  • On the Condition tab, specify a condition to trigger the action. For example, Phase > equal > Ready for QA.

    • When this business rule is turned on, and an item's phase changes to Ready for QA, waste tracking starts.

When an item no longer meets the business rule condition, the item waste category is automatically set to None, and waste tracking for that item stops.

Note: If no phase or condition is specified in an item's business rule, the item is associated with the default None category.

Available in: ValueEdge

You can also create a business rule to associate a work item's repeated phase with waste.

Example: If you move back to the In Progress phase, associate the repeated phase with the Rework waste category as follows:

  • On the Action tab, set the fields with the following values:

    Action: Select Set field value.

    Timing: Select When saving an entity. The waste category is not available for other timing options.

    Field to change: Select Waste category.

    Change > Set value: Select Rework.

  • On the Condition tab, set the following condition:

    Repeating phase > equal > Yes > AND > Phase > equal > In Progress.

    • When this business rule is turned on, the repeated In Progress phase will be associated with the Rework waste category.

For details, see Design business rules.

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See also: