2. Understanding the delivery challenge toolkit
To understand the delivery challenge is to understand what barriers stand in the way of achieving your aspiration, what your system is currently doing to overcome those barriers, and how that work could be improved.
This toolkit is divided into two parts. The first, documents named with 2A, assists with determining what is happening in your system. This data tends to be quantitative rather than qualitative and the analysis is aimed at finding results rather than reasons. The second section, documents named with 2B, is where your analysis will focus on finding the root causes of the performance patterns found in the first section. This analysis can be qualitative and will likely dive deep into a single performance pattern looking for causation. In both sections, your analysis cycle will follow similar steps:
- Choose your data
- Develop hypotheses
- Analyze data to test hypotheses
- Tell the story
Kit Resources Include:
2A.A. Identifying metrics for your delivery goals
This worksheet helps you think through goal metrics for each of your delivery goals. It also encourages you to look for progress metrics that help you measure progress in between updates to goal metric data, as well as perverse metrics, or unintended consequences of your efforts.
2A.B. Benchmarking performance on metrics
This worksheet will organize your information on what comparisons to make with your metrics and hypotheses about performance. Once you have completed the worksheet, you can use it in conversations with your system leader and goal leads to decide which comparisons work best for your system.
2A.C. Developing a work plan to test performance hypotheses
In order to carry out all of the necessary data analysis, particularly if you are working in a team to complete it, you need a work plan. This document will allow you to coordinate your analysis efforts and make sure that nothing falls through the cracks.
2A.D. Analyzing data to find and present performance patterns
This document will guide you through the process of analyzing data, determining the story it tells, and then telling that story to others. This document is a companion to the next two documents, which walk you through data visualization and storyboarding more thoroughly.
2A.E. Visualizing and storyboarding data
This presentation provides a comprehensive guide on visualizing your data analysis and presenting the information in a compelling and persuasive way. Data presentations should be accurate and include all the necessary information, but they also should not force an audience to repeat analysis that the Delivery Unit has already completed.
2B.A. Completing an activity profile
Goal teams can fill out this worksheet in order to understand all activities and initiatives happening that might relate to a certain performance pattern you have found. This will help inform which activities might require further qualitative analysis in order to determine the root cause of the identified performance pattern.
2B.B. Developing hypotheses about root causes
Once you have used the activity profile to see what activities are happening, this worksheet helps you develop qualitative hypotheses for why performance patterns exist. Once you have those hypotheses, you will carry out your qualitative analysis, likely in the form of field work.
2B.C. Developing a work plan to test root cause hypotheses
This work plan is the same as Document 2A.C but will allow you to plan out your root cause analysis, which is separate from the analysis required to identify performance patterns.
2B.D. Conducting field work
This guide discusses the different types of field work and when each type would work best for your situation. Field work is a great way to analyze the qualitative causes of patterns you found in your earlier quantitative analysis.
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