Let’s take a look at another simple, yet effective, workflow example: ordering coffee at the Starbucks coffee shop. Ordering coffee and building software are fairly different processes. However, the simplicity of the coffee shop example provides us an effective way for explaining key concepts, relating it to the card wall, and exploring Agile thoughts. A few sections of this book will refer to this example.
I have selected the Starbucks coffee shop example for a few reasons. First, most programmers drink coffee daily, and many of us have spent plenty of time at Starbucks. Second, the process of getting your cappuccino at Starbucks has far fewer variances than software development, which provides us with a simplistic example. Finally, the coffee shop example has been successfully used in other books on similar subjects. This either means that the book authors spend too much time in coffee shops, or that this example is a good way to introduce workflow concepts. We believe both are the case.
Workflow stages
Below are the
typical stages for ordering coffee at Starbucks. We will describe the stages
based on Paulo’s extensive experience of ordering cappuccino.
The Registry queue
When Paulo
arrives at a Starbucks, he comes across a queue of people at
the register.
Because of his
previous experience with this workflow, he has a pretty good idea of how long
it should take to receive his order. He will infer this time based on the
number of people ahead of him at the register.
The register
Once Paulo reaches
the register, he places his order. The cashier collects his money, and makes
some marks on the empty cup. Then he places the empty cup at the area between
the register and the barista.
Waiting for the Barista
The marked empty
cup remains in the area between the register and the barista until the barista
is done preparing the orders prior to Paulo’s. At times, there is more than one
cup in this area, and they form a queue of waiting orders. If the queue is
piling up, the cashier will slow down the rate of which he takes new orders.
The Barista
Once the barista
is done working on the previous orders, he takes Paulo’s cup, reads the marks
on it, and starts preparing the cappuccino. When it is ready, he places it in
another area next to the espresso machine. Typically the barista will call the
name written in the cup.
Order is ready
Once Paulo hears
his name, or notices his marked cup on the counter, he collects his cappuccino.
Sometimes Paulo’s cappuccino is mistakenly prepared with whole milk instead of
soy milk. If that happens, the barista takes it back, and immediately start
preparing the corrected (soy) cappuccino.
