Introduction to Kanban (June 2015)

An introduction to Kanban

Doing too much

Don’t know where we are

Can’t see our position

Can’t predict our output

Not all playing by the same rules

Revolutionary change

Not improving

David Lowe Agile & lean coach Scrum & Kanban Ltd

@bigpinots

#GA_Kanban

Before we start

The Kanban Method is …

a set of ideas (not prescribed processes)

for knowledge work (not manufacturing)

from lean (not agile)

No “Big Bang” changes

No “Big Bang” changes

Foundational principles:

1. Start with what you do now

2. Respect the current process, roles, responsibilities & titles

3. Agree to pursue evolutionary change

6 core properties

6 core properties

1) Visualise your work

Map current processes; not roles

Identify dominant activities that discover new knowledge

Visualise your work

Visualise your work

Helps you understand how work flows through your system

Helps spot areas needing change

Visualise your work

Common to translate processes to a board

Consider how best to visualise your workflow

different types of work

different priorities

different customers

blocked items of work

who is working on what

2) Limit work-in-progress

Limit WIP

East Gardens, Imperial Palace, Tokyo

Limit WIP

East Gardens, Imperial Palace, Tokyo

Limit WIP

?

East Gardens, Imperial Palace, Tokyo

Limit WIP

Using a pull system? Agree capacity of the system Use tokens (e.g. cards) to denote capacity Attach a token to each piece of work When run out of tokens, stop taking on new work Only take on new work when a token is available (one in, one out)

System can’t become overloaded

Limit WIP

Many believe that working on multiple items at the same time increases efficiency

But allowing too much work in progress at the same time can have negative effects …

… as can having too little

Aim is to get WIP limits to the “sweet spot” where you have the optimal flow

Limit WIP

Fast food drive-thru video to explain: WIP limits Cycle Time/Lead Time Delivery Rate

“WIP: why limiting work in progress makes sense” on YouTube http://youtu.be/W92wG-HW8gg

Limit WIP

Limiting WIP helps because it: encourages swarming encourages small work items encourages flow of work encourages finishing work items

“Focus on finishing things, not working on things”

Limit WIP

Start with what you have now …

Can you: Limit WIP per column on the board? Limit WIP per section of the board? Limit WIP across the whole board? Limit WIP across the whole organisation?

3) Manage flow

Manage flow

Measuring the flow of work through your system helps you identify problems Every process has at least one bottleneck Your system can only work as fast as your slowest point So make changes to your process in an attempt to improve flow

Scrum has a burn down chart

Kanban has a variety of reports: Cumulative Flow Diagram Scatterplot Histogram

Manage flow

Manage flow - CFD

Manage flow - CFD

The CFD shows us: Flow of items through process Current level of WIP Lead/Cycle Time Bottleneck warnings

Kanban has a variety of reports: Cumulative Flow Diagram Scatterplot Histogram

Manage flow

Manage flow - Scatterplot

Manage flow - ScatterplotThe Scatterplot shows us:

Cycle Time variability Outliers Standard percentile lines (e.g. 85%)

“Investigate performance to attack sources of variability”

Kanban has a variety of reports: Cumulative Flow Diagram Scatterplot Histogram

Manage flow

Manage flow - Histogram

Manage flow - HistogramThe Histogram shows us:

Frequency of each Lead/Cycle Time A guide for the time that future stories will take

Gives us much greater understanding than a burn down chart!

4) Make policies explicit

Make policies explicit

It’s difficult to improve a situation if you don’t know the rules (responses will be emotional and subjective)

Acknowledge any policies in your process by stating them explicitly

Make policies explicit

Entry criteria

Definition of ‘Done’

Classes of Service Standard Expedite Fixed Intangible

5) Feedback loops

Showcases

Feedback loops

Operations Reviews

Review data and experiences regularly. Encourage feedback from inside and outside the team:

RetrospectivesStand-ups

Customer feedback Stakeholders

6)Evolutionary improvements

Improve collaboratively, evolve experimentally

Use scientific method

Continuous evolutionary improvements (“Kaizen”), rather than revolutionary change

All the other Kanban ideas lead to this and should provide data to help improve

Start where you are now. Seek to “attack the sources of variability” in your processes

Different work types

Sources of variability

Different sizes of work

Having to rework items

Different classes of service

Accepting unknown work

Environmental / platform problems

Although it’s from lean, it shouldn’t break the

Agile Manifesto

Set of ideas; not prescribed process

Evolutionary change, not revolution

Knowledge work; not manufacturing

Pull system; not push system

David J. Anderson “Kanban”

Mike Burrows “Kanban from the inside”

That’s the basics … want more?

That’s the basics … want more?

scrumandkanban.co.uk

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