Cross-Department Kanban SystemsTheory and Practice

The Clearvision Journey through3 Dimensions of Scaling Kanban

Andy Carmichael (@andycarmich)and Simon Wood (@clearlySWood)

Clearvision-CM.comSpectrumALM.com

Cross-Department Kanban SystemsThe Three Dimensions of Scaling

Abstract

The starting point for most kanban systems and their development is a focus on improving the flow of work. Bottlenecks, excessive work in progress, work which does not add value and a lack of clarity concerning the quality criteria at different stages are all problems that can be identified early on in the adoption of Kanban, and a continuous focus on improvement means there is no single optimum in view - we can always improve. Sooner or later, though, teams realise that flow does not just depend on their work, but also the work of other teams and departments. Managing the dependencies between groups can, in some organisations, become a bureaucratic nightmare involving multiple “scrums of scrums” or “dependency matrix reviews”, and in some case this can threaten the gains made through other process improvements.

This presentation provides experience reports from two departments in Clearvision - a product development team and a marketing team - adopting Kanban and discusses specific experiences of cross-team dependencies in this simple system. It looks at typical blockers that appear between the two kanban boards, and how managing these is key to avoiding a lack of alignment between the teams. The presentation also examines the theory behind the three key mechanisms of scaling Kanban: by extending scope; by the self-similarity of kanban systems at different scales; and by “not scaling”, i.e. by connecting multiple kanban systems in a service-oriented structure. From this we look towards the more general case of multiple interacting kanban systems, drawing lessons from our simple system to suggest strategies for analysing and optimising their performance.

Monday 20th April, 2015; 2:00pm to 2:45pm

The Speakers

Clearvision’s Journey Into KanbanWhat is Kanban?

3 Dimensions of Scaling

Andy CarmichaelAgile Management Specialist

The Clearvision Journey

The Dev team’s first retrospective• Too much WIP!

– Wasteful switching and interruptions

– Poor lead time and poor throughput

– Unbalanced demand/capacity

1 2How can we use Kanban to improve (and scale)?

A visual sign or signal

Used in kanban systems to limit work in progress (WIP)

Prevents over- or under-production

Aligns with the Kanban Method’s core practice: “Visualise”

What is a kanban?

The System

What is a kanban system?

Capacity

Demand

A flow system for work items using (physical or virtual) “kanbans” - visual signals to balance production

1. Capacity balanced with demand

2. Flow efficiency balanced with resource efficiency

3. Stations/services/teams balanced with each other

A framework for process improvement

1. See work as FLOW (Kanban Lens)

2. Start from here(roles, responsibilities, process)

3. Make work and policies visible(e.g. board, WIP limits)

Make validated changes(e.g. change WIP limits or DoD)

What is the Kanban Method?

...and applicable to all types knowledge-work

Viewpoint

Principles

Practices

, like Marketing

3 Dimensions of Scaling Kanban

Width: expand the scope (before / after)

Portfolio

Product

Service

Personal

WEEKS/DAYS

DAYS/HOURS

MONTHS/WEEKS

YEARS/QUARTERS

Height: related work items with different sizes,timescales and levels of decision-making (scale-free Kanban)

Depth: management of interdependent servicesat the same level

Products - GoalsStrategic Direction

Features - ValueProduct Management

Stories - DeliveryDay to day Leadership

Tasks - FocusIndividual Professionalism

Adopting Kanban for Marketing

Simon WoodHead of Global Marketing, Clearvision

About Me

• Background in FMCG*• Director Level Management • Business Growth specialist• Sales & Marketing expertise

• No background in Software Development

* FMCG = Fast Moving Consumer Goods

Marketing Challenges?

• Time management. • Priority management.• Unclear ownership.• Reactive, not proactive.• Difficult to complete complex projects.• Project waterfalling (water-failing).

Wait. Have you tried Kanban?

Kaban, Who the heck is Kanban?

• This is something I need to learn!– Attended the conferences– Memorised the acronyms– Watched the videos– Researched Online– Read the books

• I started thinking and applying...

Kanban for Marketing

• Simple at first • Daily Stand-up• Benefits:

– Visability– Task ownership– Things were getting completed!

But...

Our Work Flow is More Complicated!

• The workflow is defined• Tasks get blocked, reviewed, TESTED• Filter options added• The kanban system evolves...

Our kanban system for Marketing Positives

• Tasks Completed Faster

• Ownership of jobs

• Reduced task-hopping

• More transparent workloads

• Visibility of reviews and

“tests”

• Easier to work between

departments

• Visibility of business

imperatives

• Confusion over priorities

• Overloaded backlog

• Lack of large project vision

• “Easy” tasks being selected

• Project stagnation

• Vague completion times

Negatives

What’s the next step?

First dimension: Width

The Starting Point

• Starting from Scrum-like (To Do, Doing, Done)

• Making work (and policies) visible

• Extending to the left:

–How are requirements selected and prepared?

•Extending to the right:

–How do we accept finished work and deliver it?

•What other services are needed? (Support, Operations, Marketing)

Visible work and policies - improve!

Expanding width-wise

• Where/who does the demand come from?• What happens before To Do/Ready?

• Where/who does finished work go to?• What happens after Done?

• Does this involve another department/service?– e.g. Product Management / Business Analysis /Requirements– e.g. Ops (moving towards DevOps), Hosting– e.g. Marketing, Customer Feedback

Doing

wmww

wmww

wmww

Done

wmww

wmww

To Do

wmww

Ready

wmww

Preparing

wmww

wmww

wmww

Selected

wmww

wmww

Pool of idea

wmww

wmww

wmww

UAT

wmww

Released

wmww

wmww

wmww

Deployed

wmww

Customer

wmww

wmww

Second dimension: Height

Epics, “Squads” and Stories• Epics = Feature / MMF• FDD-like (Owners, Squads)• Decision-making

– Steering Group: selecting for prep; selecting for dev; release now/later

• Guilds - supporting specialisation• Stories - allowing forecasting

based on flow metrics (around 40 per month)

• Epics - (around 2 per month 2014; 4/mo target 2015)

• Automation of the CD pipeline to release Epic by Epic

Photo: Jamie Arnold, https://gds.blog.gov.uk/2012/10/26/what-weve-learnt-about-scaling-agile/

Expanding height-wise*

Portfolio Strategic decision-making to

balance investment across

products/goals

Quarters /

Years

Direction

Product Product management decisions

prioritising features (Epics)

Weeks /

Months

Management

Service Day-to-day planning and

implementation of stories

Days /

Weeks

Leadership

Personal Individual professional discipline

in managing own/squad tasks

Hours /

Days

Professionalism

* Exploiting the scale-free nature of Kanban

Good kanban systems

support good decision-

making

deciding where

the value is

decidingon timely

delivery of value

deciding on focus

/ professionalism

deciding what will

fulfill strategy

Third dimension: Depth

Expanding across Clearvision

Maturing in its ability to apply Kanban as the company grows

Spectrum

Product DevMarketing

ACP

Programme

Operations /

Hosting

Professional

Services Projects

Expanding depth-wise

• Yes, going “deeper” understanding / maturity… and:

• “Scaling by not scaling” - service orientation• Connecting the services (concurrent working)• Balancing the services

(Operations Review, Bucket Brigade) Source: Positive Incline,

Mike Burrows

changeinfo

Stand-up

Delivery

Planning

Risk

Review

Replenish-

ment

Strategy

Review

Operations

Review

Service

Delivery

Review

change

info change infochange

info

changeinfo

change

info

changeinfo

info change

Kanban ESP Cadences and Feedback

Operations

Review

Quarterly

Directors/Management

Daily per

Service/Dept

Monthly Spectrum

Review

Monthly Spectrum

Review

Monthly Product

Steering Group

Monthly Management

Meeting

Monthly Management

Meeting

Source: Kanban ESP,

David J Anderson @djaa_dja

Extending Kanban Application

Simon WoodHead of Global Marketing, Clearvision

Marketing’s Kanban EvolutionHeight in Operation

1. large but with a clearly defined end (or review) point

2. collaborative approach best (Skills to Tasks)

3. Size and Scope Vary. But owned by one person

4. Aims, SMART objectives, targets and time-frames.

Marketing’s Kanban EvolutionHeight in Operation

Problem Was Business Priority. So, what did we add? Project (Epic) level Kanban.

Aim- To coordinate the delivery of value, to ensure the most important business priorities are chosen and to avoid task procrastination

Marketing’s Kanban (Who has the time?)Fitting it together

1. Overhead Activities

2. Core Responsibilities (KPI’s)

3. Blueprint Blueprint/Personal Time

4. Default Tasks.

5. Other Tasks , or Cross Departmental Tasks

Marketing’s Kanban Evolution

Marketing’s Kanban EvolutionCross Departmental ‘Width’ in Operation

Work Passed

Between

Departmental

Kanban Boards

Work That Flows...Depth in Operation

Departmental

Interdependencies.

Getting It Done (GID)!

Conclusion

Width He

igh

t

• Genuine multi-level, cross departmental end-to-end Kanban(s) offering value at the point of delivery.

• Time and cost saving delivered at every level of Clearvision.

• Still a long way to go to refine the process.• Work flow evolves in line with quarterly

reviews, management meetings, departmental reviews and daily stand-ups.

• With continuous improvement you never reach perfection.

Width He

igh

t

Any Questions?• Non-software departments applying

Kanban?• Cross service/department Kanban to

support better decision-making?• Scaling?

– Width-wise: consider work item lifecycle before and after

– Height-wise: size, timescale, decisions … at the right level

– Depth-wise: balancing resources between services to optimise the whole