Kanban for business

Andrew Rusling

Agile Coach

@andrewrusling

Administration

• Fire escape

• Toilets

• Breaks – Short (no checking work e-mails)

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Key Competency to be gained

Understand Kanban and if it is right for your team

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Competencies to be gained

By the end of this session, I am hopeful that you will be able to:

1. Summarise the Theory of Constraints

2. Summarise the Kanban Method

3. Summarise how the Kanban Method differs from Lean

4. Summarise how the Kanban Method builds upon TOC

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Location Game

Writing a location name

• How long will it take to write out a location name?

• How long will it take to write out FIVE location names?

• What will affect this time?

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Customers, you need to

• Tell developer your favourite one word holiday destination.

• Ensure it is spelt correctly. NOTE: Your spelling is correct.

• Track start and finish time, on the card.

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Start: xx Finish: yy

Fraser

Round 1 - Developers

Our company always keeps our customers happy.

“The sooner we start, the sooner we finish!”

Our best practice

• Start all projects as soon as requested.

• Write one letter for the first project, then first letter of the next location

and so on.

• Return projects as soon as complete.

• Fix mistakes as soon as identified.

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How did it go?

What affected the timing?

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Round 2 - Developers, a new approach

Switch company’s.

“The sooner we finish, the sooner we finish”

Our new best practice

• Start one project at a time.

• Write locations one letter at a time.

• Return projects as soon as complete.

• Fix mistakes as soon as identified.

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How did it go?

• What affected the timing?

• How did the developers feel from round to round?

• How did the customers feel from round to round?

• Any thoughts on “starting early, to finish early”?

• What information did we have 10 seconds into round one?

• What causes us to behave like round one?

• Does anyone benefit in round one?

• How can we apply this to our work?

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Theory of Constraints

Theory of Constraints (TOC)

"a chain is no stronger than its weakest link“

Improving strong links does not strength the chain

Instead strengthen the weakest link

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Explaining bottlenecks 14

Three bottle oiled wheels demonstration

https://www.flickr.com/photos/abstractlight/

TOC – Five Focusing Steps

1. Identify the constraint

2. Exploit the constraint

3. Subordinate all else to the above decisions

4. Elevate the constraint

5. Repeat

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Get the most out of the constraint,

with only minor changes.

Major changes to the constraint,

Including increasing capacity.

Exercise - Applying TOC

We are going to

1. Map team workflow to Task

Board

2. Populate the board

3. Run the system

4. Use TOC to manage flow

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Hypothetical Product Owner team:

• Six people

• Decide product strategies

• Perform Business Analysis

• Contribute to co. standards

• Work on projects

• Work on BAU

TOC – Identify the constraint

Constraint: The resource or policy that prevents the organization from

obtaining more of the goal.

Symptoms

• Work piles up waiting to be processed by the constraint.

• Resources downstream from constraint are regularly idle.

• Resource is heavily stressed.

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TOC – Exploit the constraint

How do we get the most capacity out of the constrained process?

Some options

• Shield the team from interruptions.

• Limit their WIP.

• Reduce the non value add work that they do (i.e. reports).

Note: Do not ask them to do overtime.

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TOC – Subordinate all else

Align the whole system or organization to support the decisions made

above.

Some options

• Limit the WIP of upstream teams to match the constraint.

• Get upstream teams to do prep work to make the job of the constraint

easier.

• Focus upstream teams on improving their quality.

• Pair upstream with downstream team members, heading to cross

functional teams.

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TOC – Elevate the constraint

Make other major changes needed to break the constraint.

A.k.a. Enhance the capability of the constraint to increases its throughput

further.

Some options

• Improve their tools

• Improve their environment

• Improve their team work

• Hire more people

Why do we not do this first?

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TOC - Repeat

The bottleneck should now have shifted.

Start all over again

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Summary - Theory of Constraints (TOC)

1. Identify the constraint

2. Exploit the constraint

3. Subordinate all else

4. Elevate the constraint

5. Repeat

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https://www.flickr.com/photos/abstractlight/

Kanban Method

Kanban

Scrum is an agile methodology

Kanban is a lean, process improvement framework

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Kanban Method = Kanban

Kanban is:

• an approach for evolutionary change

• a meta – methodology

• a process improvement framework

Kanban comes from:

• Systems Thinking

• Lean

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Kanban Method - Principles

1. Start with what you do now

2. Agree to pursue evolutionary change

3. Initially, respect current processes, roles, responsibilities and job titles

4. Encourage acts of leadership at all levels of the organisation

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Kanban Method – Practices

1. Visualise the workflow

2. Limit the work in progress

3. Manage flow

4. Make policies explicit

5. Implement feedback loops

6. Improve collaboratively,

evolve experimentally

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Do steps 1..3 sound familiar?

Push < Pull < Flow 28

1. Visual the workflow

2. Limit the WIP

3. Manage Flow

4. Make Policies Explicit

5. Implement feedback loops

6. Improve collaboratively,

evolve experimentally

Move to Pull

Visualise we are in Push

Head towards Flow

Visual the workflow 29

Backlog Selected In ProgressReady for

ReviewDoneReview

Little’s Law – why we limit WIP

In a stable system (we only start new work, when we finish an item)

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Avg. Lead Time =

Work In Progress (WIP)

Avg. Delivery Rate

Example

• Work in progress = 10

• Average Deliver Rate = 2/day

• Average Lead Time = 5

Q: What should we do to reduce Lead Time?

Avg. Lead Time =10

2 / day

A: Reduce WIP

Initially this is easier then getting better at what we do

One way to limit WIP 31

Backlog Selected In ProgressReady for

ReviewDoneReview

(3) (2) (2)

Manage Flow 32

Q: After we have reduced WIP,

what should we do to reduce Lead Time?

A: Increase Delivery Rate, by removing waste.

Make policies explicit

Clear, Public and Visible

Some possible policies:

• Cadence (Replenishment, Planning, Release)

• Definition of Ready, Definition of Done

• Classes of service

• Standard

• Expedite

• Fixed Delivery Date

• Intangible

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Implement feedback loops

Product Quality

• Pairing

• Reviews

Process

• Retrospectives

Track Metrics

• Revenue per employee

• Customer Satisfaction

• Cumulative Flow

• Cycle time

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35Cumulative Flow Chart

Cycle Time Chart 36

Cycle Time (days)

Date started

Improve collaboratively

• Management driven improvements will always be limited

• Front line workers are best placed to improve the system

• A collaborative approach is best

Often done via:

• Daily walking the wall

• Regular Ideas meetings

• Regular Retrospectives

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Avoid change without measuring

(it is like walking around in the dark)

Avoid change without a target

Try Plan, Do, Check, Act

Try Kanban Canvas

Evolve experimentally

Plan

Check

DoAct

Summary - Kanban 39

1. Visualise the workflow

2. Limit the WIP

3. Manage flow

4. Explicit policies

5. Feedback loops

6. Improve

Next Steps

Possible Next Steps

1. Discuss lean and its principles with your team

2. Discuss adopting Kanban with your team

• You can ask the Agile Coach for assistance

• Talk to other teams that are using Kanban

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Wrap up

Location game 43

0 10 20 30 40 50 60

(sec)

A

B

C

D

E

A

B

C

D

E

Stop Multitasking

Stop starting, start finishing

Summary - Theory of Constraints (TOC)

1. Identify the constraint

2. Exploit the constraint

3. Subordinate all else

4. Elevate the constraint

5. Repeat

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https://www.flickr.com/photos/abstractlight/

Summary - Kanban 45

1. Visualise the workflow

2. Limit the WIP

3. Manage flow

4. Explicit policies

5. Feedback loops

6. Improve

Competencies

I am hopeful that you now can:

1. Summarise the Theory of Constraints

2. Summarise the Kanban Method

3. Summarise how the Kanban Method differs from Lean

4. Summarise how the Kanban Method builds upon TOC

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Time to share

1 - 3 Key Learning Points

One person at a time

Your answers don’t have to

be unique

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https://www.flickr.com/photos/kellysue/

Some links to more information

• Theory of Constraints in action

• Overcoming delays due to variability, complexity, bottlenecks and

constraints

• Kanban Canvas – Thinking in a kanban way

• Classes of service

• Visual notes from the book ‘Kanban’

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Recommended Books 49

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Thank you