Describes Clearvision's journey of adopting Kanban, not just in the software development team but in Marketing and other departments. Uses 3 dimensions of scaling - Width (before and after); Height (different sizes, timescales, decision-making); Depth (interdependent services at the same level)

1. Cross-Department Kanban Systems
Theory and Practice
The Clearvision Journey through
3 Dimensions of Scaling Kanban
Andy Carmichael (@andycarmich)
and Simon Wood (@clearlySWood)
Clearvision-CM.com
SpectrumALM.com

2. Cross-Department Kanban Systems
The 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 areall 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 gainsmade
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

3. The Speakers

4. Clearvision’s Journey Into Kanban
What is Kanban?
3 Dimensions of Scaling
Andy Carmichael
Agile Management Specialist

5. 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)?

6. 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?

7. 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

8. 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

9. 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 services
at the same level
Products - Goals
Strategic Direction
Features - Value
Product Management
Stories - Delivery
Day to day Leadership
Tasks - Focus
Individual Professionalism

10. Adopting Kanban for Marketing
Simon Wood
Head of Global Marketing, Clearvision

11. About Me
• Background in FMCG*
• Director Level Management
• Business Growth specialist
• Sales & Marketing expertise
• No background in Software Development
* FMCG = Fast Moving Consumer Goods

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

14. Wait. Have you tried Kanban?

15. 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...

16. Kanban for Marketing
• Simple at first
• Daily Stand-up
• Benefits:
– Visability
– Task ownership
– Things were getting completed!
But...

17. Our Work Flow is More Complicated!
• The workflow is defined
• Tasks get blocked, reviewed, TESTED
• Filter options added
• The kanban system evolves...

18. 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?

19. First
dimension:
Width

20. The Starting Point

21. • 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!

22. 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

23. Second
dimension:
Height

24. 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/

25. 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

26. Third
dimension:
Depth

27. Expanding across Clearvision
Maturing in its ability to apply Kanban as the company grows
Spectrum
Product Dev Marketing
ACP
Programme
Operations /
Hosting
Professional
Services Projects

28. 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

29. 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

30. Extending Kanban Application
Simon Wood
Head of Global Marketing, Clearvision

31. Marketing’s Kanban Evolution
Height 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.

32. 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

33. 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

34. Marketing’s Kanban Evolution

35. Marketing’s Kanban Evolution
Cross Departmental ‘Width’ in Operation
Work Passed
Between
Departmental
Kanban Boards

36. Work That Flows...
Depth in Operation
Departmental
Interdependencies.

37. Getting It Done (GID)!

38. Conclusion
Width
Height
• 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.

39. Width
Height
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