Slides from my Kanban talk at CodeMash 2014

1. What the heck is Kanban?
Stan
Jónsson
@sjonsson
CodeMash
2014
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2. whoami
• Senior
Consultant
at
Quick
Solu<ons
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3. Before Kanban…
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4. Agenda
• Kanban
basics
• Real-­‐world
examples
• Advanced
topic:
metrics
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5. What is Kanban?
• Limited
pull
system
– Limit
work
in
progress
– Tasks
are
pulled
along
the
produc<on
line
(work
flow)
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6. Why limit work in progress? (WIP)
• The
more
tasks
we
start,
the
longer
it
takes
for
each
task
to
get
completed
VS.
Stop
Star<ng…
Start
Finishing!
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7. Why limit WIP? Cont.
• Improved
Quality
• Financial
Reasons
/
Value
Realiza<on
– 10
features
that
have
been
coded
but
not
tested
=>
no
value
yet
=>
inventory
=>
costs
us
$
– 5
features
that
have
been
coded,
tested
and
deployed
=>
value
realized
=>
poten<al
$
in
the
bank
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8. Why limit WIP? Cont.
Goal
Bus Dev
Sys Analysis
Design
Development
Test
Deploy
Problem
Strategy
Kanban
says:
-­‐
No
one
is
allowed
to
work
more
than
the
bo'leneck
can
handle!
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Holmberg, Ekstrand, Brännström, www.softhouse.se
Kanban
says:
-­‐
Otherwise
the
company
will
produce
less!

9. Kanban Core Practices
Visualize
Workflow
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Limit
Work
in
Progress
David Anderson, www.agilemanagement.net
Manage
Flow
Make
Policies
Explicit
Improve
Collabora-­‐
<vely,
Evolve
Experi-­‐
mentally

10. Visualize
&
Manage
Flow
Limit
WIP
Henrik Kniberg, www.crisp.se/henrik.kniberg
Make
Policies
Explicit
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11. Day in Kanbanland
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Henrik Kniberg, www.crisp.se/henrik.kniberg

12. Business Value…Achieved

13. Business Value…Achieved

14. Business Value…Achieved

15. Business Value…Achieved

16. How does Kanban differ from Scrum?
• Usually
not
<me-­‐boxed
• Usually
don’t
es<mate,
beyond
shirt-­‐sizing
• Demos
op<onal
• Less
prescrip<ve
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17. Real-World Example
• Hugsmiðjan
– Maker
of
Eplica
CMS
– 27
employees
– Located
in
Reykjavík,
Iceland
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18. Why Kanban?
Challenges we were hoping to address:
• To
many
projects
going
on
• Management
lacked
oversight
of
projects
• Hard
to
answer
ques<ons
about
when
things
will
get
done
• Projects
were
running
over
budget
• Not
working
together
as
a
team
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19. Hugsmiðjan – Five
December 2009cont. People Cross-functional Team
Next
Analysis
Grapic
Design
• Ver<cals
Web
Dev
Back-­‐end
Dev
Setup
– Produc<on:
• Graphic
Design
• Front-­‐end
development
(HTML/JavaScript/CSS)
• Back-­‐end
development
(Java)
• QA
– Support:
• Sales,
Customer
Support,
PM,
Management
• My
role
– Development
Manager
/
Team
Lead
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QA
Done

20. September 2010 – One Board, Entire Company
Analysis
Design
Project
A
Project
B
Project
C
Project
D
New
Standard
Web
Sites
Other
Tasks
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Web
Dev
Setup
Back-­‐end
Dev
QA/Demo
Done

21. Ticket Templates
Improvement
to
exis<ng
web
site
New
web
site
Internal
improvement
Bug
fix

23. Focus of Stand-ups
• Run
through
blockers
and
panic-­‐<ckets
• Briefly
discuss
key
<ckets
• Any
lengthy
discussion
forked
off
to
side
mee<ng
• Make
sure
board
up-­‐to
date
&
WIP
limits
respected
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24. March 2011 – Major Change
Separate Analysis Table & Two Implementation Tables
Analysis
Implementa<on
Leads
Analysis
Contr.
Wirefr.
Ready
to
Impl
Service
Tickets
Next
QA
Done
Web
Dev
Back
Dev
Sys
Adm
Setup
Kickoff
Tickets
w.
Flow
In
Progress
Web
Dev
Back.
Dev
Setup/QA
Delivered

25. June 2012 – Implementation Tables Combined Again
Sales Moved to Another Table
Graphic
Design
Ready
for
In
Ready
for
Design
Design
Impl.
Implementa<on
Next
Web
Dev
Back.
Dev
QA
Running
Svc
Desk
Done
in
prod
Sys
Admin
Wai<ng
on
cust.

26. Back-end Dev Team Doing Scrum
Not
Started
In
Progress
QA
Ready
to
Demo

27. Kanban & Scrum Integration
Kickoff
Next
Web
Dev
Back.
Dev
QA
Support
In
Sprint
Sprint
User
Stories

28. Retrospectives
Key
to
success
• Concrete
goal
• Assign
owners
Pleasant

Improvements
Not
Started
Strange
Root
cause
analysis
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Frustra<ng

Bad

In
pro-­‐
gress
Goal
achieved

29. Benefits Realized
• Visualiza<on
of
workflow
– General
employee
awareness
of
ongoing
projects
– A
plarorm
for
us
to
itera<vely
improve
our
workflow
• Beser
understanding
of
project
statuses
• Beser
handling
of
roadblocks
and
escala<on
of
issues
• Experienced
to
some
extent:
– Reduc<on
of
WIP
– Coopera<on
on
individual
<ckets
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30. Challenges
• Getng
people
to
follow
the
process
• Getng
people
to
respect
WIP
limits
• Getng
people
to
team
up
on
<ckets
• Handling
excep<ons
to
flow
• Extrac<ng
and
using
metrics
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31. Metrics
Lead Time
Throughput
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Cycle Time
Over a given
period of time

32. Metrics
Lead
Time
Ticket
Type
Cycle
Time
Days
(average)
Ticket
Type
Days
(average)
Feature
Request
12.4
Feature
Request
New
Web
Site
37.0
New
Web
Site
Bug
Fix
5.2
Internal
Improvement
4.7
24.3
Bug
Fix
Internal
Improvement
20.2
2.1
6.3
Throughput
last
4
months
Start
Feature
New
Bug
Fix
Internal
TOTAL
Request
Web
Site
Improvement
April
8
6
4
3
21
March
11
4
3
1
19
February
7
4
5
0
16
January
5
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7
5
1
18

33. Statistical Process Control Chart
David P. Joyce, leanandkanban.wordpress.com.
Track
for...
Lead
Time
Cycle
Time
Feature
Requests
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Throughput
New
Web
Site
Bugs
Internal
Improvements

34. Questions?
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35. Summary
• Covered
basics
of
Kanban
• Showed
that
it
is
an
ever
evolving
process,
with
focus
on
con<nuous
improvement
• Useful
tool
for
management
– But
not
a
magic
bullet
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36. Further Reading & Contact Info
Free
download!
bit.ly/19WjDkW
@sjonsson
www.sjonsson.com
sjonsson@quicksolu<ons.com
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