VOICE OF THE PROCESSCOLM O’HEOCHA - AGILEINNOVATION

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KANBAN METRICS

THREE COMMON METRICS USED BY KANBAN TEAMS

CUMULATIVE FLOW DIAGRAM

TIME SERIES OF CYCLE TIMES CYCLE TIME FREQUENCY

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KANBAN METRICS

GENERAL POINTS ON DESIGNING METRICS

▸ Set boundaries of what you are going to measure - upstream, downstream

▸ What can we control or influence?

▸ Avoid merging demand and capability measures (e.g. backlog, ready to deploy)

▸ Long term metrics should align with desirable, holistic outcomes

▸ Averages, Variability and Trends can be more useful than Point Values

▸ But aggregates will contain noise and maybe hide important data (e.g. outliers)

▸ Examples: Average Cycle Time, Queue Sizes, Throughput

▸ Short term metrics for diagnostics - guide continuous improvement

▸ Examples: Time blocking/starving (bottleneck), Escaped Defects

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KANBAN METRICS

HOW TO USE KANBAN METRICS

▸ Understand the past/current capability of the system

▸ Set ‘Service Level Expectations’ based on this ‘voice of the process’

▸ Identify areas for improvement e.g.

▸ interrupted flow (blocked/starved) ▸ rightsizing queues to improve flow (WIP limits) ▸ distinguish ‘common cause’ vs. ‘special cause’ problems

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CumulativeFlowDiagram

Time

CumulativeQuantity Departuresfrom

State2

ArrivalsintoState2

QtyinState2

TimeinState2

State 1 State 2

State 3

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Ready(4) Analysis(2) Development(4) Test(3) Finished Deployed

InProgress Done InProgress Done

KANBAN METRICS

CREATING A CFD - ITEM COUNTS OR TRANSITION DATES

Analysis Development Test

Ready In Progress Done In Progress Done In Progress Finished Deployed

5/4/16 6/4/16 8/4/16 12/4/16 13/4/16 13/4/16 17/4/16 20/6/14

7/4/16 8/4/16 15/4/16 15/4/16 17/4/16 21/4/16 22/4/16 20/6/16

12/4/16 15/4/16 25/4/16 27/4/16

1 1 1 12 2 4 3

SYSTEM BOUNDARIES

SYSTEM BOUNDARIES

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KANBAN METRICS

INTERPRETING A CFD

‘BATCH TRANSFER’ FROM ONE STATE TO

ANOTHER

DOWNSLOPE - ITEM REMOVED FROM

WORK FLOWWIDER BANDS

INDICATES WIP BUILD-UP

PARALLEL, FLAT LINES MAY INDICATE

DOWNSTREAM BLOCKAGE

NARROWING BAND MAY INDICATE UPSTREAM

BLOCKAGE

PARALLEL, FLAT LINES MAY INDICATE

DOWNSTREAM BLOCKAGE

SYSTEM BOUNDARIES

SYSTEM BOUNDARIES

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KANBAN METRICS

LITTLES LAW

▸ For a Queueing System in a steady state, the average length of the queue is equivalent to the average arrival rate multiplied by the average waiting time.

L=λW

(Q Length=Avg Arrival Rate * Avg Wait Time)

= Cycle TimeWIPThroughput

= 2 weeks2010 per week

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KANBAN METRICS

APPLYING LITTLES LAW TO FORECAST CYCLE TIME*

AVERAGE WIP

LIKELY AVERAGE

CYCLE TIMEAVERAGE

ARRIVAL RATE INTO THE SYSTEM

AVERAGE DEPARTURE RATE FROM THE SYSTEM

*Only valid where Little’s law assumptions hold true

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KANBAN METRICS

CYCLE TIME PLOTS AND PERCENTILES

50%

85%

95%

50% 85% 95%

OUTLIERS MAY WARRANT

ATTENTION

UNPREDICTABILITY INCREASES FROM DAY 23 - WHY?

GAP INDICATES NO ITEMS FINISHED (FLAT-LINE ON CFD)

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KANBAN METRICS

WORK ITEM AGE AS A LEADING INDICATORSmall Mean Low Variance

Med Mean Med Variance

Large Mean High Variance

IF NOT DONE END DAY 4, CHANCE OF NOT BEING DONE BY DAY 10

GOES FROM 15% TO 30%

50% 85% 95%

IF NOT DONE END DAY 9, CHANCE OF NOT BEING DONE BY DAY 14

GOES FROM 5% TO 10%

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KANBAN METRICS

CYCLE TIMES DON’T DISTRIBUTE NORMALLY

Small Mean Low Variance

Med Mean Med Variance

Large Mean High Variance

50% 85% 95%LARGER WORK ITEMS HAVE GREATER

CHANCE OF BEING

INTERRUPTED, BLOCKED, ETC. (LONG TAIL)

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KANBAN METRICS

DERIVING SERVICE LEVEL EXPECTATIONS FROM CYCLE TIMESmall Mean Low Variance

Med Mean Med Variance

Large Mean High Variance

50% 85% 95%

WHAT CHARACTERISTICS DO THESE WORK ITEMS HAVE?

COULD WE IDENTIFY A WORK

ITEM AS BELONGING TO THIS GROUP?

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KANBAN METRICS

SUMMARY - KEY POINTS

▸ Take care with system boundaries, data and interpretation

▸ Metrics are the ‘voice of the process’, not ‘voice of the customer’

▸ Don’t set targets to drive improvement

▸ Understanding you process helps

▸ Identify areas for improvement

▸ Set expectations for what the process can deliver

GETTING LEAN WITH KANBAN LEADING A LEAN TRANSFORMATION

Colm O’hEocha coheocha@agileinnovation.ie