what the heck is kanban? - codemash 2014

Business Value…Achieved

What the heck is Kanban?

Stan Jónsson @sjonsson

CodeMash 2014


whoami

• Senior Consultant at Quick Solu<ons


Before Kanban…

youtube.com/watch?v=vhre0_9oRt4


Agenda

• Kanban basics • Real-‐world examples

• Advanced topic: metrics


What is Kanban?

• Limited pull system – Limit work in progress

– Tasks are pulled along the produc<on line (work flow)


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!


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


Why limit WIP? Cont.

Strategy

Goal

Problem

Sys Analysis Design Development Test Bus Dev Deploy

Holmberg, Ekstrand, Brännström, www.softhouse.se

Kanban says: -‐ No one is allowed to work more than the bo'leneck can handle!

Kanban says: -‐ Otherwise the company will produce less!


Kanban Core Practices

Visualize Workflow

Limit Work in Progress

Manage Flow

Make Policies Explicit

Improve Collabora-‐<vely, Evolve Experi-‐mentally

David Anderson, www.agilemanagement.net


Visualize & Manage Flow

Limit WIP

Make Policies Explicit

Henrik Kniberg, www.crisp.se/henrik.kniberg

Business Value…Achieved Henrik Kniberg, www.crisp.se/henrik.kniberg

Day in Kanbanland


• Usually not <me-‐boxed • Usually don’t es<mate, beyond shirt-‐sizing

• Demos op<onal

• Less prescrip<ve

How does Kanban differ from Scrum?


Real-World Example

• Hugsmiðjan – Maker of Eplica CMS

– 27 employees – Located in Reykjavík, Iceland


Why Kanban?

• 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

Challenges we were hoping to address:


Hugsmiðjan cont.

• Ver<cals – 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

December 2009 – Five People Cross-functional Team

Next Analysis Grapic Design

Web Dev

Back-‐end Dev Setup QA Done


September 2010 – One Board, Entire Company

Other Tasks

New Standard Web Sites

Project A

Project B

Project C

Project D

Analysis Design Web Dev Back-‐end Dev

Setup QA/Demo Done

Ticket Templates

Improvement to exis<ng web site

New web site

Internal improvement

Bug fix


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

March 2011 – Major Change Separate Analysis Table & Two Implementation Tables

Analysis Implementa<on

Service Tickets

Tickets w. Flow

Web Dev Back Dev Sys Adm

Setup

Leads Analysis Contr. Wirefr. Ready to Impl Next In Progress QA Done

Kickoff Web Dev Back. Dev Setup/QA Delivered

June 2012 – Implementation Tables Combined Again Sales Moved to Another Table

Ready for Design

In Design

Ready for Impl.

Svc Desk Web Dev Back. Dev QA Next Done

Sys Admin

Running in prod

Wai<ng on cust.

Graphic Design Implementa<on

Not Started In Progress QA Ready to Demo

Back-end Dev Team Doing Scrum

Kanban & Scrum Integration Kickoff Web Dev Back. Dev QA Next

Sprint User Stories

Support

In Sprint


Retrospectives Key to success

• Concrete goal

• Assign owners

Improvements

Not Started

In pro-‐gress

Goal achieved

Root cause analysis

Pleasant Frustra<ng

Strange Bad


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


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


Metrics

Lead Time

Cycle Time

Over a given period of time

Throughput


Metrics

Ticket Type Days (average)

Feature Request 12.4

New Web Site 37.0

Bug Fix 5.2

Internal Improvement

20.2

Lead Time Cycle Time

Throughput last 4 months

Start Feature Request

New Web Site

Bug Fix Internal Improvement

TOTAL

April 8 6 4 3 21

March 11 4 3 1 19

February 7 4 5 0 16

January 5 7 5 1 18

Ticket Type Days (average)

Feature Request 4.7

New Web Site 24.3

Bug Fix 2.1

Internal Improvement

6.3


Statistical Process Control Chart

David P. Joyce, leanandkanban.wordpress.com. Track for...

Lead Time Cycle Time Throughput

Bugs Feature Requests New Web Site Internal Improvements


Questions?


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


Further Reading & Contact Info

Free download!

bit.ly/19WjDkW

@sjonsson www.sjonsson.com

sjonsson@quicksolu<ons.com

what the heck is kanban? - codemash 2014

Technology