1. Get your Kanban on
David Cook
David_Cook@TechnologyoneCorp.com Commercial in confidence Nov 2011

2. About me

4. What is Kanban
 Kanban in Japanese literally means “signboard” or “billboard”
• kan “visual”
• ban “card”
 In manufacturing, a kanban is an “order card”
• Used to restock goods “just-in-time”
• Reduces inventory
• Improves production flow
 Toyota Production System
 Kanban or kanban?

5. History of Kanban
 Taiichi Ohno likened the Toyota Production System to a supermarket
 Production components are “pulled” by demand, rather than “pushed” by the
production rate of earlier processes

6. Why Kanban
 Improved quality of work
 Faster turnaround of work requests
 Identification and elimination of bottlenecks
 Reduction of time work spends in queues
 Improved teamwork
 Reduction of wasted effort

7. Real World Kanban Systems

8. The Kanban Method
 An incremental evolutionary change
management process geared towards changing
process
 It’s about knowing what you do
 Then committing to getting better at that
 Doesn’t preach a systematic change

9. 5 Practices
1. Visualise your work
2. Limit WIP
3. Manage Flow
4. Explicit Policies
5. Improve Collaboratively

10. 1. Visualise your work

11. Why Visualise?
 Allows you and others to see what you’re dealing with
 Reduces stress
 Reduces likelihood of forgetting important work items
 Provides insight
 Improves your ability to make good choices
• What should you work on right now?
• How much more can you commit to?
• When should you say “No” to new requests?
• What items are currently blocked?
• How long does it take new work to get done?

12. 2. Limit Work in Process (WIP)

13. Little’s Law
Length of queue Average wait time
Arrival Rate

14. Improving System Responsiveness
 Two Ways to Reduce Cycle Time
1. Increase Throughput
2. Reduce Work In Process (WIP)

15. 3. Measure and Manage Flow
 Don’t manage utilisation
 Don’t manage how busy people are
 Metrics
• Cumulative Flow Diagram
• Daily WIP
• Throughput
• Statistical Process Control Chart

16. Implementing Kanban
 Don’t change anything!
1. Use your existing process, roles and responsibilities
2. Commit to change
 Model your process
 Identify types of work
 Sketch or model the workflow
 Create a card wall
 Establish and visualise queues/buffers

17. Model your process
Backlog Dev Test Deploy Complete

18. Visualise your work
Backlog Dev Test Deploy Complete

19. Start “pulling” work
Backlog Dev Test Deploy Complete

20. Completing Tasks
Backlog Dev Test Deploy Complete

21. Define WIP Limits
Backlog Dev (2) Test (2) Deploy (2) Complete

22. Define Policies
Backlog Dev (2) Test (2) Deploy (2) Complete

23. Managing Flow
Backlog Dev (2) Test (2) Deploy (2) Complete

24. Managing Flow
Backlog Dev (2) Test (2) Deploy (2) Complete

25. Handling “expedite” items
Backlog Dev (2) Test (2) Deploy (2) Complete

26. Measuring Flow
Backlog Dev (2) Test (2) Deploy (2) Complete
Lead Time
Cycle Time

27. Manual vs Electronic
 Manual
• Flexible
• Tactile
 Electronic
• Distributed Teams
• Audit Requirements
• Traceability (e.g. with Work Items / Source Control)
• Reportability

28. Kanban with TFS
 Model your process
• States vs Activities and Queues
• WIP limit info
• Get to know Process Editor

29. Kanban Process Template

30. Kanban Process Template
Planned In Progress Complete
Backlog Design Develop Test Closed
Active Done Active Done Active Done
Removed Work Item State
Fixed Kanban State (no queue)
Configurable Kanban State (with queue)

31. Demo
Kanban Process Template

32. Cumulative Flow Diagram
Cycle Time 2 days
5 days

33. Cumulative Flow Diagram
Lead Time
5 days
8 days

34. Cumulative Flow Diagram
WIP

35. Throughput
Weekly Throughput
10
8
6
Total
4 Linear (Total)
2
0
2/7/2012 2/14/2012 2/21/2012 2/28/2012

36. WIP
0
1
2
4
5
6
3
2/1/2012
2/2/2012
2/3/2012
2/4/2012
2/5/2012
2/6/2012
2/7/2012
2/8/2012
2/9/2012
2/10/2012
2/11/2012
2/12/2012
2/13/2012
2/14/2012
2/15/2012
2/16/2012
2/17/2012
2/18/2012
Daily WIP
2/19/2012
2/20/2012
2/21/2012
2/22/2012
2/23/2012
2/24/2012
In Progress
Linear (In Progress)

37. Recipe for Success
1. Focus on Quality
2. Reduce Work-in-Process
3. Deliver Often
4. Balance Demand Against Throughput
5. Prioritise
6. Attack sources of variability to improve predictability

38. Personal Kanban
 2 Rules:
1. Visualise your work
2. Limit your Work in Process (WIP)

39. Setting up a Personal Kanban board
1. Gather materials
2. Establish your value stream
3. Make your backlog explicit
4. Establish a WIP Limit
5. Begin Pulling Tasks
6. Reflect

40. Personal Kanban gives us…
 A Productivity Tool
• Limiting our WIP helps us accomplish more
 An Efficiency Tool
• Focusing on our value stream encourages us to find ways to work smarter
while expending less effort
 An Effectiveness Tool
• Making our options explicit helps us make informed decisions

41. Summary
 Kanban is a lean agile system that can be used to enhance any software
development lifecycle including Scrum, XP, Waterfall and other methods.
 Kanban brings the team together and helps teams collaborate
 Team Foundation Server can support Kanban by modelling your process
and visualising the work
 Digital Kanban brings automation and supports geo-distributed teams but
trades some flexibility

42. Resources
 Kanban Process Template: http://vsarkanbanguide.codeplex.com/

43. Thank You
 Contacting me
• Email: David_Cook@TechnologyOneCorp.com
• Twitter: @David_Cook