Kanban case study presented at agileLUNCHBOX on September 26, 2012. Presentation outline can be seen at http://www.meetup.com/techlifecolumbus/events/44973882/

1. Kanban Case Study
By
Steinn
Arnar
Jónsson
Presented
at
agileLUNCHBOX
September
26,
2012
Business Value…Achieved

2. whoami
• Senior
Consultant
at
Quick
SoluGons
Business Value…Achieved

3. The Case Study
• Hugsmiðjan
– Maker
of
Eplica
CMS
– 500+
CMS
installaGons
– 27
employees
– Located
in
Reykjavík,
Iceland
Business Value…Achieved

4. Hugsmiðjan cont.
• VerGcals
– ProducGon:
• Graphic
Design
• Front-­‐end
development
(HTML/JavaScript/CSS)
• Back-­‐end
development
(Java)
• Setup
• QA
– Support:
• Sales,
Customer
Support,
PM,
Management
• My
role
– Development
Manager
/
Team
Lead
Business Value…Achieved

5. How is Hugsmiðjan Unusual?
• Projects
are
small
– Ranging
from
a
couple
of
days
to
2-­‐3
months
• Typical
for
50+
projects
to
be
going
on
(open)
at
the
same
Gme
– Something
we
were
hoping
to
reduce
with
Kanban
• Employees
are
highly
specialized
Business Value…Achieved

6. What is Kanban?
• Limited
pull
system
– Limit
work
in
progress
– Tasks
are
pulled
along
the
producGon
line
(work
flow)
Business Value…Achieved

7. Why limit WIP?
• The
more
tasks
we
start,
the
longer
it
takes
for
each
task
to
be
completed
VS.
• We
want
to
avoid
boele
necks
– 10
features
that
have
been
coded
but
not
tested
=>
inventory
=>
costs
us
$
– 5
features
that
have
been
coded,
tested
and
deployed
=>
BusinesspotenGal
$
in
the
bank
Value…Achieved

8. Kanban Core Practices
Visualize
Limit
Work
in
Manage
Flow
Make
Policies
Improve
Workflow
Progress
Explicit
CollaboraGvely,
Evolve
Experimentally
(using
models
and
the
scienGfic
method)
Business Value…Achieved
David Anderson, www.agilemanagement.net

9. Vizualize
&
Manage
Flow
Limit
WIP
Henrik Kniberg, www.crisp.se/henrik.kniberg
Make
Policies
Explicit
Business Value…Achieved

10. Day in Kanbanland
Business Value…Achieved
Henrik Kniberg, www.crisp.se/henrik.kniberg

11. Day in Kanbanland
Business Value…Achieved
Henrik Kniberg, www.crisp.se/henrik.kniberg

12. Day in Kanbanland
Business Value…Achieved
Henrik Kniberg, www.crisp.se/henrik.kniberg

13. Day in Kanbanland
Business Value…Achieved
Henrik Kniberg, www.crisp.se/henrik.kniberg

14. Why Kanban?
Challenges we were hoping to address:
• Too
many
projects
going
on
• Management
lacked
oversight
of
projects
• Hard
to
answer
quesGons
about
when
things
will
get
done
• Projects
were
running
over
budget
• Not
working
together
as
a
team
Business Value…Achieved

15. December 2009cont. People Cross-functional Team
Hugsmiðjan – Five
Grapic
Web
Back-­‐end
Next
Analysis
Setup
QA
Done
Design
Dev
Dev
• VerGcals
– ProducGon:
• 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
Business Value…Achieved

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

17. Ticket Templates
Improvement
to
Internal
improvement
an
exisGng
web
Bug
fix
New
web
site

19. Daily Mantra
• Is
the
board
up-­‐to-­‐date
and
in
sync
with
JIRA?
• Are
you
respecGng
WIP
limits?
• Are
you
showing
blockers
and
working
to
remove
them?
• Do
you
know
which
Gcket
you
should
be
working
on
and
what
is
next?
Business Value…Achieved

20. October 2010 – Minor Enhancements
Added
queue
at
the
boeom
Business Value…Achieved

21. March 2011 – Major Change
Separate Analysis Table & Two Implementation Tables
Analysis
ImplementaGon
Leads
Analysis
Contr.
Wirefr.
Ready
to
Impl
Next
In
Progress
QA
Done
Web
Dev
Back
Dev
Service
Sys
Adm
Tickets
Setup
Kickoff
Web
Dev
Back.
Dev
Setup/QA
Delivered
Tickets
w.
Flow

22. Retrospectives
Improvements
Not
In
pro-­‐ Goal
Key
to
success:
Started
gress
achieved
• Concrete
goals
• Assign
owners
Business Value…Achieved

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

24. Not
Started
In
Progress
QA
Ready
to
Demo

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

26. June 2012 – Implementation Tables Combined Again
Sales Moved to Another Table
Graphic
Design
ImplementaGon
Running
Ready
for
In
Ready
for
Next
Web
Dev
Back.
Dev
QA
Svc
Desk
Done
in
prod
Design
Design
Impl.
In
Sprint
Sys
Admin
WaiGng
on
cust.

27. Metrics
Lead
Time
Cicle
Time
Size
Days
(average)
Size
Days
(average)
Small
7.4
Small
6.4
Medium
17.0
Medium
12.5
Large
25.2
Large
15.0
Throughput
last
4
weeks
Start
Small
Medium
Large
TOTAL
3/22/2011
7
7
0
14
3/15/2011
9
4
5
18
3/8/2011
3
2
1
6
3/1/2011
6
5
1
12
Business Value…Achieved

28. Statistical Process Control Chart
David P. Joyce, leanandkanban.wordpress.com.
Want
to
track
for...
Lead
Time
Cicle
Time
Throughput
Feature
Requests
New
Web
Site
Bugs
Internal
Improvements
Business Value…Achieved

29. Service
Desk,
115
Dckets,
April
2011
Errors
vs.
Value
53%
Errors
47%
Value
Business Value…Achieved

30. Benefits Experienced
• VisualizaGon
of
workflow
– General
employee
awareness
of
ongoing
projects
– A
platorm
for
us
to
iteraGvely
improve
our
workflow
• Beeer
understanding
of
project
statuses
• Beeer
handling
of
roadblocks
and
escalaGon
of
issues
• Experienced
to
some
extent:
– ReducGon
of
WIP
– CooperaGon
on
individual
Gckets
Business Value…Achieved

31. Challenges
• Geung
people
to
follow
the
process
• Geung
people
to
respect
WIP
limits
• Geung
people
to
team
up
on
Gckets
• Handling
excepGons
to
flow
• ExtracGng
and
using
metrics
Business Value…Achieved

32. Questions?
Business Value…Achieved

33. Summary
• Covered
basics
of
Kanban
• Showed
that
it
is
an
ever
evolving
process,
with
focus
on
conGnuous
improvement
• Useful
tool
for
management
– But
not
a
magic
bullet
Business Value…Achieved

34. Further Reading & Contact Info
@sjonsson
www.sjonsson.com
sjonsson@quicksoluGons.com
Business Value…Achieved