The document describes a Kanban simulation game called Featureban used to teach Kanban principles. It includes an introduction to Mike Burrows as the creator of Featureban and Agendashift founder. The bulk of the document outlines example rounds of playing Featureban covering visualizing work, work in progress limits, metrics, and opportunities for process improvement. It concludes by discussing how Featureban can enable deliberate reappraisal of operational assumptions through simulation.

1. Mike Burrows
mike@agendashift.com
Twitter: @asplake, @KanbanInside & @agendashift
Are we there yet?
Singapore & Nottingham
July 2015

2. Mike Burrows
• Author, Kanban from the Inside
• Brickell Key Community Contribution
Award 2014
• Email: mike@agendashift.com
• Twitter: @asplake
@KanbanInside
@agendashift
• Blog: positiveincline.com
blog.agendashift.com
• Former global dev manager and IT
director, now consultant, interim manager,
and trainer
• Agendashift founder
#hello, my name is

3. On a scale of 1 to 4:
1. Barely started, if at all
2. Early gains
3. Getting there
4. Nailing it, consistently
Where are we?

4. Transparency (1 category of 6)
1. Our delivery process is visible 1 2 3 4
2. We can see where each work item sits 1 2 3 4
3. We can see who is working on what 1 2 3 4
4. We can see which work items are blocked 1 2 3 4
– and for what reason
5. We review our progress frequently 1 2 3 4
6. Policies that govern our progress are made explicit 1 2 3 4
– and are regularly reviewed
Where are we?

5. Are we there yet?

6. Mike Burrows (mike@agendashift.com)
Twitter: @asplake, @KanbanInside & @agendashift
Copyright © 2014-2015 Positive Incline Ltd
Featureban by Mike Burrows of Positive Incline Ltd is licensed under the Creative Commons
Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license, visit
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en_US.
Featureban
a simple kanban simulation game
Slides (PDF): http://bit.ly/featureban-slides
Board (PDF): http://bit.ly/featureban-board
Metrics (XLS):http://bit.ly/featureban-metrics
Blog posts: http://bit.ly/featureban-blog
Original PPTX files on request.

8. Round 1: Visual management
Ready <StateA> ( ) <State B> ( )> CompleteJ
iPoddock
Carpets
Ejector seat
Rear viewmirror
MB
Steeringwheel
NT
Flux capacitor
SC
Engine

9. Round 1: Visual management
Ready <StateA> ( ) <State B> ( )> CompleteJ
iPoddock
Carpets
Ejector seat
Rear viewmirror
MB
Steeringwheel
NT
Flux capacitor
SC
Engine

10. Round 1: Visual management
Ready <StateA> ( ) <State B> ( )> CompleteJ
iPoddock
Carpets
Ejector seat
Rear viewmirror
MB
Steeringwheel
NT
Flux capacitor
SC
Engine

11. Heads you win…
Ready <StateA> ( ) <State B> ( )> CompleteJ
iPoddock
Carpets
Ejector seat
Rear viewmirror
MB
Steeringwheel
NT
Flux capacitor
SC
Engine

12. Heads you win…
Ready <StateA> ( ) <State B> ( )> CompleteJ
iPoddock
Carpets
Ejector seat
Rear viewmirror
MB
Steeringwheel
NT
Flux capacitor
SC
Engine

13. Heads you win…
Ready <StateA> ( ) <State B> ( )> CompleteJ
iPoddock
Carpets
Ejector seat
Rear viewmirror
MB
Steeringwheel
NT
Flux capacitor
SC
Engine
B/

14. Heads you win…
Ready <StateA> ( ) <State B> ( )> CompleteJ
iPoddock
Carpets
Ejector seat
Rear viewmirror
MB
Steeringwheel
NT
Flux capacitor
SC
Engine
B
?

15. Tails you lose?
Ready <StateA> ( ) <State B> ( )> CompleteJ
iPoddock
Carpets
Ejector seat
Rear viewmirror
MB
Steeringwheel
NT
Flux capacitor
SC
Engine
BB/

16. Tails you lose?
Ready <StateA> ( ) <State B> ( )> CompleteJ
iPoddock
Carpets
Ejector seat
Rear viewmirror
MB
Steeringwheel
NT
Flux capacitor
SC
Engine
B

17. Check
Against the Kanban Method’s three
transparency–related core practices:
CP1: Visualize
 Work items
 Work flow
 Work item state – where in the work flow, whether blocked
CP4: Make policies explicit
 The rules of the game
CP5: Implement feedback loops
 “Daily” (per-round) standup meeting
 Replenishment

18. Transparency
1. Our delivery process is visible 1 2 3 4
2. We can see where each work item sits 1 2 3 4
3. We can see who is working on what 1 2 3 4
4. We can see which work items are blocked 1 2 3 4
– and for what reason
5. We review our progress frequently 1 2 3 4
6. Policies that govern our progress are made explicit 1 2 3 4
– and are regularly reviewed
Check

20. And check again…
Balance
1. Our delivery process balances demand with capacity 1 2 3 4
2. Our delivery process has a clear commitment point 1 2 3 4
that separates potential work from work in progress
3. We pull work into and across the delivery process 1 2 3 4
only as capacity allows
4. We prefer to finish work items already in progress 1 2 3 4
than to start new work items
5. We keep our work in progress in healthy balance 1 2 3 4
– based on type, source and customer expectations
6. In scheduling releases, we balance economic value 1 2 3 4
with delivery cost

21. Balance
1. Our delivery process balances demand with capacity 1 2 3 4
2. Our delivery process has a clear commitment point 1 2 3 4
that separates potential work from work in progress
3. We pull work into and across the delivery process 1 2 3 4
only as capacity allows
4. We prefer to finish work items already in progress 1 2 3 4
than to start new work items
5. We keep our work in progress in healthy balance 1 2 3 4
– based on type, source and customer expectations
6. In scheduling releases, we balance economic value 1 2 3 4
with delivery cost
And check again…

22. Round 2: WIP limits
Ready <StateA> ( ) <State B> ( )> CompleteJ
iPoddock
Carpets
Ejector seat
Rear viewmirror
MB
Steeringwheel
NT
Flux capacitor
SC
Engine
3 3

23. Round 2: WIP limits
Ready <StateA> ( ) <State B> ( )> CompleteJ
iPoddock
Carpets
Ejector seat
Rear viewmirror
MB
Steeringwheel
NT
Flux capacitor
SC
Engine
3 3
✔

24. Round 2: WIP limits
Ready <StateA> ( ) <State B> ( )> CompleteJ
iPoddock
Carpets
Ejector seat
Rear viewmirror
MB
Steeringwheel
NT
Flux capacitor
SC
Engine
3 3
✖

25. Round 2: WIP limits
Ready <StateA> ( ) <State B> ( )> CompleteJ
iPoddock
Carpets
Ejector seat
Rear viewmirror
MB
Steeringwheel
NT
Flux capacitor
SC
Engine
3 3
?

27. Check
Balance
1. Our delivery process balances demand with capacity 1 2 3 4
2. Our delivery process has a clear commitment point 1 2 3 4
that separates potential work from work in progress
3. We pull work into and across the delivery process 1 2 3 4
only as capacity allows
4. We prefer to finish work items already in progress 1 2 3 4
than to start new work items
5. We keep our work in progress in healthy balance 1 2 3 4
– based on type, source and customer expectations
6. In scheduling releases, we balance economic value 1 2 3 4
with delivery cost

28. Check
Flow
1. We deliver work items of typical value or risk with 1 2 3 4
predictable lead times
2. We can prioritise work items of exceptional value 1 2 3 4
or risk over other work items
3. We measure lead times and predictability and seek 1 2 3 4
to improve them both
4. We proactively identify and manage dependencies 1 2 3 4
and other impediments

29. Check
Collaboration
1. Our delivery process is not constrained by functional 1 2 3 4
structure
2. We meet frequently to synchronise what we’re doing 1 2 3 4
and what we know
3. We meet regularly to review performance and 1 2 3 4
identify opportunities for improvement
4. We frame improvements as safe-to-fail experiments 1 2 3 4

30. Check
The three remaining core practices and their
corresponding four values:
CP2: Limit work-in-progress (WIP)
 Column limits, one way to balance workload vs capacity
 We made a true kanban system
CP3: Manage flow
? flow (smoothness, timeliness, economic outcomes)
✗ customer focus (customer need)
CP6: Improve collaboratively, evolve experimentally
(using models and the scientific method)
? We at least created conditions for collaboration

31. Round 3: Metrics

32. Round 3: Metrics – column counts
Column counts
Day Ready Design Build Complete :-)
1 9 3 2 6
2 9 3 0 8
3 8 2 0 10
4 7 1 1 11
5 5 1 0 14
6 2 3 1 14
7 6 3 2 14
8 6 3 1 15
9 6 3 0 16
10 5 3 1 16
Reversed
Day Complete :-) Build Design Ready
1 6 2 3 9
2 8 0 3 9
3 10 0 2 8
4 11 1 1 7
5 14 0 1 5
6 14 1 3 2
7 14 2 3 6
8 15 1 3 6
9 16 0 3 6
10 16 1 3 5
(with apologies to Dan Vacanti)

33. Round 3: Metrics – cumulative flow diagram (CFD)
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Ready
Design
Build
Complete :-)

34. Round 3: Metrics – cumulative flow diagram (CFD)
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
On hold
Proposed
Prioritised
Ready for Dev
Dev
Testing
Ready for Release
Released
Implemented

35. Round 3: Metrics – run chart
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
what happened here?

36. Round 3: Metrics – histogram
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%
0
1
2
3
4
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10+

37. Round 3: Metrics – key statistics
Mean lead time 4.4
Median lead time 3.5
85th percentile 6.3
Flow efficiency 68%
highly suspicious!

38. Round 3: Metrics – flow efficiency
Flow efficiency: 3/6 = 50%
3
B/B
1 62 54

39. (Meta) Round 4: Bigger-picture issues
Take one or more of the following issues and propose a
Featureban-based simulation to explore it:
1. Sequencing / prioritising
2. Improving performance
– cycle time, delivery rate, predictability
3. Delivering against multiple objectives
4. Accommodating different kinds of customer
expectations
5. Upstream/downstream teams
6. Dependencies on another team for part of the
process

40. What’s really going on here?
Kanban
system
Operational
system

41. What’s really going on here?
Kanban
system
Operational
system
Deliberate
reappraisal

42. Double loop learning (Argyris)
Action
strategies
(what we do)
Results &
consequences
(what we get)
Governing
variables
(values, beliefs,
assumptions,
frameworks)

43. Opportunities for deliberate reappraisal
 Featureban
 STATIK
 The Kanban values exercise
 Kanban Knowsy
 Reverse STATIK
 Depth assessments
 Feedback loops (CP5)
One-off,
occasional
Repeated,
regular

44. Opportunities for deliberate reappraisal
Strategy
Review
Risk
Review
Service
Delivery
Review
Bi-WeeklyQuarterly
Standup
Meeting
Daily
Replenishment/
Commitment
Meeting
Weekly
Delivery
Planning
Meeting
change change
change
change
change
change
change
change
change
info
info
info
info
info
info info
info
info
change info
Operations
Review
Monthly

45. @KanbanInside Chapter 23, @agendashift
Assessment
Analysis
Agenda
Action
• Categories (values), prompts
• Scoring (qualitative scale)
• Strongest, weakest, leading & lagging
• Diversity / consensus
• Themes
• Action areas
• Change tracking
• Hypothesis-based

46. Depth of Kanbanland 2015 (bit.ly/dok15)
Agendashift

47. Double loop learning (Argyris)
Ac on
strategies
(what we do)
Results &
consequences
(what we get)
Governing
variables
(values, beliefs,
assump ons,
frameworks)
Depth of Kanbanland 2015 (bit.ly/dok15)
Agendashift
Mike Burrows (mike@agendashift.com)
Twitter: @asplake, @KanbanInside & @agendashift
Copyright © 2014-2015 Positive Incline Ltd
Featureban by Mike Burrows of Positive Incline Ltd is licensed under the Creative Commons
Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license, visit
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en_US.
Featureban
a simple kanban simulation game
Slides (PDF): http://bit.ly/featureban-slides
Board (PDF): http://bit.ly/featureban-board
Metrics (XLS):http://bit.ly/featureban-metrics
Blog posts: http://bit.ly/featureban-blog
Original PPTX files on request.
Mike Burrows
• Author, Kanban from the Inside
• Brickell Key Community Contribution
Award 2014
• Email: mike@agendashift.com
• Twitter: @asplake
@KanbanInside
@agendashift
• Blog: positiveincline.com
blog.agendashift.com
• Former global dev manager and IT
director, now consultant, interim manager,
and trainer
• Agendashift founder
#hello, my name is