Kanban talk presented at Italian Agile Day 2011 #iad11

1. Kanban
violet pill
Gaetano Mazzanti
@mgaewsj
Gama-Tech

2. disruptive
no change
change

3. révolution?

4. inspired by Joakim Sunden

5. changes often end up being local:
big impact on a few people,
small/no impact
on the whole org

6. a storm in a glass?
company
technical
dept
SW
teams
change
impacts
just here

7. (scared) orgs, prefer small
improvements, no change in
roles and responsibilities
(and they don’t like to be told that
managers should be kept out of the loop)

8. no cross functional team?

9. no product owner?

10. firefighting?

11. people working on
multiple projects?

12. scared to change?

13. sometimes you cannot
transform first
observe, visualize work,
apply continuous improvement,
then transform

14. Purpose > Observe, Measure > Method
method should come last!

15. a complex journey,
unknown destination
same pattern:
Code
un
Product
Process
(BTW you need a Vision…)

16. Kanban 101
make work visible
limit Work In Process
(WIP)
help work to flow

17. kanban vs Kanban
1950 2004

18. kanban & JIT in
manufacturing
only what is needed
only in the amounts needed
only when it is needed
pull

19. simple kanban
home milk delivery

21. muri, mura, muda

22. if you can’t see it
you can’t manage it

23. Limit WIP

24. let work flow
let work flow

25. context matters

26. principles of the
Kanban method
start with what you do now
pursue incremental, evolutionary
change
respect the current process,
roles, responsibilities & titles
David J Anderson

27. five core properties
visualize the workflow
limit WIP
manage flow
make process policies explicit
improve collaboratively
(let people design their own process)

28. yes, and…
two rules for improv…isation:
1. agree
2. add
Tina Fey EMENT

29. “the aim of kanban is to make
troubles come to the surface and
link them to kaizen activity”
Taichi Ohno, 1984

30. map the mess
empower the team to fix it
workflow
bottlenecks
queues
make visible
teamwork
time
type of work

31. expose dysfunctions
do you keep stinky food in the fridge?

32. visualize your actual
work(flow)
backlog
to do
in progress
test
done
A
B
C
D
E
F

33. visualize your actual
work(flow)
backlog
to do
in progress
test
done
A
B
C
D
E
F

34. visualize your actual
work(flow)
backlog
to do
in progress
test
done
B
A
C
D
E
F

35. visualize your actual
work(flow)
backlog
to do
in progress
test
done
A
C
B
D
E
F

36. visualize your actual
work(flow)
backlog
to do
in progress
test
done
C
A
B
D
E
F

37. limit WIP
backlog
to do
in progress
test
done
F
C
A
E
G
D
B
H
I
J

38. limit WIP
measure flow
backlog
to do
in progress
test
done
F
C
A
E
G
D
B
H
I
J
cycle time
lead time

39. why should we limit WIP?
Little’s Law
cycle time
=
WIP / throughput
(throughput = average completion rate)

40. why should we limit WIP?
Little’s Law
length of queue
=
arrival rate * average wait time

41. why should we limit WIP?
too much WIP increases cycle time
too much WIP leads to queues
queues lead to delays
queues lead to multitasking
queues lead to … many additional
dysfunctions (variability, lower
quality, demotivation, higher risks, etc.)

42. Cost of Delay
source David J Anderson

43. causes of delay

44. multitasking sucks
ABC
ABC
ABC
AAA
BBB
CCC

45. multitasking sucks
multitaskers optimize for capacity,
not for throughput
100
80
percent
60
ABC
ABC
ABC
AAA
BBB
CCC
40
20
0
context
switching
4me
1
2
working
4me
3
4
5
number
of
simultaneous
projects
working
4me
context
switching
4me
source Jerry Weinberg

46. let work flow
backlog
to do
in progress
test
done
H
F
C
E
A
I
G
J
D
B
can’t push
anything
here

47. let work flow
backlog
to do
in progress
test
done
H
F
C
E
A
I
G
J
D
B

48. let work flow
backlog
to do
in progress
test
done
H
F
C
A
I
E
G
J
D
B

49. let work flow
backlog
to do
in progress
test
done
H
F
C
A
I
E
G
J
D
B

50. who’s working on what?
backlog
to do
in progress
test
done
F
C
A
E
G
D
B
H
I
J

51. total WIP
backlog
to do
in progress
test
done
F
C
A
E
G
D
B
H
I
J
total WIP = 4

52. buffers
backlog
[ to do
in progress
test
done
[
G
H
C
A
I
F
J
E
D
B

53. buffers with no WIP limit
backlog
to do
in progress
test
done
I
G
C
A
J
D
B
K
E
L
F
H

54. no WIP limits => queue
backlog
to do
in progress
test
done
C
O
N
K
A
D
M
P
L
E
B
F
Q
G
H
I
J

55. no WIP limits => queue
backlog
to do
in progress
test
done
O
N
K
A
M
P
L
B
Q

56. flow = speed * density

57. flow = speed x density
density
flow
vehicles
vehicles per Km
per hour
Km
per hour
speed
Km per hour

58. queues
cumulative flow diagram
cycle time
cumulative WIP
quantity
time

59. cumulative flow diagram
large batches => long queues
cumulative
quantity
time

60. cumulative flow diagram
small batches => short queues
cumulative
quantity
time

61. what to do next (help)
backlog
to do
in progress
test
done
G
F
C
A
H
B
I
E
D
J

62. what to do next (pull)
backlog
to do
in progress
test
done
G
F
C
A
H
D
B
I
E
J

63. stuck
(cannot break WIP limit)
backlog
to do
in progress
test
done
H
G
D
A
F
I
J
E
B
C

64. stuck (nothing to pull)
backlog
to do
in progress
test
done
G
E
D
A
H
I
F
B
C

65. slack (%)
absorb variations
25
20
15
queue size
10
queue size
5
grows
exponentially
0
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
at high capacity
% capacity
utilization

66. no testers

67. non-instant availability

68. non instant availability
external parking

69. what’s on a stickie?
ID 326
As a user
I want to
So that
blocked
due date
12 Nov 2011
this is just an example

70. type of work

71. types of work
standard due date
expedite bug

72. classes of service and WIP
standard work = 60%
expedite = 10%
due date = 20%
bug = 10%

73. classes of service, WIP,
expedite lane
backlog
to do
in progress
test
done
G
H
E
A
C
J
F
D
B
I
6
M
L
K
2
O
N
EXPEDITE LANE
1
Q
P
1

74. cost of delay &
classes of service
cost
6me
cost
6me
cost
6me

75. explicit policies
-­‐
standups
at
11.45
am
-­‐
2
hours
pairing
3
days/week
-­‐
retrospec6ve
every
Friday
at
2pm
backlog
to do
in progress
test
done
=>
In
Progress:
=>
Done:
-­‐
Acceptance
Test
defined
-­‐
Acceptance
Tests
verified
on
test
server
-­‐
Signed
Off
by
Marke6ng
-­‐
Test
coverage
>
80%

76. multiple projects
project A
project B
project C

77. multiple projects
backlog
to do
in progress
test
done
G
E
A
C
J
F
B
M
L
K
D
O
N
H

78. people
working on
multiple
parallel
projects

79. portfolio Kanban
ouch!

80. portfolio Kanban
one month later

81. world is not linear…
backlog
to do
in progress
test
done

82. multiple routes
DEVELOPERS
design
code
test
H
E
BACKLOG
DONE
backlog
to do
D
deploy
done
N
M
C
A
L
SUPPORT
B
script
test
I
F
G

83. networked Kanban
source Jurgen Appelo

84. Kanban is not a process
Kanban is something that is
overlaid over an existing process
Kanban is a catalyst for change

85. a drug for all seasons
Agile Teams running out of steam
process maturity
traditional
chaotic

86. gateway drug theory
softer drugs (Kanban)
can lead to harder
drugs (Scrum, XP,
whatever…)
Michael Sahota

87. a trojan horse?

88. dogma? no, thanks

89. don’t stop improving

90. don’t stop improving
Z Z Z Z Z
process
time

91. overburden
task switching
command & control
Kan’t Ban?
YES
B UT Kan…but?

92. it’s a never ending journey
K anban
enjoy the ride
learn from the people
Gaetano Mazzanti plan with the people
@mgaewsj begin with what they have
Gama-Tech build on what they know
Lao-Tzu

93. it’s a never ending journey
K anban
enjoy the ride
Gaetano Mazzanti
@mgaewsj
Gama-Tech