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Proceedings of Miami Lean & Kanban Conference 2009

robhathaway — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 10:17:05 +0000

The Proceedings of the Lean & Kanban Conference are now available for sale from our event sponsor Wordclay. Profits from this book will go to the Lean Software & Systems Consortium to fund bootstrap costs for the new organization.

If you missed the conference this is your chance to read the in-depth papers submitted by around half the speakers.

What is Kanban

robhathaway — Fri, 29 May 2009 10:36:58 +0000

Over the last few weeks there has been a discussion on the Kanbandev mailing list over definitions of what Kanban means within Software Development. Below are some extracts from the the mailing list discussion and I’m planning to keep this updated as the definitions appear/evolve.

Karl Scotland

While the word Kanban comes from the Japanese for “visual card”, the term
Kanban as used by the Kanban Software Development community, represents much more than a standard task-board. Additionally, the Kanban Software
Development community have not tried to replicate the mechanism of the
Toyota Production System kanban tool exactly, but have taken the underlying
principles in order to achieve similar effects in software development. So
what is a Kanban System for Software Development?

A Kanban System visualises some unit of value. This unit of value could be a User Story, Minimal Marketable Feature, Plain Old Requirement or something else. This is different from a task-board, which generally focuses on visualising the current tasks.

A Kanban System manages the flow of these units of value, through the use of Work In Process limits. This is different from a task-board, which generally has no WIP limits, but aims to have all tasks complete by the end of a time-box.

A Kanban System deals with these units of value through the whole system,
from when they enter a teams control, until when they leave it. This is
different from a task-board, which generally only deals with the work in the build/test stage, but shows no information about what work is being
prepared, or what work is ready for release.

By putting these 3 properties of a Kanban System together, we can describe a Kanban System for Software Development as one which allows value to flow
through the whole system using WIP limits to create a sustainable pipeline
of work. Further, the WIP Limits provide a mechanism for the Kanban System
to demonstrate when there is capacity for new work to be added, thereby
creating a Pull System. Finally, the WIP Limits can be adjusted and their
effect measured as the Kanban System is continuously improved.

A task-board simply shows what development tasks have been predicted to be done in the current time-box, with their status.

Torbjörn Gyllebring

To help us win as a team

Kanban to promotes flow and reduced cycle-time by limiting WIP and pulling value through in a visible manner.

Eric Willeke

Short

Kanban helps our team contribute to the business by promoting flow and reducing cycle-time through a limited WIP and a fully transparent value pulling system.

Shorter

Kanban is a transparent work-limited value pulling system.

Troy Tuttle

Value Pull, Limited WIP, and Visibility can create an ecosystem where teams have the opportunity to improve.

David Anderson

I think the underlying principles are that a fixed WIP limit provides a predictable cycle time and an expectation of a quality level. That a pull system balances demand against throughput, releasing slack time in non-bottlenecks and revealing the bottleneck in the process.

2ndary stuff comes from identification of bottlenecks, waste and variability and the three bodies of knowledge on what to do about them.

Visual Management

robhathaway — Fri, 29 May 2009 10:34:29 +0000

Xavier Quesada Allue was at the UK Agile Coaches Gathering last weekend, and he introduced us to his Visual Management Blog. There’s some really interesting and relevant content for this group there, so I said I’d share it with you all.

http://www.xqa.com.ar/visualmanagement/about/

Kanban, Feature Injection & BDD

robhathaway — Fri, 29 May 2009 09:57:28 +0000

Liz Keogh has just written an article on a software lifecycle using Feature Injection, BDD and Kanban. It’s a longer article but the examples woven throughout make it a thoroughly engaging read.

Another Kanban Success Story

robhathaway — Fri, 29 May 2009 08:49:56 +0000

Machiel Groeneveld has posted a blog entry about the success of introducing a team struggling with Scrum to a Kanban process. You can read about the successful change it brought about in the team.

Scrumban – Corey’s Original Blog

robhathaway — Fri, 29 May 2009 08:47:18 +0000

For anyone that hasn’t read it Corey Ladas’ blog post on Scrumban is truly worth the read. It describes how to evolve from Scrum into a more Kanbanesque process.

V1: Agile Ideas Feature

robhathaway — Fri, 29 May 2009 08:39:51 +0000

I’m not normally a tool person but occasionally a feature pops up that is unique and innovative…well today it’s the turn of Version One with their Agile Ideas feature.

Control Charts for Kanban Projects

robhathaway — Wed, 27 May 2009 10:09:26 +0000

Ben recently brought his control charts and CFD’s for the work he’s currently doing along to an impromptu Kanban meet in London (along with myself, Karl Scotland, David Joyce and David Laribee) and it prompted some really interesting discussions.

Fortunately for everyone else Ben has blogged about it here along with some great photos of the charts.

Kanban vs Scrum

robhathaway — Wed, 27 May 2009 09:57:25 +0000

Henrik Kniberg created a really fantastic article comparing Kanban and Scrum. Completely impartial and factual – highly recommended read.

Isn’t Kanban Just A Task-Board?

robhathaway — Wed, 27 May 2009 09:50:16 +0000

Karl has written a really great post on why kanban isn’t just a task board in response to the questions being asked in the last week on the kanbandev yahoo group about what kanban is and isn’t.