Kanban 



Kanban is a Japanese term first used by Toyota in the automotive industry. In Japanese, "Kanban" is derived from "kan" (visual) and "ban" (card or board), which can be simply understood as an "information board."

The Kanban model is a visual tool for tracking tasks, allowing project team members to see where each task stands within the workflow. The simplest way to implement this is to use whiteboards with colored sticky notes to describe and manage work processes.

With Kanban, you can manage work. It is a method to manage all types of professional services, also referred to as knowledge work. 



Principles of Kanban






A good visualization is the key to effective collaboration and to identify improvement opportunities. Visualizing that work and the flow of that work greatly improves transparency.

It allows us to absorb and process a great deal of information in a short time. In addition, visualization supports cooperation, as everyone involved has the same picture. 

Additionally , it helps to expose bottlenecks.


Material and guidelines to setup the Kanban board: As a preference use JIRA Kanban board where  everyone can add cards. Ensure that everyone has access to the tool.

Encourage use of simple, clear column names – not every detail, just key steps (to avoid over-complicating the first board). Goal is to get comfortable visualizing work, not to have a perfect process design.


Kanban boards are the most common means of visualizing a Kanban system. Common to all boards is pulling work from left to right through the board: on the left, new work items enter the board. When they exit on the right, value is delivered to customers.

In a Kanban system, there is at least one clear commitment and delivery point as well as a representation of the permitted amount of work (Work in progress, WIP). 

Work items can be of different types and sizes, from tasks to requirements. 
Work items are typically displayed  as post-its usually called cards or tickets.

The series of activities/steps these work items go through are referred to as workflow. The individual steps in the workflow are shown in columns.


The simplest way to represent a Kanban board is shown below.

The Kanban backlog shows work items in both the Backlog(=Backlog column) and Selected for Development (to Do column) sections. This makes it easy for you to drag work items from one section to the other. Drag work items from the Backlog section when the team is ready to work on them. Ready in this context means that the work item has enough information and has been clarified with the team through a "refinement meeting".

See the session on "Definition of Ready"  at Definition of Ready

The column on the right means the work item is delivered as expected , the team will need to agree on its meaning , for examples : is done released in production or is done developed by the team?   A

See the session on the "Definition of Done" at 6. Definition of Done





The goal is to pull whenever work is available.

WIP (Work in Progress) states the number of work items in progress at a certain time. 

Too much work-in-progress causes inefficiency and setting WIP limits can improve focus and throughput. Limiting the work that is allowed to enter the system is an important key to reducing delay and context switching which may result in poor timeliness, quality, and potentially waste. The aim is to create a balance between demand and capability over time.


Material and guidelines to setup the WIP per state: At the start of using KanBan agree with the team what should be the WIP maximum. Ensure that this WIP is respected in each KanBan Daily




Analyze the workflow for bottlenecks and delays; see the impact of actively managing flow on delivery speed and predictability.

The goal of managing the flow of work is to complete work as smoothly and predictably as possible, while maintaining a sustainable pace. While limiting WIP is one of the key ways that helps us ensure smooth and predictable flow. The monitoring or measuring of the workflow results in important information that is very useful for managing expectations with customers, for forecasting, and for improvements. 

There are a number of basic metrics in Kanban:
• Lead time is the time it takes for a single work item to pass through the system from the start to completion
• Delivery rate is the number of completed work items per unit of time, such as features per week, training classes per months, or new hires per month
• WIP (work in progress) is the amount of work items in the system (or a defined part of it) at a certain point in time
These core metrics are used in various graphical representations to understand system behavior and identify opportunities for improvement.


Material and guidelines to setup : in JIRA we can setup dashboards to support the flow discussions.


 



Appreciate the value of clear, agreed-upon process policies; be able to define explicit policies for a Kanban board (e.g., “Definition of Done”, WIP limits, pull criteria).


Material and guidelines to setup the policies: discussion on the start what are the conditions to move between the columns and how prioritization is displayed (pull criteria), how to represent the different card architypes (bug, fixed date, etc) , Meeting times and content




Feedback loops are required for a coordinated delivery and for improving the delivery of your service. A functioning set of feedback loops appropriate for the given context strengthens the learning capabilities of the organization and its evolution by means of managed experiments.
Some commonly used means for feedback loops in Kanban systems are the board, metrics, and a set of regular meetings and reviews which are referred to as cadences


Material and guidelines to setup the policies: ensure a regular discussion in place to inspect and adjust the KanBan system.





We “Start with what you do now” and “Agree to pursue improvement through evolutionary change

Mindset to experiment.





Material and guidelines to setup the meetings: At the start of using KanBan agree with the team when is the daily, how long should it take (ideal is 15m). Agree how often it should perform a retrospective (ideal biweekly for one hour). Agree 




Kick off facilitator meeting

  1. Explain how the Board works (link, states and types of cards), have people create a card of all types.
    1. How to create an issue/cards/tickets and what for
    2. How to create an epic and what for
    3. How to ensure all issues/cards/tickets are associated with an epic
  2. Present a Common Language
    1. Kanban, state, ticket/card
  3. Create & Populate the Board together 
  4. Set Way-of-Working Policies and working agreement
    1. Create backlog freely
    2. Who classifies the work in the backlog to be read to be worked on
    3. Agree on a work approach based on priority
    4. The types of cards
    5. Agree when the column moves can be updated and which should be done live or not
    6. Agree which updates on the tickets need to be done (Example: as soon as a dependency is detected)
    7. Agree on Definition of Done. Basis available in this space.
  5. Set Limit WIP Policies 
  6. Agree and setup the meetings on the calendar
    1. Setup of the daily (15m per day recommended)
    2. Setup of the tickets clarification (one how per week recommend)
    3. Setup of an I&A team meeting (in Kanban once per month recommend)


Kick off template example/ Kanban minimum setup


Example of a working agreement