2012 regina tc 102 kanban

MavenThought Inc.Amir Barylko > Kanban > What’s Kanban?

AMIR BARYLKO

KANBAN


INTROKanban System

Pull vs PushGoals

Software ProcessExample


KANBAN SYSTEM

•Kanban = Signal Card

•Kanban cards represent the capacity of the system

•Each card is a “signal”

•No work can be started unless has a card available

•The card gets attached to a work item


PULL VS PUSH

New work is New work is

pulled pushed

into the system based on

into the system based on

capacity demand


GOALS

•Improve your current process

•Not change roles

•Not change flow

•Easy adoption


SOFTWARE PROCESS

•Cards are “virtual”

•Cards represent a work item

•The system is represented by a card “wall”

•Pull is signaled when the work-in-progress is less than the actual limit

•Often implemented with sticky notes and a board


KANBAN BOARD


MODEL YOUR PROCESSIdentify WorkflowDrawing the boardTime Calculation

BuffersWork Items

MavenThought Inc.Amir Barylko > Kanban > Implementation

IDENTIFY WORKFLOW

•Which states/phases can be possible?

•What are the transitions?

•Which roles are involved?

•Which are the boundaries?


EXAMPLE

Analysis

Design

Coding

Testing

UAT

Deploy


WORK ITEMS

•Use Cases

•User stories

•Bugs

•Change request

•Etc....


BOARD / CARD WALL

•Each phase/state becomes a column

•Has a first input column (usually called backlog)

•May have a last archive form done items

•The flow goes from left to right

•By convention highest priority goes on top


EXAMPLE BOARD

Input Analysis Design Coding Testing UAT Deploy

Flow


LEAD TIME

•Starts when the card is added to the input queue and finishes when is delivered/deployed


Lead Time


CYCLE TIME

•Starts when work begins on the card and finishes when the card is ready to be deployed


Cycle Time


WORK ITEMS

•Do all the work items have the same workflow?

•How can we identify them?

•Use different colors

•Or different rows (swim lanes)

•Or both


USING SWIM LANESBacklog AnalysisAnalysis CodingCoding UAT Archive

In Prog. Done In Prog. Done

Features

Bugs

Small Change


WHAT GOES IN THE CARD?

•Information about the feature/request

•Number for traceability (tracking system, etc)

•Who’s assigned

•Deadline

•Other?


Post-It&

Sharpie!DRAW YOUR BOARD

•Split up in teams (2 or 3)

•Identify current workflow

•Identify work items

•Draw a board

•Discuss


WIP LIMITSLimit Work

Queues & BuffersConsiderationsWIP Accuracy

Capacity Allocation


LIMIT WORK

•How many team members?

•How many roles?

•How many work items per person?

•Usually one item per person is enough

•but it depends on your environment


EXAMPLE I

•3 Developers

•2 Testers

•2 Analysts

•1 Sysadmin

•Analysis (2)

•Dev (3)

•Testing (2)

•Deploy (1)

8 Total


EXAMPLE II

•3 Developers

•2 Testers

•2 Analysts

•1 Sysadmin

•Analysis (4)

•Dev (4)

•Testing (3)

•Deploy (2)

13 Total


QUEUES

•What happens we one phase is faster?

•Work would be “waiting” to be pulled

•So its “queuing” for the next phase

•What should be the size of the queue?


QUEUE EXAMPLEBacklog

(7)Analysis

(4)Analysis

(4)

Dev Ready

(3)

Coding(4)

Coding(4)

UAT(2)

Deploy(2)

In Prog. Done In Prog. Done

Bottleneck buffer

20Total


CONSIDERATIONS

•Buffers mitigate bottlenecks allowing work to continue

•However letting in more work doesn’t imply we go faster

•Our goal is to balance the demand and throughput

•We want to make “Lead Time” shorter


RIGHT THE FIRST TIME

•What would happen if the WIP limits are not accurate?

•Absolutely nothing!

• It’s an empirical process

•Don’t get caught on getting it right the first time


HOWEVER...

Always set the WIP!

2012 regina tc 102 kanban

Technology

kanban systemkanban

work doesnt

signalno work

howmany work items

work items doall

work item thesystem

vs pushnew work

card availablethe card