Lean Kanban India 2017 | Case Study: Evolutionary Change with Kanban Method | Sanjay Kumar
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1
Evolutionary
Change with
Kanban Method
Sanjay Kumar
Yogesh Ranjan
Evolutionary Change
with Kanban Method Sanjay Kumar, Yogesh Ranjan
The Company – Cachematrix
A Fintech firm
Cutting edge Liquidity Management Platform
Well recognized in the banking industry
Clients among Bank of America, HSBC, Citibank,
PNC, UBS and RBC
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Evolutionary Change
with Kanban Method Sanjay Kumar, Yogesh Ranjan
The Situation
➢ ~2007 – Agile adoption started
o Some customized Scrum implementation that worked
fairly well
➢ 2015 – The beginning of challenge
o More demand
o Need for a faster delivery cycle
➢ 2016 - Aug Release - The Peak of Chaos!
Evolutionary Change
with Kanban Method Sanjay Kumar, Yogesh Ranjan
The Retrospective
Three most important challenges faced by team:
1. Frequent changes in requirements
2. Lack of a clear and consistent process
3. Chaos towards the end of release
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Evolutionary Change
with Kanban Method Sanjay Kumar, Yogesh Ranjan
The Ground Reality
Single team of 30 members
• Dev + QA + team leads
• Two locations – Denver and Bengaluru
No Scrum Masters
No Product Owners
No user story format, no story point estimation
2 weekly planning cycle, with no hard stop
No sprint retrospectives, only release retrospective
Ineffective daily stand-ups
Evolutionary Change
with Kanban Method Sanjay Kumar, Yogesh Ranjan
The Punctuation Point
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Evolutionary Change
with Kanban Method Sanjay Kumar, Yogesh Ranjan
Release 6.19.2 (Nov 2016)
First steps of a Change journey…
Evolutionary Change
with Kanban Method Sanjay Kumar, Yogesh Ranjan
What would be a Worthy Goal ?
- for Nov 2016 Release
1. Smooth product deployment (release)
2. Control the release-end chaos
3. Establish a consistent process
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Evolutionary Change
with Kanban Method Sanjay Kumar, Yogesh Ranjan
Solution Options
1. Fix Scrum
An obvious choice, but a
2. Discard Scrum, Switch over to Kanban Method
Still a
3. Evolutionary Change
Focus on the most pressing needs
Shrink the Change
Look for the first evidence(s) of success
Evolutionary Change
with Kanban Method Sanjay Kumar, Yogesh Ranjan
Evolutionary Change - Phase 1
1. Visualize work
Kanban Board (TFS)
2. Improve requirements management
Encourage Dev-Test collaboration
Using stories for capturing requirements
3. Stop Starting, Start finishing
Defer Commitment on backlog items
Prioritize testing on dev-done items
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Evolutionary Change
with Kanban Method Sanjay Kumar, Yogesh Ranjan
Some Things stayed the Same
Organizational structure
Titles, roles and team configuration
Estimating work
Estimation using time units, not story points
Development Sprints
The two week planning rhythm
Without a hard timebox
Evolutionary Change
with Kanban Method Sanjay Kumar, Yogesh Ranjan
The First Set of Results
– Nov 2016 Release
1. Relief from Overburdening
No release-end chaos
2. Better Initial Quality
Reduced defect count, 700+ => 350
3. Shorter Lead Time
4. Improved Team Dynamics
Better Dev-QA collaboration
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Evolutionary Change
with Kanban Method Sanjay Kumar, Yogesh Ranjan
Quantitative Analysis - Lead Time
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2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 23 24 25 27 29 31 32 33 35 39 41 43 44 51 53 54 56 62 67 72
NumberofItems
Lead Time (days)
Lead Time distribution – Release 6.19.1 (Aug 2016)
85% confidence
– 41 days
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 30 32 34 38 44 46
NumberofItems
Lead Time (days)
Lead Time distribution - Release 6.19.2 (Nov 2016)
85% confidence
– 26 days
Evolutionary Change
with Kanban Method Sanjay Kumar, Yogesh Ranjan
Quantitative Analysis
- Cumulative Flow Diagram (Nov’16)
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Evolutionary Change
with Kanban Method Sanjay Kumar, Yogesh Ranjan
Release 7.0 (Feb 2017)
Continuing the Evolutionary change…
Evolutionary Change
with Kanban Method Sanjay Kumar, Yogesh Ranjan
The Next Set of Goals
1. Improve predictability of work completion
2. Improve requirements management
3. Improve work estimation
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Evolutionary Change
with Kanban Method Sanjay Kumar, Yogesh Ranjan
Evolutionary Change - Phase 2
1. Improve Requirements Management
Groom stories before starting work
Estimate work using a 3-point scale – S, M, L
2. Limit work in progress
Limit one active item per person
3. Prioritize finishing over starting
Define internal SLA for each story size
Start conducting Daily standup in Kanban format
Evolutionary Change
with Kanban Method Sanjay Kumar, Yogesh Ranjan
The Second Set of Results
– Feb 2017 Release
1. Quality oriented development process
Defect count reduced from 350 to 120
Refactoring of complex items
2. Team Dynamics improved further
3. More predictable and leaner Flow
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Evolutionary Change
with Kanban Method Sanjay Kumar, Yogesh Ranjan
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7
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 30 32 34 38 44 46
NumberofItems
Lead Time (days)
Lead Time distribution - Release 6.19.2 (Nov 2016)
85% confidence
– 26 days
Quantitative Analysis - Lead Time
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2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 22 25 29 41
NumberofItems
Lead Time (days)
Lead Time distribution - Release 7.0 (Feb 2017)
85% confidence
– 17 days
Evolutionary Change
with Kanban Method Sanjay Kumar, Yogesh Ranjan
Quantitative Analysis - Lead Time (cont.)
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Evolutionary Change
with Kanban Method Sanjay Kumar, Yogesh Ranjan
Release 7.1 (May 2017)
Phase 3 of Evolutionary change…
Evolutionary Change
with Kanban Method Sanjay Kumar, Yogesh Ranjan
Phase 3: Next Set of Goals
1. Improve predictability of Lead Time
2. Improve predictability of Throughput
3. Improve requirements management
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Evolutionary Change
with Kanban Method Sanjay Kumar, Yogesh Ranjan
Phase 3: Action Items
1. Improve Requirements Management
Revise definition of S, M and L
Improve user story definition
2. Prioritize finishing over starting
Define WIP limits
Continue WIP limit of one active item per person
Evolutionary Change
with Kanban Method Sanjay Kumar, Yogesh Ranjan
Phase 3 Results – May 2017 Release
1. More predictable lead time
2. Higher and more consistent throughput
Items completed went up from 105 to 284
Roughly 60% gain in weekly throughput
3. More effective daily coordination of work
4. Higher number of defects
Total defects went up from 120 to 320
Average defects stayed unchanged at 1.1 defect/item
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Evolutionary Change
with Kanban Method Sanjay Kumar, Yogesh Ranjan
Quantitative Analysis - Lead Time
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0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 22 25 29 41
NumberofItems
Lead Time (days)
Lead Time distribution - Release 7.0 (Feb 2017)
85% confidence
– 17 days
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 23 26 27 41
NumberofItems
Lead Time (days)
Lead Time distribution - Release 7.1 (May 2017)
85%
confidence – 12
days
Evolutionary Change
with Kanban Method Sanjay Kumar, Yogesh Ranjan
Quantitative Analysis
- Lead Time – All Stories (May’17)
