1.
AMIR BARYLKO
KANBAN
Amir Barylko > Kanban > What’s Kanban? MavenThought Inc.

2.
INTRO
Kanban System
Pull vs Push
Goals
Software Process
Example
Amir Barylko > Kanban > What’s Kanban? MavenThought Inc.

3.
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
Amir Barylko > Kanban > What’s Kanban? MavenThought Inc.

4.
PULL VS PUSH
New work is New work is
pulled pushed
into the system into the system
based on based on
capacity demand
Amir Barylko > Kanban > What’s Kanban? MavenThought Inc.

5.
GOALS
• Improve your current process
• Not change roles
• Not change flow
• Easy adoption
Amir Barylko > Kanban > What’s Kanban? MavenThought Inc.

6.
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
Amir Barylko > Kanban > What’s Kanban? MavenThought Inc.

7.
KANBAN BOARD
Amir Barylko > Kanban > What’s Kanban? MavenThought Inc.

8.
MODEL YOUR PROCESS
Identify Workflow
Drawing the board
Time Calculation
Buffers
Work Items
Amir Barylko > Kanban > What’s Kanban? MavenThought Inc.

9.
IDENTIFY WORKFLOW
•Which states/phases can be possible?
•What are the transitions?
•Which roles are involved?
•Which are the boundaries?
Amir Barylko > Kanban > Implementation MavenThought Inc.

10.
EXAMPLE
Analysis Testing
Design UAT
Coding Deploy
Amir Barylko > Kanban > Implementation MavenThought Inc.

11.
WORK ITEMS
• Use Cases
• User stories
• Bugs
• Change request
• Etc....
Amir Barylko > Kanban > Implementation MavenThought Inc.

12.
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
Amir Barylko > Kanban > Implementation MavenThought Inc.

13.
EXAMPLE BOARD
Input Analysis Design Coding Testing UAT Deploy
Flow
Amir Barylko > Kanban > Implementation MavenThought Inc.

14.
LEAD TIME
• Starts when the card is added to the input queue
and finishes when is delivered/deployed
Input Analysis Design Coding Testing UAT Deploy
Lead Time
Amir Barylko > Kanban > Implementation MavenThought Inc.

15.
CYCLE TIME
• Startswhen work begins on the card and finishes
when the card is ready to be deployed
Input Analysis Design Coding Testing UAT Deploy
Cycle Time
Amir Barylko > Kanban > Implementation MavenThought Inc.

16.
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
Amir Barylko > Kanban > Implementation MavenThought Inc.

17.
USING SWIM LANES
Backlog Analysis Coding UAT Archive
In Prog. Done In Prog. Done
Features
Bugs
Small
Change
Amir Barylko > Kanban > Implementation MavenThought Inc.

18.
WHAT GOES IN THE CARD?
• Information about the feature/request
• Number for traceability (tracking system, etc)
• Who’s assigned
• Deadline
• Other?
Amir Barylko > Kanban > Implementation MavenThought Inc.

19.
Post-It
DRAW YOUR BOARD &
Sharpie!
• Split up in teams (2 or 3)
• Identify current workflow
• Identify work items
• Draw a board
• Discuss
Amir Barylko > Kanban > Implementation MavenThought Inc.

20.
WIP LIMITS
Limit Work
Queues & Buffers
Considerations
WIP Accuracy
Capacity Allocation
Amir Barylko > Kanban > What’s Kanban? MavenThought Inc.

21.
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
Amir Barylko > Kanban > Implementation MavenThought Inc.

22.
EXAMPLE I
•3 Developers •Analysis (2)
•2 Testers •Dev (3)
•2 Analysts •Testing (2)
•1 Sysadmin •Deploy (1)
8 Total
Amir Barylko > Kanban > Implementation MavenThought Inc.

23.
EXAMPLE II
•3 Developers •Analysis (4)
•2 Testers •Dev (4)
•2 Analysts •Testing (3)
•1 Sysadmin •Deploy (2)
13 Total
Amir Barylko > Kanban > Implementation MavenThought Inc.

24.
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?
Amir Barylko > Kanban > Implementation MavenThought Inc.

25.
QUEUE EXAMPLE
Dev 20
Backlog Analysis Coding UAT Deploy
Ready
(7) (4) (4) (2) (2) Total
(3)
In Prog. Done In Prog. Done
Bottleneck buffer
Amir Barylko > Kanban > Implementation MavenThought Inc.

26.
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
Amir Barylko > Kanban > Implementation MavenThought Inc.

27.
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
Amir Barylko > Kanban > Implementation MavenThought Inc.

28.
HOWEVER...
Always set
the WIP!
Amir Barylko > Kanban > Implementation MavenThought Inc.