1.
Kanban: More than
boards and WIP limits
SquirrelNorth
FERNANDO CUENCA
fernando@squirrelnorth.com
H o w K a n b a n h e l p e d m e
r e c o n c i l e w i t h A g i l e / S c r u m
November 16,
2022

2.
SquirrelNorth
CONSULTING | TRAINING | COACHING
MARTIN AZIZ FERNANDO CUENCA JAMES STEELE ALEXEI ZHEGLOV

3.
2000:
Developer
2003:
Technical Lead
2006:
(Agile) Team
Lead/Manager
2009:
Agile Coach
(embedded)
2011:
Agile Coach
(floating)
My professional
journey
2015: “Time to open a
pizza shop??”
Toronto
XPUser Group

4.
Agile and
its discontents

5.
Agile and
its discontents

6.
Agile and
its discontents

7.
Sometimes, all it takes is
a Good mentor…
Alexei
Zheglov

8.
“Kanban is
a way of seeing…”
Andy Carmichael
From someone’s
“needs”
(or request)...
… to those needs
being fulfilled.
Flow of Work
Commitment
Point
Delivery
Point
Replenishment Delivery
Lead Time
Arrival
Pattern

9.
Flow of Work
Lead Time
“Kanban is
a way of seeing…”
Andy Carmichael
DEMAND
capability

10.
Flow of Work
Lead Time
Kanban:
a “management method”
Cost of Delay
Classes of Service
Board Design
Options Model
Upstream Kanban
Queuing Policy
Decoupled Cadences
Capacity Allocation
…
DEMAND SHAPING
Identify and Remove
Delay
Bottleneck Handling
Dependency
Management
Understanding
Variation
Economic Cost Model
Risk Review
Feedback Loops
Liquidity
…
IMPROVING
CAPABILITY

11.
OK… WHAT IF OUR
PROCESS IS SCRUM?
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Scrum_Framework.png
Roles
Artifacts
Events
Timebox

12.
Refinado
(Grooming)
Sprint
Planning
Flow of Work

13.
Refinado
(Grooming)
Sprint
Planning
How does this
“hurt”?
Sources of
Dissatisfaction

14.
Stories don’t
just come from
the PO
During
“grooming”,
stories often
split Stories in
progress often
generate more
stories
Managing the
Backlog becomes
really difficult!

15.
When are we going
to be done?
Does it fit within the Sprint?
How many can we
take in?
”Done” doesn’t
always mean
“Done”
What do we do
with work not
finished in the
Sprint?
How much time?

16.
All work starts all at
the same time
Sprint
Planning
Stories wait for PO
approval, because
he/she’s not
available
Testers have to wait
until almost the
end of the Sprint

17.
Work gets blocked
and can’t move
Urgent work
appears in the
middle of the
sprint

18.
A digression…
There’s no
“wishful thinking”
in Kanban
David J. Anderson

19.
…OK, one more…
Agile needs a
new
“mindset”
Mindset Actions Outcomes
With Kanban we
start here
Double-loop
Learning
Some recommend
to start here..

20.
• Demand is rarely homogeneous
• Different types of work require different treatment
Demand
Analysis
Identification of
“Work Item Types”
Workflow Mapping

21.
Transition Rules
Classes of
Service
Optional
Activities
Work Item
Types
Explicit
Workflow

22.
• How do we understand the ”passage of time”?
• What are the ”forces of nature” that affect how long
something takes?

23.
Waiting
Queues
Buffer
(for “batches”)
Waiting
Queues

24.
What factors affect
Lead time?
Lead Time is a
probabilistic
variable
(non-deterministic)
An Inconvenient Truth

25.
Lead time
Distributions
0
5
10
15
20
25
1 4 7 10 13 16 19 22 25 28 31 34 37 40 43 46 49 52 55 58
Frequency
Duration (days)
What’s the “best case”? How frequent is it?
“worst case”
14.5
The ”average”
(never happened!)
The ”mode” (most frequent case)
How predictable
are we?

26.
Another
inconvenient truth…
Wait Wait Wait Wait
Work Work Work Work
Flow Efficiency =
work
work + wait
x 100%
Typical value: 1-20%

27.
In the search for
Predictability
Visual Model
Add Product
to Shopping
Cart
Test server
unavailable
Date: 24/10/2018
Blocker
Clustering
Instrumentation
to measure flow
Environment
Outage
Missing
Information
SME
availability
Identify
“Sources of Delay”
• Multitasking & preferential
treatment (Pre-emption)
• Queues & Buffers
• Dependencies
• Impediments (Blockers)
• Rework, defects (Failure Demand)

28.
• Too much work in progress (WIP)
• Batching

29.
The problem of
too much “WIP”
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Average Lead Time
Average WIP
Time (days)
Work
Items
Cummulative Flow
Diagram
(CFD)
Average Throughput
Arrivals
Departures
Avg. Delivery Rate =
Avg. WIP
Avg. Lead Time
Ley de Little

30.
The problem of
too much “WIP”
Unpredictable
System
Predictable System

31.
Limiting WIP
One does not limit WIP
with WIP limits

32.
In the meantime,
Customers are waiting…
You need to look
beyond individual
teams

33.
Two change management
Approaches
Current
Process
Defined/ Designed up-front
TRANSITION
Future
Process
Evolving
Process
Initial
Process
Future Process
is emergent
Fit for
purpose?
Fit for
purpose?
Fit for
purpose?
Fit for
purpose?
Fit for
purpose?
Roll back
Roll
forward
Defined
(Traditional)
Evolutionary
(Kanban)

34.
Change Management
with KAnban
Start with what you do
now.
Encourage acts of
leadership at all levels
Agree to pursue
Evolutionary Change
Evolving
Process
Initial
Process
Future Process
is emergent
Fit for
purpose?
Fit for
purpose?
Fit for
purpose?
Fit for
purpose?
Fit for
purpose?
Roll back
Roll
forward

35.
SquirrelNorth
s q u i r r e l n o r t h . c o m
Kanban: More
than boards and
WIP limits
H o w K a n b a n
h e l p e d m e
r e c o n c i l e w i t h
A g i l e / S c r u m
FERNANDO CUENCA
fernando@squirrelnorth.com
@fer_cuenca
November 17,
2022
Flow of Work
Lead Time