The growing interest about Kanban in the Agile Community seems to reduce learning about Lean Thinking to one principle only: PULL. This talk was prepared for the Agile PT 2011 conference and provides an overview of the 14 Management Principles for developing a Lean Culture and how IT frameworks such as SCRUM or KANBAN for Software Development apply them.
It introduces Lean Leardership and People Development principles as well as fundamental Lean Practices beyond kanban such as Value Stream Mapping, Continuous Flow, Leveling (Heijunka), Stop and Fix (Jidoka), Visual Standards, Visual Controls and A3 Problem Solving.
Knowledge about these often overlooked principles and practices will help agile teams to see the whole and better understand the lean concepts behind agile frameworks such as SCRUM and KANBAN. They will be better equipped to create learning and adaptive organizations by solving problems in the implementation of agile
frameworks instead of spending time discussing which framework is better. After all, the goal is to "be lean and agile" and not to "do Lean" or "do Agile"
4. Reducing LEAN to KANBAN is like
driving just half of your car
KANBAN
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5. Lean processes have 2 major pillars : Just in Time and Built In Quality
Kanban is just a visual tool to implement Just In Time.
Just In Time Built In Quality
KANBAN
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6. Lean thinking is about understanding the management
principles behind both pillars...
Just In Time Built In Quality
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7. ...and also the principles behind
people development and problem solving
holding both pillars together.
Just In Time Built In Quality
People and Problem Solving
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8. Principle #1
Base your
management
decisions on a long
term philosophy,
even at the expense
of short term goals.
Generate Value for the
Customer, Society and Economy.
Evaluate every function on the
company in terms of its ability to
achieve this.
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10. Principle #2
Create Continuous
Process Flow to
bring problems to
surface.
Redesign processes to achieve
high-value added, continuous
flow. Create flow to move
material and information fast as
well as to link processes and
people together.
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13. Principle #3
Use
Pull Systems to avoid
overproduction
Minimize WIP and inventory by
stocking small amounts and
frequently restocking based on
what the customer process actually
takes away.
Be responsive to shifts in customer
demand rather than rely on
schedules
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15. Principle #4
Level out the
workload. Work like
the tortoise, not the
hare
Eliminate overburden (MURI) to
people and equipment and
unevenness (MURA) in the
schedule
Eliminating waste (MUDA) is just
1/3 of the Lean equation
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17. Principle #5
Build a culture of stopping
to fix problems, to get
quality right the first time
Build into your organization a support
system to quickly solve problems and put
in place countermeasures
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19. Principle #6
Standard work is the
foundation for continuous
improvement and employee
empowerment.
Allow creative and individual expression to
improve the standard, then incorporate into
new standard
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21. Principle #7
Use
Visual Control so no
problems are hidden.
Use simple visual indicators to help people
if they are deviating from a standard
condition
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23. Principle #8
Technology support:
Use only reliable, tested
technology that serves your
people and processes.
Often it is best to work out a process
manually before adding technology to
support the process
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26. Grow leaders who thoroughly understand the work,
life the philosophy and teach it to others
Principle #9
The leader's job is to
develop people.
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27. Develop exceptional People and Teams
Principle #10 who follow your company's philosophy.
Make an ongoing
effort to teach individuals
how to work together as
teams toward common goals.
Workgroups are the focal
point for solving problems
and control of
standardization
Use cross functional teams to improve quality and produtivity and enhance flow
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28. Respect your extended network of Partners and Suppliers
by challenging them and helping them to improve
Principle #11
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29. Genchi Genbutsu: Go see for yourself
to thoroughly understand the situation
Principle #12
Solve problems and
improve processes by
going to the source and
observing and verifying
data
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31. Make decisions slowly by concensus thoroughly
considering all the options; implement decisions rapidly
Principle #13
Namawashi is the
process of discussing
problems and potential
solutions with all of the
affected to collect their
ideas and agree on a
path forward.
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33. Become a Learning Organization through reflection (Hansei)
and continuous improvement (Kaizen)
Principle #14
View
errors as
opportunities for
leaning. Rather than
blaming individuals, take
corrective actions and
distribute knowledge
about each
experience
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37. Principle#1 Long Term Philosophy: Value for the Customer
SCRUM promotes Value Driven Development and the Product Owner
optimizes ROI (Value/cost) .. The process is optimized so that teams don't
waste much time in non value added activities such as meetings ... but
nobody is focused in removing waste from the process..
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38. #2 Continuous Process Flow.
SCRUM is designed to flow the work in small batches. The team organized
like a work cell and the Scrum Master helps to remove impediments to Flow
during the Sprint
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39. #3 Use Pull Systems to avoid overproduction.
SCRUM limits WIP by allowing teams to pull from the Product Backlog the
items to be worked during the Sprint. Once they start working on them, the
previous process should strive to have the next batch of PBIs groomed.
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40. #4 Level out the workload.
SCRUM fits customer demand into leveled schedules (sprints) aligning it to
team capacity and promoting a sustainable pace of work
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41. #6 Standard Work:
SCRUM relies in empirical process control so standard tasks and times have
no application but the Definition of Done defines the standard by which
Product Backlog items are evaluated when “Done”. The team is empowered
to improve this standard in Sprint Retrospectives
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42. #7 Visual Controls:
SCRUM makes problems visible in burndown charts ... Some teams use task
boards to visualize task progress and impediments
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43. #9 Grow Leaders #10 Develop Teams #11 Respect Partners
The team is challenged to self-organize and decide how to achieve the sprint
goals. The Scrum Master provides support for the team and Leads by
mentoring and teaching. The PO manages relation with upstream processes
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45. #13 Concensus #14 Reflection and Continuous Improvement
Sprint Planning is about gathering consensus on what to build in the next
Sprint. Sprint Retrospectives provide points for reflection and continuous
improvement of the process. Unfortunately knowledge is not shared beyond
the project
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47. Principle#1 Long Term Philosophy: Value for the Customer
Using a Kanban System for Software, Value is Optimized with Classes of
Service (SLAs). Work is scheduled by Cost of Delay
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48. #2 Continuous Process Flow..
Visualise Workflow: Map the Value stream as it exists and draw the card wall.
Limit WIP to reduce lead times. Define, as well, limits for queues and buffer
bottlenecks. Adjust empirically.
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49. #3 Use Pull Systems to avoid overproduction.
Pull work from the system only when there is capacity to do so.
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50. #4 Level out the workload.
Balance Demand against throughput. Make a study of the demand and
allocate capacity by Work Item Type or Class of Service
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52. #7 Visual Controls:
Cumulative Flow diagram shows work in progress at each stage in the system.
Teams track also Lead Time , Due Date Performance and Defect Rates.
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53. We saw how LEAN management principles are broad enough
to be applied in agile software development frameworks
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55. ... But why don't we leverage Lean to solve the
causes of the problems as well ????
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56. #5 Stop and Fix, #8Technology support
Agile teams should focus on technology that automates software
integration and testing... Stop to fix problems should be our mindset.
We developed a continuous integration tool that shows teams their
technical debt: http://www.peakplatform.net/
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57. #13 Concensus #14 Reflection and Continuous Improvement
Improve retrospectives with Root Cause Analysis and A3 Thinking to get
visibility of Process Improvement (PDCA for the process and not only for the
product,...)
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58. LEAN is about developing People to solve Problems
(if we were truly agile we should start here....
People over Processes...right???)
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