This document provides an overview of Kanban concepts and practices for improving workflow. It discusses how Kanban aims to visualize workflow, limit work-in-progress, encourage continuous flow and collaboration, and evolve processes experimentally through measurement and feedback. Key aspects covered include managing demand and capacity, understanding customers, focusing on flow and pull systems, setting work-in-progress limits, and continuously improving through reflection and data.

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Helen Meek
An experienced Agile Coach & Trainer
Helen.Meek@ripple-rock.com
@Helen_J_Meek

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• A method for directly improving service delivery
• A mechanism for catalyzing continuous improvement

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• Increasing capability is difficult & expensive
• Kanban is a way to match demand to capability
• Kanban encourages FLOW

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• Understand and focus on your customers’
needs and expectations
• Manage the work, let people self-organise around it
• Your organisation is an ecosystem of interdependent
services steered by its policies, reflect regularly on their
effectiveness and improve them

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• Start with what you do now
 Understanding current processes, as actually practiced
 Respecting existing roles, responsibilities & job titles
• Gain agreement to pursue improvement through
evolutionary change
• Encourage acts of leadership at all levels
Understanding
RespectAgreement
Leadership

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• Visualize
• Limit Work In Progress (WIP)
• Manage flow
• Make policies explicit
• Implement feedback loops
• Improve collaboratively, evolve experimentally (using models
& scientific method)
Flow
Collaboration
Balance
Transparency
CustomerFocus

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Queue Ready Development Test Review Deploy Conf
Feature K
Abandoned
Feature E
In Prog Ready to
Test
In Prog Ready to
Review
Policy
Feature I
BFeature L
Feature
M
Feature N
Feature
O
Feature P
Feature J
Feature H Feature F
Feature
G
Feature D Feature
C
Feature
B
Feature A
∞ ∞∞∞333
Policy Policy Policy Policy Policy
Standard Fixed
Date
Expedite Intangible
D
In Prog Ready to
Deploy
In Prog Deployed
Defect
Waiting
Blocked
3

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Title
Checkboxes…
risk 1
risk 2
risk 3
risk 4
req
complete
Color of the
ticket
Typically used
to indicated
technical or
skillset risks
H
Decorators
(Shape & Color)
(Letter)
SLA or
Target Date
Sometimes used to
highlight technical
dependencies
Sometimes used to
visualize legacy process
artifacts such as
“priority”
Start dd/mm/yyyy
dd/mm/yyyyDue
End
Other
Dates
Age (days
elapsed)
Sometimes used to
record local cycle time
per work state

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•Encourage
–Swarming
–Flow
–Pull
–Small Work Items
–Finishing Work Items
–Balance the board
•This means more than stopping Multi-tasking

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Delivery Rate (DR)
2 Per day
Average Work in Progress (WIP)
10
Average Lead Time (LT) =
5 days
Lead Time (5 days)
Where WIP = Total number of items in the system at a
time
• Limit WIP to improve lead
times
• Attack lead times (eliminate
delays) and see WIP go down
• Increase throughput by adding
capability directly or improve
the process and see the
benefit in lead times &/or WIP

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•Initially set limits:
– By limiting items per person/pair
– By considering target lead time
(Use Little’s Law as a guide)
– Reduce them gradually
•Then maintain them by considering:
– Is the work flowing?
– Are we seeing the problems to fix?
– Conversely, are the problems too painful?
– Blockers? Starvation?

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0
20
40
60
80
100
120
3/1/12
3/8/12
3/15/12
3/22/12
3/29/12
4/5/12
4/12/12
4/19/12
4/26/12
5/3/12
5/10/12
5/17/12
5/24/12
5/31/12
6/7/12
To Do
Design
Build
Test
DoneVertical cross
sections: WIP
Horizontal cross sections:
Average Lead Times

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85th %ile

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Flow efficiency % = Work Time x 100%
Lead Time
Test
Ready
F
E
I
G
D
G
Y
P
BD
E
M
N
P
1
A
B
Customer Lead Time
Waiting Waiting WaitingWorking
Ideas
Dev
Ready
5
Ongoing
Development Testing
Done
3 35
UAT
Deliver
y
Ready
∞ ∞
Working WaitingWorking
• Multitasking means time
spent in working
columns is often waiting
time
• Flow efficiency
measures the
percentage of total lead
time is spent actually
adding value versus
waiting
• Flow efficiencies of 1-5%
are commonly reported.
> 40% is good!

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•Transaction costs
- set up & close down activities
•Coordination costs
- When 2 or more people work on a common
goal
•Failure Load
- issues caused through poor quality

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Criteria for:
• Columns & Swim lanes
• Entry to Columns
• Class of Services
• Types of work
• Ways of working
• Must be
– Discussed
– Agreed
– Documented
– Reviewed regularly
Policies help to control the flow of work and for others members to
understand how to use the system.

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• Kanban System
• Kanban Meeting
• Ad-hoc retrospection
• Waste data
• Chart data
• Provides/encourages
Leadership
• Encourages Self-Org
• Look for coaching and
mentoring opportunities
• Focus on team to growth
• Reviews
• Ad hoc demos
• Put together a Cross
team working group
• Why not invite other
teams to your retro
• Communities of Practice

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• What do you change?
– How do you decide?
– Who should decide?
• Scientific Method requires measurement
• Data is your friend
– Shows improvement (or not)
– Allows meaningful discussions around completion

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•The best way to change is to start where you
are and evolve away
•You might not end up where you set out to go,
but you will end up where you need to be!

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• Certified Kanban Training
Dates Here
• Lean Kanban University Website
http://leankanbanuniversity.com
• Kanban Communities
– Kanban Coaching Exchange (KCE)
– Limited WIP Society
– KanbanDev & KanbanOps Yahoo Groups
– Kanban LinkedIn Group
– Twitter community

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http://leankanban.com/guide