The document discusses using kanban in operations teams. Kanban is a visual project management system that involves using cards to visualize work, limits on work-in-progress, and emphasizes continuous flow of work. It is well-suited for operations teams whose needs and priorities frequently change. Using kanban can provide mental freedom, increased throughput, improved communication and shared understanding within the team. The document provides examples of different kanban boards and encourages experimenting with kanban to determine if it is helpful for an operations team.

1. Kanban in Operations Ash Dall January 2011

2. Agenda What is Operations? What is kanban? Why kanban in Ops? How can you use it? Kanban photos Will it suck or help kick goals? http://www.blgconsultinggroup.com/blog/bid/32799/6-Secrets-to-a-Great-Sales-Presentation

3. What is Operations? Stuff Infrastructure, Software, Data People Like building, technology, learning, sharing Social (really!) Brothers in arms (empathy, respect, loyalty, trust) Methods Tech know-how & best practice Research; trial & error Processes Metrics Purpose Make sure services don’t go down, EVER Make sure services always run really fast Change things all the time without compromising (1) and (2). http://www.cloudave.com/1352/the-lego-internet/

4. What is kanban? Take a guess? Card Ticket Signboard Visual board Visual record Billboard Lean/JIT manufacturing Toyota Production System Pull vs push (minimize inventory) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muteki_Kanban_Musume

5. What is kanban (in IT)? http://www.agileproductdesign.com/blog/2009/kanban_over_simplified.html

6. Summary Visualise project work Tangible/interactive As a whole, priorities, status, owner etc Team autonomy, no micro-management Limit WIP = limit context switching = higher throughput Reportable Flexible/dynamic A method of getting work done http://www.flickr.com/photos/ul_marga/755378645/

7. Kanban in Ops (1/3) Suits our type of work (needs & priorities shift daily) Mental freedom Focus on completing work not on what you have to complete Trust the system – light-bulb moments onto cards & get back to it! Low WIP limits & increase throughput http://www.flickr.com/photos/fright42/5328752861/

8. Kanban in Ops (2/3) Visual communications Priorities, work type, status, owner Internal “What’s he working on? .. What’s that?” External Say “no..” “because..” Say “yes..” and follow with a “when” Communicate with the team Without interrupting them When they’re not there! http://www.theage.com.au/news/technology/mobile-phone-inventor-dreams-of-human-embeds/2008/03/28/1206207352924.html

9. Kanban in Ops (3/3) Build shared understanding & responsibility through kanban, daily standups and discussion/estimation Breeds autonomy & discourages micro-management Measure team success – work type, throughput, cycle time, lead time, value http://www.ateamvan.nl/origineel.html

10. How can you use it? Day in the life… 0915: Standup Pager report (0-2m) Any visitors? (0-2m) Updates – yesterday/today (2-5m) Review, estimate, place & prioritise cards (0-5m) Reward estimations (0-30s) Talk sh!t, Nerf one another & vandalize avatars (0-1m) 0930 – COB Cards flow New cards collected, criticalsactioned sooner Daily/weekly/<n>: Top-up bribes, cleanup done, compile tehdataz Realize the world changes and so should your kanban http://www.flickr.com/photos/jrwils/5330931885/

11. Some different kanbans [1/6]… http://www.flickr.com/photos/fright42/5329361286/

12. Some different kanbans [2/6]… http://www.flickr.com/photos/fright42/5328750879/

13. Some different kanbans [3/6]… http://www.flickr.com/photos/fright42/5329362036/

14. Some different kanbans [4/6]… http://www.flickr.com/photos/fright42/5328752361/

15. Some different kanbans [5/6]… http://www.flickr.com/photos/fright42/5328752861/

16. Some different kanbans [6/6]… http://www.flickr.com/photos/fright42/5329363742/

17. Will it suck, or help kick goals? It will suck if Your standups run too long Conch/talking stick Red cards Whip crackers “Can we take that offline?” Stay positive You get hung up on estimations Skip it if dipping a toe in the water Helpful for reporting Helpful for estimating achievable workload Think about how to get people talk about cards if not estimating Work happens off the wall You are inflexible Experiment! http://www.freepatentsonline.com/6809644.html

18. Will it suck, or help kick goals? You will kick goals if You estimate quickly and well Explain cards briefly but explicitly Shared understanding Flexibility on who can action the card Anticipate how much work you can achieve Can provide customers reasonable estimations Reporting is enhanced (report on points) Estimate individually but as a team Use “planning poker” Focus on getting work done Low WIP limits (challenging in Ops!) http://www.dogsplayingpoker.org/stuff/simpsons.html

19. We want you! System Engineers x 3 *NIX, IP, MySQL, Apache, Caching Systems & app performance tuning Monitoring & metrics Automated systems deployment Systems programming FAST, Java/Tomcat, SOLR Virtualisation & cloud Devops, collaborative, inspired & passionate http://careers.realestate.com.au/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/specialagent/4801839338/

20. Thank you adall@realestate.com.au @fright http://www.flickr.com/photos/fright42/ http://careers.realestate.com.au/ Questions? http://www.flickr.com/photos/amphotos08/5180975575/