The document discusses how a company implemented Kanban to improve their data analytics processes. They restructured into value stream-oriented teams, implemented Kanban boards to visualize workflow, and tracked metrics to balance demand and capabilities. This increased transparency, reduced lead times, and improved flow. Continuous improvement was data-driven by analyzing outliers and blockers on dashboards to optimize processes.

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KANBANIZING YOUR BUSINESS ABILITY
- Using Flight Level of Kanban (by Klaus Leopold)

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Program Overview
Product Service System Insights and Data Analytics providing end to end data analytics & reporting solution
1 2 PULSE Analytics Non-PULSE Analytics
3
Data Analytics
• Data Onboarding,
• Data Quality Management,
• Data Integration, aggregation/
transformation
• Build analytics ready data sets
• Patient Journey Creation
Design and develop analytics dashboards
(PULSE); Manage daily weekly
deliverables & reports Build patient journey
KPIs
Work on brand insights, ad-hoc analytics
& provide analytics solutions for specific
questions from brand & marketing teams
Data
Data
Types
 Patient HUB Data
 Specialty Pharmacy data
 Syndicated data (APLD, LAAD, etc.)
 Claims & Copay enrollment
 Adherence Enrollment
Multiple Data Vendors
 McKesson
 Sonexus Health
 Medisafe
 HCS
 IQVIA
 Symphony Health
Data
Vendors
 Free Goods
 Remittance
 Daily SF Files
 Ad hoc Data - Programs Data, NVS
Internal Data (Roster, Alignment, etc.)
Work Areas
Key Objectives
• Align team operations
with strategic goals
• Achieve а high level of transparency
• better alignment between the
different company levels
• Reduced and stabilized cycle time by
continuously evolving work processes
• Increased flexibility that helps
to effectively react and adapt
to changes

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Pain Points in 2020 Key Constraints
• Siloed departments
• long queues between the
different teams
• To move forward with implementing the Kanban
method to improve following using Kanban Flight
Level Model
• Operational Level
• Coordination
• Strategic Portfolio Management
• Restructuring into product-oriented teams,
• Use Kanban to help break down the silos within the
organization
• Gave them visibility and data for further
improvements.
What’s done till now
• Making conscious
business decision
about project and
customers
• Focus on business
goals not project
Goals based on
Kanban Metrics
• Lean budgeting based
on Demand across
each product track
Kanban Transformation-
Kanban
Transformation
Technology Stack: Alteryx, DataIKU, Tableau, Qliksense, Hive, SQL, Excel, Python
Data Sources: HUBs, SPs, copay/adherence vendors, IQVIA, Sonexus Health, McKesson, Symphony Health
Team Construct : 41 Member Team with
70% Offshore , 5 Agile PODs
• Poor work prioritization
• Long delivery cycles due to Uneven
workflows
• Lack of clear visualization of the end-to-
end flow
• Identification Impediment of improvement
opportunities
• Need of fast feedback flow mechanisms
• Lack of synchronization across teams
• Poor capacity distribution
Journey to Kanban
Transformation Operational
End 2 End Coordination/
Organizational
Strategic
Projections

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Old Approach
© 2021 Cognizant
4
Flow
• WIP limit is available but always
exceeds; this affects the flow
• No queuing mechanism followed
• Not suitable to identify starvations
and bottlenecks
Visualization
• As the columns are very minimal,
does not give clear status of work
items
• No expedited swim lane to handle
business priority items
• Team follows push-based
mechanism
Metrics
• No Kanban metrics available to
check the flow, capacity utilization,
items turn over time etc.
Kanban Adoption
Kanban Board :

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• Simple start
• Improved visibility &
communication
• Focus on finishing work
• Improved Team Efficiency
Kanban Flight
1

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New Approach
© 2021 Cognizant
6
Kanban Adoption
Flow
 Introduced combined WIP limit for
developers as they can handle both
changes and internal reviews
 FIFO concept introduced for items of all
swim lanes other than Expedite lane
Visualization
 Elaborated columns and swim lanes
introduced to give a clear picture on
the status of work items
 The new board has a separate To Do
column to start up with team
commitment
 Introduced expedited swim lane to
handle business priority items
Metrics
 Kanban metrics recommended to check
the flow, ensure 100% capacity is
utilized, clear view on items turn over
time etc.
 Demand Vs Capacity model established
Kanban Board :
• Simple start
• Improved visibility &
communication
• Focus on finishing work
• Improved Team
Efficiency
Kanban Flight

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Key Results
• Implementing the ALM across the company and training employees on the Kanban Method has brought
several key results for organization.
Increased operational transparency
• Kanban Board and ALM helped the organization visualize the flow of work within teams throughout the
projects.
• Using digital Kanban boards to structure work processes and manage work items has improved the
coordination and scheduling between the different work stages of a task and within those teams.
How the Client Achieved this?
• Each team defined their workflows to visualize major steps in a deliverable process.
• The stages are explicitly listed and accounted for during the project lifecycle.
• Visualization of work items at each stage allowed for better resource planning.
• The quality control stage had checklists as explicit policies and streamlined the communication of verification
and Validation
• Daily connect w.r.t to ALM allowed the sticky points to rise to surface and call to attention.

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• Demands and Capabilities are being
balanced
• Less re-prioritization, less expedite work
• Working on the right thing more efficiently
• Optimizing of the interaction of the teams
• Doing right thing at right time
• Reduction in of queue sizes
• Improved lead-time
2
Kanban Flight

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• Demands and
Capabilities are being
balanced
• Less re-prioritization,
less expedite work
• Working on the right
thing more efficiently
Kanban Flight
Portfolio Kanban
Specialty Brand
Data
Analytics
Programs
Pulse
Analytics
Programs
Non-PULSE
Analytics
Programs
• Work Alignment for Portfolio
• Product owners enabled better
prioritization decisions.
• Well-synchronized work to remove
blocking issues and dependencies
• Meeting for planning of projects, and
to build consensus on common
objectives and periostitis for business
• Bi-weekly synchronization meetings
• The Track Product Owners were exposing
their status
• Openly discussing the impediments.
• Meetings for Risk identification ideas for
possible resolution
• Project Sponsor participating in many of
these meetings too.
• Weekly Intake
Meetings by
Intake Owner
with team
• Take only
prioritized and
ready work
Track 1
Kanban
Track 2
Kanban
Track 3
Kanban
Track 1
Kanban
Track 2
Kanban
Track 1
Kanban
Track 2
Kanban
• Optimizing of the
interaction of the teams
• Doing right thing at right
time
• Reduction in of queue
sizes
• Improved lead-time
• Daily Team Kanban Meeting
• To observe and Track status
& Flow of work
• How is utilization of capacity
• What’s completed and what
to pull next
• BI-weekly Team Retrospective
Meeting
• Reflect on work
management and required
improvement
• Weekly or as needed Internal
Team Replenishment & Delivery
Meeting
• Select ready item from
backlog

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• Managed successfully the project portfolio for the area using shared policies and prioritization criteria.
• Quantitative understanding of demand and capability and related further improvements
• Evolved from team-focused management to service-oriented entities with deep understanding of their real
capability and the types of services they are delivering to their customers.
• Quantitative understanding of their demand, the patterns of its arrival, as well as the ranges of delivery times
they can commit to, by type of service provided.
• Reached a more profound comprehension of the causes for blockages in their workflows and their
management routines.
Flow-oriented project portfolio management

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• Balancing demand vs. capability across the
value stream.
• High degree of Quality engineering
• Stop starting, start finishing
• Making conscious business decision about
project and customers
• Focus on business goals not project Goals
3
Kanban Flight

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• Balancing demand vs.
capability across the value
stream.
• High degree of Quality
engineering
• Stop starting, start
finishing
Kanban Flight
• Making conscious
business decision
about project and
customers
• Focus on business
goals not project Goals
Management at Speciality Brand Port Folio Level
Commercial
Organization
Product
Management
Organization
IT
Organization
Value Stream
Oriented
Departments
Product 1
Product 2
Product 3
Product 4
Product 5
Product 62
Value Stream
Data Analytics
Value Stream
Pulse Analytics
Value Stream
Non- Pulse Analytics

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Key Results
• Addressing the long delivery cycles, lasting from one to six months.
Issues Identified by Lead time Distribution Analysis
• Siloed team structure with separate commercial, product, and IT departments as a major problem.
• One project was moving through the different departments, causing massive hand-overs with work items
getting stuck in-between, and creating long waiting queues.
How the Client Achieved this?
• Restructured into value-stream oriented departments and product-oriented teams and also reduced the batch
size of work items.
• Moved away from specific team formats and chose PODs which team roles are needed based on the product
context.
• Each product team, underwent Kanban, Lean, and OKR training,
• The 3-4-layered structure of the Boards helped break down silos and ensured transparency on Team Initiatives,
Stories, Risk Management, and Continuous Improvement efforts.
• Working in smaller batches, combined with the new level of visibility and alignment, gave teams flexibility to
react and adapt more effectively if needed.

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Visibility & Clarity on near future requirement through Advanced roadmap

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Team has steadily become predictable in planned vs delivered story points per sprint; velocity is range-bound.

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Created Custom reports in dashboard view using EasyBI for better visibility on the progress of Issues

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KPIs and Value Delivered
Value Delivered
Field POD HQ POD
20
0
Data POD
4 3 1
Q4'21 Q1'22
New Analysis
workflows
developed Key
assests developed
6
10
4
Q2'22
Brand Analytics POD Support POD
Support Activities
40 30
20 10 6
4
0
Q4'21 Q1'22 Q2'22
Adhoc Requests KTLO rationalization Saving
Field POD Development HQ POD Development
This POD created Recently and
5 4 4
3
2 2 2
1 1
4
2
3
2 2 2
1 1
completed ~147 Adhoc Requests
in Q2
0 0
Q4'21 Q1'22 Q2'22 Q4'21 Q1'22 Q2'22
DEV UAT PROD DEV UAT PROD
Charts indicate the number ofdashboards Adhoc Requests , KTLO activities , New Workflows

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Data-Driven
Continuous
Improvement
As a part of the weekly risk review meetings on the tactical level, the teams go over the various charts
of ALM to examine the flow's stability and identify areas that need attention.
Following the Kanban principles, they are reducing and stabilizing its teams' cycle time as a direct way
to accelerate the overall project delivery.
They Adapted the routine of analyzing outliers (task that stayed too long in one of the workflow
stages), they would investigate the reason and manage their process improvement efforts
The Value Stream Delivery Managers, were helped by blockers and overdue tasks signaled on the
Workspace dashboard, to align the operational and tactical levels more straightforward.
The various chart helped Identify and Analyze Flow Interruptions for the different teams and enabled
easily spotting and proactively manage flow interruptions like bottlenecks and blockers.
The blocker analysis also helped uncover dependencies and continuously improve teams' work
processes, helping them stabilize their cycle time.

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Data-Driven
Continuous
Improvement
Visualizing the work on the digital Kanban boards made the work processes and workload clear to
everyone, increasing operational transparency and opening the door for collaboration.
ALM, made the streamlining of task-related information easier while reducing project waste (ie.,
rework, duplication of efforts, task switching, searching for information, etc.).
The real-time status of projects and work items at a glance aids in making decisions about resource
allocation easier and resource distribution more efficient.
A detailed rollout plan and training on the Kanban methodology were both crucial success factors
for the company-wide implementation of the software.
Using the Kanban Flight during the implementation phase gave management a way to measure the
evolution of the different groups and support the planning of the next steps.