The document describes the evolutionary change process that a fintech company underwent to transition from a customized Scrum process to Kanban. It discusses the challenges they faced with frequent requirements changes and lack of process. They started with visualizing work and improving requirements management. Over subsequent releases, they limited work in progress, improved estimation practices, and made the process more predictable. Quantitative analysis showed reductions in lead time and defects through the phases.

1. 19-05-2020
1
Evolutionary
Change with
Kanban Method
Sanjay Kumar
Yogesh Ranjan
Evolutionary Change
with Kanban Method Sanjay Kumar, Yogesh Ranjan
The Company – Cachematrix
 A Fintech firm
 Cutting edge Liquidity Management Platform
 Well recognized in the banking industry
 Clients among Bank of America, HSBC, Citibank,
PNC, UBS and RBC

2. 19-05-2020
2
Evolutionary Change
with Kanban Method Sanjay Kumar, Yogesh Ranjan
The Situation
➢ ~2007 – Agile adoption started
o Some customized Scrum implementation that worked
fairly well
➢ 2015 – The beginning of challenge
o More demand
o Need for a faster delivery cycle
➢ 2016 - Aug Release - The Peak of Chaos!
Evolutionary Change
with Kanban Method Sanjay Kumar, Yogesh Ranjan
The Retrospective
Three most important challenges faced by team:
1. Frequent changes in requirements
2. Lack of a clear and consistent process
3. Chaos towards the end of release

3. 19-05-2020
3
Evolutionary Change
with Kanban Method Sanjay Kumar, Yogesh Ranjan
The Ground Reality
 Single team of 30 members
• Dev + QA + team leads
• Two locations – Denver and Bengaluru
 No Scrum Masters
 No Product Owners
 No user story format, no story point estimation
 2 weekly planning cycle, with no hard stop
 No sprint retrospectives, only release retrospective
 Ineffective daily stand-ups
Evolutionary Change
with Kanban Method Sanjay Kumar, Yogesh Ranjan
The Punctuation Point

4. 19-05-2020
4
Evolutionary Change
with Kanban Method Sanjay Kumar, Yogesh Ranjan
Release 6.19.2 (Nov 2016)
First steps of a Change journey…
Evolutionary Change
with Kanban Method Sanjay Kumar, Yogesh Ranjan
What would be a Worthy Goal ?
- for Nov 2016 Release
1. Smooth product deployment (release)
2. Control the release-end chaos
3. Establish a consistent process

5. 19-05-2020
5
Evolutionary Change
with Kanban Method Sanjay Kumar, Yogesh Ranjan
Solution Options
1. Fix Scrum
 An obvious choice, but a
2. Discard Scrum, Switch over to Kanban Method
 Still a
3. Evolutionary Change
 Focus on the most pressing needs
 Shrink the Change
 Look for the first evidence(s) of success
Evolutionary Change
with Kanban Method Sanjay Kumar, Yogesh Ranjan
Evolutionary Change - Phase 1
1. Visualize work
 Kanban Board (TFS)
2. Improve requirements management
 Encourage Dev-Test collaboration
 Using stories for capturing requirements
3. Stop Starting, Start finishing
 Defer Commitment on backlog items
 Prioritize testing on dev-done items

6. 19-05-2020
6
Evolutionary Change
with Kanban Method Sanjay Kumar, Yogesh Ranjan
Some Things stayed the Same
 Organizational structure
 Titles, roles and team configuration
 Estimating work
 Estimation using time units, not story points
 Development Sprints
 The two week planning rhythm
 Without a hard timebox
Evolutionary Change
with Kanban Method Sanjay Kumar, Yogesh Ranjan
The First Set of Results
– Nov 2016 Release
1. Relief from Overburdening
 No release-end chaos
2. Better Initial Quality
 Reduced defect count, 700+ => 350
3. Shorter Lead Time
4. Improved Team Dynamics
 Better Dev-QA collaboration

7. 19-05-2020
7
Evolutionary Change
with Kanban Method Sanjay Kumar, Yogesh Ranjan
Quantitative Analysis - Lead Time
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 23 24 25 27 29 31 32 33 35 39 41 43 44 51 53 54 56 62 67 72
NumberofItems
Lead Time (days)
Lead Time distribution – Release 6.19.1 (Aug 2016)
85% confidence
– 41 days
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 30 32 34 38 44 46
NumberofItems
Lead Time (days)
Lead Time distribution - Release 6.19.2 (Nov 2016)
85% confidence
– 26 days
Evolutionary Change
with Kanban Method Sanjay Kumar, Yogesh Ranjan
Quantitative Analysis
- Cumulative Flow Diagram (Nov’16)

8. 19-05-2020
8
Evolutionary Change
with Kanban Method Sanjay Kumar, Yogesh Ranjan
Release 7.0 (Feb 2017)
Continuing the Evolutionary change…
Evolutionary Change
with Kanban Method Sanjay Kumar, Yogesh Ranjan
The Next Set of Goals
1. Improve predictability of work completion
2. Improve requirements management
3. Improve work estimation

9. 19-05-2020
9
Evolutionary Change
with Kanban Method Sanjay Kumar, Yogesh Ranjan
Evolutionary Change - Phase 2
1. Improve Requirements Management
 Groom stories before starting work
 Estimate work using a 3-point scale – S, M, L
2. Limit work in progress
 Limit one active item per person
3. Prioritize finishing over starting
 Define internal SLA for each story size
 Start conducting Daily standup in Kanban format
Evolutionary Change
with Kanban Method Sanjay Kumar, Yogesh Ranjan
The Second Set of Results
– Feb 2017 Release
1. Quality oriented development process
 Defect count reduced from 350 to 120
 Refactoring of complex items
2. Team Dynamics improved further
3. More predictable and leaner Flow

10. 19-05-2020
10
Evolutionary Change
with Kanban Method Sanjay Kumar, Yogesh Ranjan
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 30 32 34 38 44 46
NumberofItems
Lead Time (days)
Lead Time distribution - Release 6.19.2 (Nov 2016)
85% confidence
– 26 days
Quantitative Analysis - Lead Time
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 22 25 29 41
NumberofItems
Lead Time (days)
Lead Time distribution - Release 7.0 (Feb 2017)
85% confidence
– 17 days
Evolutionary Change
with Kanban Method Sanjay Kumar, Yogesh Ranjan
Quantitative Analysis - Lead Time (cont.)

11. 19-05-2020
11
Evolutionary Change
with Kanban Method Sanjay Kumar, Yogesh Ranjan
Quantitative Analysis
- Cumulative Flow Diagram (Feb’17)
Evolutionary Change
with Kanban Method Sanjay Kumar, Yogesh Ranjan
Quantitative Analysis – CFD Comparison

12. 19-05-2020
12
Evolutionary Change
with Kanban Method Sanjay Kumar, Yogesh Ranjan
Release 7.1 (May 2017)
Phase 3 of Evolutionary change…
Evolutionary Change
with Kanban Method Sanjay Kumar, Yogesh Ranjan
Phase 3: Next Set of Goals
1. Improve predictability of Lead Time
2. Improve predictability of Throughput
3. Improve requirements management

13. 19-05-2020
13
Evolutionary Change
with Kanban Method Sanjay Kumar, Yogesh Ranjan
Phase 3: Action Items
1. Improve Requirements Management
 Revise definition of S, M and L
 Improve user story definition
2. Prioritize finishing over starting
 Define WIP limits
 Continue WIP limit of one active item per person
Evolutionary Change
with Kanban Method Sanjay Kumar, Yogesh Ranjan
Phase 3 Results – May 2017 Release
1. More predictable lead time
2. Higher and more consistent throughput
 Items completed went up from 105 to 284
 Roughly 60% gain in weekly throughput
3. More effective daily coordination of work
4. Higher number of defects
 Total defects went up from 120 to 320
 Average defects stayed unchanged at 1.1 defect/item

14. 19-05-2020
14
Evolutionary Change
with Kanban Method Sanjay Kumar, Yogesh Ranjan
Quantitative Analysis - Lead Time
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 22 25 29 41
NumberofItems
Lead Time (days)
Lead Time distribution - Release 7.0 (Feb 2017)
85% confidence
– 17 days
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 23 26 27 41
NumberofItems
Lead Time (days)
Lead Time distribution - Release 7.1 (May 2017)
85%
confidence – 12
days
Evolutionary Change
with Kanban Method Sanjay Kumar, Yogesh Ranjan
Quantitative Analysis
- Lead Time – All Stories (May’17)

15. 19-05-2020
15
Evolutionary Change
with Kanban Method Sanjay Kumar, Yogesh Ranjan
Quantitative Analysis
- Cumulative Flow Diagram (May’17)
Evolutionary Change
with Kanban Method Sanjay Kumar, Yogesh Ranjan
Quantitative Analysis – CFD Comparison

16. 19-05-2020
16
Evolutionary Change
with Kanban Method Sanjay Kumar, Yogesh Ranjan
Quantitative Analysis
– Throughput Comparison
Evolutionary Change
with Kanban Method Sanjay Kumar, Yogesh Ranjan
Questions?

17. 19-05-2020
17
Evolutionary Change
with Kanban Method Sanjay Kumar, Yogesh Ranjan
THANK YOU!
➢ Sanjay Kumar
Agile Trainer & Coach
AKT, KCP, CAL1, ICP-ACC, CSP-SM
SunjayKumar@gmail.com
LinkedIn.com/in/SunjayKumar
➢ Yogesh Ranjan
Vice President - Offshore
Operations
YogeshRanjan2@gmail.com
LinkedIn.com/company/cachematrix