This document discusses measuring and managing flow in a Kanban system. It provides examples of using metrics like lead time, cycle time, work in progress (WIP) to identify bottlenecks and continuously improve processes. Charts show tracking individual work items and iterations to determine where time is spent waiting vs working and how average lead times change over time. Keeping metrics simple at first with tools like cumulative flow diagrams is recommended before using more advanced techniques like Little's Law. The goal is to shorten lead times through iterative improvements informed by data.

1. Measure and Manage Flow in Practice
by Zsolt Fabók
November 2, 2011
http://zsoltfabok.com & http://digitalnatives.hu @ZsoltFabok

2. Hey boss, are we there yet?
Sure,we’re almost there!

3. Do
something
Do it differently next
time???
lead time
Might learn
something from it
May get some
feedback

4. 3 1 2
Queue Development Verification Live
Deployment
Ongoing Done Ongoing Done
cycle time
lead time

5. New 3 5 2 Done Queue 1 3 7 Live
...
lead time

6. ≈
shorter lead times ≈ faster feedback
faster feedback ≈ better product

7. ≈
Shortening means:
• I measure
• I know the tendency
• I have an idea how to do it
• I actually do it
• I measure again
• I check on the progress

8. ≈
Shortening means:
• I measure
• I know the tendency
• I have an idea how to do it
• I actually do it
• I measure again
• I check on the progress
This is CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT!

9. Subjective dashboards
won’t help much
image source: http://dashboard.virginiadot.org/

10. 40
32
Number of Items
24
16
8
0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Iterations
Done
In Progress
Queued CFD is better, but too
complicated at first

11. 40
32
Number of Items
24
lead time
16
8
0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Iterations
Done
In Progress
Queued CFD is better, but too
complicated at first

12. 40
32
Number of Items
24
lead time
16
8 cycle time
0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Iterations
Done
In Progress
Queued CFD is better, but too
complicated at first

13. 40
32
Number of Items
24
lead time WIP
16
8 cycle time
0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Iterations
Done
In Progress
Queued CFD is better, but too
complicated at first

14. 40
new items
32
Number of Items
24
lead time WIP
16
8 cycle time
0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Iterations
Done
In Progress
Queued CFD is better, but too
complicated at first

15. We need a KISS (Keep It Small and Simple)
image source: http://bit.ly/t5YKtv

16. Now we are talking:
individual lead times in iteration 5 average lead times per iteration*
20 8
lead time in days
15 6
lead time in days
10 4
5 2
0 1
5 6 7 8 9 10 2 3 0
1 2 3 4 4 5
work items, # iterations
*an iteration is 5 days long

17. Where did the time go?

18. waiting working
1
2
iteration
3
4
5
0% 25% 50% 75% 100%
waiting/working ratio
The work items are waiting a lot!

19. How did I measure it?

20. 3 1 2
Queue Development Verification Live
Deployment
Ongoing Done Ongoing Done
waiting
working

21. spent time

22. spent time
SLA, WTF?

23. We are using SLA for planning

24. Another example:
we changed here
number of items moved back
15
12
9
6
3
0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
iterations

25. One more example, just for fun :-)
‘M’ sized items on weekdays
number of items average lead time
7 13
5 10
4 7
2 3
0 0
Monday Wednesday Friday Monday Wednesday Friday

26. We don’t use it, but worth mentioning:
work in progress *
cycle time =
(lead time) capacity (throughput)
Our “ideal” WIP Limit would be: 8 * 1 = 8
* Little’s Law

27. Something not related to Kanban:
satisfaction index
5
4
3
1
0
-1
-3
-4
1 2 3 4 5
product owner
team

28. Thank you very much for your attention!
http://zsoltfabok.com @ZsoltFabok

29. The last page:
• The SLA idea comes from Angel Medina:
• http://www.proyectalis.com/en/blog/
• The presented data is courtesy of Digital Natives:
• http://digitalnatives.hu