This document discusses steps two and three of the Kanban recipe for success: reducing work in progress (WIP) and delivering often. It provides tactics for reducing WIP such as decreasing batch sizes, shortening iteration lengths, and limiting WIP using a Kanban system. Tactics for delivering more often include reducing release batch sizes, decreasing release transaction costs by testing less and deploying smaller changes more frequently, and designing for reduced learning costs. The document emphasizes that reducing WIP through these tactics enables more frequent delivery of value to customers.

1. Reduce WIP and Deliver
Often
Kanban Recipe for Success: Step Two and Three
Jason Yip
j.c.yip@computer.org
jcyip@thoughtworks.com
@jchyip
http://jchyip.blogspot.com

2. HOMEWORK CHECK

3. What step(s) did you take to start
Focusing on Quality?

4. The Recipe for Success
1. Focus on Quality
2. Reduce WIP
3. Deliver Often
4. Balance Demand Against Throughput
5. Prioritise
6. Attack Variability to Improve Predictability

5. REDUCE WIP

6. Which one is better?
Team A:
95% utilisation
Team B:
75% utilisation
5-10 day lead time
2-3 defects per
100 features
3 month lead time
2 defects per feature

7. Focus on what customers care
about OVER what (bad) managers
care about
Utilisation!
Quality,
Lead Time

8. Improve quality by reducing
WIP

9. Reducing WIP improves focus

10. Reducing WIP reduces
accumulation of errors

11. Reduce lead time by reducing
WIP

12. Little’s Law

13. How do you improve the flow of
traffic?

14. WHAT ARE TACTICS TO
REDUCE WIP?

15. Reduce batch size
• AKA break work down into smaller pieces
• See User Stories, Minimum Marketable
Feature, etc.

16. Reduce iteration length
• 4 weeks -> 3 weeks -> 2 week -> 1 week

17. Limit WIP using a kanban
system
http://www.infoq.com/minibooks/kanban-scrum-minibook

18. DELIVER OFTEN

19. Which approach will be more
successful? Why?
First date
Wait 2
weeks
SMS on the way
home “Call you
tomorrow?”
Show up with
flowers and an
apology
Call
tomorrow

20. “…small, frequent gestures or
events enhance trust more than
larger gestures made only
occasionally.”
David Anderson

21. Which approach will be more
successful? Why?
Successful
Release
Wait 6
months
Plan another
release in 2 weeks
Attempt
another large
release
Release in
2 weeks

22. Shorter lead times (from reducing
WIP) make it possible to release
more often

23. Continuous delivery is the ultimate
in frequent, trust-building events

24. Imagine that your team / group
had a long history of delivering
high quality, regularly.

25. What would you feel
comfortable proposing that you
don’t now?

27. WHAT ARE TACTICS TO DELIVER
MORE OFTEN?

28. Reduce (release) batch size
• See Minimum Marketable Feature

29. Reduce release transaction
costs
Overall Cost
of Release
Cost of Each
Release
Frequency of
Releases
And maintain or
reduce this
Increase this By reducing this

30. Transaction
costs of a
release
Production
transaction
costs
Consumption
transaction
costs
• Cost of testing
• Cost of deployment
• Cost of management
• Cost of fixes
• Cost of defects
• Cost of learning
Cost of release includes production
and consumption

31. http://www.uie.com/articles/magic_escalator/
Better interaction design
reduces the amount of
knowledge needed to be
acquired

32. http://www.uie.com/articles/magic_escalator/
(AKA cost of learning)
Test the size of this using
user testing

33. http://www.uie.com/articles/magic_escalator/
(AKA cost of learning)
Reduce this by reducing
the size of the change

34. To reduce production transaction
costs: smaller batches, build-in-
quality, design for production

35. To reduce consumption transaction
costs: smaller batches, build-in-
quality, design for consumption

36. HOMEWORK

38. What is the smallest step you
could take to move 1 level up
(or more)?

39. What is your plan to start that
step tomorrow?