Slides used in the 1st #webdebs agile night 2011 - April, 8th @codiceplastico The story of a successful implementation of Kanban for the IT team of an italian SMB

1. Will Kanban
save your life?
@carloz 04/11 #webdebs

2. Tonight we’ll talk about ...
Agile Methods and Principles (briefly!)
What is Kanban
Why I / we decided to use Kanban
The way we used it (our personal evolution)
Our results
#webdebs

3. [2001] AGILE [2003] LEAN
“software development methodologies “maximize customer value while
based on iterative and incremental de- minimizing waste”
velopment, where requirements and
solutions evolve through collaboration (from manifacturing to software)
between self-organizing, cross-func-
tional teams” Mary Poppendieck, Tom Poppendi-
eck, “Lean Software Development:
An Agile Toolkit”
Agile methods: Scrum, XP (1996),
Agile Unified Process, Agile Model- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lean_
ling, ... software_development
#webdebs

4. [2009] SOFTWARE CRAFTMANSHIP
http://manifesto.softwarecraftsmanship.org/
(1999 - The Pragmatic Programmer)
[2011] ALE - Agile Lean Europe
http://alenetwork.eu/ :-D
#webdebs

5. Visualize the workflow
Split the work into pieces, write each item on a
card and put on the wall
Use named columns to illustrate where each
What’s Kanban?
item is
Limit WIP (work in progress) – assign explicit
limits to how many items may be in progress at
each state.
Measure the lead time (average time to com-
plete one item), optimize the process
http://www.crisp.se/kanban
#webdebs

6. The Kanban Board Kanban vs Scrum – how to make the best of both (Henrik Kniberg)
Deprecated version! Latest version is available at
http://www.infoq.com/minibooks/kanban-scrum-minibook
One day in Kanban-land
Develop
Backlog Selected 2 Deploy Live!
2
What’s Kanban?
Ongoing Done 1
A
B
G C
F D
H I
Develop
Backlog Selected 2 Deploy Live!
2 Ongoing Done 1
A
G C B
F D
H & B are the 2 most
A I
important things right now!
Develop
Backlog Selected 2 Deploy Live!
2 Ongoing Done
A We’ll do A
1
#webdebs
G

7. The Kanban Board
What’s Kanban?
#webdebs

8. AGILE
why it mattered to
me I
Individuals and interactions over process-
es and tools
Working software over comprehensive
documentation
Customer collaboration over contract ne-
gotiation
Responding to change over following a
plan
[http://agilemanifesto.org/]
#webdebs

9. AGILE
why it mattered to
me II
“Our highest priority is to satisfy the customer
through early and continuous delivery of valu-
able software.”
“The best architectures, requirements, and
designs emerge from self-organizing teams.”
http://agilemanifesto.org/principles.html
XP Values: Simplicity, Communication, Feed-
back, Respect, Courage
http://www.extremeprogramming.org/values.html
#webdebs

10. LEAN
why it mattered to
me
Eliminate waste.
Amplify learning.
Decide as late as possible.
Deliver as fast as possible.
Empower the team.
Build integrity in.
See the whole.
#webdebs

11. carloz@work - 2007/2010 - where and who
fast growing Italian SMB - B2B market, IT and legal
services
me from “the IT guy” to “IT Manager” / Team Leader
only partial control of an heterogeneous team (seniors,
juniors, external consultants, non techies, boss, ...)
#webdebs

12. carloz@work - 2007/2010 - what and how
(too) many small different IT projects running at the
same time (customers + internal): CRM, CMS, email mkt,
DMS, BPM, BI, ...
a few medium projects, many small, many micro, a lot of
post sale assistance ...
rough and plain old style processes / workflows
exciting but stressful (and sometimes frustrating)
(a lot of waste / MUDA!)
#webdebs

13. Our needs ... as user stories
As a DEVELOPER, I want to be able to (sometime) choose what
to work on.
As a DEVELOPER, I want to reduce the number of different
things I’m working on, at the same time.
As a DEVELOPER, I want to be able, when I’m done, to pull an
item on which to work, without having to wait for hours / days.
#webdebs

14. Our needs ... as user stories
As a TEAM LEADER I want to protect my team from continuous
interruptions and context switching.
As a TEAM LEADER I want my team to feel collectively re-
sponsible for the work being done (coding, deploying, assistance,
...)
#webdebs

15. Our needs ... as user stories
As a TEAM we want to make the managers (and the rest of the
organization) aware of the quantity of work we deal with.
As a TEAM we want to make our job more sustainable.
#webdebs

16. Ok, but ... Why KANBAN?
Because SCRUM wouldn’t fit :-/
(I do love pigs & chickens, daily standings, timeboxed iterations, ...)
#webdebs

17. We needed evolution.
(I couldn’t afford a revolution!)
ACCEPTABLE tools and practices.
Fitting for our own company, our own
business, our own people.
(While I kept working on values, and
culture ;-)
#webdebs

18. [http://www.infoq.com/minibooks/kanban-scrum-minibook]
#webdebs

19. KANBAN & US
BACKLOG | SELECTED | WIP | DONE
(and a few swimlanes ;-)
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20. KANBAN & US
We had to use the URGENT ISSUES (= which can bypass normal flow)
feature... (but at least this limited the number of issues deemed urgent ;-)
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21. KANBAN & US ... WE WERE DOING IT ...
AND IT WAS WORKING!
VISUALIZE!
We could see things. Others
could too!
There’s a new request? Put it on the
queue!
#webdebs

22. ACHIEVEMENTS
Moving towards team collective ownership / responsibility /
commitment
More respect to team work / “being busy”
Less context switching
Less pressure / headache
(In parallel, efforts were being made to have all team mem-
bers partecipate more in estimates and planning)
#webdebs

23. WIP
A better definition of “DONE”
A more strict enforcement of the WIP limits
Extending the use of KANBAN to other company teams
A more complete understanding of Agile / Lean princi-
ples by all team members
(A single bigger KANBAN board)
A less superficial understanding of Agile values by sales
guys and managers (Agile is NOT only faster and cheaper
product delivery)
#webdebs

24. Will Kanban
save your life?
It depends!
#webdebs

25. Be Agile, no matter what
they say!
And please remember:
“Il buon esempio vale + di 1000 parole”
(thx mom ;-)
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26. arloz
s chi aka c
Carlo Be org
carlo@ webdebs.
.i t
p://ww w.devsum
htt
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