kanban evolutionary or revolutionary

Mahesh Singh

Co-founder/ Sr. VP - Product

Digite/ Swift-Kanban

Introduction

Co-Founder, Sr. VP – Product of Digite, Inc. Lean/ Agile ALM Products

Products - Swift-Kanban, Digite Enterprise and CloudSpec

David J Anderson, world-renowned Kanban Guru is Digite advisor

Over 25 years of experience (India/ US) working with distributed teams and global customers

Proud to be a Sponsor/ Exhibitor at Agile India 2012

Background

Software industry far too associated with failure!

Process Improvement Initiatives have been the graveyard of many a SEPG/ PMO professionals

Last 15 years have seen a transition from traditional to Agile to now Lean/ Kanban

Kanban in particular holds out the hope of being a “unifying system” that makes successful transition much more likely

First – a Vote – how many people here have

implemented/ worked on Kanban for

Software or IT?

Kanban’s BIG strength – It is Evolutionary.

Question for this session – Is it Evolutionary or

Revolutionary?!

rev·o·lu·tion. A sudden or momentous change in a situation:

Examples

- The revolution in computer technology.

- Organization moving from CMMi Level 1 to CMMi Level 3?

ev·o·lu·tion. A gradual process in which something changes into a different and usually more complex or better form.

Gradual Process:

Incremental Change

Reduced resistance

to change

A Historical Perspective on Evolution of Software Methodologies

A close-up

Kanban is an “Adaptive System”

Visualize Workflow

Limit Work in Progress

Measure and Optimize flow/ Lead Time

Make Process Policies Explicit

Use Models to recognize Improvement Opportunities

Kanban is

NOT

a Software Lifecycle Methodology

Some process or methodology

must already be in place!

So what kind of changes does

Kanban introduce?

Visualize Workflow

Make your process Visual

Let everyone see where

the work is.

Limit WIP

Avoid MAFA

Stop STARTING

Start FINISHING

Kanban: Limit WIP

Limit or eliminate Multi-Tasking

If you have slack, work on “Intangible”

tasks

Introduce PULL

Let team members commence work

on the next priority item when they are available to work on that item.

Shift from “being assigned” (Push) to “taking up” (Pull) a task

Decoupled Cadences

Work based on current

priority and cost of delay.

Make a release when you have enough

work products (features) to make a

delivery.

Evolutionary

or

Revolutionary?

Visualize Workflow

Let EVERYONE know

WHERE you are

and

that you might be STUCK!

Kanban Encourages Transparency and Visibility and Honesty typically not seen in

other systems!

Limit WIP

Reduce/ Eliminate Multi-Tasking

Eliminate a key employee performance measure!

Focus on Work-Life Balance!!

Introduce PULL

Turn the world of PUSH/

ASSIGMENTS upside-down!

Empower Team Members

and establish a Culture of Trust

Both Managers and Team Members take

time to get used to this!

Decoupled Cadences

“When is our next release and what will it

have?”

Management focus NOT on Release/

Iteration Planning,

But on “up-to-the-minute” Cost of

Delay, Flow, Throughput and Quality

And more…!

Kanban encourages and enables

Process Experimentation

Quantitative Management

Viral spread across the Organization

Kanban encourages and enables

a Kaizen Culture

Kanban –

EVOLUTIONARY in the RIGHT places

And

REVOLUTIONARY in the RIGHT

places

Evolutionary in the right places –

No big-new end-to-end mandated process

No change in roles of people

No change in software lifecycle methodology

you continue to do what you already do

Kanban specifically encourages analyzing

fundamental engineering process for

improvement

Revolutionary in the right places as well!

Encourages and enables Organizational

Transformation

Encourages Transparency and Visibility

Provides an easy to implement method to

achieve a Kaizen Culture

We need to implement Kanban not only

for the Evolutionary reasons but for the

Revolutionary ones as well!!

Thank you!

mahesh@digite.com www.digite.com

+1-408-761-2238 swift-kanban.com

@maheshsingh @swiftkanban