cars, trains, and kanban: how to move faster
TRANSCRIPT
Cars, Trains and KanbanHow to Move Faster
Peter Kananen Partner, Gaslight
teamgaslight.com @teamgaslight
What Kanban is not
SCRUM Alternative?
Lack of Iterations and Cadence
Not Planning
Process for Building Software
What does Kanban really mean?
What Kanban really means
Modeling the process Limiting work in progress
Analyzing FlowPulling, not pushing
Our IssuesLimiting work in progress
Analyzing FlowPulling not pushing
• Poor economic decision making • Long cycle times • Large batch sizes • Over-utilization of capacity • Incurring and blind to the cost of queues • Optimizing for local efficiencies • High WIP • Reduced fast feedback • Limited insight into how to improve
Modeling the Process
When you don’t model your process…Limiting work in progress
Analyzing FlowPulling not pushing• Poor economic decision making • Long cycle times • Large batch sizes
Everything is a system
http://www.systemsbiology.emory.edu/research/systems-biology-introduction.html
http://www.advantagefactory.com/integration.html
What is the goal?
What is the goal?
Throughput is the only goalWhat does ‘Done’ mean?
Hidden WorkWhy ‘To Do, Doing, Done’ are not enough
When you don’t model your process…Limiting work in progress
Analyzing FlowPulling not pushing• Poor economic decision making • Long cycle times • Large batch sizes
Limiting work in progress
When you don’t limit WIP…Limiting work in progress
Analyzing FlowPulling not pushing• Over-utilization of capacity • Blind to the cost of queues • Optimizing for local efficiencies
ExperimentUtilize all capacity
High density = cascading problems
What is density?
Inventory (and it’s usually hidden)
“In product development, our greatest waste is not unproductive engineers, but work products sitting idle in process queues.” -
Donald G Reinertsen
Which do you want to move?
Stop maximizing local efficiencies
When you don’t limit WIP…Limiting work in progress
Analyzing FlowPulling not pushing• Over-utilization of capacity • Blind to the cost of queues • Optimizing for local efficiencies
Pulling, not Pushing
When you push instead of pull…Limiting work in progress
Analyzing FlowPulling not pushing• Over-utilization of capacity • Incur the cost of queues • High WIP • Reduce fast feedback
Trains Implement Kanban
The power of pull
Pulling helps enforce WIP limits
Reinertsen, Donald G. The Principles of Product Development Flow
When you push instead of pull…Limiting work in progress
Analyzing FlowPulling not pushing• Over-utilization of capacity • Incur the cost of queues • High WIP • Reduce fast feedback
Analyzing Flow
When you don’t analyze flow…Limiting work in progress
Analyzing FlowPulling not pushing• Increased cycle time • Incurring and blind to the cost of queues • Large batch sizes • Limited ability to improve • Further harm economic decision making
Lead time & cycle time
Outpacing your bottlenecksRemember throughput is the goal
Use a Cumulative Flow Diagramhttp://zsoltfabok.com/images/posts/2011-02-05-xp-with-kanban-instead-of-scrum/cfd.png
Historic Cycle Times
When you don’t analyze flow…Limiting work in progress
Analyzing FlowPulling not pushing• Increased cycle time • Incurring and blind to the cost of queues • Large batch sizes • Limited ability to improve • Further harm economic decision making
What Kanban really means
Modeling the process Limiting work in progress
Analyzing FlowPulling not pushing
Our IssuesLimiting work in progress
Analyzing FlowPulling not pushing
• Poor economic decision making • Long cycle times • Large batch sizes • Over-utilization of capacity • Incurring and blind to the cost of queues • Optimizing for local efficiencies • High WIP • Reduced fast feedback • Limited ability of improvement
Additional resources
