kanban in operations

Kanban in Operations

Ash DallJanuary 2011

Agenda

• What is Operations?• What is kanban?

• Why kanban in Ops?• How can you use it?

– Kanban photos• Will it suck or help kick goals?

http://www.blgconsultinggroup.com/blog/bid/32799/6-Secrets-to-a-Great-Sales-Presentation

What is Operations?• Stuff

– Infrastructure, Software, Data• People

– Like building, technology, learning, sharing– Social (really!)– Brothers in arms (empathy, respect, loyalty, trust)

• Methods– Tech know-how & best practice– Research; trial & error– Processes– Metrics

• Purpose1. Make sure services don’t go down, EVER2. Make sure services always run really fast3. Change things all the time without compromising (1) and (2).

http://www.cloudave.com/1352/the-lego-internet/

What is kanban?

• Take a guess?– Card– Ticket– Signboard– Visual board– Visual record– Billboard

• Lean/JIT manufacturing– Toyota Production System– Pull vs push (minimize inventory)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muteki_Kanban_Musume

What is kanban (in IT)?

http://www.agileproductdesign.com/blog/2009/kanban_over_simplified.html

Summary

• Visualise project work– Tangible/interactive– As a whole, priorities, status, owner etc

• Team autonomy, no micro-management• Limit WIP = limit context switching = higher

throughput• Reportable• Flexible/dynamic• A method of getting work done

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ul_marga/755378645/

Kanban in Ops (1/3)

• Suits our type of work (needs & priorities shift daily)

• Mental freedom– Focus on completing work not on what you have

to complete– Trust the system – light-bulb moments onto cards

& get back to it!– Low WIP limits & increase throughput

http://www.flickr.com/photos/fright42/5328752861/

Kanban in Ops (2/3)

• Visual communications– Priorities, work type, status, owner– Internal• “What’s he working on? .. What’s that?”

– External• Say “no..” “because..”• Say “yes..” and follow with a “when”• Communicate with the team

– Without interrupting them– When they’re not there!

http://www.theage.com.au/news/technology/mobile-phone-inventor-dreams-of-human-embeds/2008/03/28/1206207352924.html

Kanban in Ops (3/3)

• Build shared understanding & responsibility through kanban, daily standups and discussion/estimation

• Breeds autonomy & discourages micro-management

• Measure team success – work type, throughput, cycle time, lead time, value

http://www.ateamvan.nl/origineel.html

How can you use it?• Day in the life…

– 0915: Standup• Pager report (0-2m)• Any visitors? (0-2m)• Updates – yesterday/today (2-5m)• Review, estimate, place & prioritise cards (0-5m)• Reward estimations (0-30s)• Talk sh!t, Nerf one another & vandalize avatars (0-1m)

– 0930 – COB• Cards flow• New cards collected, criticals actioned sooner

• Daily/weekly/<n>:– Top-up bribes, cleanup done, compile teh dataz– Realize the world changes and so should your kanban

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jrwils/5330931885/

Some different kanbans [1/6]…


Will it suck, or help kick goals?• It will suck if

– Your standups run too long• Conch/talking stick• Red cards• Whip crackers• “Can we take that offline?”• Stay positive

– You get hung up on estimations• Skip it if dipping a toe in the water• Helpful for reporting• Helpful for estimating achievable workload• Think about how to get people talk about cards if not estimating

– Work happens off the wall– You are inflexible

• Experiment!

http://www.freepatentsonline.com/6809644.html

Will it suck, or help kick goals?

• You will kick goals if– You estimate quickly and well

• Explain cards briefly but explicitly– Shared understanding– Flexibility on who can action the card

• Anticipate how much work you can achieve– Can provide customers reasonable estimations

• Reporting is enhanced (report on points)• Estimate individually but as a team

– Use “planning poker”

– Focus on getting work done• Low WIP limits (challenging in Ops!)

http://www.dogsplayingpoker.org/stuff/simpsons.html

We want you!

• System Engineers x 3• *NIX, IP, MySQL, Apache, Caching– Systems & app performance tuning– Monitoring & metrics– Automated systems deployment– Systems programming– FAST, Java/Tomcat, SOLR– Virtualisation & cloud

• Devops, collaborative, inspired & passionate• http://careers.realestate.com.au/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/specialagent/4801839338/

Thank you

• [email protected]• @fright

• http://www.flickr.com/photos/fright42/• http://careers.realestate.com.au/

• Questions?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/amphotos08/5180975575/

kanban in operations

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