Kanban: Fly Different - An Introduction v1.3

Agile Kanban: Fly Different v1.3

by Joseph [email protected]

Twitter: @josephhurtado | Web: AgileLion.com

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What will I learn?

Why we need Agile Kanban?

What is Kanban anyway?

How can I use it for Software Development?

How can I “Fly Kanban” using Agile Zen?

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Credits - People and PhotosKanban boards and inspiring content from David Anderson's Kanban Book.

Henrik Kniberg slides, and solid content on his blog.

Photos: Blue Angels, and Thunderbirds - US Navy and Air Force Teams. The last photo is from Italy's Aerobatic Team: Frecce Tricolori.

Several Photos and Illustrations via Flickr and Google, that deal with flight, crews and Apollo 13.

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I.“Houston we have a Problem”

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SW Planning Problems

Changing Requirements

Wrong Assumptions: Waterfall

Estimation Challenges

Black box Development

External Change Agents

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Early Solutions

Iterative Development

Waterfall planning but divided in phases

Heavy use of Engineering Concepts and tools

Locked Deadlines

The de-facto standard today

Houston, We still have a problem! :-)

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II. There must be a Better Way!

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Agile Manifesto - Feb 2001

17 developers introduced the world into the "Agile Way":

Individuals and interactions over processes and tools

Working software over comprehensive documentation

Customer collaboration over contract negotiation

Responding to change over following a plan

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Key Agile Methodologies

XP - Extreme Programming (Kent Beck)

Pair Programming, thorough testing, emphasis on little or no documentation, very “fanatical approach”

Scrum (Ken Schwaber, Jeff Sutherland)

Daily Stand-ups, Scrums, Reflections, Integrated QA/User/Teams, Velocity, Poker Estimation, etc.

Very detailed "Agile recipe" --> All or nothing

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Agile or Fragile?Going too Agile:

Zero documentation

Blindly following the recipe

Wild Expectations

Too much too soon

Kanban addresses those areas through two principles:

Kaizen (Continuos Improvement, in gradual steps)

Simplicity (simple principles that easily scale)

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III. Fly Different: Kanban11

What is Kanban?Kanban in Japanese means “Visual Board.”

It relates to a system, where one Kanban sign signals another member of the team that we can “Pull” work from one phase to another.

Early Kanban was adopted in Japan by Toyota for Lean Manufacturing (TPS - late 1940s to 1970s)

Agile Kanban for Software Development however is quite recent: from 2004 to 2010.

Agile Kanban was born in the software industry at Microsoft and Corbis. The first systems were related to QA and Development inside Waterfall Organizations!

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Kanban is very Light

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Kanban’s 3 Principles1. Visualize the Workflow

By using Kanban Boards

2. Limit Work in Progress - LWIP

By imposing limits on the size of some stages you force the teams and individuals to focus.

Also when WIP is less, work travels faster. (batch size)

3. Keep Improving Flow or Kaizen

By thinking and discovering ways to improve on what we do

By using any tool or technique that helps you do it.

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Kanban’s Minimal Flow

1. Ready or Queue Entry

Think of it as the relevant backlog

2. Working

Tasks or stories you are working on now

3. Done

Completed stories or tasks

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Kanban’s Flow Expanded

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Kanban’s Sticky Boards

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Kanban’s Sticky Boards

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Optional Slide: A Pull System

Imperial Palace in Tokyo is actually a real life Kanban Pull System.

Each visitor receives a “token” the visitor has to keep the token until he leaves, then he returns the token into the pool: A simple Kanban System!

Token = Story. The system has LWIP for number of tokens, and three phases: Queue into the palace, LWIP inside the Palace, and Exit of the Palace (where tokens are returned and LWIP is replenished, to “pull” visitors!)

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IV. "We don't need roads any more"

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No More Boards!Agile Zen is a web 2.0 board that replaces and enhances anything a Sticky Board can do. Advantages over other solutions:

Right balance of features

Desktop app. experience on a browser

Elegant UI

Requirements:

Firefox 3.x or later (avoid Chrome or Safari for now)

Internet Connection

Mac or PC

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Learning Session Lab

Minimal Kanban Process: Ready - Working - Done

How Process Flow Works

Story Creation

Story Movement and common Situations

Story Features

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The End! Now Fly Solo. 23