THE KANBAN ICEBERG

© 2012, Asynchrony Solu2ons, Inc. All rights reserved.

THE KANBAN ICEBERG


Structure

Kanban Iceberg

1. Understanding

2. Flow

3. Collaboration and

Balance


© 2012, Asynchrony Solu2ons, Inc. All rights reserved. @mattphilip #lkna15

# of People

Proto-kanban

Ubiquitous kanban

Proto-agile

Agile/XP

1999 2005 2008 2014


Kanban Depth

1999 2008 2014

Proto-kanban

Ubiquitous kanban


We do card walls really well.


But they’re only the tip of the iceberg.

The mass of the system is below

the surface, unseen.


Principles

Values

Practices

Card Wall

Agendas


MAKE POLICIES EXPLICIT

IMPLEMENT FEEDBACK

LOOPS

IMPROVE COLLABORATIVELY

AND EXPERIMENTALLY

MANAGE FLOW

VISUALIZE LIMIT WIP

Practices


Principles

INITIALLY, RESPECT CURRENT

PROCESSES, ROLES AND

RESPONSIBILITIES AGREE TO PURSUE

INCREMENTAL, EVOLUTIONARY

CHANGE

START WITH WHAT YOU DO NOW

ENCOURAGE LEADERSHIP

AT ALL LEVELS


Values

COLLABORATION

TRANSPARENCY

CUSTOMER FOCUS

UNDERSTANDING

BALANCE AGREEMENT

FLOW

LEADERSHIP

RESPECT


Principles

Values

Practices


Kanban isn’t about card walls.

It’s about safe, evolutionary change.


How do you help teams for whom

Kanban is simply card walls?

?

© 2012, Asynchrony Solu2ons, Inc. All rights reserved. © Copyright 2015 Asynchrony

1. Understanding


“Kanban”


Kanban Connotations

Card wall Continuous

flow delivery model

Evolutionary improvement

framework




Great idea. But how do you launch it?


“We have a great metaphor for you!”


0 1 2 3 4

Our system exhibits this aspect barely, if at all

Our system is somewhat capable of exhibiting this aspect

Our system exhibits this aspect convincingly, for the most part

Our system departs from this only very exceptionally, understanding and managing the consequence

Measurement Scale


Anticipate

emotional

resistance.

Be like water. Avoid the rocks.


Expect some experiments to fail.




It is such a positive indication about how much Asynchrony cares about people and how to help them be a part of successful and continually improving teams.

-‐Team member


0

1

2

3

4 Transparency

Balance

Collaboration

Customer Focus

Flow

Leadership and the Leadership

Disciplines

Target Current


0

1

2

3

4 Transparency

Balance

Collaboration

Customer Focus

Flow

Leadership and the

Leadership Disciplines

Target Current


Assessments are done. Now what?

?


Flow


?


Flow Manager?

Help wanted.



Definitions

Backlog/uncommitted

Commitment point

Delivery point Work in Progress (WIP)

Delivery time


Metrics

Flow efficiency

% complete and accurate Delivery time

Return on Investment


Redesigned work ticket


Redesigned work board (old)


Redesigned work board (new)


Metrics

Delivery time

Avg Delivery Time to Demo: 10 days Avg Delivery Time to Prod: ?


Metrics

% complete and accurate

?


Metrics

Flow efficiency

9%


Metrics

Return on Investment

? ________ $100k/mo


Visibility leads to conversation, which leads to understanding, which leads to change. But someone needs to start the conversation.


The New Three Questions

Scrum Kanban •  What have you

completed since the last meeting?

•  What do you plan to complete by the next meeting?

•  What is getting in your way?

•  How can we improve flow today?

•  What is blocked and why? •  Where are bottlenecks

forming?

David Anderson’s cartoon FTW!


Not as easy as it looked.

?


What do you do with blockers?


Getting Started

•  Talk with your teammates about the experiment •  Define “block” for your team •  Minimally instrument your kanban system to gather

data, including the block reason and duration


Getting started


Blocker Analysis


Blocker Analysis


Observations

•  Internal blockers caused 20 days worth of delay •  External blockers caused 147 days worth of delay •  The biggest blocker cluster accounted for 86 days of

delay


You have a 75% chance each week of creating a blocker that costs you an average of 29

days. Is this acceptable to you?


Another Example


Another Example


Other Learning

•  It’s important to understand your commitment point. •  Depending on how you want to address blockers,

you might choose to sort them differently (e.g., contact person rather than source).

•  Be diligent about collecting data


Collaboration and Balance


Standup Meetings

Retrospectives

Operations Reviews

Our three main feedback loops.





… most valuable about this meeting is the fact that it's a venue for sharing experimental practices and judging how well they worked or didn't

-‐Team lead


Operations reviews without division or unit

context are a bit like asking “How are things on

your mountain?”


Sometimes, we need help beyond

retrospectives to reach the peak.


So we’re still trying to

understand the best

way to use operations

reviews in our context.


Start at the Start: Interns!


Sharing Experiences


Results


When an Iceberg Flips

Photo: Alex Cornell, Wall Street Journal


Thank you.

@mattphilip [email protected]

References:

•  InfoQ: How a Flow Manager Helps Teams Deliver, Fast and Smoothly

•  Kanban from the Inside, by Mike Burrows

Image credits:

•  Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre

•  Edward Boatman

•  Netanel Koso

•  Irene Hoffman

•  Alex Cornell, Wall Street Journal

THE KANBAN ICEBERG

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