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!
[email protected] www.digite.com
+1-408-761-2238 swift-kanban.com
@maheshsingh @swiftkanban