04/11/2018

The Power of
Kanban Metrics

Sanjay Kumar
Agile Coach and Trainer
AKT, KCP, ICP-ACC, KMP, CSP, PMI-ACP, ICP-ATF

Introduction – Sanjay Kumar

 Agile Trainer & Coach:

 Lean Kanban Certifications (KMP1, KMP2)

 Certified Professional Agile Coach (ICP-ACC)
 Corporate Training/Coaching – Agile, Scrum, Kanban,
Scrumban

 Experience with Agile – 2006 onwards

 15+ years of software development experience

The Power of Kanban Metrics

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Kanban in IT = Kanban Method

Six core practices in Kanban Method:

1. Visualize work

2. Limit work in progress

3. Manage Flow

4. Make policies explicit

5. Implement feedback loops

6. Improve collaboratively, evolve experimentally

The Power of Kanban Metrics

Sanjay Kumar

What does Kanban Deliver?

1. Transparent and consistent process

2. Smooth flow of work

3. Better Predictability

4. Balance demand with capability

5. Make business “Fit for Purpose”

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Why Teams adopt Kanban?

1. For Support Projects

2. To minimize pain and risk of transition

 Teams transitioning from Waterfall

3. Scrum is not working well ! 

 https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/3-most-common-
challenges-facing-scrum-teams-sanjay-kumar

The Power of Kanban Metrics

Sanjay Kumar

The Initial Success Phase

 Better transparency – clarity of process

 Work flows smoothly - it gets done

 Improvement in Throughput and/or Lead Time

 Better collaboration

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BIG Challenge with new Kanban

Implementations
After initial success, complacency (inertia) sets in…

 Lack of Predictability:

o How much?

o How fast?

 Lack of kaizen culture

The Power of Kanban Metrics

Sanjay Kumar

The Need for Kanban Metrics!

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Cumulative Flow Diagram (CFD)

 Shows how many items have crossed important
points in the flow.
 It is cumulative – items so far

The Power of Kanban Metrics

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Sample Kanban Board

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Sample CFD
35
33
31
30
29 29 29 29
28 28 28
26 26
25 25
24 24
23 23 23 23
22
21 21 21 21
20 20 20 20 20 20 20
19 19 19
18 18 18 18 18
17
16 16 16 16 16 16 16
15 15 15 15 15 15 15
14 14 14 14 14 14 14
13 13 13 13 13 13
12 12 12 12 12
11 11
10 10
9 9 9 9 9
8

5
6 What problems
4
2 2
3 do you see here?
0 0 0 0 0
01-Jun 02-Jun 05-Jun 06-Jun 07-Jun 08-Jun 09-Jun 12-Jun 13-Jun 14-Jun 15-Jun 16-Jun 19-Jun 20-Jun 21-Jun 22-Jun 23-Jun
Day -->

Committed Design Done Backend Done Frontend Done Testing Done UAT Done

The Power of Kanban Metrics

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CFD – Another Sample

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CFD – Comparing Releases

The Power of Kanban Metrics

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Control Chart (or Run Chart)

 How Lead Time varies over a period of time
Lead Time →

Day →

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Control Chart – Sample

90

85

80

75

70 Is the team performance

65

60
getting better or worse?
55

50
Cycle Time

45

40

35

30

25

20

15

10

0
May-25 Jun-14 Jul-4 Jul-24 Aug-13 Sep-2 Sep-22 Oct-12
The Power of Kanban Metrics Date Done
Sanjay Kumar

Control Chart – Sample

25

20

15
CYCLE TIME

10

y = -0.0122x + 531.88
R² = 0.0039
5

0
21-11-17

11-12-17

21-12-17

31-12-17
1-12-17

10-1-18

20-1-18

30-1-18

19-2-18
9-2-18

1-3-18

DAY COMPLETED

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Lead Time Distribution

 How Lead Time is distributed for a given time period
Number of Items →

Lead Time →

The Power of Kanban Metrics

Sanjay Kumar

Lead Time Distribution – Sample

7

5
NUMBER OF ITEMS

0
2 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 25 26 27 32 34 37 40 42 44 46 48 51 54 55 56 60 61 62 84
LEAD TIME

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Lead Time Distribution

Number of work items → – Improvement Opportunities

Improvement
Opportunity #1

Improvement
Improvement Opportunity #3
Opportunity #2

The Power of Kanban Metrics

Sanjay Kumar

Lead Time Distribution

– Improvement Opportunities
1. Make the distribution “tall and narrow” rather
than “flat & wide”

2. Move the distribution to the left

3. Slim or trim the tail

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Lead Time Dist. – Comparing Releases

Release 1
7

6
Number of Items

4 85% confidence
– 26 days
3

0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 30 32 34 38 44 46
Lead Time (days)

Release 2
10
9
8
Number of Items

7
85% confidence
6 – 17 days
5
4
3
2
1
0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 22 25 29 41
Lead Time (days)

The Power of Kanban Metrics

Sanjay Kumar

Lead Time Dist. – Comparing Releases

Release 2
10
9
8
Number of Items

7
85% confidence
6 – 17 days
5
4
3
2
1
0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 22 25 29 41
Lead Time (days)

Release 3
30

25
Number of Items

85%
20
confidence – 12
15
days

10

0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 23 26 27 41

The Power of Kanban Metrics Lead Time (days)

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Throughput Chart
 How Throughput varies over a period of time
45

40
40 Do you see weekly throughput stabilizing?
35

30
30
Throughput (Points)

27
26 26
25
25 24
21
20
20
17
16
15

10
6
5

0
48 49 50 51 52 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Week Number

The Power of Kanban Metrics

Sanjay Kumar

Kanban Metrics – Summary

Four most common metrics to enable kaizen:

 Cumulative Flow Diagram (CFD)

 Control Chart

 Lead Time Distribution

 Throughput Chart

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Questions?

The Power of Kanban Metrics

Sanjay Kumar

THANK YOU!

➢ Stay in touch…

Sanjay Kumar
Agile Trainer & Coach

SunjayKumar@gmail.com
LinkedIn.com/in/SunjayKumar
http://HowToAgile.com

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