KANBAN IN 30 MINUTES

AN INTRODUCTION

JOHN CAREY
JULY 2018
AGENDA
My Kanban Background
Kanban History
What is Kanban
Work In Progress (WIP) Limits
Software Development Kanban
Push vs Pull work allocation
Flow and the Cumulative Flow Diagram
Kanban’s Relationship with Lean and Agile
Lean Change Canvas and Upstream Kanban
Some ways to learn more
Please hold questions to the end or talk to me after
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KANBAN
The name 'Kanban' originates from Japanese, it means "signboard”, “billboard”
Used for Just in Time (JIT) manufacturing at Toyota manufacturing plants in Japan to limit the
amount of inventory tied up in “work in progress” (WIP) on a manufacturing floor
Kanban is a lean agile system that can be used to enhance any software development lifecycle
including Scrum, XP, or Waterfall.
MY KANBAN BACKGROUND
Kanban was invented in the 1950s by Taiichi Ohno (1912-1990) a Toyota Industrial Engineer, and later senior executive at Toyota.
Kanban was initial used as a low cost (non-IT) mechanism to support the Toyota Production System (TPS) which was a JIT or
Lean manufacturing system as Japan at the time was resource poor and Toyota was nearly bankrupt.
He was also the co-inventor of the TPS, although TPS origins go back to the Toyoda power weaving loom. Lean Manufacturing is
famously described “In the Machine that changed the World”
Kanban is now used extensively throughout Toyota on the floor and in the office. However it not make the leap into knowledge
work there…

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THE FIRST KANBAN BOARD(S)

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KANBAN BEYOND MANUAFACTURING
David Anderson developed Kanban to support his
software development teams at Microsoft from 2004,
published his book in 2010, and inspired other people to
use it outside the Automotive Industry
An associate of David Anderson, Jim Benson developed
Personal Kanban, blogs about it in 2009. Jim later
develops Lean Coffee
Other movements spawned and inspired by TPS and Lean
Manufacturing
DevOPS
Lean Change
Lean Startup and minimum viable product (MVP)
Lean Software Development and Agile
Lean 6 sigma

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WHAT IS KANBAN
FIRSTLY A WORK VISUALISATION TOOL
Kanban means signboard or billboard in Japanese
Represents the teams current work and work flow
Can represent nearly any business workflow, such
as
Software Development from Waterfall to Scrum
Business Development
Change Management
HR
Information Radiator
Team and stakeholders can see progress easily at any time
Easily identify bottlenecks
Enables process improvement and Agility through Lean
practices
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PERSONAL KANBAN BOARD

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LEAN COFFEE
1. Set Up Personal Kanban
2. What to Discuss
3. Vote (optional)
4. Discuss for 5 minutes and
repeat

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USES WORK IN PROGRESS (WIP) LIMITS
TO INCREASE FLOW

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OPTIMISING WIP LIMIT

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SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT KANBAN BOARDS

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EXAMPLE OF A PHYSICAL BOARD

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EXAMPLE OF A JIRA KANBAN BORAD

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KANBAN IS A PULL SYSTEM
WORK IS PULLED INTO THE SYSTEM, PUSH VS PULL
NOT PUSHED

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PULL SYSTEM SHOWING PRIORITISATION

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WHAT IS FLOW

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WERE KANAN FITS INTO THE BIG
PICTURE
“The core idea of lean is to eliminate/reduce non-
value-added activities (termed "wastes") and thus
increase customer value”. Prakash Mallappa Pujar
(2014)

Agile is a mindset which uncovers better ways of

working and increasing customer value by doing it
and helping others do it through a core set of
values and principles outlined in the Agile
Manifesto (2001)

“…lean and agile are deeply intertwined ... You

can't really talk about them being alternatives, if
you are doing agile you are doing lean and vice-
versa.” Martin Fowler (2008) a signatory of the
Agile Manifesto

Kanban is used to visually manage Agile and Lean

processes 18
AGILE AND LEAN
– SEPARATE
HISITORIES

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LEAN CHANGE CANVAS

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UPSTREAM KANBAN

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SOME WAYS TO LEARN MORE

THINGS TO DO SIMULATIONS / BOARD GAMES BOOKS

Set a Personal Kanban Board
http://personalkanban.com/pk/personal-kanban-101/
Organise a walk through with me of the
eServices physical or jira board
Get Kanban (4 hours) Personal Kanban: Mapping Work | Navigating Life
Jim Benson and Tonianne DeMaria Barry (2011)
The Limited WIP Game (1-2 hours)
Kanban: Successful Evolutionary Change for Your
TRAINING Technology Business

KANBAN SYSTEMS Design (KMP I) David Anderson (2011)

LinkedIn Learning course on Kanban
Essential Kanban Condensed
Go to a Limited WIP Society Meetup – Kanban Management Professional (KMP II)
David Anderson and Andy Carmichael (2016)
held monthly close by Meetups
Essential Upstream Kanban
Attend a course on Lean Change The Limited WIP Society Patrick Steyaert (2018)
Management
Lean Coffee Lean Change Management: Innovative practices for
Read David Anderson’s Kanban Book managing organizational change
(the blue book) Jason Little (2014)

Play a Kanban simulation game Kanban from the Inside: Understand the Kanban Method,
connect it to what you already know, introduce it with impact
Mike Burrows (2014)

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QUESTIONS ?

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THANK YOU