- 1 -#EKB

Portfolio Management with Enterprise Kanban

Jeff Andersonthomasjeffreyandersontwin

@gmail.com

Alexis Huialexis.hui@gmail.com

Taimur Mohammad tmohammad@gmail.com

- 2 -#EKB

Large IT delivery organizations face a vicious cycle at the enterprise level due to poor portfolio management

Demand outpaces the

capacity to deliver,

resulting in delivery

teams that are

drowning in work and

often failing to keep

their promises

In the end, a maze of

‘bureaucracy’ forms,

disabling agility and

making the org a place

where projects suffer and

die

In response, more

process, gates, and

checkpoints are setup

to get control, but in

fact act like a dam

And while few have

visibility into decision-making,

even fewer know what is

actually being worked on, or

what the problems are

At the same time,

underground politics and

back-alley deals are

always happening,

providing little

transparency and adding

to the frustration

1 2

3

4

5

• Agility goes down

• Productivity decreases

• Risk goes up

• Workers become

demoralized

• Management loses

control

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Organizations need a new way of doing portfolio management

• An Enterprise Kanban Board (EKB) is a work

management tool that an IT organization can use to

visualize its portfolio of projects and manage the

flow of work through the delivery system

• It provides an organization-wide view of available

capacity and capabilities that enables “leveling flow”

by moving from budget to throughput based

planning

• An EKB introduces a common unit of value (e.g..

MMFs) which leads to more effective decision

making across prioritization, resource planning and

issue escalation/resolution

Visualize Work, including projects, releases, and other major work items

Limit Work in Progress by managing capacity and not overcommitting as an organization

Measure & Manage Flow so that throughput across the portfolio can be understood and

improved

Make Process Policies Explicit, at the enterprise level & for cross team interactions

Enable Continuous Improvement at the enterprise level and across teams

Kanban core properties at the enterprise level:

- 4 -#EKB

Introducing Kanban at the enterprise level can create a virtuous cycle through effective portfolio management

Smaller projects with more frequent

planning matches demand to the

capacity to deliver and enables the

org to move work through the

system faster

All in progress work is

visualized in its current state

along with the capacity to

deliver it, making bottlenecks

and other blockers in the

system evident

This lets a marketplace

form around the EKB

where ‘buyers’ actively

bargain and bid for units

of supply to meet their

demands

Delivery teams are allowed to

focus on their work using their

own dedicated Kanban

systems governed by a set of

team-defined policies

In the end, a culture of

continuous improvement

with predictable delivery

times forms, making for

further agility and an org

where people want to be

1

5

4

32

• Agility increases

• Transparency

increases

• Productivity

improves

• Risk becomes

managed

• Morale increases

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Enterprise Kanban can help align the portfolio to strategic goals by allocating capacity to demand using queues

1 month2 months3 months4-6 months

Demand

Channel 1

Demand

Channel 2

Demand

Channel 3

Queue A

Queue B

Queue CDemand

Channel 4

25%

25%

50%

[12] [12] [12] [12]

Identify and

categorize demand

Set allocations

using queues and

WIP limits

Prioritize work using

prioritized queues

Pull work into

delivery based on

capacity

1

23 4

These can be:

Customers

Strategic

Programs

Work Types

Build Test

[5] [6]

Remember:

Work should be

matched to

teams based on

capability

Base this on:

Volume

Frequency

Size

Consider:

Class of Service

Cost of Delay

Processing Time

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The visualization of

invisible work at the

portfolio & enterprise-

level

An effective tool for

allocating scarce, specialist

resources across sources of

demand

The ability to prioritize

work across teams

In addition, Enterprise Kanban provides the following:

A common space for

negotiation and planning

to keep work flowing

A place to escalate and

resolve global

impediments

More predictable promises

across lines of business

A means to coordinate

introduction of agility

across the organization at a

tolerable pace

The ability to align work

to teams with the

capability to deliver

- 7 -#EKB

EKB: a ‘how to’ guide and more detailed description

- 8 -#EKB

Collaboratively map out how workflows through the enterprise (to structure the initial Enterprise Kanban System

Team 1

Team 3

Team 5

Team 7

Team 9

Use columns to represent

the phases that work goes

through

Use rows to represent the

capability of the system for

processing work, i.e., the

teams that will deliver

projects

1

Intake Visualizes

opportunity definition,

refinement and

validation

Discovery – Iterations

Visualizes high level

requirements and design of

approved projects, resulting

in a set of Minimal

Marketable Feature sets

(MMFs)

MMF Backlog

Visualizes the

scheduling of MMFs

that are ready for

delivery across teams

over the next 4 mths

Delivery – Iterations

Visualizes MMFs that are

in delivery (detailed

requirements, design,

build, and test)

Hardening

Visualizes final

MMF level testing

to ensure release

readiness

Ideally the same resources that

did the discovery will do the

delivery

Team 2

Team 4

Team 6

Team 8

Team 10

- 9 -#EKB

Find a highly visible place to setup the Enterprise Kanban where managers, executives, and program leaders can perform collaborative governance

2

- 10 -#EKB

Define work types to visualize the demands on the enterprise as well as the capabilities within the organization

3

6

4

2

Visualize the capabilities

of teams so that they

can be matched to work

items that need them

Legend

Analysis

Infrastructure

IT Ops

UI

Service

Database

Legacy

Represent and make

explicit all capabilities

required to deliver on

projects

Team 1

Team 3

Team 5

Team 7

Team 9

Team 2

Team 4

Team 6

Team 8

Team 10

Represent scarce,

specialist resources so

that they can be

allocated to projects

based on capacity

Work Ticket

B Blocker

D Defect

Identify all types of work items to be tracked on the

board, including different classes for each type based

on cost of delay (expedite class, fixed class, standard

class, etc)

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Define an initial set of policies to govern enterprise delivery standards, prioritization, how teams are formed, and how these teams interact with each other

4

6

4

2

Legend

Analysis

Infrastructure

IT Ops

UI

Service

Database

Legacy

‘Column specific’ policies

govern how work items

move from one phase to

the next, providing entry

and exit criteria

Team 1

Team 3

Team 5

Team 7

Team 9

Team 2

Team 4

Team 6

Team 8

Team 10

Policies

Example Policy:

i. Business case approved /

committed project

ii. Ideation completed

iii. Discovery team mobilized

iv. …

‘Global’ policies govern how

the board in general

functions as well as

ceremonies associated with

the board, e.g., stand-ups

Work Ticket

B Blocker

D Defect

- 12 -#EKB

Onboard work to reflect the current state of the system

Flag work items as soon as

known with the capabilities

needed to deliver them

B

5

Legend

Analysis

Infrastructure

IT Ops

UI

Service

Database

Legacy

Policies Work Ticket

B Blocker

D Defect

6

4

2

Team 1

Team 3

Team 5

Team 7

Team 9

Team 2

Team 4

Team 6

Team 8

Team 10

Match work

items to teams

that have the

capability to

deliver them

Some work items

take up multiple

units (e.g., mths) of

capacity

D

Track the quality

of work items

nearing release

Prioritize work

items across

teams, bargaining

for units of

capacity

Manage scarce

specialist resources by

limiting scheduled work

in month to capacity

Limit work in

progress by having

teams deliver one

work item at a time

D

- 13 -#EKB

Start conducting regular stand-ups / planning sessions around the board to manage the flow of work in the system

6

- 14 -#EKB

Take advantage of the metrics that Kanban provides to get an end 2 end understanding of performance and problems

7

Delivery Lead Time

E2E Lead Time

Process Cycle Time

Project Project

Defect / Blocking Issue Cycle Time

Business Blocking Cycle Time

Quality Defects

MMFMMF

Feature

Feature

Feature

Feature

Feature

Ideas

Idea Intake

Feature /

Solution

Options

Analysis

Project

Planning &

Analysis

Delivery

Backlog

MMF

Planning &

Analysis

Delivery

(R,D,B,T)BAT Deploy Complete

Delivery Throughput

MMF ThroughputCapacity Load

Feature

Feature

FeatureFeature

MMF

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Evolve the board over time to increase the agility of the system and to better represent the value stream

8

Update phases of work to

represent value stream and

increase the agility of the org

B

Legend

Analysis

Infrastructure

IT Ops

UI

Service

Database

Legacy

Policies Work Ticket

B Blocker

D Defect

6

4

2

Team 1

Team 3

Team 5

Team 7

Team 9

Team 2

Team 4

Team 6

Team 8

Team 10

Track new

capabilities as they

become important to

the work done by the

organization

D

Update policies, adding new ones

as required, changing those that

don’t work, and removing those

that are no longer needed

D

B

Update team

capabilities as cross-

functionality

increases

Track new work

types as

demands on the

system become

clear

- 16 -#EKB

An example of an enterprise Kanban board that we

have helped implement

- 17 -#EKB

This enterprise wide board provide visibility into work, enables prioritization based

on available capacity and limits the amount of work in progress

This Kanban provided our clients with:

• A perspective on end-to-end flow

• A view of current teams with associated specialties

• A roll-up of more detailed “progress boards” managed by the teams

• A better understanding of capacity and performance

• A site for issue escalation and resolution for managers and executives

- 18 -#EKB

The Intake phase represented work to sufficiently

define and triage an "idea" based on • Feasibility

• Strategic alignment with business

• solution architecture

• Tangible business benefits and outcomes

The Elaboration phase represented taking an

"idea" with seed funding and performing the

required analysis to drive towards a

recommended solution / feature option

leveraging collaboration practices such as Story

Mapping

Swim lanes visualize

dedicated capacity to major

lines of business during the

intake & elaboration phase

- 19 -#EKB

The Delivery Backlog was used to

representa prioritized delivery

queue based on the throughput

of the delivery organization• Acts as a visual indicator of

priority

• Serves as a mechanism for

replenishment and re-

prioritization

Pods visualized team members,

specialties and simplified allocating

capacity to demand

- 20 -#EKB

Each swim lane within the Enterprise Kanban board represented a team that had its

own dedicated Kanban system to manage work at a more detailed level

• Delivering incremental business value & representing work as small features

• Integrated team that spans functional competencies