KanbanFoundation for Leadership

Do What Makes Lean Sense

Dean’s Twitter @leanopinionsEmail Dean.Stevens@Synaptus.com

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“Management is doing things right; Leadership is doing the right things.”

… Peter Drucker

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Product Owner and Kanban

Product Owner Role in Scrum• Responsible for the

business value of the project

• Feed business value increments to the development team– Product Backlog– Sprint Backlog

• This gets harder at scale

Kanban MethodFoundation for Leadership• Based on Lean & Deming

Principles• Promotes adoption of Agile

values and principles beyond the team

Pull based Authority –Earn the authority to leadDo what makes Lean sense

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Customer Stakeholders

Lead Time• Speed

• Time from start to finish

Reliability & Quality• Works as expected

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Business Stakeholders

Predictability• “Make promises you can

keep”… most of the time

• “Predictable service delivery”

• Velocity is average completion rate

Return• Forecasted Return?

• Actual Return!

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Development Stakeholders

Positive Work Environment• Focus on one or two

meaningful things at a time

• Work together productively across functions

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Kanban Method

“Make everything as simple as possible, but no simpler.”

… Albert Einstein

“Do what makes Lean sense.” … Dean Stevens

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Kanban MethodFive Core Properties

1. Visualize Workflow

2. Limit Work-in-progress

3. Measure and Manage Flow

4. Make Process Policies Explicit

5. Use Models to Recognize Improvement Opportunities

Key Thinking • Address Stakeholder needs• Start where you are• Agile dev teams? Fine• Start now

This isLeadership

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Visualize Work FlowWhat We Want

Ready(5)

Analyze(3)

Develop(5) Accept

(3)Ready for Release

Urgent

Story

Story

Story

Story

Story

Analyze Ready for Dev

Dev Ready for Accept

Story Story Story Story Story Story

ValueDev Team

Extended Team

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Limit Work in ProgressLittle’s Law

Lead Time = WIP / Throughput(time) = (items) / (items/time)

Where:Lead Time: Time from start to finishWIP: Work in ProgressThroughput: Average completion rate

Reduce WIP to improve Lead Time

Makes Customer

Happy

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Limit Work in ProgressExposes Problems

But, reducing WIP exposes hidden problems due to– Complexity– Delay– Variability

Reduce WIP AND solve problems to– Establish predictable

throughput– Promote quality, team

work and trust

Makes Business Happy

Makes Employees

Happy

This isLeadership

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Measure & Manage Flow

“The easy way out usually leads back in.” … Peter Senge, The Fifth Discipline

“Beware of common sense.” … Dean Stevens

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Measure & Manage FlowWhat’s the Problem?

What’s the problem?– Anything that inhibits

flow– Anything that inhibits

our Why’s

Why Flow?– Speed– Return– Predictability– Quality– Work Environment

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Measure & Manage Flow Look for Causes – Agile Manifesto

• Individuals and interactions over process and tools

• Working software over comprehensive documentation

• Customer collaboration over contract negotiation

• Responding to change over following a plan

Causes – too much of the items on the rightLead to complexity, delay and variation

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Measure & Manage Flow Potential Solutions – Agile Manifesto

• Individuals and interactions over process and tools

• Working software over comprehensive documentation

• Customer collaboration over contract negotiation

• Responding to change over following a plan

Experiment with potential solutionsBias for more on the left and less on the right

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Measure & Manage Flow Potential Solutions – Lean Thinking

Kanban Method Recipe for Success• Focus on Quality• Reduce Work-in-Progress• Deliver Often• Balance Demand against Throughput• Prioritize• Attack Sources of Variability to Improve Predictability

Experiment with potential solutions

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Measure & Manage Flow Decide on Solutions

Transaction Costs: Set up and clean up activities

Coordination Costs: Activities that involves communicating or scheduling

Failure Load: Demand that may have been avoided through higher initial quality

Speak in business language

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Make Process Policies ExplicitAction Plan

“So much of what we call management consists of making it difficult for people to work.”

… Peter Drucker

Help your team discover “the right things”

This isLeadership

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Make Process Policies Explicit

Customer/ Business• “Make promises you can

keep”… most of the time

• Establish SLA with the business

Project/ Process Leadership• Lead to better ways to work

together

• Reach agreements collaboratively

• Do what makes Lean sense

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Continuous Improvement

A3 Thinking – PDCA Reflect on the systemDo it again

Change is Hard

Situation

Analyze

Solutions

Action Plan

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Summary

Get started – visualize work flow

Earn the authority to lead

Do what makes Lean sense

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Further Reading

Leanopinions.blogspot.comDennisStevens.com