A Kanban System for Software Engineering
2-Day Class Curriculum
What you will learn
An introduction to Lean, Pull Systems and Kanban
4 areas of focus to deliver success
Value Stream Mapping
Process Flow Tracking
Implementing different classes of service
Implementing a culture of continuous improvement (Kaizen)
How established industrial engineering theory can apply to software development process
Controlling WIP
Identifying bottlenecks
Classifying bottlenecks as capacity constrained resources or non-instant availability resources
Managing bottlenecks appropriately for improved throughput
Understanding transaction and coordination costs in a kanban process
Defining release and input cadence for a kanban system
Negotiating service level agreements with customers
Using Metrics and Reporting to drive continuous improvement
Establishing policies to prevent abuse and gaming of the kanban system
Introduction
Introduction to Lean
What is a kanban system – Imperial Palace Gardens example
Background and history of approach to kanban system for software engineering
Recipe for Success (and outline for remainder of class)
Focus on Quality
Reduce (or Limit) Work-in-Progress
Balance Demand against Throughput
Prioritize How kanban delivers all 4 elements of the Recipe for success
Case Study – Microsoft XIT Sustaining Engineering
Value Stream Mapping and Tracking
Defining customer-valued work items (deliverables)
Value-stream mapping
Work item tracking (manual and electronic)
Daily standup meetings
Kanban boards
Sticky Buddies
Exercise 1 – Tracking Value Delivery
Group Show and Tell
Qualities of Service
Types of work items
Expediting (“Silver Bullets”)
Policies for processing work items
Exercise 2 – Classes of Service and Policies
Kaizen Culture
Meaning of Kaizen
Trust and transparency
Alignment
Focus on Value Delivery
Empowerment, Delegation (Self-organization)
Servant Leadership
Objective Quantitative Management with simple Metrics
Industrial Engineering
Effects of Expediting
Bottlenecks
Empirical observation and adjustment
Spontaneous Quality Circles
Kaizen events
WIP
Setting kanban limits
Bottlenecks
Identifying bottlenecks
Capacity constrained resources
Non-instant availability resources
Improving throughput
Exercise 3 – Kanban Limits and Constraint Management
Group Show and Tell
Examples of variants on kanban systems
Sustaining
Various Project Examples from Corbis
Use outside software development
Yahoo! Examples
Other published examples
Scaling Kanban
Standup meetings
Two-tiered kanbans
Swim Lanes
Release Cadence
Technical transaction costs of release
Customer transaction costs of release
Market variation and demand for releases
Prioritization Cadence
Feeding the input queue
Transaction costs of item selection and prioritization
Service Level Agreements
Striking a different bargain
Determining a service level agreement
Monitoring due date performance
Exercise 4 – Release and Prioritization Cadence Selection
Group Show and Tell
Metrics and Reporting
WIP – Cumulative flow
Lead Time
Waste Lead Time : Touch Time
Open Issues and Blocked Work Items
Lead Time Specturm Analysis
Executive Dashboard
Exercise 5 – Metrics and Reporting
Group Show and Tell
Gaming the System
Collaborative Game Theory
Kanban system robustness to gaming
Bargaining, Democracy and Collaborative Problem Solving
Prioritization policies to prevent gaming
Expediting and how to avoid too many Silver Bullets
Building trust through collaboration
Building collaboration by turning the real work in to a collaborative game
Summary
Culture
Policies
Cadence
Collaboration
Continuous Improvement
Exercise 6 – Reflection “Where can you use kanban?”
Is Kanban for you? And where would you introduce it first?
© David J. Anderson & Associates 2008 All Rights Reserved
Cost R8000 excluding VAT per person