Getting Started With Kanban
“Stop starting and start finishing.”
Implementation of the Kanban method starts with understanding how current processes run and then it helps identify the next steps to improve.
Step 1: Create a board to visualize the work. It is the basic principle in Kanban: make work visible and the reasoning behind it is that you can’t improve what you don’t see. The board shows how our work works and helps in:
- Making the hidden work apparent and improving transparency
- Showing who is working on what
- Displaying how much work is going on at a time
- Shows the progress of each work item and its priorities.
Kanban boards show which items are moving slowly, which items are being blocked, which items are being worked on, etc., and this information provides improvement opportunities from which teams can learn how to improve their way of working. Note that the real gain from visualization is not seeing the status of each work item; the real gain is that it helps us make decisions and improve our process as we learn from how it works.
Do the creation of the board activity with the team who will be using it, it will make it easier to get them on board.
Step 2: Map the workflow on the board using columns to show how the work progresses through different stages of work. When mapping the workflow, also decide the policies for each column, which will be entry and exit criteria for the column. Having a common understanding of the exit criteria is very important so that each team member moves the work items from one column to another in the same way.
Mapping involves identifying all the stages, from work entering and leaving the team. Note that at the beginning, we do not need to strive for perfection; inspecting and adapting works great.
With a visualized workflow, the team can see the status of the work and potential problems, such as work not progressing and piling up in a stage. Note that work is not considered done until it is producing value to the customer.
Step 3: Identifying work items. Each card on Jira’s board is a work item. The work item has description, an identifier, who is working on it, deadline, etc
Also identify the type of work item, like a bug, task, etc. to help see what different types of work are being done.
Step 4: Help the team understand that less work in process leads to lesser lead time (time it takes from start to finish for the work to flow through our workflow). Using coin game can help, which is the simplification of workflow.
Strive to work with fewer work items at a time. Do not create WIP limits at the beginning and in the first few iterations just focus on the flow of work and noticing how it flows and where are the bottle necks. Later if it is felt necessary then decide the WIP limits with the team. The WIP limits are not set in stone and can be changed if needed. They are not rules but are trigger for discussion.
Remember the rule of thumb when deciding the WIP limits:
– Too-high WIP leaves work idle.
– Too low WIP leaves people idle.
So find a perfect fit.
Step 5- Make sure the team understand the concept of “Stop starting and start finishing”. Rather than starting on a new work item, help some one else to finish what is already in progress.
Step 6- Decide policies for expedite lane. Expedite lane is a common way to handle special cases, like work that is urgent.
The policies for the expedite lane can be e.g. only one item can be in expedite lane at a time or team will take turns working on expedite work item etc.
Step 7: Decide the metrics. Metrics are used by the team to answer these questions:
- How do we know that we are going the right way?
- How do we know that we are improving when we make a change?
- How can we make ourselves better and what does better mean?
Metrics should be decided by the team. When Metrics are by the team, and for the team only and not for performance review, it helps the team find areas of improvement.
Lead time (time for the whole workflow) and throughput (count of number of items finished in a given period of time) are the two most commonly used metrics for Kanban.
Go back to the Essentials page.
Reference: Kanban In Action by Marcus Hammarberg and Joakim Sunden
