Classes Of Service

Not all tasks are of the same magnitude or significance; some are larger, some are smaller, some carry greater importance, some come with specific due dates, and some require quicker progression through the workflow. The notion of classes of services proves beneficial in managing these diverse types of work items.

Classes of services are used to classify similar work that gets a certain service. Since all work items do not have the same level of value or time pressure, they can be divided into different classes of services. It creates a simple and transparent approach for the team to self-organize and meet the needs of the business by making the value, risk, and policies of work items in each class of service explicit. If the policies for each workflow item are decided by the team, the work flows smoothly and quickly through the workflow because there is no need to get approval or a decision from others.

Advantages of classes of service

Classes of services offer several advantages.

• They enable the handling of varying priorities and urgent tasks without disrupting the standard workflow.
• They facilitate the independent capture of metrics for each service class.
• Reduction of coordination overhead.

How to determine if class of service is needed

When creating a class of services, considering the following aspects can help determine if a separate class or service is needed or not.

Visualization:

If you want to differentiate certain work items from others and make them visible to everyone, e.g., bugs, expedited work, time sensitive tasks etc., a separate class of service can be created for them.

Prioritization:

If the priority of certain work items is different than other work items, a separate class of service can be created, e.g., urgent work items, work items with a due date or work items that can not be started before a specific date.

Different workflow:

If certain work items go through a different workflow, they can be considered candidates for a separate class of work. E.g. for bugs, an investigation is required to start the work as compared to stories that do not.

Metrics:

If a separate metrics are required for different type of work, classes of service allows you to track and analyze each class metrics independently. This can he useful for continouts improvment efforts. For example if you want to know how long do we take to complete the work that was related to non-functional requirements etc.

Frequent Bottlenecks:

If you frequently experience bottlenecks or delays due to certain work items, classes of service can help you allocate resources and prioritize tasks strategically to avoid congestion and ensure smooth flow.

Coordination Efforts:

If there are frequent coordination challenges in your workflow due to varying work item types, classes of service can simplify coordination efforts by providing clear prioritization and expectations.

Historical Data Analysis:

If historical data analysis reveals the need for more granular insights into the performance and behaviour of different types of work, classes of service can assist in this regard.

Commonly used classes of service

Fixed delivery date items

Regular items e.g new feature work

Intangible items with no concrete business value but are important to do like technical debt. A part of capacity can be allocated to them so that they are taken care of every iteration

Defects. Root cause analysis is needed for them and some of the regular workflow steps can be skipped for them

Urgent items which needs to be handled urgently

Different sized work items. If some big work items can’t be broken down into smaller pieces, separate class of service can be used for that, so that cycle time is not impacted. Different cycle time target can be allocated for these work items.

Different Clients work items can be separated by different classes of service

For each class of service a different capacity can be decided for each iteration which helps getting low priority importance work done too e.g. the tech debt.

The WIP limit for each class of service can be different like having only one work item in urgent class of service at a time.

The classes of services can be decided, based on teams individual needs and situations. There is no one right answer for everyone.

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Reference: Kanban In Action by Marcus Hammarberg and Joakim Sunden