Kanban (development)

Kanban is a method for managing knowledge work which balances the demand for work to be done with the available capacity to start new work. Intangible work items are visualized to present all participants with a view of the progress of individual items, and the process from task definition to customer delivery. Team members "pull" work as they have capacity, rather than work being "pushed" into the process when requested.

Kanban in the context of software development provides a visual process-management system that aids decision-making concerning what to produce, when to produce it, and how much to produce. Although the method originated in software development and IT projects, the method is more general in that it can be applied to any professional service, where the outcome of the work is intangible rather than physical. The method was inspired by the Toyota Production System^[1] and by lean manufacturing.^[2]

Overview

David Anderson was among the first to formulate the Kanban method, for application to knowledge work. His 2010 book, Kanban,^[3] describes the evolution of the method from a 2004 project at Microsoft,^[4] defined using a theory of constraints approach but incorporating all the essentials of a kanban pull system, through to a project at Corbis (2006-2007) where the general practices of the Kanban method were identified. Don Reinertsen's work on second generation Lean product development^[5] was most influential in the adoption of kanban system principles, and in the use of data collection and an economic model to aid management decision-making. Another early contribution came from Corey Ladas, whose 2009 book Scrumban^[6] was the first to suggest that Kanban could be used to improve Scrum for software development. Ladas saw Scrumban as the transition from the starting point of Scrum to the destination of Kanban. Jim Benson and Tonianne DeMaria Barry published Personal Kanban in 2011^[7] which applied Kanban to the work of individuals and small teams. Mike Burrows in Kanban from the Inside^[8] explained the principles and practices of Kanban together with their underlying values, and related them to many of the earlier theories and models that shaped the method. Kanban Change Leadership, by Klaus Leopold and Siegfried Kaltenecker,^[9] explained the Kanban method from the perspective of change management and provided guidance to those undertaking change initiatives. A condensed guide to the method was published in 2016, incorporating improvements and extensions arising from its practical application since the early Kanban projects.^[10]

Method and principles

The Kanban method is an approach to evolutionary process change for organizations. It uses visualization via a kanban board of intangible work items—an important aspect of Kanban since it allows a greater understanding of both the work and the workflow. It also advocates limiting work in progress, which as well as reducing waste due to multitasking and context switching, exposes operational problems and stimulates collaboration to continuously improve the system.^[11]

The Kanban method is rooted in two sets of foundational principles: the change management principles and the service delivery principles.

Change management principles

1. Start with what you do now:

• understanding current processes, as they are actually practiced
• respecting existing roles, responsibilities, and job titles.

2. Agree to pursue improvement through evolutionary change.

3. Encourage acts of leadership at every level, from the individual contributor to senior management.

The Kanban method does not prescribe a specific set of roles or process steps, but starts from the existing context while stimulating continuous, incremental and evolutionary changes to the system. The method seeks to drive out fear and resistance to change in order to facilitate beneficial change.

Service delivery principles

1. Understand and focus on your customers’ needs and expectations.

2. Manage the work; let people self-organize around it.

3. Evolve policies to improve customer and business outcomes.

The Kanban method emphasizes a focus on the customer, and the work that services their needs, rather than the activities of individuals.

General practices

In addition to the foundational principles, the Kanban method defines six general practices:

1. Visualize
2. Limit work in progress
3. Manage flow
4. Make policies explicit
5. Implement feedback loops
6. Improve collaboratively, evolve experimentally.

These practices all involve:

• seeing the work and the policies that determine how it is processed; then
• improving the process in an evolutionary fashion—keeping and amplifying useful change, and learning from and reversing or dampening ineffective change.

Open Kanban

Open Kanban agile and lean heritage is reflected in its core values: respect for people, courage, focus on value, communication-collaboration, and a holistic or systemic approach to change. Those values manifest in four key practices:

1. Visualize the workflow.

You cannot improve what you cannot see. Knowledge work needs a way to show progress. Kanban boards are one of the ways to display progress.

2. Lead using a team approach.

Without a team and leadership, nothing of significant value can be created or improved.

3. Reduce the batch size of your efforts (reduce BASE).

Science and the work from Donald G. Reinertsen^[5] has shown that when the batch unit of work is decreased, more can be accomplished. This principle goes beyond simply Limiting Work in Progress.

4. Learn and improve continuously.

This practice implies reflecting so that one can learn from experience, and it aligns with performing retrospectives and embracing Kaizen. In addition Open Kanban itself is open source and it welcomes contributions or extensions to the method.

Examples of use

Software development

The table below shows an example kanban board for a software development workflow.^[12] Boards in Kanban are designed for the context in which they are used and so vary considerably. They may show work items of different types (here "features" and "user stories") and both columns (vertical divisions delineating activities in the workflow) and swimlanes (horizontal divisions, in this example used for grouping user stories by feature). The aim is to make both the general workflow and the progress of individual items clear to participants and stakeholders.

Other uses

While developed for software development and software teams, the Kanban method (as distinct from kanban in lean manufacturing) has been applied in many other areas of knowledge work.^[13] As a visualization and control mechanism, any repeatable and consistent workflow can be tracked, regardless of complexity or subject area. Business functions that have applied Kanban include:

• Human resources^[14] and recruitment^[15] teams
• Sales and marketing teams
• Organizational strategy and executive leadership teams^[16]
• Audit teams
• Contracts to project execution process
• Accounts receivable & payable processes

See also

General articles:

• Kanban
• Kanban board
• Lean software development
• List of software development philosophies
• Scrumban

Kanban Software Tools:

• Comparison of Kanban software
• SwiftKanban
• Targetprocess
• Teamwork
• Kanboard

References

Further reading

• Kanban: Successful Evolutionary Change for Your Technology Business, David J. Anderson. (United States: Blue Hole Press, 2010). ISBN 0-9845214-0-2.
• Essential Kanban Condensed, David J. Anderson and Andy Carmichael. (United States: Lean Kanban University Press, 2016). ISBN 978-0-9845214-2-5.
• Personal Kanban; Mapping Work, Navigating Life, Jim Benson and Tonianne DeMaria Barry. (Seattle, WA: Modus Cooperandi Press, 2011). ISBN 978-1453802267.
• Agile Project Management with Kanban (Developer Best Practices), Eric Brechner. (United States: Microsoft Press, 2015). ISBN 978-0735698956.
• Kanban from the Inside, Mike Burrows. (United States: Blue Hole Press, 2014). ISBN 978-0-9853051-9-2.
• Kanban in Action, Marcus Hammarberg and Joakim Sunden. (Shelter Island, NY: Manning Publications, 2014). ISBN 978-1-617291-05-0.
• Lean from the Trenches: Managing Large-Scale Projects with Kanban, Henrik Kniberg. (Dallas, TX: The Pragmatic Programmers, 2012). ISBN 978-1-93435-685-2.
• Kanban Change Leadership: Creating a Culture of Continuous Improvement, Klaus Leopold and Siegfried Kaltenecker. (United States: John Wiley & Sons, 2015). ISBN 978-1-119-01970-1.
• Stop Starting, Start Finishing! Arne Roock and Claudia Leschik. (USA: Lean-Kanban University, 2012). ISBN 978-0985305161.
• Real-World Kanban: Do Less, Accomplish More with Lean Thinking, Mattias Skarin. (United States: Pragmatic Bookshelf, 2015). ISBN 978-1680500776.

External links

• Kanban Glossary of Terms
• Kanban Case Study Series.