The Board Whisperer

At this point in Agile's lifecycle, many teams have switched to using a Kanban Board. Some are simple, three-column trackers; others are considerably more involved. Yet, many teams don't know how to stop for a moment and listen to their board. It's gently trying to nudge them about the changes that it needs to make them a better team. Come along and learn how we can go from simple to just complicated enough, smoothly.

In a new team, we started with a three-column standard to something that fits us perfectly. Our board won't work for you, but by learning how, when, and why we made our changes, you can make a board that works perfectly for your team too. See the patterns and anti-patterns; listen to the change that your board is crying out for; and enjoy the results.

Transcript

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2. “Nothing is less real than realism.
   Details are confusing. It is only by
   selection, by elimination, by emphasis,
   that we get at the real meaning of
   things.”
   

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3. The Board Whisperer
   @garyfleming
   http://bit.ly/the-board-whisperer
   

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4. The Board Whisperer
   (Roll credits)
   @garyfleming
   http://bit.ly/the-board-whisperer
   

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5. The Stand-Up Dysfunction
   @garyfleming
   

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6. The Death Spiral of
   Justification
   @garyfleming
   

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7. Boards Offer Insight
   @garyfleming
   

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8. R U XPRNC'D?
   

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9. @garyfleming
   

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10. Flow boards
    @garyfleming
    

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11. Flow Forwards
    @garyfleming
    

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12. "We Had A Conversation"
    @garyfleming
    

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13. Meetings Are Not
    Conversations
    @garyfleming
    

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14. Based on a True Story
    @garyfleming
    

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15. @garyfleming
    

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16. @garyfleming
    

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17. Three-Column Kanban
    @garyfleming
    

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18. Delivering Value
    @garyfleming
    

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19. Whole Team Responsibility
    @garyfleming
    

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20. Work-in-Progress (WiP) Limits
    @garyfleming
    

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21. Work-in-Progress (WiP) Limits
    @garyfleming
    

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22. Signals
    @garyfleming
    

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23. Signals
    @garyfleming
    

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24. Signals
    4 Not positive or negative
    @garyfleming
    

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25. Signals
    4 Not positive or negative
    4 Not necessarily loud
    @garyfleming
    

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26. Signals
    4 Not positive or negative
    4 Not necessarily loud
    4 Attending to one may help you see way more
    @garyfleming
    

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27. Signals
    4 Not positive or negative
    4 Not necessarily loud
    4 Attending to one may help you see way more
    4 Conversations are a MUST!
    @garyfleming
    

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28. Physical Boards Are
    Signalling
    @garyfleming
    

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29. Digital Boards are
    Analytical
    @garyfleming
    

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30. Signal: What's the actual process?
    @garyfleming
    

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31. Solution: Conversations and Columns
    @garyfleming
    

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32. Signal: TODO
    @garyfleming
    

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33. Signal: WiP Breaches
    @garyfleming
    

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34. Solution: Active columns
    @garyfleming
    

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35. @garyfleming
    

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36. Signal: Done, But No Value Yet
    @garyfleming
    

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37. Answer: Ready to Celebrate
    !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
    !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
    !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
    !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
    !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
    !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
    !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
    !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
    !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
    @garyfleming
    

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38. Answer: Ready to Celebrate
    @garyfleming
    

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39. Signal: Too Much Rework.
    @garyfleming
    

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40. Signal: Too Much
    Rework.
    "THAT WASN'T IN THE
    REQUIREMENTS."
    @garyfleming
    

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41. Answer: Three Amigos
    @garyfleming
    

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42. Answer: Three Amigos
    Ensure the work is wanted, Do the
    work, check the work, ensure the work
    is wanted (again)
    @garyfleming
    

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43. Three Amigos: Example
    Mapping
    examplemapping.com
    @garyfleming
    

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44. Useful signal: Three Amigos Bottleneck
    @garyfleming
    

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45. Useful signal: Three Amigos Bottleneck
    @garyfleming
    

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46. Signal: "Unfinished" work moving
    @garyfleming
    

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47. Answer: Push Criteria
    4 "All tests must pass"
    4 "Code review must be complete, unless pairing"
    4 "Passing build pipeline to Test environment"
    @garyfleming
    

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48. Answer: Pull Criteria
    4 "Ready for Test -> Test: I've had a chat with the
    developer to learn about any issues"
    4 "It's the highest value item in the column"
    @garyfleming
    

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49. Shared Ownership through
    Conversations
    @garyfleming
    

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50. ... Exit Criteria On the Board
    @garyfleming
    

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52. Signal Experiment: Log Jam In
    Review
    @garyfleming
    

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53. What if... WiP Limits Had
    Been Increased?
    @garyfleming
    

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54. "What should the WiP
    limits be for column X?"
    1?
    @garyfleming
    

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55. "What should the WiP limits be for
    column X?"
    Affected by:
    4 Slicing of task,
    4 Complexity of task,
    4 The stage of work (Dev vs test etc)
    4 The people doing the work.
    etc.
    @garyfleming
    

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56. People != Resources
    @garyfleming
    

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57. Well-Oiled Machine
    @garyfleming
    

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58. Well-Oiled Machine
    Prelude to a Disaster
    @garyfleming
    

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59. Signal: Disaster in Discovery
    @garyfleming
    

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60. Solution: Three-Column Kanban
    @garyfleming
    

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61. Starting a new Journey
    @garyfleming
    

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62. Signal: Done in Discovery?
    @garyfleming
    

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63. Solution: Playback
    @garyfleming
    

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64. Back to Big
    @garyfleming
    

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65. The Stand-Up Dysfunction
    Revisited
    @garyfleming
    

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66. The Stand-Up Dysfunction Revisited
    @garyfleming
    

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67. The Stand-Up Dysfunction Revisited
    4 A human process.
    @garyfleming
    

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68. The Stand-Up Dysfunction Revisited
    4 A human process.
    4 Conversations (right to left).
    @garyfleming
    

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69. The Stand-Up Dysfunction Revisited
    4 A human process.
    4 Conversations (right to left).
    4 An accurate enough board.
    @garyfleming
    

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70. Just enough. Not perfect.
    @garyfleming
    

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71. No Recipes for Evolving But...
    4 Items not flowing,
    4 Columns blocking,
    4 Gaps in the flow,
    4 Odd movement (skipping),
    4 Starvation or abundance,
    4 Clustering,
    And many more...
    

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72. Evolve Your Board, Evolve
    Your Team.
    @garyfleming
    

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73. The real work is...
    @garyfleming
    

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74. The real work is...
    4 Individuals & Interactions
    @garyfleming
    

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75. The real work is...
    4 Individuals & Interactions
    4 Collaboration
    @garyfleming
    

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76. The real work is...
    4 Individuals & Interactions
    4 Collaboration
    4 Responding to change
    @garyfleming
    

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77. The real work is...
    4 Individuals & Interactions
    4 Collaboration
    4 Responding to change
    4 Producing working software
    @garyfleming
    

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78. The board helps by
    4 Removing confusing details.
    4 By Selecting.
    4 By Elimination.
    4 By Emphasising.
    4 By getting at the real meaning of things.
    @garyfleming
    

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79. @garyfleming
    

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80. “Nothing is less real than realism.
    Details are confusing. It is only by
    selection, by elimination, by emphasis,
    that we get at the real meaning of
    things.”
    @garyfleming
    

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81. Thank You
    @garyfleming
    http://bit.ly/the-board-whisperer
    @garyfleming
    

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82. Thank You
    @garyfleming
    http://bit.ly/the-board-
    whisperer
    @garyfleming
    

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83. Common Question
    What do we do when we're remote/
    distributed?
    @garyfleming
    

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