Open Kanban - Discover the Power of Kanban

On this presentation AgileLion Institute, and myself introduce you to Open Kanban. The Agile and Lean Method that enables any Software Development team, IT organization or business to improve their productivity and performance.

Unlike Scrum, XP or other flavors of Kanban, Open Kanban is an open source method, that is Ultra Light and powerful given it's rich Agile and Lean heritage.

We also talk about Kanban Ace, the first Open Kanban Method specifically designed for IT, Software Development and business. Kanban Ace expands Open Kanban with techniques and advanced frameworks especially designed for IT, Software Development, Product Management and Business.

Transcript

1. Open Kanban Webinar Discover with us the open source Agile & Lean Ultra Light Method Version 2.0 Joseph Hurtado Founder AgileLion Institute Kanban Ace Coach Email | LinkedIn | Twitter 1
2. Who Am I - Your Coach! • Founder of AgileLion Institute • Kanban Ace Coach, with over 10 years of experience with Agile & Lean Methods • Author Open Kanban • Extensive experience with Software Development wearing nearly all the hats including Developer ;-) • Coffee fanatic and photography amateur 2
3. Our Co-Founder Annita • Co-Founder AgileLion Institute • Kanban Ace Project Manager with over 5 years experience with Software Development, DevOps and Product Management • Contributor of Open Kanban • Drupal enthusiast and UX Expert • World traveler, Japanese cuisine fan and puzzle solver. 3
4. The Road to Agile 2.0 4
5. Heavy Methodologies • They demand: • Considerable planning • Abundant documentation • Many processes, roles and artifacts • High management overhead and bureaucratic involvement • Formal and frequent reporting • Because of the burden they put on actual delivery of value, these methods are collectively called: Heavy Methodologies. • Classic examples are Waterfall and RUP (Rational Unified Process.) 5
6. Facing Failure • When Heavy Methods were applied to Software Development failure after failure occurred. • “75 percent of respondents believe that their projects are either always or usually doomed right from the start.” Source Geneca, 2011. IBM Global Survey 2008 had similar findings. • Projects would run over budget, deadlines would be missed (more people, less done Mythical Man Month) • No working code would be delivered, just tons of documentation, plans and diagrams “Houston... we have a problem” 6
7. Sw. Dev. Challenges • Estimation Challenges • Estimating the future is full of risk • Wicked Design Problem • Business Led Deadlines • Always Changing Requirements. Changes come from customers and managers • External Unpredictable Change • Flat world and competition • Technology change (mobile) • Black box development. Most of the work is invisible. • It also applies to most knowledge work, including strategy and marketing. Where visible results are much smaller than the effort involved. 7
8. Agile Movement • In 2001, 17 software professionals introduced the world to the "Agile Way" via the Agile Manifesto and it’s 4 Values: • Communication. Individuals and interactions over processes and tools • Value - aka Working Software. Working software over comprehensive documentation • Collaboration. Customer collaboration over contract negotiation • Embrace Change. Responding to change over following a plan • Those values were manifested in Light Weight Methods, among those we have today: Scrum, XP, Crystal & DSDM 8
9. The Path to Ultra Light Methods • In the 12 years since the Agile Manifesto, the main Agile methods have grown in complexity • Scrum in particular continues to grow, and add whole new frameworks (e.g. the Continuous Improvement Framework) • Is this truly Agile? 9
10. • Lean was adapted from TPS for Knowledge work by many bright minds. • Lean adds to Agile the pursuit of value, zero waste, total quality & system thinking • Lean Leaders: Taiichi Ohno TPS - Kanban 1.0, Deming SoPK, and Goldratt ToC Discovering Lean’s Power 10
11. • Embrace the Agile and Lean values • Aim for simplicity, and value on each practice • Use the very best principles and techniques from Agile and Lean • Agile 2.0 is the era of Ultra Light Agile Methods (ULM) • Open Kanban is a true ULM and part of Agile 2.0 The Power of Agile 2.0 11
12. Open Kanban is Fun! =) 12
13. Discover Open Kanban Get your feet wet! 13
14. What is Kanban Today? Open Kanban 14
15. Kanban’s Origins • Taiichi Ohno used Kanban cards to enable a pull system, or a demand driven system at Toyota • Taiichi Ohno’s work building the Toyota Production System (1945 - 1970s) became the basis of Lean. • Today Lean extends beyond manufacturing to knowledge work • Today’s Kanban for knowledge work has four distinct influences: • Taiichi Ohno’s TPS, Lean Manufacturing, and the whole Lean Movement • Eliyahu Goldratt’s Theory of Constraints (Dec. 1999.) Especially the Drum Buffer Rope model for optimizing work around a constraint or bottleneck • Deming’s teachings especially the System of Profound Knowledge • Agile Movement. In particular the principles and values of the Agile Manifesto 15
16. Open Kanban is Agile & Lean • Agile is not any individual method like Scrum, XP, Crystal or even Kanban. • Agile is a mindset, expressed in a set of values and principles • Open Kanban shares the same values & is compatible with every Agile principle. • Open Kanban goes beyond traditional Agile by incorporating key ideas from Lean • Open Kanban is Agile and Lean. 16
17. Open Kanban Goals • Open Kanban was inspired by the Open Source, and Free Software movements • Open Kanban’s goal is to bring the 4 essential freedoms to every Kanban professional 1. Freedom to Use Open Kanban for any purpose 2. Freedom to study, question, and change Open Kanban as you wish so that it works for you and your organization 3. Freedom to fork or modify copies of Open Kanban to create your own customized version, and give it to anyone 4. Freedom to benefit the entire Open Kanban community with a better solution for all, by sharing your contributions with the main Open Kanban repository on GitHub. 17
18. Open Kanban Definition • Open Kanban is an Agile and Lean Ultra Light Method to improve any area of your organization. • Open Kanban is not a full or complete Agile and Lean method, instead it is the heart, kernel or core of such a method. We can compare it with a Linux kernel. • Open Kanban is the core of Kanban Ace, the first Open Kanban Method • Open Kanban is free and open source • Anyone, anywhere can contribute to Open Kanban • Open Kanban has now been translated to Russian, Ukrainian, Italian. And soon we expect Spanish and Portuguese to follow. 18
19. Open Kanban & Kanban Ace • Open Kanban has a set of Values and Practices • Open Kanban is the foundation or core of other larger Open Kanban Methods • Kanban Ace is the first Open Kanban Method • Kanban Ace main focus is in IT and Software Development, but it can be used in any business or non-profit to achieve agility and continuous improvement 19
20. Open Kanban Components • A set of values that align it with the Agile and Lean Movements for IT and Software Development • A set of practices that translate those values into action • An open source license that allow anyone to build upon it or modify it • Open access to contributors everywhere via the main Open Kanban repository on GitHub: • https://github.com/ agilelion/Open-Kanban 20
21. Five Open Kanban Values 1. Respect for People 2. Courage 3. Focus on Value 4. Communication and Collaboration 5. Holistic or Systemic Approach to Change 21
22. Four Open Kanban Practices 1. Visualize the Workflow 2. Lead Using a Team Approach 3. Reduce the Batch Size of your Efforts 4. Learn and Improve Continuously 22
23. Visualize the workflow • When we are doing knowledge work most of the work is invisible. • It is easy to see the final product of knowledge work: a website, a book, a report; but it is hard to see progress of the work. • Open Kanban deals with this challenge by using Kanban boards. • Kanban boards are visual representations of workflow. Kanban boards advantages: • You can look at the system, not just the flow • Ability to map the value chain • Easy live collaboration • Near real-time status of where the project is now. 23
24. Visualize the workflow • Visualizing can also be accomplished by any good information radiator such as: • Flow diagrams, like the one we showed from Deming on Systems • Dashboards that summarize team metrics • Good information radiators are: • Useful • Large and easily visible • Simple to understand at a glance • Easy to keep up-to-date 24
25. Kanban Boards - Tools to Visualize 25
26. Lead using a Team Approach • Unlike Scrum, Open Kanban does not require you to create new roles or change your organization to start doing Open Kanban. • However Open Kanban does require that you have: • A team in place to deliver value • Team Leadership. Through Team Leadership you manage flow and benefit the whole team, and the organization behind it • Learn and improve the way you manage teams continuously. • Remember productivity evolution (automatic improvement) does not exist, only through team leadership and effort can continuos improvement happen. 26
27. Lead using a Team Approach • Elements of Team Leadership: • Hard Elements • Team Organization. Meaning team size and organization. • Meeting Organization. Meaning how they are managed and their frequency • Soft Elements • Team Leadership Spirit. This represents the way you lead the team, and the unwritten rules of the cooperative game • We recommend the Servant Leadership style where “The servant-leader shares power, puts the needs of others first and helps people develop and perform as highly as possible” Robert Greenleaf • Alternatively, you can get inspiration from the best sport coaches. How they motivate and inspire their team to win. 27
28. Our Cooperative Game - Alistair Cockburn 28
29. Reduce the Batch Size of your Efforts • What is batch size in the context of Open Kanban? • Batch Size is the amount of work you attempt to do at any given time. It can apply to: • The amount of To Dos you have on your day • The number of stories (distinct software features) you are developing right now • The size of those stories, the larger they are the harder it will be to deliver them • The amount of multitasking you are doing at any time. 29
30. Reduce BASE • Learning is facilitated by the ability to easily remember. Nmenonic devices help us here. • Open Kanban calls this practice: • Reduce BASE • Feel free to pronounce it, don’t read it letter by letter • BA = Batch • S = Size • E = reminds you of “of your Efforts” • Limiting Work in Progress is just one way to reduce BASE. 30
31. Reduce BASE • Reducing the batch size means you focus more, and you multitask less. • Research by Dr. Edward Hallowell, and Dr. Russell Poldrack show us that multitasking, and working on too many things does not work. • “The greatest damage from being too busy is that it prevents people from setting their own temperature, controlling their own lives... making people sick, causing accidents and errors, turning otherwise polite people rude, and reducing the general level of happiness in the population.” Dr. Edward Hallowel 31
32. Reduce BASE • Donald Reinertsen book “The Principles of Product Development Flow” lists 22 reasons why it is best to reduce batch sizes. • Key among his findings are: • By reducing batch size you accelerate delivery, this allows for faster feedback faster and therefore less risk. • Risk is diminished by our actions on feedback, aka applied learning. • Reducing batch size also reduces the economic cost of effort • It is proven in manufacturing that reducing batch size leads to faster cycle times. That means faster time to market. 32
33. Reduce BASE • Open Kanban considers WIP Limits optional, but desirable. They do help to improve flow, and productivity. • However Reducing BASE is far more important, because it has a wider impact and more benefits. • It allows for faster feedback • It accelerates learning • It reduces Risk, and the economic cost of effort • It focuses the people and the team allowing them to deliver more value • Limiting WIP is valuable, and is part of Reducing BASE. But Reduce BASE first, then Limiting WIP can start. 33
34. Learn & Improve Continuously • The four previous practices ensure you are doing things better than before. • However to make a significant jump in innovation, morale, and value we must stop, learn and apply our knowledge to improve! • Learning is the key concept before continuous improvement can ever happen. Adopt it in your team, and in your company culture • Eric Ries considers Validated Learning a key output of a Startup, and a business. We agree! 34
35. Learn & Improve Continuously • Which actions help us learn? • Having Holistic Kanban Meetings (Kanban Ace) • Holding Retrospectives • Creating Kaizen Groups (TPS and Lean) • Creating Business Guilds in your company (Jurgen Appelo) • Financing the education of your team (Deming) • Encouraging a culture that welcomes risk and innovation (Agile & Lean Startup) 35
36. Open Kanban’s Minimal Flow FLOW 36
37. A Typical Sw. Dev. Board 37
38. Quick Kanban Live Exercise! • We will use Agile Zen latest Beta version • It has some cool features • It is free for now! :-) • For a live Open Kanban practice, we will create a Kanban board to build a mobile app similar to Palette Pro, but with a backend component. • The app is pictured on the left, we do recommend it too, it is from Rob Bazinet, a great developer at Still River Software. 38
39. AgileLion Public Board • Using Agile Zen you can also create your own boards, and use the one on this webinar as an inspiration • Agile Zen Beta is completely free until the beta is over • AgileLion Open Kanban Board URL for our Mobile app: • http://bit.ly/ AgileLionPublicBoard 39
40. Kanban Ace Advantages 40
41. Our Edge • Over 10 years experience working with Kanban, Scrum, Crystal and XP • We understand IT people! We have worn all the IT hats: Developer, Business Analyst, QA Engineer, Product Manager, Project Manager, Startup Founder, IT Manager... • A practical, innovative, IT and software development focused approach • A global vision via our Internet classes, our international focus and open source support Why you should become a Kanban Ace? 41
42. Our Edge • Kanban Ace exclusives including: • Kanban Ace is the first Open Kanban method, with a commitment to open source, a global community, and continuos improvement • Kanban Gears. A framework to accelerate efficiency and productivity in your Kanban Ace implementation • Agile Kanban Body of Knowledge. We take the very best practices and techniques of Agile & Lean and put them to work for you • Lion Pass. Our members- only area where we provide one year support, and share the latest Kanban content Why you should become a Kanban Ace? 42
43. Q & A Session Let us know your questions about Open Kanban & Kanban Ace Questions are always welcome at: askus@agilelion.com 43
44. THANKS for attending, watching or reading our Open Kanban Presentation Learn more by registering in one of our Kanban Ace Classes. Kanban Ace is the First Open Kanban Method! 44