Thoughts after reading "kanban in action"

1. Origination

My enlightenment on the Kanban method came from looking for a job. Many times, in the JD of the project manager position, I would always see words like "familiar with kanban management", but I was not impressed by it at that time. With the in-depth exploration of agile management, I gradually came into contact with a series of methods such as SCRUM, kanban (Kanban), and XP, and then I started to understand the Kanban method. Until March 2018, the kanban agile method officially entered my world for the first time. When learning, the teacher published a "kanban in action". With curiosity about kanban, he entered the kanban method for the first time. world.

2. First acquaintance

In the initial understanding, Kanban gave me the feeling that it was a big board with all kinds of work tasks posted on it. At that time, it was not possible to completely distinguish the difference between Kanban method and Kanban in scrum method. They were both the same. Kanban board, why is the board of the kanban board, and the board of the scrum is not a board (not that it is not a board, but it means that it cannot be called a "kanban")? What impressed me the most was the three principles of Kanban:

Work visualization
Restricted work in progress
Management flow

As for how to visualize? Why restrict work in process? How to restrict? What is mobility? How to manage the flow? These in-depth Kanban practice operations are actually not well understood.

3. Knowing each other

With doubts about the Kanban method, I opened the Kanban actual combat.

First of all, in terms of the concept and writing of the whole book, I think Marcus and Joakim really did a good job. Many small cartoon characters were chosen to express each member of the Kanban team. In the entire book, the basic theories of Kanban are interspersed with actual cases and stories, detailing the operation methods, application scenarios, and theoretical explanations of each Kanban principle. In this section, I will talk about the Kanban method that I recognize based on the principle of focusing:

3.0 Kanban basics

Starting tomorrow, stop and start, and focus is complete. For the initial team, this sentence can be used as a motto and marked on the board. Starting from the status quo, pursue incremental and gradual change.

The Kanban team has some basic tips:

Between our teams, we use the method of introducing each other instead of introducing ourselves to let everyone know each other, the information is more comprehensive, and it is conducive to increase the mutual understanding of the team.

Naming the team is very important. You must give the team a good name, simple and creative.

Workflow mapping is done jointly by the team based on the actual situation, rather than through administrative orders or team authority to reach a unified. Create a sense of ownership so that everyone is more likely to be proud of the consensus rules and processes.

Members of the Kanban team have a good habit of carrying post-it notes with them. The words on the post-it notes must be written in a thick black pen, otherwise it is not clear.

Exert leadership at all levels in the organization.

The description of work items should be simple and effective, sufficiently recognizable, and can facilitate the completion of the work.

3.1 Kanban principle

Visualization

Restricted work in progress

Management flow

Explicit process rules

CV feedback loop

Collaborative improvement, evolution in experiment

**Kanban is a huge source of information radiation, don't let it become an information refrigerator. Kanban is very convenient. You can perform realistic simulations based on Kanban. Kanban actually comes from the lean production system of Toyota, Japan.

3.2 Work visualization

Kanban view:

Using visual control, you can make the problem nowhere to hide. Display the work items and work rules in the most conspicuous place.

Huge visual display
To serve you and other interested parties
Make sure it has been updated
Be big enough
Either use or discard.

More Kanban teams tend to use hand-drawn boards instead of electronic software, because this can facilitate frequent trials and continuous improvement of Kanban boards.
If you can do it together, just sit together. There is really no way. You have to find a way to create a feeling of being close.

3.3 Work item

Tips: People are near the kanban wall, the kanban is on the wall, and the work items are posted on the kanban.

The role of cards

Facilitate decision making
Help optimize results
Show job type and classification

The description points of the card:

Brief introduction
Highlights
Everyone on the team can understand

If the conditions are met, you can set a profile picture for each group member:

Show who is doing what
Should look like me
Can be used to limit work in process

About collecting workflow data:

Master lead time, throughput and cycle time
Keep improving and improve when needed
If possible, collect emotional data of team members

3.4 Work in progress

What you are doing is work in progress. Has been passively worked, but there is no work output in any part of the release, including code, documentation, testing, etc.

Understand Little's Law:

Cycle time = number of work in process/throughput
Focus on completing delivery, not initiating/starting

The impact of excessive work in progress:

Frequent context switching, waste time and reduce IQ
Reduce the delivery rate, delay will bring additional work, because any work is time-sensitive, the feedback speed is reduced, sooner or later there will be problems
Increase potential risk
Will increase the cost of project development
Long-term work will sacrifice software code quality
The lack of timely feedback will reduce the enthusiasm of the team and make the members lack the motivation to continue or work together.

3.5 Restrict work in progress

Basic principles of work in process restriction

Lower is better than higher
Try not to idle people or work
No limit is wrong
First select a value together, and then reduce the work-in-process scale at a rate of 20%
Work in progress can be restricted by each column in the workflow map, or it can be restricted by the amount of work performed by a single person
From the bottleneck, it is easier to find the limited quantity of work in progress

3.6 Management Flow

About the ideal state of flow: one-piece flow

Seven wastes of software development:

Partially completed work
Redundant features
Repeat learning
Work handover
extension
Task switching
defect

Several key points and techniques for managing mobility:

Restricted work in progress
Reduce waiting time
Eliminate blockage (don't blindly start new work items, you can collaborate on related matters, cluster actions or cross-functional teams)
Daily standup

Focus on things, not people
Traverse the board
Focus on taste

3.7 Service category

3.8 Planning and estimation

3.9 Process improvement

3.10 Use metrics to guide improvement

3.11 Kanban trap

3.7-3.11 to be continued.

4. Application

In the story of "Kanban Practice", I saw a small team constantly struggling for a common goal and their evolving Kanban method. As a company's project manager, I still want to introduce this efficient method to the company. So I volunteered to submit an application for company internal training to the company management department. The main results can be seen in the previous article "Agile Project Management Work Report" .

The entire training lasted for an hour and a half, and initially I feel very successful. The company has used waterfall software development methods for a long time. The team is small and too heavy. After listening, everyone's feelings about the work in progress, quality control, and Kanban are still very good.

5. The future

Future expectations:

Conduct a more in-depth study of "Kanban Practical Combat", so that you can learn and use it in practice
Systematized learning and perception of agile project management, and the application and training of agile management practices are readily available.