The Kanban Pizza Game is a hands-on simulation designed to teach the core elements of a kanban system—visualize the workflow, limit your work-in-process (WIP), manage flow, make process policies explicit, and improve collaboratively. Join Brad Swanson as the proprietor of your very own pizza shop to experience how kanban helps eliminate bottlenecks, minimize waste, and keep up with customer demand—all while competing against other teams for the title of “Pizza King.” Find out if you can really improve throughput and profit through the sometimes-counterintuitive practices of single-piece flow and limiting WIP. Finally, Brad relates your experience back to the software world to show how kanban can be an evolutionary path to lean-agile development. Whether you are a novice seeking to learn kanban in a memorable way or a seasoned practitioner looking for a great simulation to teach kanban to others, this is the session for you.

1.
AT8
Concurrent Session
11/14/2013 2:15 PM
"The Kanban Pizza Game:
Maximize Profit by Managing
Flow"
Presented by:
Brad Swanson
agile42
Brought to you by:
340 Corporate Way, Suite 300, Orange Park, FL 32073
888‐268‐8770 ∙ 904‐278‐0524 ∙ sqeinfo@sqe.com ∙ www.sqe.com

2. Brad Swanson
agile42
Brad Swanson is a senior agile coach and vice president at agile42. He
started his software career at age ten on the Apple IIe and is now a
Certified Scrum Coach with seventeen years of experience in
management, project and program leadership, product management, and
software development in both start-ups and large companies. Brad has led
agile transformations using XP, Scrum, and kanban at many organizations
across the US, Europe, and Asia. He has deep experience with agile
software development, starting with eXtreme Programming (XP) in 1999.
Brad is president of Agile Denver and a speaker at international
conferences.

3. Kanban Pizza Game
Experience Kanban for yourself
www.agile42.com
Kanban Pizza Rules—Game Mast
www.agile42.com/training/kanban-pizza-game
Kanban Pizza Game by agile42 is licensed under
Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Germany License.
Rounds
Ok, here is the deal: You are the sponsor of a Pizza Bakery Shop! Mot
people to produce the highest value.
agile42 | The Agile Coaching Company
Round 1 Let them bake Pizza Hawaii as fast as possible and see wha
Tell them that on the first day, all pizza is handed out for free and yo
lot of customers. Do not give further instructions for the set up.
Roundwww.agile42.com | All(and explain the impact 2007 - 2013
2 Introduce orders rights reserved. Copyright © on the score), intr

4. Brad Swanson
Senior Agile Coach
brad.swanson@agile42.com
@bradswanson
Certified Scrum Coach (CSC)
Certified Scrum Trainer® (CST)
agile42 | The Agile Coaching Company
www.agile42.com |
All rights reserved. Copyright © 2007 - 2013

5. Four Kanban Principles
1. Start with what you do (k)now—regardless of how ugly it is
2. Agree to pursue incremental, evolutionary change
3. Respect the current process —roles, responsibilities & titles
4. Leadership at all levels
ocess!
a pr
tho d:
is not
ent me
anban
nagem
K
g e ma
rocess.
to a p
a chan
It’s
yo u DO
ething
so m
agile42 | The Agile Coaching Company
www.agile42.com |
All rights reserved. Copyright © 2007 - 2013

6. Kanban starts where you are
... normally with an existing process
Produce as many
slices as you can
agile42 | The Agile Coaching Company
No fixed iterations
& we play until asked to stop
www.agile42.com |
All rights reserved. Copyright © 2007 - 2013

7. Let’s play!
agile42 | The Agile Coaching Company
www.agile42.com |
All rights reserved. Copyright © 2007 - 2013

8. Stop!!! - Let’s measure
Pizza base (with
or without sauce)
= -4 points
Toppings
= -1 pt
Finished slice
= +10 points
agile42 | The Agile Coaching Company
ive e
at on
eg d
n
t s 0 0%
un 1
co is
ce lice
pie e s
c h th
Ea til
un
www.agile42.com |
All rights reserved. Copyright © 2007 - 2013

9. The Core of Kanban - 6 Practices
Visualize the
workflow
Limit work in
process (WIP)
Make process
policies explicit
Implement
feedback loops
creative commons
http://www.flickr.com/photos/wheels3217/1858987086/sizes/o/in/photostream/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/el_floz/3989844774/sizes/m/in/photostream/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/josephferris76/6116662110
agile42 | The Agile Coaching Company
Measure & optimize
flow
Improve collaboratively,
improve experimentally
http://www.flickr.com/photos/quinnanya/4508825094/sizes/z/in/photostream/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/djwudi/2368630965
www.agile42.com |
All rights reserved. Copyright © 2007 - 2013

10. Visualize your workflow
& limit your work in progress
Make your workflow explicit
Limit the WiP for each station
5 min time-box
agile42 | The Agile Coaching Company
www.agile42.com |
All rights reserved. Copyright © 2007 - 2013

11. Ok, let’s play again!
agile42 | The Agile Coaching Company
www.agile42.com |
All rights reserved. Copyright © 2007 - 2013

12. Stop!!! - Let’s measure
Pizza base (with
or without sauce)
= -4 points
Toppings
= -1 pt
Finished slice
= +10 points
agile42 | The Agile Coaching Company
ive e
at on
eg d
n
t s 0 0%
un 1
co is
ce lice
pie e s
c h th
Ea til
un
www.agile42.com |
All rights reserved. Copyright © 2007 - 2013

13. Now, we produce
based on orders
Cash on Delivery: Points are given
only for fully delivered orders
Orders can be picked up
from a central defined location
Finished orders must be delivered
to another central location
agile42 | The Agile Coaching Company
www.agile42.com |
All rights reserved. Copyright © 2007 - 2013

14. Let’s extend the game
agile42 | The Agile Coaching Company
Like in the real world,
some things change!
www.agile42.com |
All rights reserved. Copyright © 2007 - 2013

15. New! New!! New!!!
“Pizza Speciale”
Slim green post-its as rucola
(arugula)
Each piece has 7 of them
Rucola burns in the oven:
Pieces must be added after
cooking.
agile42 | The Agile Coaching Company
www.agile42.com |
All rights reserved. Copyright © 2007 - 2013

16. Ok, let’s play again!
agile42 | The Agile Coaching Company
www.agile42.com |
All rights reserved. Copyright © 2007 - 2013

17. Stop!!! - Let’s measure
Pizza base (with
or without sauce)
= -4 points
Toppings
= -1 pt
Finished slice
= +10 points
agile42 | The Agile Coaching Company
ive e
at on
eg d
n
t s 0 0%
un 1
co is
ce lice
pie e s
c h th
Ea til
un
www.agile42.com |
All rights reserved. Copyright © 2007 - 2013

18. Ok, let’s play again!
agile42 | The Agile Coaching Company
www.agile42.com |
All rights reserved. Copyright © 2007 - 2013

19. Stop!!! - Let’s measure
Pizza base (with
or without sauce)
= -4 points
Toppings
= -1 pt
Finished slice
= +10 points
agile42 | The Agile Coaching Company
ive e
at on
eg d
n
t s 0 0%
un 1
co is
ce lice
pie e s
c h th
Ea til
un
www.agile42.com |
All rights reserved. Copyright © 2007 - 2013

20. Draw your workflow
Look back
to the game
agile42 | The Agile Coaching Company
Draw the flow
including WIP limits
Use your materials
to make it look nice
www.agile42.com |
All rights reserved. Copyright © 2007 - 2013

21. agile42 | We advise, train and coach companies building software
Tuesday, August 2, 2011
agile42 | The Agile Coaching Company
www.agile42.com |
www.agile42.com |
All rights reserved. Copyright © 2007 - 2009.
All rights reserved. Copyright © 2007 - 2013

22. The Core of Kanban - 6 Practices
Visualize the
workflow
Limit work in
process (WIP)
Make process
policies explicit
Implement
feedback loops
creative commons
http://www.flickr.com/photos/wheels3217/1858987086/sizes/o/in/photostream/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/el_floz/3989844774/sizes/m/in/photostream/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/josephferris76/6116662110
agile42 | The Agile Coaching Company
Measure & optimize
flow
Improve collaboratively,
improve experimentally
http://www.flickr.com/photos/quinnanya/4508825094/sizes/z/in/photostream/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/djwudi/2368630965
www.agile42.com |
All rights reserved. Copyright © 2007 - 2013

23. There is much more to know about Kanban & Lean...
agile42 | The Agile Coaching Company
www.agile42.com |
All rights reserved. Copyright © 2007 - 2013

24. Kanban Pizza Game
www.agile42.com
Kanban Pizza Rules—Game Master
Kanban Pizza Game by agile42 is licensed under
by agile42 is licensed under
Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Germany License.
Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Germany License.
Rounds
Ok, here is the deal: You are the sponsor of a Pizza Bakery Shop! Motivate
people to produce the highest value.
Round 1 Let them bake Pizza Hawaii as fast as possible and see what happens.
@ralfhh
Further information:
Tell them that on the first day, all pizza is handed out for free and you expect a
lot of customers. Do not
www.agile42.com/training/kanban-pizza-game give further instructions for the set up. introduce
Round 2 Introduce orders (and explain the impact on the score),
info@agile42.com
stations, introduce WIP limits
Round 3 Introduce the „Pizza Speciale“—attention, Ruccola burns in the oven!
Round 4 Let them self-organize
Flow of the Game
- Explain them that you want to run a Pizza Shop. Read Preparations and follow
the instructions
- Ask them how many points they think that they will score, note that number.
- Tell them that the rounds will symbolize slices of the day and will not have a
fixed length
- Do about 6 mins rounds but do not tell them how long it will be
- Count the score after each round
- Do a 2 min retrospective after each round. 1 min to focus on what impeded
www.agile42.com |
them most and another 1 min to discuss how to improve that or get around
Ralf Kruse
agile42 | The Agile Coaching Company
All rights reserved. Copyright © 2007 - 2013

25. Photos by
agile42:
Ralf Kruse
Martin von Weissenberg
Agile Finland:
Tampere Goes Agile 2011
Flickr:
wheels3217
quinnanya
el_floz
TANAKA Juuyoh (田中十洋)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/wheels3217/1858987086/sizes/o/in/photostream/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/quinnanya/4508825094/sizes/z/in/photostream/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/el_floz/3989844774/sizes/m/in/photostream/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/djwudi/2368630965
http://www.flickr.com/photos/josephferris76/6116662110
agile42 | The Agile Coaching Company
www.agile42.com |
All rights reserved. Copyright © 2007 - 2013