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Open Kanban
Webinar
Discover with us the open
source Agile & Lean
Ultra Light Method
September, 2013
Joseph Hurtado
Founder AgileLion Institute
Kanban Ace Coach
Email | LinkedIn | Twitter
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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
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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.
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The Road to Agile 2.0
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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.)
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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”
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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.
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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
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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?
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• 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
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• 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
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Open Kanban is Fun! =)
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Discover Open Kanban
Get your
feet wet!
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What is Kanban Today?
Open
Kanban
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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
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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.
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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
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Kanban Boards - Tools to Visualize
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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.
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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.
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Our Cooperative Game - Alistair Cockburn
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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.
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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.
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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
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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.
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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.
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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!
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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)
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Open Kanban’s Minimal Flow
FLOW
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A Typical Sw. Dev. Board
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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.
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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
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Kanban Ace Advantages
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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?
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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?
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Q & A Session
Let us know your questions about
Open Kanban & Kanban Ace
Questions are always welcome at: askus@agilelion.com
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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!
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