Kanban Workshop

About this Course

Kanban methods have increased in popularity. Going beyond the manufacturing origins, more and more teams in information technology are adopting the practices. Kanban methods go beyond the visual aspects of the Kanban board. In addition to visualizing the work in progress, Kanban provides techniques to manage the flow of work and continuously improve on that flow. You learn how to focus on the work that is needed and reduce the time spent on the wrong work. Other advantages include flexibility of process, increased productivity, and improved efficiency. The concepts are easy to understand yet difficult to master.

The Kanban Workshop provides guidance on Kanban implementation and bootstrapping a Kanban system in your own organization. You will learn how Kanban is a cultural change initiative and what that shift means, how Kanban can be applied to your software development workflow, and how it differs from other development methods.

At Course Completion

• Kanban origins, evolution, and benefits
• Kanban concepts, principles, and terminology
• Visualization of Work
• Limiting Work-In-Process
• Analyzing the Flow of Work
• Optimizing your Kanban system
• Continuous improvement culture
• Common misunderstandings and pitfalls of Kanban
• Experiments and analysis to improve team performance
• Kanban Metrics and Management Reporting

Audience Profile

This is an immersion course and the intent is to engage in the practices every team will employ, this course is recommended for all team members responsible for delivering outstanding software. That includes, but is not limited to, the following roles:

• Business Analyst
• Technical Analyst
• Project Manager
• Software Engineer/Programmer
• Development Manager
• Product Manager
• Product Analyst
• Tester
• QA Engineer
• Documentation Specialist

The Introduction to Kanban Workshop is a perfect place for cross-functional teams to familiarize themselves with Kanban and learn the basics of how to function as an Agile team. It's also a wonderful springboard for team building & learning. We invite you to bring your team and a team project to work on in class.

*Delivered by ASPE, ICAgile Member Organization

Course Outline

Section I: Welcome

• Summary: General logistics for the class.
• Topics covered:
  • Housekeeping
  • Course Objectives
  • Introductions
  • Instructor Bio
  • Agenda
  • Kanban Parking Lot

Section II: The Case for Change

• Summary: Gain an overall understanding of the basic principles, and benefits of Kanban along with how it differs from other development methodologies. Review similar methodologies practiced in organizations today. Show how it differs from Scrum as an example.
• Topics covered:
  • What is Lean
  • What is Agile
  • What is Kanban
  • Why Kanban
  • How Kanban differs from other methodologies
  • Difference from Scrum
  • Kanban Team and Roles
• Objectives From Summary:
  • Benefits of Kanban
  • How Kanban differs from other Agile methodologies

Section III: Kanban Overview and Concepts

• Summary: Learn the foundation of Kanban concepts, properties, and terminology. Understand the philosophy behind the Kanban framework and how it originated.
• Topics covered:
  • Kanban's 5 Core Properties
  • Kanban Emergent Behaviors
  • General Concepts at high level
• Objectives From Summary:
  • Kanban origins and evolution
  • The Kanban concepts, principles, and terminology
  • Understand the Kanban core principles

Section IV: Implementing Kanban

• Summary: The best way to understand Kanban is to go through the process of implementing it. This section goes through the various techniques and ceremonies associated with Kanban.
• Topics covered:
  • Work Item Types
  • Card Walls
  • Workflow
  • Queues and Buffers
  • Cadences
  • Work-in-Progress
  • Bottlenecks
  • Issues and Blocked Items
• Objectives From Summary:
  • Visualization of Work
  • How to set up a Card Wall
  • Setting Work-in-Process Limits
  • Limiting Work-In-Process
  • Analyzing the Flow of Work
  • Learn to build visualization methods like a Kanban board
  • Understand implementation approaches
  • How to use Work Item Types
  • Setting input and output limits

Section V: Metrics and Reporting

• Summary: Kanban needs to report slightly different metrics than traditional or Agile project management. Understand how metrics and reporting differs in Kanban.
• Topics covered:
  • Metrics Overview
  • Tracking Work-in-Process
  • Cumulative Flow Diagram
  • Lead Time
  • Trends
  • Throughput
• Objectives From Summary:
  • Kanban Metrics and Management Reporting
  • How to use metrics and tracking methods
  • How to optimize the Flow of Work

Section VI: Scaling Kanban

• Summary: Applying Kanban techniques to other types of efforts. How to track requirements, decouple work, and leverage the Minimal Marketable Release.
• Topics covered:
  • Scaling Kanban for different size efforts
  • Minimal Marketable Release
  • Two-Tiered Card Walls
  • Swim Lanes
• Objectives From Summary:
  • Understand considerations for scaling Kanban
  • Learn how Kanban is used by software development teams
  • Using the Minimum Marketable Release to break work down

Section VII: Improvements

• Summary: Learn how to recognize opportunities for improvement in your Kanban system and what to do about them.
• Topics covered:
  • Three types of Improvement Opportunities
  • Estimations
  • Class of Service
  • Service Level Agreements
  • Policies
  • Issue Management and Escalation Policies
• Objectives From Summary:
  • Optimizing your Kanban system
  • Practices to improve Kanban team performance
  • Understand Service Level Agreements

Section VIII: Kanban Change Initiative

• Summary: Understand the cultural change components of Kanban. Understand the goals behind the Kanban approach to change.
• Topics covered:
  • Kaizen Culture
  • Kaizen Mindset
  • Agile Leadership
  • Servant Leader
  • Kotter's Model
• Objectives From Summary:
  • Continuous improvement culture
  • Learn the role of Continuous Improvement

Section IX: Summary

• Summary: Summarize key takeaways.
• Topics covered:
  • Review Key Takeaways
  • Review Kanban objectives board
  • Survey Information

Exercises

• Summary: In-class exercises help to reinforce the fundamental principles of Kanban and the techniques that will increase its effectiveness. With our exercises, you will learn ways to leverage Kanban and lead your project to success.
• Topics covered:
  • Review Kanban Emergent Behaviors
  • Building a Kanban board
  • Documenting a work flow
  • Change a workflow into a Kanban system
  • Kanban Simulation

Videos

• Topics covered:
  • Kanban pronunciation
  • High Performing Tree
  • Building a Kanban Board
  • Six Sigma Career Day
  • Changing the World