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Dependency Management

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GENERAL DEPENDENCY
MANAGEMENT WITH KANBAN CLASS OF DEPENDENCY MANAGEMENT & CLASS OF RESERVATION
There are many specific practices in the Kanban Method that contribute to an
effective approach to dependency management;​for example:

1 2 3 4 5 6
Ticket ID and Decorators to
work item highlight risk,
CHECKBOXES
1.
Decorators to
description
highlight priorities,
risk, or
dependencies
priori�es or
others
on
ON KANBAN TICKET DESIGN
ID TITLE others

Lorem opossum fur nomadic beast tail white at then snout

Color of
H
CLASS OF
the ticket marsupial. Then solitary what a opossum didelphimorph
oil bitey is omnivore.
complete
required

Requested 07/23/20
DEPENDENCY
TRUSTED TAIL-RISK GUARANTEED
Start 07/25/20 Checkboxes
Time stamps
DECORATING TICKETS TO SHOW MANAGEMENT
to indicate

2.
to track lead End Subtask 1  
subtasks

DON’T CARE FIXED DATE EXPEDITE

time
Due 08/10/20 Subtask 2
PEER-TO-PEER DEPENDENCY
AVAILABILITY MITIGATION ON‑TIME
Other Subtask 3 
Visualization
of time spent
or SLA

USE OF DATE FIELDS ON

3. TICKETS TO SHOW INTEGRATION
STANDARD STANDARD FIXED DATE EXPEDITE
DEPENDENCY DATES INTANGIBLE FIXED DATE
20 WITH SLE WITH DEADLINE ZERO TOLERANCE
CUSTOMER TICKET

cost
System-level WIP

cost

cost

cost

cost
cost
Increasing urgency— Increasing urgency— Cost of delay goes up Significant cost of delay is Critical and immediate
Selected Complete
AND EXPECTATIONS Cost of delay may be
significant but is not cost of delay is shallow cost of delay is shallow significantly around a incurred on a specific date cost of delay; it can
(a hard deadline). exceed other kanban limit
In Progress Done CAPACITY ALLOCATION FOR incurred until significantly but accelerates before but accelerates before known & fixed date.
4. later (if at all). levelling out. levelling out. (bumps other work).
10 TYPES OF WORK OR SOURCES delay delay delay delay
delay delay
Work type A
OF DEMAND
“We will spend
5
Work type B
half of our
capacity for work
Assume dependency exists. Up-front dependency
type A, and 25% each
Use filtered lead-time Up-front dependency detection with guaranteed No dependency management;
for work types B
ROWS ON Dynamic, just-in-time
No dependency management; distribution to determine start detection with reserved Class class of booking on called dynamic dependency
and C.”
5
Work type C 5. KANBAN BOARDS NATURE OF dependency discovery;
dynamic, just-in-time time and class of service; of Booking on called service; service; definition of ready discovery; expedite
DEPENDENCY dependency discovery.
capacity allocation on called
standby reservation on called definition of ready requires up- requires up-front analysis and dependencies when
MANAGEMENT service to guarantee service
service (just in case); dynamic, front analysis and a reserved a guaranteed called service discovered.
5 4
4 2 2
SEQUENTIAL DEPENDENCIES when needed.
SHOWN FROM LEFT TO RIGHT just-in-time dependency Class of Booking. reservation.
... 6.
concurrent activities
input Build� R elease
buffer
analysis
Next 4
R eady
Test
R eady IN THE DESIGN OF WORKFLOW discovery.
In Prog done
dev
In Prog done
KANBAN BOARDS

combine

SPLIT-MERGE BOARD DESIGN INTANGIBLE STANDARD FIXED DATE FIXED DATE FIXED DATE EXPEDITE
WITH SLE

cost
7. CALLED SERVICE

cost
cost
4
TO SHOW INTEGRATION

cost

cost

cost
DEPENDENCIES Cost of delay may be Increasing urgency— Cost of delay goes up Significant cost of delay is Significant cost of delay is Critical and immediate
TICKET
test dev
split In Prog
cost of delay is shallow significantly around a incurred on a specific date incurred on a specific date cost of delay; it can
significant but is not
incurred until significantly but accelerates before known & fixed date. (a hard deadline). (a hard deadline). exceed other kanban limit
delay later (if at all). delay
levelling out. delay (bumps other work).
delay delay delay

CLASSES OF DEPENDENCY
8. MANAGEMENT
CUSTOMER TICKET
analysis
feature development
sla = 5 days
test
RESERVATION OPTIONAL STANDBY OPTIONAL STANDBY OPTIONAL RESERVED RESERVED GUARANTEED NONE
development
dependenciesreq
Parent-childFeatures can5be stories done
design code test
represented (parents)
with 2-tiered boards.
team 1

team 2
Features
(parents)
9. CLASSES OF SERVICE
User stories
CALLED SERVICE
team 3 (children)

RESERVATION NONE NONE STANDBY RESERVED GUARANTEED NONE

team 4

team 5
PARENT-CHILD DEPENDENCIES
team 6 10. IN THE DESIGN OF TWO-TIERED
KANBAN BOARDS 1 2 3 4 5 6

PARKING LOTS USED TO HOLD

ITEMS BLOCKED DUE TO
input
Buffer
5
Next
analysis

4
dev
R eady
3
Next
development

4
Build�
R eady
2
Test

2
R elease
R eady 11. DEPENDENT WORK EXTERNAL Filtered
Filtered
for Known Filtered
Filtered
for Known Filtered
Filtered
for Known Filtered
Filtered
for Known
In Prog done In Prog done
TO THE IMMEDIATE BOARD Lead Time Lead Time Dependency Dependency Dependency Dependency
Lead Time Lead Time Lead Time Lead Time
10 30 60 10 30 60 10 30 60 10 30 60 10 30 60 10 30 60

Dependency impact is built We wish to mitigate the tail risk Assume a dependency exists: filter We want high confidence in the start NO MARGIN FOR ERROR! ITEM IS NEEDED ASAP!
12.
waiting on external
group CLASSES OF BOOKING into customer lead time in the customer-facing lead lead time probability density function time for customer lead time. We take no We want 100% confidence in the start We do not care about dependency
distribution. time by ensuring dependency for this assumption. Make a standby risk on dependent capacity becoming time for customer lead time and no risk on management or reservations – just do it!
Late against SLA
We start early enough & cost delivery is predictable and reservation just in case we have a unavailable. dependent capacity availability. Just-in-time, dynamic dependency
of delay is low enough that reliable as a consequence of dependency. Dependency should be discovery
CUSTOMER-FACING we don’t need to explicitly reserved capacity on the called given Fixed Date class of service to
“RESERVED” Class of Booking “GUARANTEED” Class of Booking
DYNAMIC RESERVATION APPLICATION SERVICES manage the dependency. service. mitigate tail risk on customer request.
13. SYSTEMS WEEK
22
WEEK
23
WEEK
24
WEEK
25
WEEK
26
WEEK
27
WEEK
28
WEEK
29
WEEK
30
WEEK
31
WEEK
22
WEEK
23
WEEK
24
WEEK
25
WEEK
26
WEEK
27
WEEK
28
WEEK
29
WEEK
30
WEEK
31

analysis
feature development test
sla = 5 days POOL OF IDEAS READY ACTIVITY ACTIVITY DONE POOL OF IDEAS READY ACTIVITY ACTIVITY DONE POOL OF IDEAS READY ACTIVITY ACTIVITY DONE
(2) (3) (2) (2) (3) (2) (2) (3) (2)
Features req 5 stories development done ONGOING DONE ONGOING DONE ONGOING DONE ONGOING DONE ONGOING DONE ONGOING DONE
design code test POOL OF IDEAS READY ACTIVITY ACTIVITY POOL OF IDEAS READY ACTIVITY ACTIVITY POOL OF IDEAS READY ACTIVITY ACTIVITY
(parents)
MAPPING SHARED SERVICES DONE DONE DONE
5

(2) (3) (2) (2) (3) (2) (2) (3) (2)

ONGOING DONE ONGOING DONE ONGOING DONE ONGOING DONE ONGOING DONE ONGOING DONE
TO AN EXISTING BOARD USING
14.
Column WIP Limit = 5
Test is a shared service across 5 dev teams.
In this example, testing was offshore in Chennai, India.
Lucy
Daniel
Emily
A COLUMN WITH A WIP LIMIT OR
team 3
AVATARS FOR INDIVIDUALS
< FIXED DATE > < FIXED DATE >
Nick

Small orange tickets are avatars

for people from shared services
Amanda
-COS- -COS-
such as enterprise architecture and user experience design.
Sarah

TRIAGE TABLES (BASED ON

Demand: INTANGIBLE Demand: STANDARD Demand: STANDARD
Alex

team 6 Ted

Katy
Maria

Steve
Matt 15. PROBABLE COST OF DELAY IN
STARTING)
Demand: FIXED DATE
Analyze & detect dependency.
Demand: FIXED DATE
Analyze & detect dependency.
Demand: EXPEDITE

DoR requires confirmed “reserved” DoR requires confirmed “Guaranteed”

CLASSES OF BOOKING booking on called service. booking on called service.
MARKING BLOCKED TICKETS
WITH DIFFERENT COLORS
input Next
Concurrent Build
defect
R elease
16. TO INDICATE THE TYPE OF Standby
analysis Test
buffer Activities R eady R eady DEPENDENCY Reserved Filtered by Filtered by Filtered by Filtered by Filtered by Filtered by
Calling Service Calling Service Calling Service Calling Service Calling Service Calling Service
Guaranteed Work Type Work Type Work Type Work Type Work Type Work Type
Lead Time Lead Time Lead Time Lead Time Lead Time Lead Time
17. BLOCKER CLUSTERING
1 5 15 1 5 15 1 5 15 1 5 15 1 5 15 1 5 15
blocking
issue
“STANDBY” Class of Booking “RESERVED” Class of Booking “GUARANTEED” Class of Booking
INTERNALLY FACING WE DO NOT CARE! RESERVED CAPACITY WE DO NOT CARE!
PLATFORM OF SHARED
WEEK WEEK WEEK WEEK WEEK WEEK WEEK WEEK WEEK WEEK WEEK WEEK WEEK WEEK WEEK WEEK WEEK WEEK WEEK WEEK WEEK WEEK WEEK WEEK WEEK WEEK WEEK WEEK WEEK WEEK
22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31

18. RISK REVIEW

SERVICES POOL OF IDEAS READY ACTIVITY ACTIVITY DONE POOL OF IDEAS READY ACTIVITY ACTIVITY DONE POOL OF IDEAS READY ACTIVITY ACTIVITY DONE
(2) (3) (2) (2) (4) (3) (2) (4) (3)
ONGOING DONE ONGOING DONE ONGOING DONE ONGOING DONE ONGOING DONE ONGOING DONE
POOL OF IDEAS READY ACTIVITY ACTIVITY DONE POOL OF IDEAS READY ACTIVITY ACTIVITY DONE POOL OF IDEAS READY ACTIVITY ACTIVITY DONE
(2) (4) (3) (2) (4) (3) (2) (4) (3)
A A ONGOING DONE ONGOING DONE ONGOING DONE ONGOING DONE ONGOING DONE ONGOING DONE A
(6)
A A A (6)

19. OPERATIONS REVIEW B B

(3)
B
(6)

B
(6)

B
(6) B
(3)
< FIXED DATE > < FIXED DATE > < FIXED DATE >
(3) -COS- (3) -COS- (3) -COS-
Demand: INTANGIBLE Demand: STANDARD Demand: EXPEDITE
Undetermined wait: WIP LIMITS! NO WAIT: PREEMPTS OTHER TICKETS
NO WIP LIMITS! Demand: FIXED DATE Demand: FIXED DATE Demand: FIXED DATE
20. DELIVERY PLANNING MEETING

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