MGP 535- Agile Project

Management
Session 4
Kanban Methodology

MGP 535- Agile Project Management – Claude El Nakhl Khalil 1

Domain 1: Agile Methodologies- Kanban

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 What is Kanban
• Kanban, a Japanese term for signal board, was also
developed in the Toyota Production System (TPS).
• Agile adopted Kanban techniques to reflect the
throughput of a Sprint or iteration.
• Most Kanban boards are located in the team room
and have user story cards or post-it notes,
distributed across different categories.
• Kanban helps manage the throughput of a process
by identifying bottlenecks, setting ‘work-in-progress’
limits, and displaying the status of the entire
production system with one view.
• To use the Kanban framework, your team will
implement a philosophy of continuous
improvement, where work items are “pulled” from a
product backlog into a steady flow of work.
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History of Kanban
• “Kanban” is a combination of two Japanese words: 看 (Kàn), meaning “sign,” and 板 (Bǎn), meaning
“board.”
• Kanban was developed by Taiichi Ohno, a Toyota engineer from Japan, in the late 1940s.
• Ohno realized he could improve the Toyota Production System
• Ohno’s Kanban framework—also referred to as the “Just-in-Time” (JIT) system—produced and re-supplied
products as a result of consumer demand.
• The new framework transitioned the Toyota manufacturing process from a “push” process (products are
pushed into market) to a “pull” process (products are created based on market demand).
• This meant that Toyota could have a lower inventory level while still being a competitive player in the
market.
• Though Kanban still lives on in many manufacturing settings, it was adapted for software development in the
early 2000s. Inspired by Ohno’s lean manufacturing methodology, Kanban for software development also
implements the same “pull system” process that Ohno’s lean manufacturing did.

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 What are Kanban boards in project
management?

• Kanban teams use a visualization tool called Kanban boards to manage their workload and flow.
• In a Kanban board, work is displayed in a project board that is organized by columns.
• Traditionally, each column represents a stage of work. The most basic Kanban board might have columns like “To
do,” “In progress,” and “Done.”
• Each column is filled with visual cards that represent individual tasks. A team moves through the columns until the
tasks are completed.
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What are Kanban boards in project
management?
• Picture it like the shelves in a supermarket.
• As product inventory diminishes because it’s bought by the consumers, staff refills the shelves
with new products.
• The shelves are never empty but the product is constantly replaced with new items—a Kanban
board is continuously filled with new tasks as your team completes old ones.
• Now, you can have a physical Kanban board hanging in a conference room or you can streamline
processes online—a much easier solution for remote or virtual teams.

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The 4 Core principles of Kanban
Start with what we do now
• we can apply Kanban to any current workflow or process. Unlike more defined Agile management processes like Scrum,
Principle 1 Kanban is flexible enough to work within your team’s core practices.

Agree to pursue incremental, evolutionary change

• Big changes can be disruptive to the team—and if we try to change everything at once, the new system may not work.
Kanban knows this, which is why the Kanban framework indexes on continuous improvement and incremental change.
Instead of changing everything all at once, start by pursuing incremental change in order to truly evolve the team’s
processes over time.
Principle 2

Respect the current process, roles, and responsibilities

• Kanban doesn’t have any built-in team roles, so it works within the current team structure and process. Additionally, the
Principle 3 current process may have some great elements, which would be lost if we attempted to completely revamp the working
system in one day.

Encourage acts of leadership at all levels

• In the spirit of continuous improvement, the Kanban method recognizes that change can come from anywhere—not
Principle 4 necessarily just “top-down.” With Kanban, team members are encouraged to chime in, brainstorm new ways for
processes to evolve, and take the lead on new work initiatives.
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The 6 Best Practices of kanban
1. Visualize work
One of the biggest advantages of Kanban is that you can physically see work “move” through stages. Not only
does this practice give you a broad sense of how work moves through stages, but you can also get real-time, at-
a-glance insight into the stage of work.
2. Limit work in progress
As an Agile methodology, Kanban is built on a principle of early delivery—which means tasks should move
quickly between columns instead of languishing with an ambiguous “in progress” status. There’s no set
requirement for how many tasks should be “in progress” at any given time, but in general, encourage your
team to reduce multitasking and focus on the production of individual work.
3. Manage flow
Practice #2 states that you want to limit work in progress—and the best way to do that is to optimize the flow
of tasks within your Kanban board. Managing and improving your flow will decrease your lead time (the
amount of time spent between starting on a task and moving it to the “Done” column on your Kanban board),
and ensure you’re delivering tasks or shipping new products while they’re still relevant.

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The 6 Best Practices of kanban
4. Make process policies explicit
Because tasks move so quickly in Kanban, make sure your team has established and clearly
communicated conventions.
Additionally, everyone on your team should be encouraged to participate and innovate on your
Kanban policy, in accordance with the fourth Kanban core principle: Encourage acts of
leadership at all levels.

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The 6 Best Practices of kanban
5. Implement feedback loops
In Kanban, you want to gather feedback from two distinct groups: your customers and your team.
Customers: Gather feedback from customers on the quality and effectiveness of the solution your team
produced. Was it the right thing to produce? Were there any problems? If there were problems (like bugs
in code or defects in a product), revisit your Kanban flow and add more time for review, vetting, and
evaluation.
Team: Check in frequently with your team on the process of running a Kanban framework itself. How do
they feel about their output? Here you have another opportunity to encourage acts of leadership at all
levels and improve your team’s process policies.
Feedback is an integral part of continuous improvement and therefore the Kanban framework.

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The 6 Best Practices of Kanban
6. Improve collaboratively, evolve experimentally
Kanban, at its core, is about continuous improvement. But this also means other systems
might work well in conjunction with Kanban. Whether it’s Scrum or something else,
always be willing to collaborate, experiment, and evolve your processes if necessary.

1. Start with a blank board

2. Create columns to represent work
3. Add tasks to represent work
4. Move work through stages
5. Create new Kanban boards if necessary

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The benefits of Kanban
• Kanban is a great, flexible tool that can help teams balance work
with team capacity. When done right, Kanban can:
• As a form of visual project management, Kanban can help you bring
tasks to life and gain clear insight into your team’s workflows.
• Increase clarity, especially for remote teams. If your team is working
remotely, it can be difficult to gain visibility into what everyone is
working on. By centralizing work and reducing the amount of work
in flight at any given time, Kanban boards can help you and your
team gain instant insight into who’s working on what.
• Encourage flexibility. Because the Kanban framework is built on a
process of continuous improvement, teams that implement Kanban
can become more flexible and dynamic over time. If you follow the
four core principles and the six key practices, your team can become
more agile and open to change.

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The downsides of Kanban
• Kanban isn’t the right framework for every team. Some
downsides of Kanban include:
• It’s not as common among non-engineering teams. Like
Scrum, Agile, and other lean methodologies, Kanban
isn’t as well known among non-engineering teams.
Kanban can be an effective tool for all sorts of teams.
But if you’re planning to introduce a Kanban process to a
non-engineering team, consider moving one workstream
into Kanban at a time to help your team with the
adoption process.
• It can quickly become overwhelming. Because each task
card takes up so much visual space, your Kanban board
can quickly get cluttered and overwhelming if you have
too many things in flight at once.
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What is the difference between Kanban and
Scrum?
• Scrum is compatible with Kanban but it is a different framework:
• Scrum helps teams get more work done faster. The method organizes work into “sprints”—two-
week working sessions with daily meetings and a set amount of work to be completed during the
cycle time.
• Kanban helps teams improve processes by visualizing their work in real-time.

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What is the difference between Kanban and
Agile?
Kanban is a subset of Agile.
How They differ:
• Agile is a project management model designed to help teams flexibly respond to change. The
Agile philosophy believes in adaptive planning, evolutionary development, early delivery, and
continuous improvement.
• Kanban processes are shorter and fit sprint boundaries.

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What are the four principles of the Kanban
method?

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Domain 1: Agile Methodologies- Lean

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Lean Software Development/Lean approach
• Lean Software Development was introduced to the Agile community by Tom
and Mary Poppendieck. It adopts the principles and practices from the
Toyota Production System (TPS).
• TPS was developed to address issues that affect manufacturing processes
like:

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7- Lean Principles

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1- Elimination of Waste – 7 waste

• One of the most critical principles of lean manufacturing is the elimination of waste.
• The Toyota Production System also knows waste as muda.
• Many of the other principles revolve around this concept.
• There are 7 basic types of waste in manufacturing:
• Over Production
• Waste of Unnecessary Motion
• Waste of Inventory
• Production of Defects
• Waste of Waiting
• Waste of Transportation
• Waste of Overprocessing

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2. Continuous Improvement – Kaizen
• Continuous Improvement (commonly referred to by the Japanese word kaizen) is arguably the most
critical principle of lean manufacturing.
• It should truly form the basis of the lean implementation. Without continuous improvement any
progress will cease.
• Continuous Improvement promotes constant, necessary change toward achievement of a desired
state.
• Big and small improvements will be necessary to bring significant change to a process. (often many
small changes are required to achieve the target).
• The process truly is continual as there is always room for improvement.
• People often describe the Kaizen approach as the PDCA problem solving cycle. The constant trial and
error process of the PDCA cycle allows for quick kaizen improvement and learning.
• Continuous Improvement should be a mind-set throughout the whole organization.
• Avoid solely seeking the big ideas and getting caught up in them. Small ideas will often times lead
to big improvements.
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3. Respect For People
• The next lean manufacturing principle has to do with people.
• The most valuable resource to any company are the people who work for it. Without the people,
businesses do not succeed.
• Toyota describes their lean principle of Respect for people as one of their two pillars of the Toyota Way.
• The respect for people principle consists of Respect and Teamwork. This approach allows the company
to leverage and utilize the collective problem solving capability of the employees to drive improvement.
• When people do not feel respected, they tend to lose respect for the company. This can become a major
problem when you are trying to implement lean. Team members need to feel safe, secure, and
challenged within their jobs.
• Most people want to perform well in their jobs. The employees want to earn a decent living and have a
sense of worth while working. They want to feel like they have contributed to the company goals, like
their work and effort has meant something.
• A company supporting a respect for humanity philosophy will appreciate their workers efforts and keep
them in high regard.

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4. Levelized Production – Heijunka
•One of the foundational lean principles of lean manufacturing is levelized production.
•The basis of this principle is that the workload is the same (or level) every day.
•Most manufacturing companies are at the mercy of their customers for orders. Before producing
product, they wait to get orders.
•This leads to increased delivery lead time which may not satisfy customer requirements.
•On the other end of the spectrum, some companies will produce based strictly on a forecast.
•The customer may not require excess product as a result of this.
•Levelized production, or Heijunka, takes into consideration both forecast and history.
•There are many different ways to implement the principle of Levelized Production (Heijunka),
depending on the industry and company.
•Focusing on a levelized production schedule will make it easier for a company to implement other
Lean manufacturing principles.

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5. Just In Time Production – JIT
• The next key principle to mention is Just In Time (JIT) production.
• This principle aims to build what is required, when it is required, and in the quantity
required.
• Working in conjunction with levelized production, this principle works well with kanbans (a
pull system).
• It allows for movement and production of parts only when required.
• This means components are not used in product that is not required and no time is wasted
building unsaleable product.
• The JIT lean principle along with Jidoka (Quality built in) are the two pillars of the Lean
manufacturing house.
• JIT uses continuous flow and takt time to connect production directly with the pace of the
customer sales.

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6. Built In Quality – Jidoka
• Another key lean manufacturing principle is Quality Built In, or Jidoka.
• The principle relies on the idea that the manufacturing process incorporates quality into it.
• Quality is built into the design of the part.
• Quality is built into the packaging.
• Throughout all areas of the product, from design to shipping, quality is built into the process.
• Jidoka builds quality into the process through detection or prevention. Each lean manufacturing
process will highlight any abnormality so that the employee can stop the process. Stopping the
process so that the problem can be fixed is a key part of the Jidoka lean principle.
• Automation with a human touch falls within this lean manufacturing principle. Machines that can
detect defects and stop production are an excellent example of this principle. There are many
examples of equipment that have the prevention or detection capability build directly into them.
• In Lean Manufacturing (or any other system), the focus must be on doing it right the first time.

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7. Lean Manufacturing System – Lean
Management
• The lean manufacturing industry continues to learn more about what is necessary to be
successful with a lean system.
• The lean management principle has become increasingly important as we learn the critical role of
management in creating a lean culture.
• Leadership needs to design and own the management system in order to highlight and
communicate problems.
• A well designed lean management system will encourage employees to solve problems and
improve the process.

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The 5 Lean Principles of implementation
In today’s business world, companies always look for ways to work better, waste
less, and give more to customers.
By embracing the five lean principles, organizations can create a recipe for
improving workplace efficiency and driving continuous improvement.

When combined, these five lean principles create a powerful recipe for improving
workplace efficiency.
Companies that follow these principles can achieve impressive outcomes, like
shorter wait times, better quality, higher efficiency, and happier customers.
However, it is essential to note that implementing lean principles requires a
holistic and long-term approach.
It involves engaging employees at all levels, providing training and support, and
fostering a culture of collaboration and continuous learning.
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1. Defining Value
The first lean principle is to define value from the customer’s perspective.
Organizations must understand what their customers truly value and align their processes and
activities accordingly.
By focusing on value-added activities and eliminating non-value-added activities, organizations can
optimize their resources and enhance customer satisfaction.
Defining value helps organizations streamline processes, prioritize activities, and eliminate waste.

2. Mapping the Value Stream

Mapping the value stream is the next step in the Lean journey. Value stream mapping visually
analyzes how materials, information, and activities flow to deliver a product or service to the
customer. It helps identify areas for improvement and optimize the process.
This analysis is done through visual representation.
This mapping exercise enables organizations to identify bottlenecks, inefficiencies, and areas of
waste within their processes. By visualizing the value stream, organizations can make informed
decisions, optimize flow, and identify improvement opportunities.
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3. Creating Flow
Creating flow is a critical lean principle that focuses on minimizing interruptions, delays, and
disruptions in the value stream. It involves designing processes and workflows to enable smooth
and continuous flow. By reducing batch sizes, eliminating unnecessary handoffs, and optimizing
process layouts, organizations can enhance efficiency and productivity. Creating flow ensures that
work moves seamlessly from one step to another, reducing lead times, improving responsiveness,
and increasing throughput.

4. Using a Pull System

The pull system is a cornerstone of lean thinking. Instead of pushing work based on predictions, a pull
system works based on what customers actually want.
It involves producing and replenishing products or services only when requested by the customer or
downstream process.
By embracing a pull system, organizations can minimize overproduction, reduce inventory levels, and
achieve a more demand-driven and responsive operation.

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5. Pursuing Perfection

The fifth and final lean principle is the pursuit of perfection.

Lean organizations understand that improvement is a never-ending journey.
They continuously strive for perfection by relentlessly seeking ways to eliminate waste, enhance
quality, and optimize processes.

Pursuing perfection involves fostering a culture of continuous improvement, empowering

employees to identify and solve problems, and encouraging experimentation and innovation.

By embracing this principle, organizations can achieve sustainable growth, drive innovation, and
stay ahead of the competition.

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Different Lean management and agile team
models are suited to different activities

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ScrumBan
• Scrumban is a hybrid Agile methodology that combines principles and practices from
Scrum and Kanban.
• It aims to provide the flexibility of Kanban while maintaining the structure of Scrum.
• In Scrumban, teams typically use a Scrum-like process with a Kanban board to visualize
work and limit work in progress (WIP).
• This allows teams to prioritize and focus on the most important tasks while still being able
to adapt to changing requirements or priorities.

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Key elements of Scrumban include:
• Kanban board: Used to visualize the flow of work through different stages of the process.
It typically includes columns such as "To Do," "In Progress," and "Done."
• Work in progress (WIP) limits: Teams set limits on the number of items that can be in progress at
any given time.
This helps prevent overloading the team and encourages faster delivery of work.
• Scrum events: Scrumban retains some Scrum events, such as daily stand-ups, sprint planning, and
sprint reviews. However, these events may be more flexible and less structured compared to
traditional Scrum.
• Continuous improvement: Like Kanban, Scrumban emphasizes continuous improvement.
Teams regularly review their processes and make adjustments to improve efficiency and effectiveness.

Overall, Scrumban offers a more flexible approach than traditional Scrum, making it well-suited for
teams that want to combine the structure of Scrum with the adaptability of Kanban.

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How does Scrumban work?
• Scrumban Agile framework takes some characteristics from both the Scrum framework and also
the Kanban methodology.
Scrum features in Scrumban
• Process iteration happens at consistent intervals, typically at the end of sprints when the team
holds sprint retrospectives and sprint review meetings.
• Work is prioritized based on the complexity of the task and product demand.
• The entire team agrees and aligns on what “done” means, so everyone knows what it means to
complete a task. This means that end results are clearly outlined and defined.
Kanban features in Scrumban
• Uses a clear backlog of items that need to be completed. Once a team member starts working on
a task, they "pull" those tasks from the backlog into their current workload.
• There are hard set limits for the amount of tasks that are currently in progress to prevent the
team from being overworked.
• Tasks are visually represented as cards that move through different stages of the process on a
Kanban board.
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Features unique to Scrumban
• There is no team hierarchy in Scrumban. This means that every person on the
development team has the same opportunity as others to make decisions and
choices.
• This also means that there is no clear leader for the group—rather, the team is
entirely self-managed.
• Scrumban projects don’t necessarily need to have a deadline.
• Sprints are often worked in two-week increments, so team members can just
focus on those specific sprint tasks until it’s time to review and reiterate.
• This makes Scrumban a good choice for very long-term projects, or projects with
an ambiguous goal.

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The Scrumban process
There are four simple steps to the Scrumban process. Since there’s no Scrum master in Scrumban, it’s
important that everyone on the team knows these four essential steps. Here’s how to get started.
1. Create the Scrumban board
• A Scrumban board is a Kanban board which can include a product backlog, a sprint backlog, the team’s
workflow stages (like not started, in progress, and reviewing), and a clear column designated for completed
tasks.
• The stages that appear on the Kanban board are all dictated by the team. For example, some teams choose
not to have their product backlog on their Scrumban board, and instead keep just their sprint backlog on the
board.
• Scrumban follows the cyclical nature of sprints. If there are no more cards on the board, team members will
pull cards from the product backlog.
• Ideally, the team reviews the cards on the board every week and adds cards from the product backlog based
on that sprint’s goal.

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The Scrumban process
2. Establish the work-in-progress limits
• In Scrumban, there are no forms of "story points.
• Instead, the Kanban board should only have a set amount of cards on the board to prevent overwork.
• This is commonly referred to as work-in-progress limits or WIP limits.
• The Scrumban team decides as a group how many cards can be in what stage at one time, so that the team isn’t
overwhelmed with tasks.
• One key benefit of Scrumban is the ability to plan and change your workflow at any time during the process.
• For example, if the team feels like there are too many cards on the board at one time, they can easily choose to
pause pulling tasks in until more cards move into the "Done" category.

3. Work with the team to prioritize tasks

• Scrumban is one of the most flexible Agile methodologies.
• There's no team hierarchy in Scrumban, which gives everyone the ability to choose what the team works on.
• The easiest way to prioritize tasks in Scrumban is by looking at what the product needs most. Since the
prioritization process is continuous, team members can choose what they feel is most important for the product.
Because there is no Scrum master or product manager, this gives individual team members the agency to decide
what they think is best.

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The Scrumban process
4. Hold daily stand-up meetings
• Daily meetings help everyone on the team understand what is being worked on.
• Team members can decide which task they want to work on based on the cards on the board.
• When everyone participates in daily stand-up meetings, the development team can better
prioritize each task because they know their team members' workload.
• Because there’s no designated leader in the Scrumban method, team members can rotate who
leads daily stand-up meetings.

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 When to use the Scrumban method
One of the major benefits of using the Scrumban methodology is that it's an extremely flexible form of
project management.
When to use the Scrumban method to create more efficient processes for the team.
• To maintain long-term projects
If the team has a long-term or ongoing project with no set deadline, Scrumban can be a good method to
ensure that there's a consistent flow of work. Scrumban helps by establishing incremental check-ins.
Because Scrumban works in sprints, the team is able to monitor if work is continuing to flow during review
or planning periods.
So even if there is no deadline on an ongoing project, using the Scrumban method can keep cards flowing
on the task board.
• When Scrum is not quite working
For some development teams, the rigid structure of the Scrum platform can actually hinder the team’s
workflow. If the team is struggling with the structure of Scrum, Scrumban is an Agile approach that can help
ease them into the framework.
Because Scrumban is a hybrid of Scrum and Kanban, the team can learn key elements of the Scrum
framework while still maintaining the flexibility of the Kanban method.
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Pros of using Scrumban
- It Can help save time: the Scrumban method is a good way to start tracking the work that's
being done. B
- It can prevent performing duplicative work or spending time on tasks that don't satisfy the goal
of a specific sprint.
- It is Great for long-term or large-scale projects: Because Scrumban is an iterative Agile method, -
- It allows for small changes over large increments of time.
This makes it a great framework to use for long-term projects, because project needs will change
as time goes on. As needs change, Scrumban helps iterate and improve the processes to keep up
with those changes.
- Individual team members have more independence: If the team is looking to have more
autonomy, the Scrumban methodology might be a good place to start.
The Scrumban method gives the team members the opportunity to make decisions and prioritize
work as they see fit, rather than just completing work that’s assigned by a Scrum
master or product owner.

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Cons of using Scrumban

- Lack of management can cause confusion: While the independence and autonomy can
be motivating for one team, the lack of oversight can cause confusion and
disorganization in another.
- Scrumban is a relatively new methodology: Since Scrumban is a newer methodology,
there aren’t as many established processes. One Scrumban team's process may look
vastly different from another team's process, and part of that reason is because there's
no standardized framework like with Scrum or lean project management.
- Project managers have less control: especially for product manager or project
manager who is very hands on, this methodology may not work as well.
- In Scrumban, there are no specific roles on the development team. This means that
everyone has the same agency to choose what they feel is the right decision for the
sprint.

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