A recipe for success

Kanban - Chapter 3

Overview1.Increase quality

2.Reduce WiP

3.Deliver frequently

4.Balance demand and throughput

5.Prioritize

6.Increase predictability

Increase quality• Reason

• bugs = biggest waste in software development

• consistent good quality strengthen trust

• trust = political capital

Increase quality• Methods

• testing (QA, TDD)

• code reviews

• design patterns

• modern software development tools

• reduce WIP

Reduce WIP

• more WIP increases lead time

• longer lead times = worse quality

• Quality and WIP are strongly connected, they should be implemented at the same time

Deliver frequently• frequent small gestures are better than

infrequent large gestures

• small scale actions usually only entail small costs

• builds trust with upstream partners/customers

Balance demand and throughput

• The point is

• shows bottlenecks

• allowes to give the employees a free hand - Kaizen cultur

• How?

• pull system regulates throughput

• political capital can be used to manage demand

Prioritize• Reason

• increases delivered business value

• How?

• requires trust from upstream partners/customers

• requires high predictability

• focus on business value, not amount of code

Increase predictability

• Motive:

• high variability leads to more WIP and longer lead times

• high variability correlates negatively with predictability

• How?

• requires a mature organization

• wise workers - agree and change their behavior

Conclusion• WIP correlates with quality

• frequent deliveries and consistent high quality build trust

• pull system regulates demand and throughput

• good prioritization maximizes delivered business value

• confidence creates opportunities for improvement