Kanban, thank you ma’am

David Lutz

What?

• Linux team at Lonely Planet implemented “Kanban”– Daily standups– Task Wall– Metrics– Retros

History

• Current Task Wall version 3.0– Version 1.0 Too Heavy– Version 2.0 Too Light– Version 3.0 Just Right

Why?

• To fix problems with current processes– Tasks coming into team from multiple sources– Poor prioritization– Poor visibility of workload– Pushy people queue jumping– Toxic Tasks– Internal projects neglected– Poor communication with Agile Dev teams

Tasks coming from multiple sources

• Service Desk tickets• Email• Walk ups• Instant Messages• Tasks for Embedded Engineer in Dev Teams• Production issues (incidents)• Internal projects and proactive maintenance

Strict* Rules

• Do cards in order FIFO FTW• No cherry picking tasks• 2 tasks in progress per Engineer• If someone wants to bump priority up they

need to come to standup and argue their case

* Strict but not completely inflexible ;-)

What is a card?

• Process must be lightweight to work

• Card = task that will take > 30 minutes work but < three days

• Less than 30 minutes = “Just Do It”

• More than 3 days = Split it into smaller tasks

Coloured Cards

Columns

• Backlog• In Progress• Done• Blocked• Waiting for Change

Blocked column

• Whose card is it?• Who or what is blocking the card?• Invite blocker to standup.

Toxic Tasks

• Poorly Defined “make it go faster”• Poorly Thought Out “let’s install OS/2 on the

servers”• Tedious and boring

• How to deal with them?

Outcomes

• Smaller Queue Length• Internal tasks getting done• Increased Throughput• Decreased Latency• Better communication within and between

teams• Happy Customers

Who am I?

• David Lutz• Sysadmin and DevOpstician• Lonely Planeteer for another few days then

looking for new gig…

• dlutzy@gmail.com• twitter.com/dlutzy