In our fast-moving world, customers expect fast results and priorities are constantly changing. Therefore, companies must be able to respond and adapt quickly.
In the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic, my favorite piece of cake inspired me to tell the story of a confectionery shop that was urged to change their product portfolio due to market changes. As I use this story very often to introduce Kanban principles and practices in training and coaching sessions, I also want to share it here.
Grab a piece of cake and read how Kanban principles and practices can be applied to initiate and manage change effectively.
What is Kanban?
The inventor of the Kanban method, David J. Anderson, was on holiday in Japan in spring 2005. Spring is the time of cherry blossom, so he went to see the cherry blossoms in the gardens of the Imperial Palace. Many other people wanted to do the same and there were long queues.
To manage the flow of the crowds, each visitor was given a ticket. If there were no more tickets, admission was paused until another visitor had left the garden. Access to a scarce resource – the garden – was managed by limiting the capacity – the tickets. The presence or absence of a card was the signal whether there was capacity or not. This was a kanban system. The Japanese word “kanban” means “visible signal”.
By using Kanban, a company develops the capability to respond better and faster to changing customer needs and expectations.
We can apply Kanban everywhere in a company where we provide a service and in any situation where people and processes are involved. Kanban is neither a methodology nor a framework. In contrast to Scrum, it does not prescribe events, workflows, roles or responsibilities. Rather, it is a method that is applied to an existing way of working, with the purpose of making that way of working more effective. With that, it is much more than just a board full of sticky notes.
Recommended for you: Kanban Foundations online short course
Why you benefit from using Kanban
Where to apply Kanban
The Kanban method takes inspiration from lean manufacturing in many aspects and was designed for knowledge work. Kanban is not limited to specific industries, products or services and also does not require specific roles, events or practices.
Using Kanban for change management
A friend of mine works for a confectionary shop that sells cakes and a few other bakery goods. She is an expert in producing and decorating cakes for weddings and other celebrations. The shop is a small family-owned business with a stable number of b2b and b2c customers who used to order cakes regularly.
When COVID-19 hit, the market environment changed drastically: The customers came less frequently and the bakery store’s hygiene measures needed to be adapted in order to meet new requirements. This affected the production. Also, the customers demanded more bakery goods instead of cakes. Bread had been sold out several weeks in a row and the bakery realized that they needed to change their product portfolio. To address the change, they took several actions.
When I first heard about their change, I was preparing for a Kanban workshop, looking for an example of how to apply Kanban principles and practices. Because I like cake and think most of their measures relate perfectly to Kanban, a cake-inspired version of the Kanban principles and practices follows:
The six principles of Kanban
Start with what you do now
The team of the confectionery shop was already experienced with baking one type of bread. They used their existing knowledge and capabilities to change their product portfolio from cakes to bread: They simply took their bread recipe and produced more bread of that type. They built on top of what they already did instead of planning a big change, which allowed them to start on the same day and learn fast.
When uncertainty is high, the first step of a change is not always clear. We counter this by building on what is already there.
The first principle of Kanban says: Start with what you are already doing.
Pursue evolutionary change
As the confectionery shop did not want to do a big bang change, they analyzed what they could add to the basic recipe in order to further improve in small steps. So they decided to add some special grains and seeds to their bread, in order to create variations. The customers liked it and some of them also provided feedback on the new products. Some preferred smaller sized breads, for example.
With that, they approached new things in many small steps and learned from their experiences. This is easier to implement than introducing big changes overnight – only to realize at the end that another way would have been better.
The second Kanban principle says: Agree to pursue evolutionary change.
Encourage leadership at all levels
The change in their product portfolio triggered some adaptations in how the team of the confectionery shop works together during the day and how they manage their work. Because team members know best what needs to be changed in production, they encouraged everyone to bring in their ideas and knowledge. Together they owned the process of inspecting and adapting continuously. This led to several actions like transforming their café area into a second production room and adjusting their worktimes.
Change happens when it is initiated and accompanied by someone. When we start with what we are already doing and manage change in many small steps, this does not only concern leadership roles in the organization. Often small or supposedly insignificant observations and suggestions for improvement come from people with no formal leadership roles. After all, through their daily operational work, they know very well what changes can make an impact.
The third Kanban principle relates to that: Encourage leadership at all levels.
Understand customers’ needs
The team used statistics to learn and understand what their customers needed and adjusted to those. They found out that they didn’t sell any cake but three types of bread instead. They also noticed that on Mondays there were fewer customers than on Fridays. Based on this data, they managed their purchasing of ingredients accordingly and were able to reduce waste.
Clients judge services on the basis of various criteria. If a team fulfills them, this leads to satisfaction. So if a team understands their customers better, they can think about their work system from the customers’ point of view and focus on the customers’ needs.
This is what the fourth Kanban principle addresses: Understand the needs and expectations of customers and focus on them.
Manage the work, not the people
Working times and workflow steps changed as the business offered different products and more variation. It became very important to prioritize work and ensure that the system of work is effective rather than ensuring that all team members were utilized.
The team knew best what they needed to do to manage and organize bread production, so the owner of the shop let them self-organize around that work. The shop owner established a pull system and created an environment where people felt safe and motivated to organize themselves and produce value (bread).
The fifth Kanban principle says: Manage the work and let people organize themselves around the work.
Control service delivery through policies
With offering more variations and other types of products, the team agreed on how “type 1” bread should look like to meet their quality standards. They also defined what needed to be done in each workflow step.
Offering new types of bread required change. They had to continuously develop their offering and rules for collaboration. Continuous inspection and adaptation was needed to ensure sustainable results.
The sixth principle says: Control service delivery through policies.
Want to deepen your knowledge? Try Kanban System Design (KMP I) Training
Why Kanban supports change management
When change is needed, Kanban’s first three principles provide guidance on how to manage change.
Kanban’s first principle relates to the introduction of change. It says: Start with what you are already doing. Approaching new things and learning from the experiences with them is related to an evolutionary approach that is covered by the second principle: pursue evolutionary change. The third principle relates to promoting responsible action in every individual (encourage leadership at all levels).
This is why the first three principles are also called change management principles. The remaining three principles are focused on service delivery and are therefore called service delivery principles.
Kanban core practices
Make work visible
The team followed specific practices that helped them to produce good results. For example, they supported the purchasing and production by visualizing the number of orders from previous days so that everybody was aware of the development and could adjust accordingly. They also reorganized the workspace in a way that allowed them to see what others were doing, which led to better alignment during production and less bottlenecks.
If, for example, too much dough was prepared but not processed further, they were now able to see that the dough was piling up. Waste was also noticeable: Dropped toppings on the floor couldn’t be processed further and also posed the risk of an accident if someone slipped on them.
These visible signs were discussed and the team initiated measures for optimization. Visualizing work and the flow of work allows us to absorb and process a lot of information in a short time. Because everyone involved has the same picture, visualization supports collaboration and helps make better decisions. Visual signals show us when we need to act or where problems occur.
In contrast to the construction of physical products, the inventory is not visible in knowledge work. It’s more difficult to recognize queues or blocked work. A Kanban board can make work visible in this case.
The columns represent the flow of work, from the first step to the delivery of customer value. The work flows through the system and is visualized by means of maps. This allows us to see at a glance where any bottlenecks and overloads occur. Colors and shapes can also be used to additionally visualize different states such as blocked or very urgent work.
Limit work in progress
The confectionery shop only had three ovens, which was enough for producing cakes but not enough for the demand of bread. They needed to limit the work in progress of bread to avoid long waiting times, which would have resulted in quality issues and waste.
Work in progress refers to the number of tasks that are in progress at any given time. Kanban provides an effective work system with focus on the flow of work rather than on the utilization of employees. When resources are fully utilized, there is no idle time in the system and the result is poor flow, just like rush hour traffic on the highway.
In knowledge work, we also encounter the problem of context switching, which can drastically reduce effectiveness. Perhaps you know this: you are editing a text document and a colleague calls. You are pulled out of your thoughts and need a moment after the phone call until you can continue where you left off.
In Kanban, we therefore limit parallel work in order to balance the workload and ensure an even flow of work.
Manage the flow of work
The team was continuously producing bread as they noticed that much time and effort was needed during production – more than they had assumed. Therefore, they decided to measure the time needed for each step in production. After a few weeks, the numbers indicated a bottleneck in transporting the unfinished loaves to the ovens. By reducing transport times and adapting the way of working in the team a bit, they enabled an even flow of work that also had positive effects on an even utilization of the ovens.
The goal of managing the flow of work is to get the job done as smoothly and predictably as possible while maintaining a steady pace. It aims to create value for customers quickly and sustainably.
Limiting parallel work is one of the most important measures in Kanban that helps us to ensure a smooth and predictable flow. To achieve this, we need to monitor and measure the flow of work. This provides us with data that can be used for expectation management, forecasting and improvement.
Make policies explicit
The team made many decisions about the organization of work and how work was done. This referred, for example, to how new work – i.e. orders from customers – entered the system. The definition of when a task is completed and another colleague takes over was clear to everyone involved. Other examples of explicit agreements related to limiting parallel work, guidelines for dealing with tasks of different priority or meeting times.
Everyone involved agreed on policies, including clients, stakeholders and colleagues responsible for the work. In order to keep track of the agreements, the team made them visible and accessible. For example, they printed a checklist that made explicit how to leave the workplace at the end of the day.
A team agreement is a good way to introduce such guidelines at team level. As with all other building blocks of the system, policies need to be reviewed and adapted regularly. Guidelines are not work instructions that describe how work should be done in detail. Setting explicit rules is meant to enable self-organization.
Implement feedback loops
The change in the confectionery shop’s work required regular conversations. To ensure a constant cycle of inspection and adaptation, they provided feedback regularly. They ritualized it by having a short conversation every week for one hour where they discussed numbers, processes, communication and how to improve.
Feedback loops are necessary for coordinated delivery, to improve service delivery and prevent a negative impact on customer satisfaction. The conversations can include sharing relevant information, talking about observations and possible adjustments or planning the strategy for the next quarter.
Kanban refers to feedback loops in the form of meetings as cadences. Feedback loops increase the organization’s ability to learn because they provide a framework for regular inspection and adaptation. Feedback loops can also help to conduct small-scale experiments and learn from them through regular reflection.
Improve collaboratively, evolve experimentally
In the first weekly meeting, the team decided to experiment with a new type of special bread as one team member had some experience with it from their previous job. They got together to plan how they were going to try the new recipe. Then, they offered the product for two weeks to learn how customers responded to it and what they needed to change in production.
The last of the six Kanban practices takes us back to the principles: “Start with what you are already doing” and “Agree to pursue evolutionary change”. Kanban is a method for continuous improvement that we do collaboratively. A diverse team usually comes up with better solutions than a single person. This is partly because different perspectives are taken into account and advantages and disadvantages are recognized earlier.
Conclusion
As a method that is applied to an existing way of working, Kanban embraces change by fostering evolution and learning in small steps while focusing on customers’ needs. With that, Kanban can be used for managing change in many contexts.
By the way, the confectionary shop team successfully transformed their product portfolio and improved their way of working significantly. They still inspect and adapt every day and currently offer 50% cakes and 50% bakery goods.
Kanban certifications
If you want to learn more about Kanban, agile42 offers an array of Kanban certifications. Learn the basics in our online Kanban course, or dive a little deeper with Kanban System Design (KMP I) certification. If you already have the basics down and want to take your expertise to the next level, Kanban Systems Improvement (KMP II) is for you.
Andrea Tomasini on Leadership and Entrepreneurship
/by Andrea TomasiniIn an interview with Go Solo, our founder Andrea Tomasini talks about his entrepreneurial journey in leadership development and what you can expect as you can navigate this journey.
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/by agile42Goals are what drive us and create a path to our success. Many of us have a big goal in mind that guides us. But one big goal can be overwhelming: how do we decide on the smaller parts and day-to-day actions that will help us achieve it?
In this webinar, goal-setting experts Regina Martins and Birge Kahraman introduce you to the concept of OKRs, or Objectives and Key Results. They show you how to break your big, ambitious goals down into small, achievable, and clear steps. They outline how you can write action-orientated and strong objectives as well as impactful key results. Together, they explore how Agile teams can use OKRs, and how we can connect them to our business goals.
Continue ReadingScrum Training in 2023
/by Lauren Edwardsagile42 is a world leader is Scrum training. There are hundreds of training providers all across the globe, so what is it about agile42’s methods that keeps professionals coming back to us? We use scientific teaching methods and practices, including techniques from Accelerated Learning and in particular principles and concepts from Training from the Back of the Room.research has shown that students retain information better using these methods, and that conceptual understanding is deeper. In our training, we focus on the learners and not on the content, and we adapt our approach to each student’s specific needs and talents. The main points are covered, but we use different techniques and existing class knowledge to dive deeper into the concepts, which results in a dynamic agendathat aligns with the class’s specific interests.
Our Scrum courses are dynamic, designed for deeper practical understanding of new skills, and tailored for the individuals in the class. Sure, you’ll pass your exam. But you’ll also walk away with a greater depth of knowledge and understanding that will empower you when taking the next steps in your career.
Online Scrum Certifications
The agile42 training method has always been defined by interactive Scrum games, group work, and many, many post-its. But as our world changed and shifted due to the Covid-19 pandemic, we had to revise our training model. We didn’t want to fall into the trap of the formulaic video call, with a sequence of slides that flash across the screen while half the attendees are either dozing or distracted. We wanted to design training that kept the interactive, engaging agile42 style. This is how we devised our new training model: that of the “virtual class” with strong doses of interactivity and group activities thanks to the use of Zoom “breakout rooms”, beautiful Miro boards, virtual games, and a Slack channel that is available to the participants before, during, and after the course. Almost all of our Scrum training is available online.
Other Agile Certifications in 2023
agile42 also offers Italian Scrum training, as well as online Agile certifications, Kanban training with certification from Kanban University, ICAgile Agile Team Facilitation (ICP-ATF) and Agile Coaching Certification (ICP-ACC) training, and the new edition of the Scrum Alliance Certified Agile Leadership combined with the ORGANIC agility Foundations course.
If none of these dates, times, or languages suit you, reach out to us and we’ll let you know if we’re able to offer ad-hoc training to you and your team. Contact us for further information and questions, and to access the discounts reserved for companies.
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Certified Agile Skills – Scaling 1 (CAS-S1)
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€1,295.00 (excl. VAT)Certified Scrum Product Owner (CSPO) Training 29.-30. April 2024
€1,295.00 (excl. VAT)Advanced Certified Scrum Product Owner (A-CSPO) Training 12.-14. June 2024
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€1,295.00 (excl. VAT)Certified Scrum Product Owner (CSPO) Training 27.-28. November 2023
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/by agile42, Regina Martins, Pascal PapathemelisEvery year, as we approach the year-end, our coaches find themselves having more conversations about burnout. It’s a concept we’ve been hearing about for decades, so why is it still such a big problem?
In this webinar, Regina Martins and Pascal Papathemelis tackle this concept. They share their personal experiences to cover why burnout happens and how we can spot the signs in both ourselves and others. They also explore some long-term sustainable solutions to this problem, and the roles that coaches and leaders in organizations play to prevent burnout from happening in the first place.
watch and readHow Resilient is Your Company?
/by agile42Only those who are able to react in a flexible way to market changes can operate and grow sustainably in the long term: resilience is the key. With the right methods and tools, any organization can evaluate its status quo and gain insight into its resilience.
Every company is a complex and organic construct. It is the sum of all employees, their managers, and the underlying processes and decisions they make. The theory goes that the stronger the consensus behind these decisions and processes, the stronger the organization itself. A company can be compared to a tree: the stronger the trunk and branches, the more resistant it is to external influences. In other words: the stronger the core message and process structures of a company, the stronger the organization.
Culture As a Cornerstone
In order to ensure a stable organization, a culture that is lived by everyone must prevail – the trunk, so to speak, to stay with the analogy of the tree. Understanding your own corporate culture is important in order to make sustainable changes, healthy growth and innovation possible in the first place.
Ideally, every single employee in the company must support and actively shape changes. For this it is important to know exactly what the status quo is.
It’s All About Understanding Your True Status Quo
But how do you get a really honest, unbiased picture of the status quo, especially when it comes to values that are intangible, such as culture, management style or employee satisfaction? agile42 has set itself the task of making this data, which is so difficult to collect, visible. Once you can measure it, you can use it as a basis for the transformation processes to increase resilience in the long term. With our Organizational Scan™ we have created a product especially for this.
The OrgScan™: More Than an Ordinary Survey
Culture can be made visible through data, using the Organizational Scan™. It’s one of the Organic Agility Strategic Tools and provides real data on corporate culture, leadership styles, decision-making skills and the values that are lived in the company. The OrgScan™ uses the patented SenseMaker® technology, which generates unbiased results through completely anonymous data collection in the form of micronarratives, which are not impacted by subjective moods or personal situations.
“High acceptance, facts instead of gut feeling”
“It was important for us – especially with regard to our corporate culture – to have a data-based classification that consists of the unfiltered view of our employees,” reports Christina Kiehl, Chief Finance & Operations Officer at Congstar. “Over 400 stories were submitted, which were analyzed in different dimensions. The advantages of the process: high acceptance, facts instead of gut feelings, the opportunity to further develop our corporate culture in a targeted manner and also to measure it. Our conclusion: Clear recommendation for the use of the OrgScan™.”
Want to learn more about the OrgScan™?
This is a translation of an article that originally appeared on t3n.de
The Benefits of Hybrid and Remote Work
/by agile42Hybrid work refers to a flexible model of working that allows employees to work from various locations and often includes remote work. In the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, more and more companies are embracing hybrid working models. According to the Accenture Future of Work Study 2021, 83% of workers prefer a hybrid work model. While there may be a number of challenges, there are also plenty of benefits to hybrid work. Here are seven ways that hybrid work can benefit your company and your team.
Recommended reading: 42 Expert Tips for Hybrid Work
The 7 Benefits of Hybrid Work
It saves money
For companies, one of the most obvious benefits of hybrid work is it allows them to reduce costs. The reduced need for physical space allows companies to rent out smaller office spaces, use co-working spaces, or even just hire out conference rooms when it is necessary. Companies also typically spend less money on running costs such as electricity and water, as well as sundry expenses like coffee and meals.
Hybrid and remote work also benefit employees financially as they spend less money commuting. People are also less tempted to buy that extra cappuccino or sandwich at their local cafe, meaning they are spending less money on a day-to-day basis and can choose to cook a wholesome meal at home instead. With the rising costs of fuel and living, these are very compelling reasons to stay at home!
An increase in efficiency
While productivity and efficiency are interdependent, they are not the same thing. Productivity is the amount of work produced by an individual or team, while efficacy refers to the resources we used to produce that work.
One of the biggest benefits of hybrid work is that people can be more efficient, especially when it comes to time. If you work from home, you cut back on the time it takes to commute to work. Furthermore, it allows you to manage your work around times that suit you and when you are most productive. You can choose your peak hours around when you want to complete your more complex tasks.
A better work-life balance
Most people think that hybrid work promotes a better work-life balance but this is not necessarily true. Digital exhaustion and working after hours has become a reality for people in hybrid and remote work environments. In a case study by Harvard Business Review, Microsoft reported that weekly time in team meetings doubled, and the average person sends 42% more instant messages after hours.
To overcome this digital overload and create a better work-life balance, we need good leadership. Hybrid work can promote a better work-life balance if leaders have put the right structures, rules of engagement, and priorities in place. For example, leaders need to focus on managing the flow of work (not people), building autonomy and trust in teams, and leading based on context, which is different for every team. If leaders can create a good working environment, it empowers people to make good decisions and increase their job satisfaction.
Improved health outcomes
The rise of hybrid work in the previous few years is a direct result of health concerns. Communicable diseases are spread through people, and working from home prevents outbreaks of disease in the office.
When working from home, people feel more relaxed and comfortable in a familiar environment. Plus, they do not have to deal with the stresses of a daily commute, like traffic jams or being in close proximity to people on a train. Instead, people can use this time to walk or engage in an activity to help them into the right frame of mind before their day begins. If employees unplug after work hours, they can have more time in the evening to cook and get to bed earlier. All these factors have a significant impact on our physical health and help us to reduce stress.
An increase in Employee Happiness
According to the 2021 State of Mental Health in America, the prevalence of mental health conditions continues to rise. In fact, an estimated 12 billion working days are lost every year to depression and anxiety. And working from home seems to make people happier.
A study by Tracking Happiness, showed that the ability to work from home increased happiness by 20%,and this is especially true for millennials, who make up a large portion of today’s workforce. A side-effect of working in a hybrid or remote setting is that it offers people more flexibility and freedom to better integrate their personal and professional lives. And if people can spend more time exercising, meditating, travelling, or working on their relationships outside of work, it can result in higher levels of happiness.
Photo by LUNA on Pexels
A reduced carbon footprint
As employees spend fewer days commuting, there’s a corresponding drop in emissions. A study by Forbes shows that the average commuting time in the UK is 1 hour and 38 minutes, much of which will be spent in a car, and the average petrol car in the UK produces around 180g of CO2 per kilometer. In the United States, larger vehicles produce an average of 650g of CO2 per kilometer. You can see how this all adds up, and reducing commuting can have a very positive impact on the environment. Offices are also using less electricity and water, meaning that they are reducing their carbon footprint too.
However, there are other factors to consider when working remotely. Hybrid work has led to a surge in video calls that emit greenhouse gasses. And while companies may be reducing their carbon footprints with fewer people in office, individuals can end up using a lot of energy to create the ideal working conditions at home by using their air conditioners, heating, or cooking appliances. Working from home has a lot of potential to reduce the carbon footprint, but a lot of responsibility still lies on both individuals and companies to do their part.
Photo by Anna Nekrashevich on Pexels
A wider talent pool
It is becoming clear that companies that want to attract talent need to offer people more flexibility and freedom to work where they want. Remote and hybrid jobs are attracting seven times more applicants than in-person roles.
Hybrid work also enables companies to find the right person for the job that does not depend on their location but rather their skillset. More accessible workplaces also reduce barriers for those with health issues and disabilities, resulting in more diverse and more inclusive workplaces. This makes it possible to find and accommodate the best possible talent for the role. Digital transformations have also helped with this move as people can connect with each other from around the world and use a wide range of virtual tools to work together and collaborate.
Need help establishing effective hybrid work arrangements?
There are a lot of benefits to hybrid work, and a lot of people are favoring this way of working for many of the reasons that we have mentioned. If you or any of your teams need help with how to make hybrid work more enjoyable and productive, please get in touch at [email protected] or read our 42 expert tips for hybrid and remote work.
Webinar: Why Technical Debt is an Opportunity
/by agile42In software development, technical debt is a concept that reflects the extra development work that arises when we use quick or easy solutions. But the concept is useful beyond the world of software too. In the digital world, where new technologies and ideas are emerging just about every day, technical debt is almost unavoidable. So we need to know how to deal with it.
Read and WatchPrinciples and Practices of Kanban
/by Ninja GranzowIn our fast-moving world, customers expect fast results and priorities are constantly changing. Therefore, companies must be able to respond and adapt quickly.
In the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic, my favorite piece of cake inspired me to tell the story of a confectionery shop that was urged to change their product portfolio due to market changes. As I use this story very often to introduce Kanban principles and practices in training and coaching sessions, I also want to share it here.
Grab a piece of cake and read how Kanban principles and practices can be applied to initiate and manage change effectively.
Photo by Diliara Garifullina on Unsplash
What is Kanban?
The inventor of the Kanban method, David J. Anderson, was on holiday in Japan in spring 2005. Spring is the time of cherry blossom, so he went to see the cherry blossoms in the gardens of the Imperial Palace. Many other people wanted to do the same and there were long queues.
To manage the flow of the crowds, each visitor was given a ticket. If there were no more tickets, admission was paused until another visitor had left the garden. Access to a scarce resource – the garden – was managed by limiting the capacity – the tickets. The presence or absence of a card was the signal whether there was capacity or not. This was a kanban system. The Japanese word “kanban” means “visible signal”.
By using Kanban, a company develops the capability to respond better and faster to changing customer needs and expectations.
We can apply Kanban everywhere in a company where we provide a service and in any situation where people and processes are involved. Kanban is neither a methodology nor a framework. In contrast to Scrum, it does not prescribe events, workflows, roles or responsibilities. Rather, it is a method that is applied to an existing way of working, with the purpose of making that way of working more effective. With that, it is much more than just a board full of sticky notes.
Recommended for you: Kanban Foundations online short course
Why you benefit from using Kanban
Where to apply Kanban
The Kanban method takes inspiration from lean manufacturing in many aspects and was designed for knowledge work. Kanban is not limited to specific industries, products or services and also does not require specific roles, events or practices.
Using Kanban for change management
A friend of mine works for a confectionary shop that sells cakes and a few other bakery goods. She is an expert in producing and decorating cakes for weddings and other celebrations. The shop is a small family-owned business with a stable number of b2b and b2c customers who used to order cakes regularly.
When COVID-19 hit, the market environment changed drastically: The customers came less frequently and the bakery store’s hygiene measures needed to be adapted in order to meet new requirements. This affected the production. Also, the customers demanded more bakery goods instead of cakes. Bread had been sold out several weeks in a row and the bakery realized that they needed to change their product portfolio. To address the change, they took several actions.
When I first heard about their change, I was preparing for a Kanban workshop, looking for an example of how to apply Kanban principles and practices. Because I like cake and think most of their measures relate perfectly to Kanban, a cake-inspired version of the Kanban principles and practices follows:
The six principles of Kanban
Start with what you do now
The team of the confectionery shop was already experienced with baking one type of bread. They used their existing knowledge and capabilities to change their product portfolio from cakes to bread: They simply took their bread recipe and produced more bread of that type. They built on top of what they already did instead of planning a big change, which allowed them to start on the same day and learn fast.
When uncertainty is high, the first step of a change is not always clear. We counter this by building on what is already there.
The first principle of Kanban says: Start with what you are already doing.
Pursue evolutionary change
As the confectionery shop did not want to do a big bang change, they analyzed what they could add to the basic recipe in order to further improve in small steps. So they decided to add some special grains and seeds to their bread, in order to create variations. The customers liked it and some of them also provided feedback on the new products. Some preferred smaller sized breads, for example.
With that, they approached new things in many small steps and learned from their experiences. This is easier to implement than introducing big changes overnight – only to realize at the end that another way would have been better.
The second Kanban principle says: Agree to pursue evolutionary change.
Encourage leadership at all levels
The change in their product portfolio triggered some adaptations in how the team of the confectionery shop works together during the day and how they manage their work. Because team members know best what needs to be changed in production, they encouraged everyone to bring in their ideas and knowledge. Together they owned the process of inspecting and adapting continuously. This led to several actions like transforming their café area into a second production room and adjusting their worktimes.
Change happens when it is initiated and accompanied by someone. When we start with what we are already doing and manage change in many small steps, this does not only concern leadership roles in the organization. Often small or supposedly insignificant observations and suggestions for improvement come from people with no formal leadership roles. After all, through their daily operational work, they know very well what changes can make an impact.
The third Kanban principle relates to that: Encourage leadership at all levels.
Understand customers’ needs
The team used statistics to learn and understand what their customers needed and adjusted to those. They found out that they didn’t sell any cake but three types of bread instead. They also noticed that on Mondays there were fewer customers than on Fridays. Based on this data, they managed their purchasing of ingredients accordingly and were able to reduce waste.
Clients judge services on the basis of various criteria. If a team fulfills them, this leads to satisfaction. So if a team understands their customers better, they can think about their work system from the customers’ point of view and focus on the customers’ needs.
This is what the fourth Kanban principle addresses: Understand the needs and expectations of customers and focus on them.
Manage the work, not the people
Working times and workflow steps changed as the business offered different products and more variation. It became very important to prioritize work and ensure that the system of work is effective rather than ensuring that all team members were utilized.
The team knew best what they needed to do to manage and organize bread production, so the owner of the shop let them self-organize around that work. The shop owner established a pull system and created an environment where people felt safe and motivated to organize themselves and produce value (bread).
The fifth Kanban principle says: Manage the work and let people organize themselves around the work.
Control service delivery through policies
With offering more variations and other types of products, the team agreed on how “type 1” bread should look like to meet their quality standards. They also defined what needed to be done in each workflow step.
Offering new types of bread required change. They had to continuously develop their offering and rules for collaboration. Continuous inspection and adaptation was needed to ensure sustainable results.
The sixth principle says: Control service delivery through policies.
Want to deepen your knowledge? Try Kanban System Design (KMP I) Training
Why Kanban supports change management
When change is needed, Kanban’s first three principles provide guidance on how to manage change.
Kanban’s first principle relates to the introduction of change. It says: Start with what you are already doing. Approaching new things and learning from the experiences with them is related to an evolutionary approach that is covered by the second principle: pursue evolutionary change. The third principle relates to promoting responsible action in every individual (encourage leadership at all levels).
This is why the first three principles are also called change management principles. The remaining three principles are focused on service delivery and are therefore called service delivery principles.
Kanban core practices
Make work visible
The team followed specific practices that helped them to produce good results. For example, they supported the purchasing and production by visualizing the number of orders from previous days so that everybody was aware of the development and could adjust accordingly. They also reorganized the workspace in a way that allowed them to see what others were doing, which led to better alignment during production and less bottlenecks.
If, for example, too much dough was prepared but not processed further, they were now able to see that the dough was piling up. Waste was also noticeable: Dropped toppings on the floor couldn’t be processed further and also posed the risk of an accident if someone slipped on them.
These visible signs were discussed and the team initiated measures for optimization. Visualizing work and the flow of work allows us to absorb and process a lot of information in a short time. Because everyone involved has the same picture, visualization supports collaboration and helps make better decisions. Visual signals show us when we need to act or where problems occur.
In contrast to the construction of physical products, the inventory is not visible in knowledge work. It’s more difficult to recognize queues or blocked work. A Kanban board can make work visible in this case.
The columns represent the flow of work, from the first step to the delivery of customer value. The work flows through the system and is visualized by means of maps. This allows us to see at a glance where any bottlenecks and overloads occur. Colors and shapes can also be used to additionally visualize different states such as blocked or very urgent work.
Limit work in progress
The confectionery shop only had three ovens, which was enough for producing cakes but not enough for the demand of bread. They needed to limit the work in progress of bread to avoid long waiting times, which would have resulted in quality issues and waste.
Work in progress refers to the number of tasks that are in progress at any given time. Kanban provides an effective work system with focus on the flow of work rather than on the utilization of employees. When resources are fully utilized, there is no idle time in the system and the result is poor flow, just like rush hour traffic on the highway.
In knowledge work, we also encounter the problem of context switching, which can drastically reduce effectiveness. Perhaps you know this: you are editing a text document and a colleague calls. You are pulled out of your thoughts and need a moment after the phone call until you can continue where you left off.
In Kanban, we therefore limit parallel work in order to balance the workload and ensure an even flow of work.
Manage the flow of work
The team was continuously producing bread as they noticed that much time and effort was needed during production – more than they had assumed. Therefore, they decided to measure the time needed for each step in production. After a few weeks, the numbers indicated a bottleneck in transporting the unfinished loaves to the ovens. By reducing transport times and adapting the way of working in the team a bit, they enabled an even flow of work that also had positive effects on an even utilization of the ovens.
The goal of managing the flow of work is to get the job done as smoothly and predictably as possible while maintaining a steady pace. It aims to create value for customers quickly and sustainably.
Limiting parallel work is one of the most important measures in Kanban that helps us to ensure a smooth and predictable flow. To achieve this, we need to monitor and measure the flow of work. This provides us with data that can be used for expectation management, forecasting and improvement.
Make policies explicit
The team made many decisions about the organization of work and how work was done. This referred, for example, to how new work – i.e. orders from customers – entered the system. The definition of when a task is completed and another colleague takes over was clear to everyone involved. Other examples of explicit agreements related to limiting parallel work, guidelines for dealing with tasks of different priority or meeting times.
Everyone involved agreed on policies, including clients, stakeholders and colleagues responsible for the work. In order to keep track of the agreements, the team made them visible and accessible. For example, they printed a checklist that made explicit how to leave the workplace at the end of the day.
A team agreement is a good way to introduce such guidelines at team level. As with all other building blocks of the system, policies need to be reviewed and adapted regularly. Guidelines are not work instructions that describe how work should be done in detail. Setting explicit rules is meant to enable self-organization.
Implement feedback loops
The change in the confectionery shop’s work required regular conversations. To ensure a constant cycle of inspection and adaptation, they provided feedback regularly. They ritualized it by having a short conversation every week for one hour where they discussed numbers, processes, communication and how to improve.
Feedback loops are necessary for coordinated delivery, to improve service delivery and prevent a negative impact on customer satisfaction. The conversations can include sharing relevant information, talking about observations and possible adjustments or planning the strategy for the next quarter.
Kanban refers to feedback loops in the form of meetings as cadences. Feedback loops increase the organization’s ability to learn because they provide a framework for regular inspection and adaptation. Feedback loops can also help to conduct small-scale experiments and learn from them through regular reflection.
Improve collaboratively, evolve experimentally
In the first weekly meeting, the team decided to experiment with a new type of special bread as one team member had some experience with it from their previous job. They got together to plan how they were going to try the new recipe. Then, they offered the product for two weeks to learn how customers responded to it and what they needed to change in production.
The last of the six Kanban practices takes us back to the principles: “Start with what you are already doing” and “Agree to pursue evolutionary change”. Kanban is a method for continuous improvement that we do collaboratively. A diverse team usually comes up with better solutions than a single person. This is partly because different perspectives are taken into account and advantages and disadvantages are recognized earlier.
Conclusion
As a method that is applied to an existing way of working, Kanban embraces change by fostering evolution and learning in small steps while focusing on customers’ needs. With that, Kanban can be used for managing change in many contexts.
By the way, the confectionary shop team successfully transformed their product portfolio and improved their way of working significantly. They still inspect and adapt every day and currently offer 50% cakes and 50% bakery goods.
Kanban certifications
If you want to learn more about Kanban, agile42 offers an array of Kanban certifications. Learn the basics in our online Kanban course, or dive a little deeper with Kanban System Design (KMP I) certification. If you already have the basics down and want to take your expertise to the next level, Kanban Systems Improvement (KMP II) is for you.
Common Agile Frameworks and Methods
/by Simon SablowskiDuring the last few decades, several approaches to product development and service delivery have emerged. The level of complexity of products and services is ever-increasing which is why many people wonder which framework or method to choose. Perhaps you are also wondering which framework or method will work best for your team. Below we summarize the key elements of four main agile frameworks and methods, some differences between them, and how they can complement one another.
Scrum
Scrum is a lightweight framework that helps teams and organizations deliver value incrementally.
The Scrum framework consists of the Scrum team with its three accountabilities, five Scrum events, and three artifacts. Each component serves a specific purpose and is important for Scrum’s successful adoption.
The easiest way to understand Scrum is to read the Scrum Guide. There are three main things that you should realize:
Contrary to popular belief, Scrum is not an approach to estimate and plan what work will be completed in a given time period. Scrum allows teams to create value for their customers and users by letting them focus on one sprint goal at a time, while continuously getting better.
Recommended online course: Scrum Foundations
Extreme Programming (XP)
Nowadays, XP is not used as much as it was in the late 1990s and early 2000s. However, XP, its creator Kent Beck and other people like Ron Jeffries played a crucial role in the development of agile thinking and agile approaches. Therefore we would like to include XP in this list as well.
As the name suggests, Extreme Programming has its roots in software development. The core idea of XP is to develop software iteratively and incrementally while focussing on users’ needs. As such, it is an agile framework that is comparable to Scrum.
While there are many similarities between XP and Scrum, there are also subtle differences. For instance:
The most important and noticeable difference, however, is that XP explicitly suggests development practices such as the following:
These development practices are still being embraced by many software development teams, regardless which agile framework or method they adopt.
Recommended training: Certified Scrum Developer (CSD)
Kanban
The Kanban method helps organizations, teams and individuals manage their professional services, and enables them to respond better and faster to their customers’ needs and expectations.
The principles and practices of the Kanban method are described in the official Kanban Guide. Here are three important things to understand about Kanban:
In his book “Kanban: Successful Evolutionary Change for Your Technology Business”, the creator of the Kanban method David J. Anderson, tells the story of his trip to Tokyo, in spring 2005. Spring is the cherry blossom season in Japan and he wanted to see the beautiful cherry trees at the Imperial Palace Gardens. There he realized they were using a kanban system to control how many people could visit the garden during peak times of the day. This kanban system, as used in lean manufacturing, inspired the Kanban method for knowledge work.
Related reading: How to create a Kanban board
In knowledge work, a kanban system allows work to flow by limiting work in progress and establishing a pull system. With the Kanban method, you visualize invisible work and how it moves through a workflow. This will help operate your business effectively, as well as understand and manage risks in delivering services to your customers. The Kanban method enables continuous improvement in an evolutionary way.
Because Kanban is almost universally applicable, many Scrum or XP teams use Kanban to improve their way of working, for instance by visualizing their work or optimizing their delivery. Some people call this a hybrid approach and give it a specific name such as “Scrumban”.
Recommended online course: Kanban Foundations
Design Thinking
Even though Design Thinking is not really considered an agile framework or method, its principles and practices are popular among agile teams and organizations and complement their toolbox. For instance, the persona is a widely used tool.
Design Thinking emerged much earlier than Scrum, XP or Kanban as it is based on the way designers approach new projects or products in general. Design Thinking has been developed by a number of different organizations (e.g. IDEO, HPI, Dark Horse) that follow slightly different approaches and theories. However, together they define what Design Thinking is.
Here are some important facts about Design Thinking:
A major breakthrough was Jake Knapp’s book Sprint. Design sprints provide a structure that allows teams to prepare themselves for a challenge and solve it by going through all phases of Design Thinking within five days.
Recommended online course: Design Thinking Foundations
Which Agile Framework or Method Should You Use?
We often see teams asking themselves whether they should use one framework, method, approach or another in order to deliver outstanding value to their customers.
The reality is that you shouldn’t choose between Scrum, Kanban, XP, Design Thinking or others; rather, you should discover which practices work best for your team and tweak the system of work accordingly. By tweaking, we mean combining those elements that work best for your team in order to plan, track and manage your work more efficiently so that you satisfy your customers’ needs better and faster.
Ask yourself how work arrives at your team, and how often that work and the information around it changes. The answers could guide you in choosing a paradigm that suits you. You might find that a timeboxed mechanism or limiting your work in progress will help. Can you plan your work and commit to it for one or two weeks?
Scrum, Kanban, XP and Design Thinking aren’t mutually exclusive and complement each other when combined. The bigger challenge that lies ahead for teams is the journey of discovering which practices and structures work best for them in satisfying their customers’ needs in a sustainable and ever-growing way.
Every team, every product and every customer is different. There is no one-size-fits-all approach. By keeping an eye on what agility might offer beyond the methods, frameworks or tools you are already using, by trying out new things and hence continuously inspecting and adapting your system of work, you will eventually find what fulfills your team’s and customers’ needs best.
We hope this blog post made you curious about the idea of an agile mix-and-match approach and encourage you to find the best practices for your team right away:
Want to Learn More About These Agile Frameworks and Methods?
agile42 offers online courses including Design Thinking Foundations, Scrum Foundations, and Kanban Foundations. We also offer Kanban System Design (KMP I) and Kanban Systems Improvement (KMP II) certifications, as well as coaching, mentoring, and consulting services. Reach out to us if you want to learn more.
Everything I Needed to Know About Agile Product Development I Learned from Dark Souls
/by Daniel LynnThere are two activities in my life that have filled the years with a roller coaster ride of celebration and depression – periods where I had to rely on grit and determination slogging through unending drudgery punctuated with moments of delight – developing software products and playing Dark Souls.
I realize that not everyone who reads this blog may be familiar with the Dark Souls games. Luckily, I can sum it up with one image – the screen that players see more than any other:
Dark Souls has a reputation as a brutally challenging game. As I start playing Elden Ring, the latest game in the series, I’ve been thinking about what I’ve learned playing these games and how similar it is to Agile product development. Below are four of the things I’ve learned about Agile Product Development from Dark Souls.
1. It’s All About Learning From Your Mistakes
While Dark Souls may be unforgiving, it’s not a particularly complex game. Even the most challenging enemies have big tells for their attacks and are fairly predictable in their behavior. Despite how frustrating it may feel after the tenth time dying to the same enemy, the game’s developers want you to succeed. If you’re paying attention, each level teaches you how to beat it. Easier enemies teach you the skills needed to beat the harder ones. Every time you see the “You Died” screen, you should be asking yourself, “what did I do that got me killed, and what should I do differently next time?”
This might be the most important lesson in Agile product development that so few people learn. Most of the products we build are not simply copies of another product. We’re solving new problems or old problems in new ways. Missteps will happen. Success comes when we learn from those missteps and find an innovative solution.
Related reading: How Dungeons and Dragons prepares you for being a Scrum Master
2. Take Small Steps
Nothing leads you into disaster like over-committing. In Dark Souls, a wise player will take the game one enemy at a time and always check their corners. This lets you re-evaluate your surroundings and take the best strategy for that moment, even if that strategy is to run back to safety to regroup and rethink.
Agile Product Development is no different. We take our development one small feature at a time. This doesn’t mean we don’t have a larger context in mind, but we also know that each completed feature could show us a fundamental flaw in our thinking. This gives us a chance to take a step back, regroup, and rethink.
Whether you’re playing Dark Souls or building a product, if you don’t want to end up in over your head, take it one small step at a time.
3. You Will Fail. Often.
While it is true that each failure is an opportunity to learn, that doesn’t mean that failure won’t hurt. Whether you’re throwing yourself at the same enemy for the 28th time or you bomb a feature you were sure would be a slam dunk, you will get frustrated and it will kill your motivation. The best players and Agile teams know how to recognize that frustration and recover from it.
Find out what works for you to recover and re-energize. Do you need a break? A small win? Do you need the support of your team to rally and push through the problem? Too often, teams just resign themselves to the frustrating task, which rarely leads you to a successful outcome.
4. Sometimes, Your Princess is in Another Castle
OK, I’m mixing game metaphors, I know, but the lesson holds. Sometimes hitting a wall in Dark Souls is an opportunity to double down and persevere. Other times, it’s a sign you need to go spend a little time tackling other challenges in another level. This can help you unwind the frustration, build new skills, and build up your character. You may find that when you come back to the challenge, it will be easier to overcome.
In Agile development, you will encounter technical challenges and business challenges. You may need to buckle down and work through them, but other times, turning your attention to other feature areas will help you make progress and get your team unstuck. Often, that shakes loose new ideas and new solutions. When you return to the earlier work, you’ll be armed with new ideas and a fresh perspective.
Conclusion
It may seem strange to compare two things that seem so different as playing video games and building products, but in the end, a challenge is a challenge. The ways we work through them carry over across our personal and professional activities. I hope some of these lessons resonate with you.
Want to learn more about Agile? Contact us.