Whether you've just started with your own team, are fresh from Scrum training or have been involved for some time, sooner or later everyone who deals with agility will come across Kanban. And then questions arise. Today I am providing you with answers to 6 of the most frequently asked questions - in the spirit of Kanban in a nutshell.
I will use Karla to illustrate this.
Daniel: Hello Karla.
Karla: Hello Daniel.
Daniel: You've brought a few questions on the subject of Kanban with you today, which we'd like to take a look at together. What is your first question?
Kanban and Scrum at one table
Karla: Yes, exactly, I just hadn't heard much about Kanban yet. I know Scrum a little better now that I've been working with my team myself. agile working have introduced. How does Kanban fit into this picture? So, are Kanban and Scrum enemies?
Daniel: Very good question! And we can pick up directly on the Scrum point to discuss Kanban. Especially when it comes to Kanban in knowledge work (i.e. outside of production companies). After all, Kanban and Scrum have a lot in common. They are both built on a handful of principles that are facets of Agility and also have relatively similar goals, but they achieve them differently.
A key differentiator, however, is that Scrum only works in teams, while Kanban is also suitable for individual improvement or in working groups. In addition, Scrum is a customized tool for development work, whereas Kanban can also be used to map routine activities.
Rather than an "enmity", I see two tools from the same toolbox: each has its use case, its advantages and its operating principles.
Karla: So that means Kanban and Scrum are interchangeable for teams?
Daniel: Well, in theory that's probably the case. But how useful one or the other is for a particular team depends on the specific challenges and the context of the team. Where are you right now? Who are you currently working with and how? Where do you want to get to? These and similar questions can help you to assess what is more helpful in each individual case.
The why behind Kanban
Karla: And what is the goal of Kanban then?
Daniel: Improvement! In other words, the systematic improvement of processes and working methods, to be more precise. And one focus of gradual and continuous improvement is the flow of work. The more consistent the speed at which work can be completed, the more realistic predictions and commitments can be made. Then decisions no longer have to be made on the basis of gut feeling or wishful thinking. This is how real learning happens for the individual, the team or the entire organization - depending on where we are currently using Kanban.
The how behind Kanban
Karla: Systematic improvement of processes and working methods ... realistic forecasts and commitments. Sounds good! And as you said, somehow familiar. Scrum also helps me with systematic improvement. And how does Kanban work now?
Daniel: Basically, Kanban enables improvement through a series of practices and principles. The beauty of it is that even a first contact with the practices can make a big difference.
Essentially, it is about visualizing the work and limiting what is currently being worked on in parallel. This makes it easy to see how your work is progressing and where work is piling up.
Then manage your work in such a way that a constant flow of work can be created. To do this, introduce process rules and make them as explicit as possible - preferably with visual signals.
Then regularly check what you are learning about your working methods and processes, what is working well and what is holding you up, and experiment with them.
If you then take the principle of "start with what you are currently doing" to heart, you are already well equipped to systematically improve. Above all, this means: don't just picture what would be good, but first record what is actually happening. This is the best way to recognize where an initial improvement would be good in your specific context.
After all, we can only improve what we understand adequately.
That's the idea - in a nutshell. But it's always worthwhile to delve deeper into it along the way!
Kanban in a nutshell: First steps
Karla: And how and where do I start to implement these ... what was that ... practices and principles?
Daniel: Well, it's best to start with the first practice! Visualize your work. Make a table with the work steps that your work typically goes through. Make a symbolic card for each work package that you are currently working on or that has already been assigned to you and hang all the work that you are currently working on under the corresponding work step.
Once you have mapped out what is currently in progress and what is already waiting to be worked on, start working on it. Maintain the current work status of the cards by moving them from column to column.
And my personal recommendation: record on each card when you started working on it and when you completed the work. In this way, you will quickly learn a lot about your work: for example, which work steps are your "bottlenecks" and how long work packages typically take to complete. Now you can take a first step towards continuous improvement.
You can think of the practices and principles like a mantra. It pays to remind yourself of them regularly, because they can give you clues at any time as to which cogs in the wheel are jamming and where something could be improved. In addition, new practices and principles are most likely to become established if you Create experience for yourself and others.
From real madness to structure
Karla: Now I have a rough picture of the goal and framework of Kanban and basically know where I can start. But how can I structure my work with Kanban? I can't really imagine that yet.
Daniel: You get the structure through the use of visual aids. Of course, if you start with Kanban because you've just lost track and are bogged down in work, the visualization of your work will of course show you exactly that at first: Congestion in the system.
But the representation of the chaos itself is already an enormous relief for your head! Whereas before you had to cognitively digest what you were doing, what else you were doing and what still needed to be done, you can now rely on a tool and concentrate fully on interpreting signals and patterns.
The work packages will literally start to talk to you. They remind and clarify what is currently keeping you busy, holding you back and blocking you. From here, you can start to derive measures for yourself that can help you to resolve the lump of work. How about not starting anything new for the time being, for example? Or giving something up?
Blockages themselves are, after all, an invitation to discuss possibilities for cooperation. And congestion presumably means that nothing new should be recorded at the moment - but above all that no realistic promises can be made regarding a delivery date.
Even if the visualization itself does not yet provide any structure, it makes structuring measures much more tangible.
Karla: Ah okay. That makes it a little more tangible.
In search of your own board
Karla: There's one more thing I'd like to know: We talked briefly about how I can get started with Kanban and that the visual representation of work is a central component of Kanban. I assume that's also what is meant by "Kanban board". But how do I build a good board? What should I pay attention to here?
Daniel: Oh, that's such an important question! What tends to happen is that boards are devised that are recommended in some management magazine or are already being used in other teams in the organization. Behind this is typically the hope of achieving an ideal situation by fitting into a corset of "Good practices" of others. That's not how Kanban was intended.
However, what is good for others at the time may have a completely different effect on you. And imposed processes and boards definitely don't help teams to identify with them. As is so often the case, it is therefore important that the very first thing you visualize on a board is what is actually happening. No wishful thinking and no specifications that are not actually implemented. From then on, it is important to continuously improve the board and thus the work with the help of Kanban practices.
Karla: Great, thank you for the tip.
Next please
Like Karla, you may also have the desire to look more behind the scenes of Kanban and understand what else there is to learn about the method than how I drag sticky notes from "ToDo" to "In progress" to "Done".
What other questions do you have about Kanban? And which of the short impulses would you like to deepen?
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