Kanban - Increasing business value

• Balance capacity and demand
• Decouple candences
• Visibility of the value stream
• Continuous improvement

Kanban is a Japanese word that translates as visual board. Kanban is the workflow management system used at the heart of the Toyota Production System and is the mechanism that enables their Just in Time production.

The Kanban system is now being applied to software development to evolve existing Agile processes to become more Lean and deliver increasing business value and a process that is more aligned with the value chain of the business.

There are 4 key differences between standard Agile processes and Kanban:

• Limit WIP
• Decouple Cadences
• Visibility
• Kaizen

Limit WIP

Restricting the amount of work entering the system based on the capacity of the team(s) serving the system maximises the amount of work they can complete and therefore delivery of value.

Decouple Cadences

There are different cadences within software product development: planning, development and release. Having each cadence managed independently of the others provides the most flexibility to product development teams.

Visibility

Kanban boards visualise the value stream and where any potential blockages are. They provide indicators of progress and highlight problems before they bring the system.

Kaizen

Kaizen is a Japanese word that means Continuous Improvement. It is at the core of the Toyota Production System where the entire workforce is encouraged to continually try and improve the process.

Instead of waiting until the end of a project or even an iteration the team identifies and resolves the root cause of issues as they arise to minimise the cost of any impact.