spitfire group 2014 mile high agile tips for timeboxed kanban program

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Instituting Kanban on a Time Boxed Program

13 Tips to Take Advantage Of

Wade SchererMichael Byrne

The Spitfire Group, LLCwww.spitfiregroup.com

http://www.spitfiregroup.com/


Spitfire Group, LLC

Beliefs• Do projects right• Efficiently• High business value

Teams Modeled on US Army Special Forces• Solution Managers• Business Analysts• Application

Architects• Developers• QA

Consulting Practice Areas• Technology

Strategy• Application

Security• Custom Software

Development / Integration

www.spitfiregroup.com

http://www.spitfiregroup.com/


The Situation

• Use Kanban to Respect Team and Enhance Existing Methodology – Scrum previously dropped with this team

• Create IT Discipline

Minimal Methodology Previously in Place

• Goal: Growth / Acquisitions• Existing IT Infrastructure Not Scalable

Large Back Office Replacement Program

• 2 years – 6 major components• Complete Back Office replacementAggressive Schedule

• Make the Sale!• Creativity in Configurations as a Sales Tool

Permissive Business Process Environment

• If the system can’t support, figure out how to make it work• Inconsistent data stores, minimal enforced integrationHistory


Kanban Aspects of Program

Tip 1: Take Advantage of Every Aspect Available

Tip 2: Be Aware of the All the Aspects


kanban - Physical BoardTip 3: Visualization is essential to communicating performance


ProcessExplicit and Visible Definitions of Done

Constructed and Valued by Team

Observance fluctuated

Tip 4: Provides Team an Anchor to refer to


Analysis Added to BoardVisibility to Avoid Developer Starvation

Analysis Structure including Explicit Policy

Productive Development Team outpaced Analysis Team

Tip 5: Make it VISIBLE!!! Apply Kanban Where Needed


WIP Gone Wild!More traffic does NOT Mean Faster! Tip 6: Need a Lean Advocate to Focus on Fewer Tasks


Planning – Story MapsTip 7: Story Maps Provide Context and a Visual Planning Tool• Used by Team -> Stopped Using -> Team Wanted Back!


Tools

Metrics Possible with Weak Tools

No Status Change Time Stamp – No Cycle Time?

Create Your Own!

Tip 8: Work with the Data You Do Have


Business Trust is Critical

• Difficult to get Cooperation without Trust

• Avoid an Adversarial Relationship• Can Severely Impede Progress

Why is it Critical?

• Customer must trust you understand business.

• Communicate with them! • Get their feedback and act on it! • Provide a solid quality product

Tips 9: Gain the

Business Trust


Core Values – Quality Matters

• Meeting Schedule and Budget• High Quality Product

What’s More

Important?

• Misleading: Lines-of-Code vs. Defects

• Better: Defect Rate • Better: Survey Business Satisfaction

Tips 10: How can

you observe Quality?


Quality vs Throughput

Product 3 Release

Product 1 Release – 6/12

Product 2 – Mon. Arch.

Product 4 Release

Quality does not remain flat as throughput increases

Tip 11: Maintaining consistent quality requires additional effort


What Can We Learn From This Picture? Quality Matters Part 2

No visiblity into bug counts on the burn

down until this point.

Visibility into Unit Tests- Better Unit Test Success!

“If you can not measure it, you can not improve it” – Lord Kelvin

Tip 12: “If you do not see it, you will not improve it” – Wade and Mike


Program / Scale Diagram

Initial 3x throughput increase

Tip 13: Productivity doesn’t scale linearly with team growth


Retrospective

• Capable of Self Management• Process Respected and Practiced by Team• Incremental Development Practiced

Extremely Productive

Team

• Upward Communication• Minimal Product IterationChallenges

• Weekly Steering Committees• Plan for Iteration• Continuous User Community Feedback

Mitigations


Thirteen Helpful Tips

• Tip 1: Take Advantage of Every Kanban Aspect Available

• Tip 2: Be Aware of the All the Kanban Aspects

• Tip 3: Visualization is essential to communicating performance

• Tip 4: Explicit Process Provides Team an Anchor to refer to

• Tip 5: Make Your Process VISIBLE!!! Apply Kanban Where Needed

• Tip 6: Need a Lean Advocate to Focus on Fewer Tasks

• Tip 7: Story Maps Provide Context and a Visual Planning Tool

• Tip 8: Work with the Data You Do Have

• Tips 9: Gain the Business Trust

• Customer Trust! Communicate! Feedback! Quality!

• Tips 10: How can you observe Quality?

• Valid Metrics! Survey Business Satisfaction!

• Tip 11: Maintaining consistent quality requires additional effort

• Tip 12: “If you do not see it, you will not improve it”

• Tip 13: Productivity doesn’t scale linearly with team growth