philosophy in IT", is guest speaker at this year's "Lean Agile Scrum
Conference in 2011" of 14 September 2011 in Zurich. He suggests ways
to make the quest for continuous improvement (kaizen), the company on
a new foundation. David Anderson spoke with Damian Suter, CEO of
Captiva GmbH, Oberrohrdorf.
Damian Suter: What's behind the new Kanban methodology?
David Anderson, Kanban is not a new software development or project
management methodology. Rather it is a system for controlling changes
with the aim to achieve the desired results actually. This existing
procedures and methods using small, continuous improvement steps to be
optimized.
How are Scrum and Kanban?
The introduction of new methods often leads to changes that often lead
to great resistance among employees. Kanban aims to optimize existing
processes, which changes relatively little in the usual way of
working. This creates the possibility of Kanban, agility and
predictability to improve with minimal resistance.
What is it about the use of Kanban principle and what benefits the
company can draw from this?
Kanban is a core element of the visualization of the flow of work or
all steps up to the completion of a project. Furthermore, limiting the
number of simultaneous work in each step (WiP limits). This can be
adopted only after a new work place, if the appropriate capacity is
available within the defined limits are. Thus created by the pull
system, in which each station working at the upstream station pick up,
can variabilities such as interruptions or urgent work much better
control.
Can be quantified by means of kanban achievable benefits such as
improved performance of the development team or the improvement of
product quality?
Absolutely. For example, references a well-documented study by the BBC
in London on a 6.6-fold improvement of the delivered software
functionality. Moreover, it confirms the use of Kanban and more
regular, more frequent delivery of working code, measurable quality
improvements at reduced error rates and significantly increased
profitability.
On which basic ideas or principles based Kanban?
The kanban method developed by me based on three basic principles:
First: Begin where you are chatting to date. Second, Come with all
parties agreed that gradual, evolutionary changes in the way of
working should be pursued. And thirdly: Respect the existing process
and the existing roles, responsibilities and job titles.
You mention the visualization of work and work flow. What does this
mean, and above all: What will it do?
The visualization of the flow of work and the work gives a clear
overview of the individual process steps and their current status is
used in this rule, a white board - often with "Kanban Board" - where
the individual works such as tasks, feature or bug using sticky notes
or index cards will be held. The graphical representation of project
binds the employees emotionally, and to better understand the entire
process chain.
With the limitation of the WIP (Work in Progress) Kanban tries to make
visible potential bottlenecks. How does this happen?
A specific location is given due to the capacity can not be able to
keep up with demand time-step, we speak of a bottleneck. Here is
constantly working at full speed and increase the process anyway.
Within a process there is always a bottleneck. However, these shifts
due to variability, eg different ticket sizes, illness, etc. If the
use of Kanban, the bottleneck determines the pace of the entire pull
system. It follows that you have free time stations without bottleneck
capacities. This is essential because so time is available for process
optimization.
One of those principles also include supervising the work flow. What
measures can achieve a faster, more predictable and steady work flow?
Form a basis for the analysis of kanban boards and measurements of the
work flow, eg Lead times. Of central importance is but an
understanding of the aspects of the process dynamics. Thus affect
about bottlenecks, variability and economic costs - such as
transaction costs, coordination costs, etc. - the ability to complete
work on time, so make the best flow and for the different stakeholders
(stakeholders) to actually create added value.
Kanban is synonymous with the quest for continuous improvement and
therefore pursues a native of Japan kaizen ideas. This is in other
agile methods also an issue. What makes the Kanban methodology
utilized in this area?
Kaizen is based on the concept of small, successive steps of the
improvement. These so-called Kaizen events are normally provided by
employees themselves suggested and implemented without management
intervention. The kanban implemented in feedback mechanisms, including
visualization and management reporting to help verify whether the
changes made are actually improvements.
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