What Is Kanban?
Kanban 101
Overview of the Kanban Method
It all started in the early 1940s. The first Kanban system was developed by Taiichi Ohno(Industrial Engineer and Businessman) for Toyota automotive in Japan. It was created as a simple planning system, the aim of which was to control and manage work and inventory at every stage of production optimally.
While kanban was introduced by Taiichi Ohno in the manufacturing industry, it is David J. Anderson who was the first to apply the concept to IT, Software development and knowledge work in general in the year 2004. David built on the works by Taiichi Ohno, Eli Goldratt, Edward Demmings, Peter Drucker and others to define the Kanban Method, with concepts such as pull systems, queuing theory and flow. His first book on Kanban – “Kanban: Successfully Evolutionary Change for your Technology Business”, published in 2010, is the most comprehensive definition of the Kanban Method for knowledge work.
The Kanban Method is a process to gradually improve whatever you do – whether it is software development, IT/ Ops, Staffing, Recruitment, Marketing and Sales, Procurement etc. In fact, almost any business function can benefit from applying the principles of the Kanban Methodology.
The Kanban body of knowledge has abstracted and benefited from the works of various thought leaders since the original book was written! People such as Don Reinertsen (author of Principles of Product Development Flow), Jim Benson (pioneer of Personal Kanban) and several others.
- Start with what you are doing now
- Agree to pursue incremental, evolutionary change
- Initially, respect current roles, responsibilities and job-titles
- Encourage acts of leadership at all levels
6 Core Practices of the Kanban Method:
- Visualize the flow of work
- Limit WIP (Work in Progress)
- Manage Flow
- Make Process Policies Explicit
- Implement Feedback Loops
- Improve Collaboratively, Evolve Experimentally
“An interesting side effect of pull systems is that they limit work-in-progress (WIP) to some agreed-upon quantity” – David J. Anderson
How does Kanban work? – The Concept
The concept of FLOW
The concept of Flow is critical and by measuring Flow metrics and working to improve them, you can dramatically improve the speed of your delivery processes while reducing cycle time and improving the quality of your products or services by getting faster feedback from your customers – internal or external.
These are dealt with in great detail in the book titled “Actionable Agile” by Dan Vacanti.
Kanban WIP Limits
Do not force visualization, transparency, and WIP limits on any department that does not volunteer to collaborate.” – David J. Anderson
Kanban is not a software development or a project management methodology – David makes that very clear in his ‘Blue Book’. Kanban does not say anything about how a Software should be developed. It does not even say anything about how Software projects should be planned and implemented. Therefore, Kanban is not a management framework such as Scrum. Instead, the purpose of Kanban is to continually improve one’s own work process.
Kanban was used in Microsoft’s software development operations in 2004. Since then, Kanban has been adopted enthusiastically in the IT, Ops, DevOps and applications/ software teams.
The beauty of Kanban is that it can be applied to any process or methodology. Whether you are already using Agile methods such as Scrum, XP and others, or more traditional methods – waterfall, iterative, etc. – you can apply Kanban on top of that to gradually start improving your processes, reduce cycle time and improve your flow. In the process, you will find yourself on the path to continuous delivery of features, products or services.
You can also sign up for upcoming webinars on Kanban – or look at some great previous webinars conducted by thought-leaders such as David Anderson and several other thought leaders!
If you want to explore SwiftKanban, you can check out our rich set of features or if you’re looking for a free Kanban board signup for SwiftKanban Here! If you have any immediate questions, ask one of our Sales reps at [email protected]
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