This is the second post in a series detailing how we assisted some teams at the Avega Group office in implementing Kanban to manage their workflow. In the first post, we introduced the teams to the basics of Kanban and Lean, emphasizing the importance of limiting work-in-process and the benefits it could bring.
In this post, we’ll cover the initial implementation of Kanban boards for the teams and the early reactions to this new workflow system.
Setting Up the Kanban Boards
Together with the teams, we created simple Kanban boards tailored to their needs. We stressed that these boards were not final and should evolve over time. Here’s what we set up:
- Inbox – This column acts as the team’s to-do list for a comfortable horizon. We didn’t impose a limit on the number of items here but suggested they consider it. Items in this column could vary in size, and once moved to the next column, they should be broken down into smaller tasks.
- Today – Items due for today. We recommended that these tasks be between 0-8 hours in size with a work-in-process (WIP) limit of a maximum of 6 per person.
- Doing – The current work in progress. Each team member created 2 avatars to use as a WIP-limit indicator for this column. This column includes a sub-column called Waiting for items awaiting dependencies or other blockers.
- Done – Completed tasks. We suggested keeping the stickies in this column until the end of the week, grouping them by day, and holding a retrospective based on the week’s outcome. We offered our support for the first retrospectives.
With this setup, we let the teams take charge.
First Steps and Initial Reactions
The next morning, we observed the following:
Some early comments from the teams included:
- “Hmmm – why are there 4 stickies in waiting? Maybe I can handle one of them?”
- “Creating avatars was so much fun – we ended up making 4 each!” (Breaking the WIP limit on doing by 100% – note to self)
- “It’s nice not having to keep all these tasks in my head.”
- “This made communication around work easier and more concrete.”
- “Others can see how much we’re doing and what we’ve accomplished – Ha ha!”
A memorable moment was when one team was holding a morning meeting, and one of their “clients” saw them and left, saying, “I’ll be back later.” Another client didn’t understand and stood around, visibly frustrated. The team persevered through their meeting, showing strong commitment.
The Road Forward
We’ve asked the teams to reach out to any Lean/Agile coaches with questions and to invite one of us to their Friday retrospectives. While this isn’t intensive coaching, we trust that the teams will learn and adapt by doing. Other teams at Avega Group have also shown interest in similar Kanban implementations, which is exciting news!
Conclusion
While we’ve certainly helped these teams and their work environment, the greatest learning experience was for myself and Morgan. If you’re implementing Kanban in your software project, consider applying these techniques to other areas. You’ll gain a deeper understanding of the underlying principles, I promise.