"Flow-based systemic working"
The idea behind it is to create a visual representation of the workflow and work types. This allows workers:in to have a clear understanding of the tasks themselves, their status, identify bottlenecks, and optimize the flow of work with the goal of high reliability of delivery promises.
From the six principles in the two categories of service and change, we highlight the following three because of their high importance:
- Control the work not the workers. Allow (encourage) self-organization around it.
- Start where you are today. Always respect all existing roles and responsibilities. Understand the current processes as they are currently lived.
- Agree to make changes evolutionary and incremental
A Kanban system aims at the overall effect across the service from the customer (orderer) to the customer (user). High flow efficiency is the goal. This means continuous overlapping processing as far as possible without waiting or other idle times. By focusing on the work and measuring the results, the flow of work can be systematically further optimized.
Source: Graphic from "This is Lean"
- Directors and owners
- Project/program/portfolio managers and offices
- Involved line managers
- Process managers
- Scrum Masters, Product Owners, Agile Coaches
- Business analysts and requirement engineers
- Team leaders, development managers
- Developers
Kanban and Change Initiatives
Identifying the types of work now in use and their value stream is the basis for any further control activity. The following basic principles should be followed:
- Start with what you are doing now
- Pursue incremental, evolutionary change
- Respect initial processes, roles, responsibilities and job titles
- Promote leadership at all levels in the organization
When introducing Kanban, very little changes in the usual way of working: established processes remain in place, roles in the company or teams remain as they are and no new job titles are invented such as "Kanban Master" or similar.
The participants agree to permanently make small improvements in the way of working. Starting point of these improvements is always the present situation and therefore there is not the Kanban target state. However the following core practices are to be found in Kanban enterprises:
- Make work visible
- Limit WIP
- Manage Flow
- Make process rules explicit
- Implement feedback mechanisms (workflow, inter-workflow and organization)
- Make collaborative improvements (based on models)
Kanban and agility or New Work
No tool and therefore no method is agile per se or calls for New Work. Kanban itself sees itself as a supporter of these modern forms of work.
If we take a step back together and reflect on the core of what Kanban actually is, we will discover the following:
- Work is visualized
- Waiting times are also visualized
If we now define the entry point for implementation as well as the exit point for delivery, we can not only recognize where the work is in which state and where it may accumulate - we can also measure the time between entry and delivery. It is also common to measure the number of identical delivery times or to look at these over the course of development in order to track the trend.
This brings us to a classic tool from business administration. If you can measure repeatably under the same conditions, you can also control. This alone gives Kanban a very broad application focus.
If we now also group the work and divide it into different colors, shapes or process lines, we can also control different work in different ways and even coordinate with each other. With the focus on completion, the Kanban method should also be a preferred tool for every controller.
As long as work can be controlled, the Kanban method is an excellent approach.
