Material Source

• The Kanban Guide for Scrum Teams | • THE KANBAN GUIDE| JULY 2020
September 2019 • Vacanti, D. S. (2020). THE KANBAN
• Vacanti, D., & Yeret, Y. (2019). The Kanban GUIDE. https://kanbanguides.org/wp-
Guide for Scrum Teams. Scrum.org. https:// content/uploads/2020/07/Kanban-
cutt.ly/rW39CaD Guide-2020-07.pd
KANBAN ESSENTIALS PROFESSIONAL CERTIFICATION KEPC™

• Kanban: Successful Evolutionary Change for Your

Technology Business por David J. Anderson y Donald G
Reinertsen | 7 abril 2010

2
Who is CertiProf®?

CertiProf® is a certifying entity founded in the United States in 2015, currently located in Sunrise, Florida.

Our philosophy is based on the creation of knowledge in community and for this its collaborative network
is formed by:

• Our Lifelong Learners (LLLs) identify themselves as continuous learners, demonstrating their
unwavering commitment to lifelong learning, which is vitally important in today's ever-changing and
expanding digital world. Whether they pass the exam or not.
• Universities, training centers, and facilitators around the world are part of our network of allies
ATPs (Authorized Training Partners.)
• The authors (co-creators) are industry experts or practitioners who, with their knowledge, develop
content for the creation of new certifications that respond to the industry needs.
• Internal Staff: Our distributed team with operations in India, Brazil, Colombia, and the United States
is in charged of overcoming obstacles, finding solutions, and delivering exceptional results.

Our Accreditations and Affiliations

KANBAN ESSENTIALS PROFESSIONAL CERTIFICATION KEPC™

3
 Agile Alliance

CertiProf® is a corporate member of the Agile

Alliance.

By joining the corporate Agile Alliance program,

we continue to empower people by helping them
reach their potential through education. Every
day, we provide more tools and resources that
allow our partners to train professionals who
seek to improve their professional development
and skills.

https://www.agilealliance.org/organizations/
certiprof/

IT Certification Council - ITCC

CertiProf® is an active member of ITCC.

The fundamental purpose of the ITCC is to support

industry and its member companies by marketing
the value of certification, promoting exam safety,
encouraging innovation, and establishing and
KANBAN ESSENTIALS PROFESSIONAL CERTIFICATION KEPC™

sharing industry best practices.

Credly
This alliance allows people and companies
certified or accredited with CertiProf® to have a
worldwide distinction through a digital badge.

Credly is the most important badge issuer in the

world and leading technology companies such as
IBM, Microsoft, PMI, Nokia, Stanford University,
among others, issue their badges with Credly.

4
Insignia

https://www.credly.com/org/certiprof/badge/kanban-essentials-professional-certification-kepc

Lifelong Learning

Holders of this particular badge have

demonstrated their unwavering commitment
to lifelong learning, which is vitally important

KANBAN ESSENTIALS PROFESSIONAL CERTIFICATION KEPC™

in today's ever-changing and expanding digital
world. It also identifies the qualities of an open,
disciplined and constantly evolving mind, capable
of using and contributing with its knowledge
to the development of a more equal and better
world.

Earning Criteria:

• Be a candidate for a CertiProf certification

• Be a continuous and focused learner
• Identify with the concept of lifelong learning
• Truly believe in and identify with the concept
that knowledge and education can and should
change the world
• Want to boost their professional growth

5
 Target Audience

This course is designed for any professional who is part of a knowledge or product development work
environment and who is interested in discovering how Kanban can help improve work environments.
Kanban works across multiple functions of an organization, from senior staff members looking to adopt
Lean Management to delivery team members keen to improve their work practices.

• Senior Management Positions (CxO)

• Program & Project Managers
• Product Managers, Product Owners & Business Analysts
• Scrum Team Members
• Scrum Masters, Team Leads & Change Agents
• Product or Software Developers and Testers
• Agile coaches and practitioners (Scrum, XP, DSDM, AgilePM, etc.)
• Other roles as HR and Finance professionals

Course Objectives

Scope

This course is aimed at people new to Kanban and interested in learning the basics of the method.

This course provides an easy entry into the vast body of Kanban knowledge. Kanban is a method of
managing workflow, which can be implemented on top of your existing process. It lays out practices for
KANBAN ESSENTIALS PROFESSIONAL CERTIFICATION KEPC™

improving the process that already exists.

This is the main reason why Kanban does not have two identical implementations.

The power of Kanban change management lies in its ability to support your own business context.

Certification Requirements

Kanban Essentials Exam Recommendations

• It is recommended to have prior knowledge of Agile, Lean and/or IT Service Management

• It is suggested to have one of the following certifications from CertiProf®:
• Scrum Foundation
• Agile Coach
• Similar certifications from other certifying bodies

6
Exam

• 60 minutes
• Multiple Choice Questions
• Number of questions: 40
• Approval: 80% (32 of 40)
• Consultation of books, notes or electronic equipment/assistants is not allowed

Learning Objectives

Introduction to KANBAN Cadences

• Emergence of KANBAN • Strategy Review

• Background of KANBAN • Operations Review
• Risk Review
Values, Agendas and Principles • Service Delivery Review
• Replenishment Meeting
• Values, Agendas, Principles • Kanban Meeting
• Flow System
Roles
Best practices
• Service request manager
• Visualize • Service delivery manager

KANBAN ESSENTIALS PROFESSIONAL CERTIFICATION KEPC™

• Limit WIP
• Flow Management Metrics
• Explicit Policies
• Feedback Loops • Lead time, Throughput, Flow efficiency
• Improve collaboratively • Work in progress, Age of WIP

Presentation
• Name and Company
• Professional experience
• Goals

7
 KANBAN ESSENTIALS PROFESSIONAL CERTIFICATION KEPC™

8
 Agenda

The Agile Manifesto 12

Beginning of section 13
Manifesto for Agile Development – Values (2001) 13
Introduction to JIT and Pull Systems 15
What does Kanban mean? 16
Toyota Production System 16
Just In Time 17
Just In Time – Pull System 17
What is a Kanban Board? 18
Introduction to the Kanban Method 21
What is the Kanban Method? 22
What is Kanban? 23
Kanban Board 23
Why Kanban? 23
What Problems Does the Kanban Method Solve? 24
Values, Agendas and Principles 25
Agendas of the Organization 26
Values, Agendas and Principles 25
6 Kanban Practices 27
Change Management Principles 28
Dynamics: Values, Agendas and Principles 29
Exercise - Values 30

KANBAN ESSENTIALS PROFESSIONAL CERTIFICATION KEPC™

Pull and Push Systems 31
Flow Theory 32
Pull System / Push System 32
A Flow System: Pull 33
A Flow System: Push 33
A Flow System: Pull 33
Flow Systems: Pull & Push 34
Push & Pull 34
A Flow System: Pull 33
A Flow System 33
Little’s Law 36
Little’s Law – The Key that Governs Flow 37
Little’s Law and the Cumulative Flow Chart 38
Practices 40
These Practices Involve 41

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 1 - Visualize 41
Kanban Board 43
Visualize and Lean Proposal 43
Design Your First Kanban Board 44
1 - Visualize 45
Design your Kanban Board 45
Design your Board 47
Design your Kanban Board 48
Exercise 2 - Create your electronic board 48
2- Limit Work-In-Progress 49
Dynamic: Multitasking 55
Kanban Practices: Limiting Work in Progress 56
Exercise: Multitasking 56
3- Manage Flow 57
3- Flow Management: Flow Efficiency 58
Assigned Capacity by Class of Service with Color Limit 59
Dynamics: Resource Efficiency vs Flow 60
Resource Efficiency vs Flow 61
Classes of Service 62
3 - Managing Flow: Classes of Services 63
Assigned Capacity by Class of Service with Color Limit 66
Design your Kanban Cards 67
Kanban Card 68
Design your Kanban cards 70
KANBAN ESSENTIALS PROFESSIONAL CERTIFICATION KEPC™

Homework - Use Your Cards on Your Board 70

4 – Making Policies Explicit 71
Cadences 75
5 - Implement Feedback Loops 76
6 – Improve collaboratively, evolve experimentally 79
Roles in Kanban 81
Roles in Kanban – Service Delivery Manager 82
Predictability & Metrics 83
Cumulative Flow Diagram 87
Monte Carlo Analysis 90
Getting Started with Kanban in Organizations 94
Introducing Kanban Into Organizations 95
Adoption Tips 96
The Culture of Collaboration in Kanban 97

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 Collaboration in Kanban 98
Kanban Board - Flow 98
Dynamics: Kanban Cakes 103
Simulation Guide 104
How to scale Kanban? 106
Scaling Kanban 106
Scaling Kanban – Growing Wide 106
Scrum & Kanban 109
The Kanban Guide for Scrum Teams 110
Kanban and Scrum Are Not Mutually Exclusive 111
Kanban and Scrum Complement Each Other Enormously 112
Kanban with Scrum Theory 112
Definition of «Workflow» 114
Flow-Based Events 114
Literature 119
Material Source 120

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 KANBAN ESSENTIALS PROFESSIONAL CERTIFICATION KEPC™

12
The Agile Manifesto
Beginning of section

The main objective of this module is to understand the values and principles of the Agile Manifesto and
then show how The Kanban Method is aligned to these values and principles.

Manifesto for Agile Development – Values (2001)

KANBAN ESSENTIALS PROFESSIONAL CERTIFICATION KEPC™

Individuals and Working software Customer Responding to
interactions over over comprehensive collaboration change over
processes and tools documentation over contract following a plan
negotiation

“That is, although the elements on the right have value, we value above them those on the left.”

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 Manifesto for Agile Development – Values (2001

1. 2. 3.

Our highest priority is to satisfy Welcome changing Deliver working software

the customer requirements, even late in frequently, from a
through early and continuous development. Agile processes couple of weeks to a couple of
delivery harness change for months, with a
of valuable software the customer's competitive preference to the shorter
advantage. timescale.

4. 5. 6.

Business people and Build projects around motivated The most efficient and effective
developers must work individuals. method of
together daily throughout the Give them the environment and conveying information to and
project. support they need, within a development
and trust them to get the job done. team is face-to-face conversation.

7. 8. 9.

Agile processes promote sustainable

development. Continuous attention to
Working software is the The sponsors, developers, and users technical excellence
primary measure of should be able and good design enhances
progress. to maintain a constant pace indefinitely. agility.
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10. 11. 12.

At regular intervals, the team

Simplicity--the art of The best architectures, requirements, reflects on how
maximizing the amount and designs to become more effective, then
of work not done--is emerge from self-organizing teams. tunes and adjusts
essential. its behavior accordingly.

14
 Systems
Introduction to JIT and Pull

15
KANBAN ESSENTIALS PROFESSIONAL CERTIFICATION KEPC™
 What does Kanban mean?

The word Kanban comes from Japanese and

literally translated means card with signs or visual
cue.

The use of cards and a dashboard serves as a

source of information as it demonstrates where
the bottlenecks are in the process and what is
preventing the workflow from being continuous
and uninterrupted.

This concept used to efficiently control their Just

in Time system would give rise to the Kanban
method later.

Toyota Production System

History of Kanban

Kanban is a method of managing work that has its origins in the Toyota Production System (TPS). At the
end of the 40s, Toyota implemented in its production the «just in time» system that introduced in its
automotive production system, the concept of a Pull type system. This means that production is based
on customer demand and not on the traditional «push» practice of manufacturing products and trying
KANBAN ESSENTIALS PROFESSIONAL CERTIFICATION KEPC™

to sell them on the market.

Its unique production system laid the foundations of Lean Manufacturing. Whose main objective is to
minimize waste in the value chain without affecting production.

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Just In Time

JIT or Just in Time, is a system of production organization. This organization system is focused on
effectively managing inventory, in such a way that the wholesale is minimized. So much so that
suppliers supply only the essentials at the precise moment of their implementation.

Apparently the JIT is seen as a simple criterion, however its application is not so easy and needs a
fundamental involvement of material suppliers, as well as being synchronized with the organization
of the company’s production.

Traditional Western Approach

Unreliable Safety Post-

Material Flow Flow Flow
process Stock Processing

Just-in-Time Approach

Flow
Reliable Post-
Material process
Flow
Processing

KANBAN ESSENTIALS PROFESSIONAL CERTIFICATION KEPC™

Just In Time – Pull System

The Just In Time philosophy treats inventory not only as a non-value-adding factor that leads to high
costs, but also as a factor that prevents the achievement of quality control goals and prevents an
immediate response to fluctuations or changes in demand.

Therefore, the Just in Time philosophy can be summarized as follows:

“Create the essential, in the most basic portion at the instant it is needed.”

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 JIT Traditional
Problems
Solutions solutions

Unreliable machines Improve reliability Increase Safety Stock

Scheduling the most

Bottlenecks Improve Capacity
complex production

Reduce prep Storage

Large Lot Size
time(SMED)

Reduce queues by Prioritize orders

Long lead times
dragging system

Poor quality Process & Supplier Quality Control

Improvements

What is a Kanban Board?

A board with a visual presentation of the cards in a kanban system. Typically, kanban boards are
organized in vertical columns with (optionally) horizontal lanes; Additional dimensions can be
represented by the color or other attributes of the card.
KANBAN ESSENTIALS PROFESSIONAL CERTIFICATION KEPC™

As the work progresses through the system, the cards representing it move to the right from column
to column. WiP limits and other policies can also be visually represented on the dashboard.

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 Boa r d Col u m n s

W IP Li m i t
In p u t A n a l y si s Dev el op m en t PO
Dep l oy m en t
Va l i d a t i on
Qu eu e
Cards should be prioritized and It is only
Any available Test cases must be PO Validation
estimated. considered DONE documented
Dev can pull if it has Code
Only the PO can add cards here Review approved
before testing

Ex p l i c i t p ol i c i es
begins

Ca r d s

La n es/ Row s

Track your process flow with Kanban

A simple Kanban board has several columns: TO DO, IN PROGRESS, IN REVIEW, AND DONE.

Your team pulls tasks from the “To-Do” column, they go through the workflow, and move them to the
“Done” column once completed.

The goal here is to optimize your process by identifying bottlenecks and improving how much your
equipment delivers within a given time period.

KANBAN ESSENTIALS PROFESSIONAL CERTIFICATION KEPC™

19
 Kanban Method

At the beginning of the twenty-first century, the software industry realized that Kanban could make
a real change in the way products and services were produced and delivered. Kanban was proven to
be suitable not only for the automotive industry, but also for any other type of industry. This is how
the Kanban method was born.

What is the difference between a Kanban Board and the Kanban Method?

The visual signaling mechanism, sometimes referred to as kanbans, is displayed on kanban boards
and represents the boundaries of work in progress, which prevent how much more or less work
enters the system, thereby improving the flow of value to customers.

The Kanban method focuses on an organization’s service delivery — one or more people collaborate
to produce (usually intangible) work products. A service has a client, who asks for the work or
those needs that are identified, and is the one who accepts and gives the approval of the deliveries
of the completed work. Even where there is a physical product of a service, the value resides less
in the element itself and more in the information it contains (software, in the most general sense).
Additionally, the Kanban method uses a Kanban Board to display policies to limit WiP and creates a
drag system: the job is “dragged” into the system when another job is completed and capacity becomes
available, instead of “pushing” these jobs into the system when there is new work in demand.
KANBAN ESSENTIALS PROFESSIONAL CERTIFICATION KEPC™

20
 Method
Introduction to the Kanban

21
KANBAN ESSENTIALS PROFESSIONAL CERTIFICATION KEPC™
 What is the Kanban Method?

Definitions of Kanban

Kanban is a method to define, manage and

improve services that deliver knowledge work,
such as professional services, jobs or activities
involving creativity and design of both software
and physical products.

Definition of Kanban according to the Kanban

Guide

Kanban is a strategy to optimize the value

stream through a process that uses a visual
system based on extraction. There can be several
ways to define value, including consideration
of the needs of the customer, the end user, the
organization, and the environment, for example.

Kanban comprises the following three practices

that work together:
KANBAN ESSENTIALS PROFESSIONAL CERTIFICATION KEPC™

• Define and visualize a workflow

• Active management of items in a workflow
• Improve a workflow

Definition according to the book Kanban by David J. Anderson

Kanban is a method to define, manage and improve services that deliver knowledge work, such as
professional services, jobs or activities involving creativity and design of both software and physical
products.

It is characterized by the principle of “start where you are” — through which rapid and focused change
is catalyzed within organizations — which reduces resistance to favorable change in line with the
objectives of the organization.

22
What is Kanban?

Value Stream Management with Kanban

There can be several ways to define value, including the needs of the customer, the end user, the
organization, and the environment.

With Kanban, you want to manage work and not people. It is a method of managing all kinds of
professional services, also known as knowledge work.

Using the Kanban method means applying a holistic way of thinking about your services, focusing on
improving them from the perspective of your customers.

Kanban Board

Boa r d Col u m n s

W IP Li m i t
In p u t A n a l y si s Dev el op m en t PO
Dep l oy m en t
Va l i d a t i on
Qu eu e
Cards should be prioritized and It is only
Any available Test cases must be PO Validation
estimated. considered DONE documented
Dev can pull if it has Code
Only the PO can add cards here Review approved
before testing

Ex p l i c i t p ol i c i es
begins

Ca r d s

KANBAN ESSENTIALS PROFESSIONAL CERTIFICATION KEPC™

La n es/ Row s

Why Kanban?
Benefits of Kanban

The procedure uses KANBAN boards to visualize invisible work, workflow and business hazards,
along with KANBAN systems that limit work in development (WIP).

It gives a more immediate and more predictable delivery that will allow you to respond positively to
changes in buyer demand or your commercial environment.

23
 What Problems Does the Kanban Method Solve?

Since its inception, it has been developed and matured as an effective approach for organizations to
achieve greater business agility.

The Kanban method seeks to strike a balance between (customer’s) requests and (sales) Skills.
In companies where this balance doesn’t work, it’s typical to see examples of an overworked and
highly unproductive workforce, with it poor quality results, late deliveries, no time for innovation,
and missed opportunities. The Kanban Method gives you the ability to re-balance the equation by
leveraging numerous techniques to help shape demand, improve capacity, improve workflow, and
minimize cycle time, but also increase process flexibility.

The Kanban Method embraces the constant change inherent in knowledge work management and
enables IT, financial services, insurance, and global organizations to become more collaborative,
unified, and productive in the face of increasing competitive pressures and organizational chaos.

The Kanban method does not demand any mandatory practice, but it has better results in companies
where leadership is encouraged and employees throughout the organization are motivated to solve
problems and do the work to do so.
KANBAN ESSENTIALS PROFESSIONAL CERTIFICATION KEPC™

24
 Principles
Values, Agendas and

25
KANBAN ESSENTIALS PROFESSIONAL CERTIFICATION KEPC™
 Agendas of the Organization

According to Kanban there are three needs of

the organization that involve calls to action and
the need to implement a change in processes.
These basic organizational agendas that can be
supplemented by the adoption of Kanban are:

• Sustainability Agenda, related to finding a

sustainable pace and a focus on improvement.
• Service Orientation Agenda, focused on
achieving performance and customer
satisfaction.
• Survival Agenda, relating to maintaining
competitiveness and adaptability.

Values
The Kanban Method is guided by values. It is motivated by the belief that it is necessary to respect all
individuals who contribute collaboratively in an organization, not only for the success of the company,
but also to ensure a pleasant work environment for all.
KANBAN ESSENTIALS PROFESSIONAL CERTIFICATION KEPC™

Transparency Collaboration
The belief that sharing information Work together. The Kanban
openly improves the business value Method was formulated to improve
stream. Using clear and direct the way people work together, so
language is part of the value. collaboration is at its heart.

Balance Customer focus

The understanding that different Knowing the goal for the system.
aspects, points of view and Each Kanban system flows to a
capabilities must be balanced to point of realizable value — when
achieve effectiveness. Some aspects customers receive a requested item
(such as demand and capacity) will or service. Customers in this context
cause collapse if they are unbalanced are external to the service.
for an extended period.

26
 Agreement
Flow The commitment to move
The performance of that work forward together toward goals,
is the flow of value, whether it is respecting — and where possible,
continuous or punctual. Seeing the accommodating — differences of
flow is an essential starting point in opinion or approximations.
using Kanban.

Respect
6 Kanban Practices
Valuing, understanding and
showing consideration for people. These values are represented by the six general
Appropriately at the bottom of this Kanban practices and are defined as the
list is the basis on which the rest of fundamental activities for the management of
the values rest. Kanban systems.

Leadership 1. Visualize
The ability to inspire others to 2. Limit Work-in-Progress
action through example, words, 3. Measure and Manage Flow
and reflection. Many organizations 4. Make policies explicit
have varying degrees of structural 5. Implement feedback loops
hierarchy, but in Kanban, leadership 6. Improve collaboratively, evolve experimentally
is needed at all levels to achieve
value delivery and improvement.

KANBAN ESSENTIALS PROFESSIONAL CERTIFICATION KEPC™

We will see the detail of these practices later.

Visualize
Understanding the
workflow
Mainly knowledge of oneself (both
individual and organizational) to Improve Limit
collabor work-in-
move forward. Kanban is a method atively progress
of improvement, so knowing
the starting point is the basis of
everything.
Impleme Measure
nt and
feedback manage
loops flow

Make
policies
explicit

27
 Change Management Principles
3. Promotes acts of leadership at all levels, from
To achieve a successful adoption of the Kanban individual contributions to the management of
Method, there are three fundamental principles the organization. Propose a change in the process,
that we must follow: suggest a redistribution of tasks after observing
workloads, raise your hand to communicate
1. Start with what you are doing now, a risk, hire more people, modify an internal
understanding the processes as they are policy, prioritize and limit work, self-train in new
currently running, and respecting the roles, skills. These are acts of leadership necessary
responsibilities and positions of the people. for continuous improvement and customer
2. Reach agreements that pursue continuous satisfaction. Seeking efficiency, effectiveness and
improvement thanks to evolutionary changes delivering value for the customer and the business
3. Promotes acts of leadership at all levels, from are pillars of the Kanban Method.
individual contributions to the direction of the
organization In short, through this evolutionary change
approach, Kanban allows us to get started
Therefore, analyzing the 3 principles of Change quickly and co-design the way forward. A natural
Management: evolution. Continuous adaptation. Survive.

1. Start with what you are doing now,

understanding the processes as they are currently
running, and respecting the roles, responsibilities
and positions of people. This approach so simple
and at the same time so powerful can break
KANBAN ESSENTIALS PROFESSIONAL CERTIFICATION KEPC™

barriers that with a disruptive approach would be

a real brake on change.

2. Reach agreements that pursue continuous Change Management

improvement thanks to evolutionary changes.
But this virtue of «start with what you’re doing
Principles of the Kanban
now» can become its main flaw: if we are not Method
committed to continually evolving, we can fall into
complacency, into getting stuck without moving
forward. Therefore, we have to be aware that we
must change to adapt.

28
 and Principles
Dynamics: Values, Agendas

29
KANBAN ESSENTIALS PROFESSIONAL CERTIFICATION KEPC™
 Exercise - Values

1. Reflect on Kanban values and use Post-it Notes to write down the values you believe are being
applied or not being applied in your organization.

• In a GREEN Post-it write the value that you believe is ALREADY being used in the company / your
team and in a mature way
• In an ORANGE Post-it write the value that you think is ALREADY being used in the company but
should be used more frequently.
• On a RED Post-it write the value that you think is NOT being used in the company

2. Discuss the results as a group.

KANBAN ESSENTIALS PROFESSIONAL CERTIFICATION KEPC™

30
 Pull and Push Systems

31
KANBAN ESSENTIALS PROFESSIONAL CERTIFICATION KEPC™
 Flow Theory Pull System / Push System

Kanban is based on established flow theory, “A pull production system is one that explicitly
which includes but is not limited to: systems limits the amount of work-in-process that can be
thinking, lean principles, queuing theory (batch in the system.
size and queue size), variability, and quality
control. A push production system is one that does not
have an explicit limit on the amount of work-in-
Continuously improving a Kanban system process that can be in the system.“
over time based on these theories is one way
organizations can attempt to optimize value - Hopp y Spearman “To Pull or not to Pull”
delivery.

The theory on which Kanban is based is also

shared by many existing value-oriented
methodologies and frameworks. Because of
these similarities, Kanban can and should be
used to augment those delivery techniques.

A Flow System: Pull

Kanban is based on Pull Flow Systems
KANBAN ESSENTIALS PROFESSIONAL CERTIFICATION KEPC™

A kanban system is an example of a pull system

that uses WiP limits to represent available
capacity and to signal the need to carry over
work items when capacity exists.

A Drag/Pull System
It is a system for planning and delivering a job
only when demand exists and the ability to
perform the work is available.

No work item is started without both the request

for it and the system’s ability to develop it.

32
A Flow System: Push

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NkQ58I53mjk

A Flow System: Pull

KANBAN ESSENTIALS PROFESSIONAL CERTIFICATION KEPC™

How a restaurant fails

Waiter waits Waiter passes Kitchen Waiter delivers

for the the order to the prepares order the order
customer. POS system
Take the order

The POS
System passes
the order to the
kitchen

Customer pays Waiter enters the At the end of the

Waiter saves cash Cash is kept in his pocket. Cash is
in cash transaction into shift, the waiter
to give change never deposited into the
the POS system balances the tips
restaurant's bank account

33
 Flow Systems: Pull & Push

Push Processes Pull Processes

Execution is carried out in Execution is performed in
anticipation of the order response to an order
Demand is predictable The demand is real and known
with certainty
These are proactive processes, These are reactive processes,
based on projected needs / based on current needs /
demands demands

Push & Pull

Disadvantages of Push Flow Systems

Push: Occurs when an amount of work greater than the actual capacity of the team has been
“assigned”. This generates:

• Long working hours

• Work Overload. MURI
• More defects (due to fatigue, lack of time, lack of concentration when seeing many things at once,
when reducing testing) MURI
• Less documented (due to lack of time) MURA
KANBAN ESSENTIALS PROFESSIONAL CERTIFICATION KEPC™

• Technical debt is created (due to lack of time, standards are no longer followed) MUDA
• People are demotivated (by not achieving the goal) Deliver meaningless work MUDA
• Etc...

+ Work Push

+ Queues in + Complexity in
front of faces coordination + Team overload

+ Length of - Management
meetings satisfaction

+ Effective + Mistakes
Capacity
-Team
Motivation
+ Rework

+ Control &
Reporting
+ Team rotation

+ Lead Time
- Customer
Satisfaction

- Predictability
+ Changes at
+ Reprioritizations in terms of
work
deadlines

34
A Flow System: Pull

A Pull Flow system is a strategy to optimize the value stream through a process that uses a visual
system based on extraction.

In this sense Kanban is a PULL style delivery flow system. Work items flow from the request or idea
to its delivered value.

This type of system are systems characterized by the input and output of work items.

A Flow System

KANBAN ESSENTIALS PROFESSIONAL CERTIFICATION KEPC™

The dashboard represents a flow system in which work items flow through the various stages of a
process, ordering from left to right.

Commitment Delivery

Work in Progress

Lead Time

Delivery Rate

35
 KANBAN ESSENTIALS PROFESSIONAL CERTIFICATION KEPC™

36
Little’s Law
Little’s Law
This is a key principle that governs flow theory
In a flow system in which all items that are selected and establishes the following relationship:
are delivered there is a simple relationship
between the averages of the following metrics
Average Cycle Time = Average Work-in-Progress
over a specific period. This relationship is known
Avereage Throughput
as Little’s Law.

Little’s Law also shows us how flow theory is

Little’s Law and the Cumulative Flow Chart
based on empiricism by using flow metrics and
data to gain transparency about past flow facts
Little’s law can be demonstrated graphically
and then using that data as an aid to inspect the
in a cumulative flowchart, which graphically
flow and adapt it through experiments.
represents the cumulative number of elements
arriving and leaving a system.

The approximate average of the Lead time

We can use Little's Law to (Approx Av. LT) and the approximate average WiP
examine the flow (Approx Av. WiP) are marked in the diagram. The
indicators of the different slope of the hypotenuse of the marked triangle is
processes in addition to the average of the Average Delivery Rate during
the commitment and this period.
delivery points, of a
Kanban system.
We will study the accumulated flowchart in more
detail below, here we will only use it to explain
Little’s law.

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Little’s Law – The Key that Governs Flow
Little’s Law reveals that in general, for a given
process with a given throughput, the more things
are worked on at a given time (on average), the
longer it will take to finish them (on average).

If the cycle times are very long, the first action

the Scrum Team should consider is to reduce the
WIP. Most other elements of Kanban are based
on the relationship between WIP and cycle time.

37
 Little’s Law and the Cumulative Flow Chart

We can use Little’s Law to examine the flow indicators of the different processes in addition to the
commitment and delivery points, of a Kanban system. In this example we see a cumulative flowchart
for a team’s work week.
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WIP
Throughput = output ratio
Throughput
Work In Progress = 22 A
I 1
Lead Time Tickets Left = B
t
e 11
m Total Days = C

s
WIP
Daily Throughput = 0,09 D= B/C
Deliver
Projected Lead Time = 244 E= A/ D

Días 15 F
Average Effort =
6% G= F/ E
Projected Eff Rec. =
Working the Traditional Way - PUSH

38
 Throughput= output ratio

Work In Progress = 7 A

Tickets Left = 5 B
I Lead Time
t 11
e
Total Days = C

m
s WIP Daily Throughput = 0,45 D= B/C

Deliver 15,5 E= A/ D
Projected Lead Time =

15 F
Días Average Effort =

Ptojected Eff Rec. = 96%

Working with WIP Limits - PULL

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39
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40
Practices
These Practices Involve Practices

The main objective of this module is to make Core Practices of the Kanban Method
known the six general practices of Kanban and
which are defined as the fundamental activities • Visualize
for the management of kanban systems. • Limit work in progress
• Manage flow
• Make policies explicit
Visualize
the • Implement feedback loops
workflow
• Improve collaboratively, evolve experimentally

Improve
collaborat Limit work-
ively in-progress

Measure
Implement and
feedback manage
loops flow

Make
policies
explicit

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1 - Visualize
Defining and visualizing the workflow

Optimizing flow requires defining what flow means in a given context. The explicit shared
understanding of flow among Kanban system members within its context is called Definition of
Workflow (DoW).

DoW is a fundamental concept of Kanban. All other elements of this guide depend largely on how the
workflow is defined.

41
 At a minimum, members must create their DoW using all of the following elements:

• A definition of the individual units of value that move through the workflow. These units of value
are called work items (or items).
• Defined points at which work items are considered to have begun and ended
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• One or more defined states in which work items flow from start to finish. Any work item between a
start point and an end point is considered a work in progress (WIP)
• A definition of how WIP will be handled from start to finish
• Explicit policies on how work items can flow through each state from start to finish
• A service level expectation (SLE), which is a forecast of how long it should take for a work item to
flow from start to finish

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Kanban Board

Visualize and Lean Proposal

The objective of visualizing through a Kanban board (Physical or Digital) is to obtain sufficient
information about the process to continuously improve (through our feedback cycles) our value
stream:

1. Design the system with sufficient capacity to meet customer requirements without overloading
people, equipment, or methods (MURI)
2. Strive to reduce variability (MURA)

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3. Eliminate sources of waste (MUDA)

Lean and the IT World

Waste in Lean Analogy in IT

Inventory Work Partially Done

Overprocessing Extra Processes

Overproduction Extra Functionality

Transport Task Exchange
Waiting Waiting

Motion Transfer of Artifacts

Defects Defects

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44
Board
Design Your First Kanban
1 - Visualize

Design your Kanban Board

How to Model Your Kanban System The elements to take into account when model-
ing the Kanban system.

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The moment we were all waiting for! It is time
to share the learning and vision of the system 1. Board Design
acquired in the previous sessions and model the 2. Flow States
Kanban system. 3. Types of Flow
4. Lanes
1. The main steps of the workflow tend to fall
5. Classes of Services
into columns.
6. WIP Limits
2. Activities in progress tend to already be
7. Explicit Policies
categorized in types of demand.
8. Card Design
3. Services classes tend to become rows (swim-
9. Commitment and delivery points
lanes) on your board.
10.Legends
4. The metrics collected can form the basis for
11.Metric
defining WIP limits.

45
 KANBAN ESSENTIALS PROFESSIONAL CERTIFICATION KEPC™

46
 Design your Board

47
KANBAN ESSENTIALS PROFESSIONAL CERTIFICATION KEPC™
 Design your Kanban Board

Exercise 1 - Create a board

By Teams, build a visual model of work.

Remember:

• You must manage the work (not the people)

• Model what you do now
• Your dashboard should reflect your team’s
processes so it will be unique
• Can display all additional details like locks,
dependencies, people

Each Team will present its work and it will be

discussed in groups.

Exercise 2 - Create your electronic board

• Miro
https://miro.com/welcomeonboard/8hSV9WFu09c5b8BNOrNFu4KWuZMSRCrBzZZgMb-
F6jAGy25q96YjLT55d3SkDBtYJ

• Trello
https://trello.com/es
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48
2- Limit Work-In-Progress

Control of work-in-progress

Members of the Kanban system have to manage

the number of work items in a workflow from
start to finish.

That control is usually done by placing numbers

or (preferably) slots/tiles on a Kanban board
which is known as WIP boundaries.

A WIP limit may apply, but is not limited to, work

items in a single column, multiple columns/lanes/
grouped areas, or an entire dashboard.

What is WIP?

Work in Progress (WIP) is work in progress within a system. They are the requests that the system
receives and are initiated but have not yet been finalized.

KANBAN ESSENTIALS PROFESSIONAL CERTIFICATION KEPC™

49
 How is the WIP limit displayed?

The WIP limit can be displayed in different ways:

• Providing slots or card slots in the corresponding part of the board.

• With a number (usually at the top) on the columns or rails.
• With a limited number of tiles/avatars available to put on top of the cards on the board.
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How to set the WIP limit?

These values are represented by the six general Kanban practices and are defined as the
fundamental activities for the management of Kanban systems.

• By phase of the workflow or each workflow

• Per person or team
• By item type
• By class of service
• By swimlane
• For several workflow phases together

50
What is the WIP limit (maximum number of items we must allow) for those parts of the system?

• There is no formula for setting the ideal WIP limit. Each process is unique and each organization is
also In addition, each organization has its own maturity.
• If the WIP limit is too low, the computer will be idle. If the limit is too high there will be idle items.
If the organization is immature, the items will surely be subject to a high number of blocks.
• Therefore, the WIP limit of a process must change over time to adjust to the improvement of its
ability to make items flow.
• The way to do this is to experiment with a WIP boundary and adjust it progressively to prevent flow
or resources from stopping.

The Benefits of WIP Limits

The benefits of WIP limits are very prominent:

1. Focus on finishing work and not starting new work

2. Allows you to establish a real pull system
3. Reduce the lead time of the items
4. Facilitates collaboration
5. Enter slack for improvement
6. Facilitates transparency and visibility of issues
7. Improve productivity
8. Improve economic profitability

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1. Focus on finishing work and not on starting
new work - By controlling the WIP, the items
executed in parallel are reduced and the
focus is on focusing efforts on finishing work
rather than taking on new tasks. Limiting WIP
reduces the number of items that are idle.
They are items theoretically in progress but
in practice they are waiting for some resource
to be available, that is, they have stopped
working on others, to be able to work on them.
By limiting the WIP, new items are stopped
starting to finish those already started and we
reduce the number of items that are on hold.

51
 2. Implement a pull system - The WIP limit
causes a signal to be transmitted upstream to
start or stop starting work on new demands.
This action subordinates the rhythm of work
of the system to that stage or resource that
frequently becomes a bottleneck or presents
blockages. This makes it possible to implement
a pull system
3. Reduce lead time - Concentrating on
completing work and engaging in a pull system
avoids unnecessary gluing of items within the
system. In other words, it decreases the lead
time of delivery. If a next stage has reached
its WIP limit and the previous ones have not,
you can try to start work that can be derived to
another workflow that is not blocked. If this is
not possible, the team must collaborate to get
the system flowing again.
4. Improve collaboration - By forcing stages of
the process that cannot take on new tasks,
they will be incentivized to help the bottleneck
to allow items to flow again. If the problem is
not the bottleneck, but with items blocked by
dependencies, participants in the later phases
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can help unlock that work.

5. Provide time for improvement - the WIP limit
introduces a slack to perform improvement
actions. These resources can be dedicated to
improving quality either avoiding introducing
defects, or introducing other types of process
improvements. by identifying and solving
the root causes that generate defects. If you
drastically reduce the number of defective
tickets that pass through the system and are
delivered, you should not subsequently divert
capacity from the members of the organization
to solve them. This, in turn, will increase, then,
the number of items that the system is able to
deliver improving the Delivery Rate

52
6. Supports Transparency - The WIP limit makes
it easier to make problems visible. The fact that
a signal is transmitted to upstream processes
that the downstream phases are collapsed
and asks them to avoid starting new tasks and
this in turn allows us to immediately identify
flow problems in the process and that makes it
easier to focus on the necessary improvements
in the process.
7. Increase productivity - The WIP limit
establishes a maximum number of items that
the team is working on, which decreases the
loss of productivity due to constant context
switching (or multitasking), since the team will
not be able to take on new tasks until the ones
being worked on are finished. This also helps
to keep computers from being overloaded.
This substantially improves the climate and
motivation and reduces staff turnover and the
consequent loss of productivity by having to
recruit and train new employees in the modus
operandi and tools of the company.
8. Improve economic profitability - By
significantly reducing work in progress, it

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decreases the investment in working capital
needed to sustain a given level of production
(throughput). Similarly, by significantly
reducing the work the lead time, that is, if
services are delivered to external customers
more quickly, it makes it possible to invoice
-and charge- before, improving cash flow

53
 Kanban Tactics: Limiting Work in Progress

Don’t limit work in progress because Kanban says it

Don’t limit work in progress because Kanban says so. Limit the amount of work you do at once, if...

• You are often distracted and lose valuable time until you refocus after each interruption.
• You see that you make mistakes because of the rush to finish one task and jump to the next
• You realize that while you’re on one task, the others don’t progress, but instead generate additional
work and change requests, i.e. more work to be done.
• You are aware that part of the work requests will be abandoned because they have not been finished
on time, i.e. your effort could have been used in a better way instead of being wasted
• You are overwhelmed by not delivering all your work well and on time
• We understand that your delays affect your coworkers’ commitments
• You’re aware that delays lead to shifting priorities, disruptions, and more work to be done.
• Limit work in progress by your desire to meet your customers’ expectations without stress

Don’t limit work in progress because Kanban says it

Delays to other
colleagues
Delays
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Distractions

Shifting Burden
priorities

A lot of work
in progress
Mistakes
Work
stopped

Additional
work

54
 Dynamic: Multitasking

55
KANBAN ESSENTIALS PROFESSIONAL CERTIFICATION KEPC™
 Kanban Practices: Limiting Work in Progress

Context Switching

Gerald Weinberg in his book «Quality Software Management» calculates that the loss of time caused
in the «switch» of task, when a person is dedicated to work two simultaneous tasks, is about 20% of the
time by the change of tasks, if that person is dedicated to 3 tasks in parallel then, loses 40% of the time.

Exercise: Multitasking
Context Switching
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Multitasking - Context Switching

1. Complete each row from left right

2. We stop when the timer goes off or we reach the limit shown at the top of each column
3. Score Final Time

1-10 I-X A-J

5 MINUTES

56
Context Switching
Multitasking - Context Switching

1. Complete each row from left right

2. We stop when the timer goes off or we reach the limit shown at the top of each column
3. Score Final Time

1-10 I-X A-J

5 MINUTES

3- Manage Flow
The workflow in a kanban system should
maximize value delivery, minimize lead times,
and be as smooth (i.e. predictable) as possible.
These are sometimes conflicting objectives, as
deliverables are usually complex and require

KANBAN ESSENTIALS PROFESSIONAL CERTIFICATION KEPC™

empirical control through transparency,
inspection and adaptation.

Bottlenecks where flow is constrained by a

particular thread and blockages by dependencies
on other services are important to the flow and
have to be managed.

57
 3- Flow Management: Flow Efficiency
KANBAN ESSENTIALS PROFESSIONAL CERTIFICATION KEPC™

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F-
7cjdtrQ9Y

Flow Efficiency

Flow efficiency is the ratio of value addition time to the waiting time required to complete a process.

Value addition time is the time during which a person or machine is actively working to complete a
given goal.

58
Assigned Capacity by Class of Service with Color Limit

KANBAN ESSENTIALS PROFESSIONAL CERTIFICATION KEPC™

5 4 4 5 2 20
In p u t A n a l y si s Dev el op m en t Test PO Dep l oy m en t
Qu eu e DOING DONE Customer
DOING Lead
DONE Time Va l i d a t i on
Ex p ed i t e

Lead Time
Flow efficiency % = _______________ x 100%
Fec h a Fi ja

Flow efficiency measures Work Time

the percentage of total lead
time that is spent adding Flow efficiencies of 1-5% are Multitasking means that time
value (or knowledge) commonly reported, EF > 40% spent on work columns is usually
compared to waiting. is very good! timeout
Est a n d a r

Working Waiting Working Waiting Working Working

59
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60
Efficiency vs Flow
Dynamics: Resource
Resource Efficiency vs Flow

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hGJpez7rvc0

The Efficiency Paradox | Niklas Modig - Sweden | TEDxUmeå

KANBAN ESSENTIALS PROFESSIONAL CERTIFICATION KEPC™

https://search.google.com/test/mobile-friendly

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62
Classes of Service
3 - Managing Flow: Classes of Services

Classes of Service

They are the categories in which we can classify

the work items that will define the different
selection and processing policies based on
different customer expectations, relative value,
risk, or cost of delay (CoD).

There are four types of delay costs:

• Urgent or Expedited
• Standard
• Fixed date
• Intangible

STANDARD FIXED DATE

If you take a taxi, you may or

may not encounter much traffic If you do not renew your
and even get stuck, and this driver's license before the
will get you later, but you feel renewal date, you will have to

KANBAN ESSENTIALS PROFESSIONAL CERTIFICATION KEPC™

comfortable taking the risk.. pay a penalty.
Kanban
Classes of
Services EXPEDITE INTANGIBLE
In real life
If you pay more to send a Next If you don't stop eating junk
Day Air package instead of food every day, you may
ground shipping, it will be develop high blood pressure
delivered sooner. You do this later in life.
so you don't risk it being
delivered late.

63
 Urgent or expedited ítems

Expedite items have a huge cost for each unit Expedite

of time (hours, days,...) that their resolution is
Example: A part of the Code has to be fixed. Otherwise, other
delayed. For this reason, they must be solved teams cannot provide a functional product to the customer.
immediately since they have an importance that
can affect the very survival of the organization.
Work items of this
kind carry great risk
Examples of urgent items that have been hacked to the project. The

into banks or e-commerce portals are urgent Cost cost of delay

immediately
outages. increases
exponentially.

Standard ítems Delay

Then there are the standard type items. Each

period (hours, days, weeks, months) that its Standard
delivery is delayed has a high cost but does not
Example: Daily work. You have to submit feature "A" for testing.
jeopardize the existence of the organization.

Examples of standard items are projects for new

products or cost reductions that are delayed. The cost of the
delay increases
Delivering them late does not make the company slowly but
Cost
disappear but it does make it less competitive. accelerates if not
paid attention

Fixed Date Items

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Delay
Fixed-date items follow. Delivering them before
a certain date does not bring any additional
advantage. But delivering later than this date –
however small it may be – has a very high cost. Fixed Date
Example: You must submit the designs before 20/05. Otherwise,
you run the risk of them passing the work to another company.
Examples of fixed-date items are the regulatory
requirements that must be met on a specific
date under penalty of sanction (which can be a The cost of delay
financial fine, loss of a right to operate,...). Others increases
significantly
are the launches of products that must be made Cost after a deadline.

on a specific date so as not to lose a window of

opportunity in their commercialization such as a
sector fair that allows you to find distributors.
Delay

64
Intangible ítems
Intangible
Finally, there are the intangible items. They are Ejemplo: su almacenamiento de archivos está al 90%, pero sabe
que todavía hay espacio. Un día llega al 99% y no puedes
items that can be delayed with a very low cost in trabajar hasta que lo arregles.
the short term. But they are items that we know
that at an unknown time in the future will have a The cost of the
delay is not
very high cost. significant, but it
can increase
Cost dramatically
Examples of intangible items are internal later if left
unheeded.
improvement or quality improvement projects.
They can be relegated in priority for urgent,
standard or intangible items, which have a higher Delay
cost of delay in the short term.

Class Characteristics Contribution to flow

Expedite The highest priority does not Maximum 1 task in

interrupt work on this task. Process
PRIORITIZATION

The task must be completed by a - >20% in Process

Fixed Date
defined date

It is a faulty implementation, it must

Bug Does not have a specific
be corrected as soon as possible
process assignment

Normal task. It will be treated by - >50% in process

Standard Class
the FIFO principle. No timeline

KANBAN ESSENTIALS PROFESSIONAL CERTIFICATION KEPC™

Support task and has no priority - >30% in process
Intangible class assignment and release

65
 Assigned Capacity by Class of Service with Color Limit

5 4 4 5 2 20
In p u t A n a l y si s Dev el op m en t Test PO Dep loy m en t
Qu eu e Ex p ed i t e DOING DONE DOING DONE
Va lid a t ion

+1= *50%

4= 20%
Fi x ed d a t e

10=50%
St a n d a r d

6=30%
KANBAN ESSENTIALS PROFESSIONAL CERTIFICATION KEPC™

66
 Design your Kanban Cards

67
KANBAN ESSENTIALS PROFESSIONAL CERTIFICATION KEPC™
 Kanban Card

The main function of a Kanban card is to visually convey the progress of a work item as it flows through
a system or process.

The face of a Kanban card features details that are relevant to the team, such as:

1. A unique identifier or title

2. A brief description of the work
3. A rough estimate of the size of the work
4. Who has been assigned

The key is to add any information that is really relevant and that allows the independence of all
members.
KANBAN ESSENTIALS PROFESSIONAL CERTIFICATION KEPC™

It is important to mention that this list is not exhaustive. Each project is different and requires
different information to register. However, the elements of high importance would keep them in
most cases.

Some of these important elements are mentioned below.

68
Some other important items are mentioned
below.

• The ID of the task. Identify with a number

the task of the others. It is usually included
automatically in many Kanban board
applications. Low relevance
• Description of the task. It is the basis of the
card and therefore should not disappear. High
relevance
• Date created. The creation date indicates the
date the card was added to the board. It can be
relevant to detect tasks that are stagnant. Low
relevance
• End date. Many tasks have a maximum
completion date, so it’s important to keep
that in mind. Medium relevance (not always
necessary)
• Named User. This is the user who will be
responsible for executing the task. It allows us
to know which tasks are free to take and which
are not. High relevance

KANBAN ESSENTIALS PROFESSIONAL CERTIFICATION KEPC™

• Size. There are tasks that are bigger than
others and more tedious than others. Rather
than assigning a size to a task, I prefer to
divide it into more homogeneous tasks. Low
relevance
• Priority. There are tasks that are more
important than others and that must be ready
as soon as possible. It can be combined with
the end date. Medium relevance

69
 Design your Kanban cards

Exercise 1 - Create your Kanban card

For Teams, build a visual model of your Kanban card.

• You must manage the work (not the people)

• Model what you do now
• You can show all the extra details like locks, dependencies, people

Each Team will present its work and it will be discussed in groups.

Homework - Use Your Cards on Your Board

Use your dashboard to visualize your workflow with the cards you’ve designed.
KANBAN ESSENTIALS PROFESSIONAL CERTIFICATION KEPC™

• Prioritize your ‘stories’

• Set your team size and initial WIP limits
• Monitor the cycle through a simulated work week
• See if card information makes it easy to track workflow on your dashboard.
• Inspect and adapt as you go... Ex: if additional columns are required, adjust WIP limits

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4 – Making Policies Explicit

Policies

They are an explicit description of an expected behavior or process constraint. In general, the policies
associated with kanban systems include the «Done definitions» for each column. WIP limits are also
classified as policies.

Explicit policies are a way of articulating and defining a process that goes beyond the definition of flow.

A process expressed as a clear workflow and policies creates guidelines for action, empowering team
members to proactively manage the workflow.

Types of Policies

Explicit policies can be diverse and of many types, only by way of illustration we can mention:

• Policies by column: Who moves what? How are priorities decided?

• System-wide policies: What is written in a ticket? How does the board work? How are replenishments
made?
• Policies by class of service

KANBAN ESSENTIALS PROFESSIONAL CERTIFICATION KEPC™

71
 Policy Examples

Policies per column:

• Everything goes through the Backlog first (Pull Criterion)
• Any card at the top of the column is higher priority than another card below (Prioritization)

System-wide policies:
• Tasks with a duration of 15’ or less are not added to the dashboard
• The board is updated once a day and will be done during the Kanban Daily Meeting

Policies by classes of service:

• Expedite
• Standard
• Fixed Date
• Intangible

Why Policies Need to Be Established

SIf we select an item to work on and it is not clearly defined what should be done, or this definition is
not agreed with the client, there is a high risk that it will be backtracked. In this case the system will
have to dedicate additional time, which cannot be dedicated to other items.

If we select an item and its dependencies are not resolved, it will probably be blocked, affecting the
delivery time and demanding dedication to get its unlocked.
KANBAN ESSENTIALS PROFESSIONAL CERTIFICATION KEPC™

72
Policies

For these reasons it is necessary that the items that are committed meet certain requirements to
be accepted as:

• Clear definition
• Definition agreed with the client
• Dependencies resolved (within reason).
• Among others...

These acceptance criteria in Kanban are called Policies, and they establish a filter to prevent vague-
ly defined items from being introduced into the system, that are not ready to be executed or that
have too many dependencies or topics to be defined.

KANBAN ESSENTIALS PROFESSIONAL CERTIFICATION KEPC™

Policies

Process policies must be few, simple, well defined, visible, always enforced, and easily modifiable by
those providing the service.

Keep in mind that “should always be applied” and “easily modifiable” go hand in hand.

For example, work in progress (WIP) limits must be set, and based on the evolution of the team it is
possible to change them or break the limits to see if with different WIP limits, it is possible to achieve
a more predictable process.

73
 Definition of Done (DoD)

One of the key principles is: it’s not when

someone did their share of the work being done,
but when the customer received or began to
receive the value they expected. This means that
the entire value chain has been fully followed
back to the production environment; Only then
will the work be considered done.
KANBAN ESSENTIALS PROFESSIONAL CERTIFICATION KEPC™

In addition to policies, kanban systems should have clearly identified commitment and delivery
points.

Commitment is an explicit or tacit agreement between the customer and the service that:

1. The customer wants an item and assumes delivery of it.

2. The service will be produced and delivered to the customer.

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 Cadences

75
KANBAN ESSENTIALS PROFESSIONAL CERTIFICATION KEPC™
 5 - Implement Feedback Loops

Kanban defines seven specific feedback opportunities, or cadences. Cadences are the cyclical
meetings and reviews that direct any change and effective service delivery.

“Cadence”canalsorefertotheperiodoftimebetweeneachreview–aworkingdayoramonth,forexample.
Choosing the right cadence depends on the context and is crucial to a good result.

Overly frequent revisions may force you to change things before you notice the effects of previous
changes, but if they are not frequent enough, poor performance may persist longer than necessary.

Feedback loops are an essential part of any controlled process and are especially important for
evolutionary change. Improving feedback in all areas of the process is important, particularly in the
following:

• Alignment with strategy

• Operational coordination
• Risk management
• Service improvement
• Feedback
• Flow
• Customer deliveries

A seven-cadence scheme shows the recommended frequencies for reviews in a typical enterprise or
multi-service context.
KANBAN ESSENTIALS PROFESSIONAL CERTIFICATION KEPC™

1. Strategy review: This is the meeting at the organizational level in which the necessary action plans
are defined in order to meet the organizational goals and objectives. The decisions made at this
meeting should be communicated to the “operations review” and the “service delivery review”, since
a change in strategy affects both the operations and certain services of the company.

Recommended frequency: Quarterly

Duration: Half day

2. Operations review:The goal of this meeting is to evaluate the efficiency, demand and capacity
of each Kanban team. It seeks to understand the relationship between the various services of the
company, in order to maximize the delivery of value to the company.

This meeting is nourished by the information obtained from the “strategy review” and the “service
delivery review” of each of the company’s services.

Recommended frequency: Monthly

Duration: 2 hours

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3. Risk review: This meeting analyzes the bottlenecks, impediments and blockages detected in the
“service delivery review” and in the “operation review” and manages the risks of the service promoting
the improvement of the associated processes; For example, through the grouping of blocking topics
to find global solutions.

Recommended Frequency: Monthly

Duration: 2 hours

4. Service delivery review: This is done to examine and improve the effectiveness of a service (this and
subsequent cadences apply to a single service). In this meeting the last delivery made is reviewed,
checking if the client’s expectations are met and in which through the analysis of the metrics obtained
it is sought to improve the service.

Recommended frequency: Biweekly

Duration: 30 minutes – 1h

5. Replenishment meeting: This meeting is to move work items through the point of commitment
(and within the system) and to oversee the preparation of options for future selection. As Kanban
is a “pull” system, new items are only introduced into the system if there is capacity in it and always
respecting the WIP limit established in each case. In this way it is guaranteed that the maximum
Kanban rule “stop starting, start finishing” is met, and that therefore we work optimizing the flow of
our service. New tasks must always be aligned with the strategy.

Recommended frequency: weekly or on demand

Duration: 20-30 minutes

KANBAN ESSENTIALS PROFESSIONAL CERTIFICATION KEPC™

6. The Kanban meeting: Also known as “daily meeting”, it allows you to keep the team on the same
page and focused on flow management. The team reviews the board from right to left, focusing on
the blocks and the actions that will allow tasks to be completed.

This is normally a daily coordination of self-organization and planning review. It often uses a
“standing” format to encourage a short, energetic encounter focused on completing work items and
unlocking issues.

Recommended frequency: Daily

Duration: 15 minutes

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 7. Delivery Planning Meeting: Used to monitor and plan deliveries to customers.

It receives information on the current status of the service obtained in the “Kanban meeting” and
may be affected by the risks detected in the “risk review”.

Recommended frequency: Per delivery

Duration: 1-2 hours
KANBAN ESSENTIALS PROFESSIONAL CERTIFICATION KEPC™

Cadences Recommended frequency Duration

Strategy review Quarterly 4 Hours

Operations review Monthly 2 hours

Risk review Monthly 1-2 hours

Service delivery review Biweekly 30 minutes – 1h

Replenishment meeting Weekly or on-demand 0-30 minutes

Kanban meeting Everyday 15 minutes

Delivery planning meeting By delivery 1-2 hours

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Cadences Frequency Purpose
Replenishment meeting Weekly This meeting is to move work items through the point of commitment
(and within the system) and to oversee the preparation of options for
future selection.

The Kanban Meeting Everyday This is normally a daily coordination of self-organization and planning
review for those who collaborate in the provision of the service. He often
uses a "standing" format to encourage a short, energetic encounter
focused on completing work items and unlocking issues.

Delivery Planning According to Used to monitor and plan deliveries to customers.

Meeting Delivery
Cadence

6 – Improve collaboratively, evolve experimentally

Kanban is fundamentally a method of improvement.

Kanban starts with the organization in its current state and uses the Lean flow paradigm to pursue
continuous and incremental improvement. There is no end point in such a change management
process because perfection in an ever-changing environment is unattainable. Kanban uses an
evolutionary process to allow beneficial changes to occur within an organization, protecting it from
another natural evolutionary process – extinction.

It can be useful to employ models and the scientific method by applying them in the organizational
context. In other cases, using empirical and pragmatic approaches is an appropriate way to find the

KANBAN ESSENTIALS PROFESSIONAL CERTIFICATION KEPC™

best attitude to achieve the purpose within the current environment.

Toyota Troubleshooting

Given its importance, one of the tools we can use in our continuous improvement process is Toyota’s
problem-solving process, which is completely standardized. Three main stages can be clearly
identified:

Step 1: Understand the situation. Fully and objectively understand what the problem is. What
happens, where it happens, and when it happens.

Stage 2: Investigate the causes. Identify and understand all the cause-and-effect relationships that
are at play.

Stape 3: Establish actions and standardize. Once the causes have been identified, it is time to
implement measures. If they are effective, they should be standardized and should be part of the
process of solving similar problems.

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 Toyota Troubleshooting

Within these three stages, seven well-identifiable steps can be defined throughout the process:

1. Establish the context and importance of the problem or issue to be analyzed

2. Describe the actual characteristics of the problem
3. Define the desired outcome after resolution
4. Analyze the situation to establish causation
5. Propose countermeasures
6. Prescribe an action plan
7. Map out the follow-up process

SOURCE: 'The Toyota Way' - Jeffrey Liker (2004)

Toyota's Hands-On Troubleshooting Process
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 Roles in Kanban

81
KANBAN ESSENTIALS PROFESSIONAL CERTIFICATION KEPC™
 Roles in Kanban

Kanban is and continues to be the “start where

you are” method, where initially no one is given
new roles, responsibilities or charges. This means
that there are no mandatory roles in Kanban and
the method does not create any new positions
in the organization. However, two roles have
emerged from common practice and are now
defined in the method itself.

• Service Request Manager

• Service Delivery Manager

Roles in Kanban – Service Delivery Manager

The Service Delivery Manager is responsible for the workflow, delivering the selected items to
customers and facilitating the Kanban meeting and delivery planning.

Other alternative names for this role are Flow Manager, Delivery Manager, or Flow Master.

The Service Request Manager is responsible for understanding customer needs and expectations,
and for facilitating, selecting, and ordering work items at the Replenishment Meeting.
KANBAN ESSENTIALS PROFESSIONAL CERTIFICATION KEPC™

Other alternative names for the role are Product Manager, Product Owner, and Service Manager.

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 Predictability & Metrics

83
KANBAN ESSENTIALS PROFESSIONAL CERTIFICATION KEPC™
 Predictability & Metrics

Predictability

The most important question from your

customers is: when will it be done?

We have trouble answering this question

because there are many likely things that could
go wrong (and go right) when trying to predict
the end date of a work item.

In doing this, we are wrong because we think

incorrectly about forecasts. Daniel S. Vacanti in
his books offers tools that require to make more
accurate forecasts.

The main objective of this module is to socialize an alternative method for predicting project end
dates using probabilistic forecasting. Accurately predicting when customer service is delivered
has long been a difficult problem in management. Traditionally, projects have used “effort and risk
estimation” to predict project end dates. Kanban systems enable an alternative (some might say even
more reliable) method — probabilistic forecasting.
KANBAN ESSENTIALS PROFESSIONAL CERTIFICATION KEPC™

Flow systems can offer a wide number of important flow metrics for managers of
these systems, particularly for constructing reliable estimates. The minimum starting
point is to collect data on delivery time, response time, delivery rate, WiP, and cost
(usually, and mainly the effort in days per person consumed by the service).

Predictability & Metrics

Leading and Lagging indicators are two types of measures that are used when evaluating performance
in a company or organization.

A Leading indicator is a predictive measure, for example; The percentage of people who wear helmets
on a construction site is a leading indicator of safety leading.

A Lagging indicator is a measure of production, for example; the number of accidents on a construction
site is a lagging indicator of safety.

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The difference between the two is that a Leading indicator can influence the change and a Lagging
indicator can only record what has happened.

Lagging indicators tend to be “output oriented”, easy to measure but difficult to improve or influence,
while leading indicators are usually “input oriented”, difficult to measure but easy to influence.

This concept is important when selecting the metrics we want to improve in our process.

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Metrics

WIP (Work In Progress) - The number of work items started but not completed.

Customer Lead Time - The amount of time elapsed since a work item is requested by a requester and
a work item is available to the user.

Lead Time or System Lead Time - This is the time from when a work item enters a commitment point
until it is delivered.

Cycle Time - The amount of time elapsed between a work item “starting” after passing a commitment
point and a work item “finishing.”

Throughput - The number of work items “completed” per unit of time.

Work Item Age - The amount of time elapsed between when the job was started and the current
date.

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 Commitment Delivery

Work in Progress

Lead Time

Delivery Rate

Predictability

There are several important types of charts for displaying flow system data, including:

• Cumulative Flow Diagrams (CFDs), which show the cumulative number of arrivals and departures
in a process or parts of a process.
• Histograms that show the number of items delivered each workday.
• Scatter plots of lead times
• Among others
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86
Cumulative Flow Diagram

What is a Cumulative Flow Chart?

A Cumulative Flow Diagram (CFD) provides

a concise visualization of the stability of your
process by measuring cycle time, throughput,
and work in progress. It accumulates all the tasks
that have progressed through your workflow.

https://getnave.com/blog/how-to-read-the-cumulative-flow-diagram-infographic/?utm_
source=social&utm_medium=linkedin-group&utm_campaign=how-to-read-the-cumulative-flow-
diagram-infographic

Predictability & Metrics

How to identify bottlenecks and stabilize your workflow with Cumulative Flow Diagram (also
known as CFD).

The main purpose of the Cumulative Flow Diagram is to show you how stable your flow is and help
you understand where you need to focus to make your process more predictable.

CFD provides you with quantitative and qualitative information on past and existing problems and

KANBAN ESSENTIALS PROFESSIONAL CERTIFICATION KEPC™

can visualize large amounts of data.

We can use CFD to track the stability of your process by measuring major flow metrics.

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 Cumulative Flow Diagram

Work in Progress (WIP)

The CFD visualizes the amount of work in

progress in each state. This is represented by the
vertical distance between the lines of each band.
The higher the belt, the more work is in progress,
which inevitably leads to longer cycle times.

Average Performance/Throughput

The final result of your CFD visualizes the

amount of work your team does within a given
period. The slope of that line between two points
shows its average yield. A productive team will
be able to complete tasks quickly, and the Done
band will grow rapidly.
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Approximate Average Cycle Time

The CFD shows the approximate average cycle

time of your process by measuring the horizontal
difference between the top and bottom lines at
any point along the chart.

An optimal workflow is illustrated by all belts

progressing in parallel, meaning cycle times
remain constant.

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Arrival and Departure Rate

Each process has a projected finish and output

line, and the distance between them must be the
same to maintain a stable workflow.

If the bands start to widen too quickly, then

new tasks are coming faster than your team can
handle them. This indicates too much WIP and
inevitably leads to delays in task delivery and
decreased performance.

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A positive divergence rate
suggests that the WIP is too
high and we are overloaded.

A negative divergence
suggests that the WIP limit
is too low and that we are
underutilized.

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 Monte Carlo Analysis

The Monte Carlo method is a non-deterministic or numerical statistical method, used to approximate
complex mathematical expressions that are expensive to evaluate accurately.

The method was named in reference to the Monte Carlo Casino (Monaco) for being “the capital of
gambling”, as roulette is a simple generator of random numbers.

The name and systematic development of the Monte Carlo methods date back to about 1944 and
were greatly improved with the development of the computer.

The most convenient way to visualize the results of a Monte Carlo simulation for Kanban management
is in the form of a histogram.

HISTOGRAM OF LEAD TIME (DAYS)

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Monte Carlo analysis is a method used to approximate the result of calculations from which an exact
solution cannot be obtained by means of a complex mathematical simulation. It is a method that is
used to make estimates in case there are parameters that show variability.

In the case of project management, timeline, costs, and risks are subject to variability. Therefore,
a more conceptually correct and realistic way to make predictions about a project is to estimate
average values of economic cost and time, assign them a probability and variability, and then carry
out a simulation in which all possible scenarios are taken into account.

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Figure shows an example of a histogram of the

KANBAN ESSENTIALS PROFESSIONAL CERTIFICATION KEPC™

lead time distribution.

A distribution histogram is a graph that shows HISTOGRAM OF LEAD TIME (DAYS)

the number of occurrences of a given value (for
example, lead time) in a dataset. The distribution
of a measurement’s values, not just its average, is
necessary for effective probabilistic prediction.

Relying only on one value (such as the average)

for forecasting or decision-making is problematic
because it hides patterns from different types of
information and context. Some ranges of values
may occur more often than others, and often in
a Kanban process there are many peaks (very
common values) and valleys (rarer values).

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 To avoid this, we use probabilistic forecasting by demonstrating uncertainty about the number of
“stories” to be completed and the delivery rate. This helps us rank the completion dates with a 50%,
85%, and 95% probability.

Kanban teams use Monte Carlo simulations when determining the amount of work they need to do
in their next release, Monte Carlo simulations help them generate a range of probabilities.

The simulation relies on a large number of randomized trials based on your historical performance
data to predict performance for a future time frame.

There are tools on the market that allow us to make these projections very quickly.
KANBAN ESSENTIALS PROFESSIONAL CERTIFICATION KEPC™

92
To give an example, let’s imagine that an event has an 80% probability of occurring. This means that
out of every 100 times, 80 times it will happen while the remaining 20 times it won’t happen. At the
same time, if it occurs, let’s assume that it involves an approximate spend of $1000 with a variability
range of approximately 10% and a 95% confidence interval. That is, the estimated cost will be 1000
USD but we assume that in 95% of the possible situations you will experience a variability between
900 and 1100 USD.

To carry out this mathematical process, it is necessary to use software that allows us to simulate the
tasks randomly, taking into account the probabilities established for each event and its variability,
and thus estimate as closely as possible the results that we will obtain in real life.

Once the Monte Carlo simulation has been carried out, the results obtained graphically show the
probability of achieving the end of the project with a certain time and economic cost.

KANBAN ESSENTIALS PROFESSIONAL CERTIFICATION KEPC™

It will be the task of the company’s executive director to determine based on the results obtained
whether the project is viable, identify its weaknesses and then put it into operation.

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 KANBAN ESSENTIALS PROFESSIONAL CERTIFICATION KEPC™

94
in Organizations
Getting Started with Kanban
Introducing Kanban Into Organizations

It’s easy to get started with Kanban:

1. Recognize that your work involves a flow of value from the request of an item to its delivery to the
client;
2. Visualize the work and work delivery process; after
3. Continuously improve the process by applying values, principles and practices

The Approach to Introducing Kanban

• Step 0: Identify services. For every service

• Step 1: Understand what makes the service fit for the customer’s purpose
• Step 2: Understand the sources of dissatisfaction in the current system
• Step 3 : Analyze Demand
• Step 4: Analyze Capacity
• Step 5: Model the Workflow
• Step 6 : Discover Classes of Service
• Step 7 : Design the kanban system
• Step 8: Socialize the system and dashboard design and negotiate implementation

KANBAN ESSENTIALS PROFESSIONAL CERTIFICATION KEPC™

95
 Adoption Tips

The Approach to Introducing Kanban

• Understand your customers’ needs and expectations and focus on them

• Agree to seek improvement through evolutionary change
• Foster leadership at every level of the organization — from
• individual contributions to the highest positions in the organization
• Managing Work: Letting People
• Start with what you’re doing now:Self-Organize Around Tasks
• Evolve policies to improve customer and business outcomes
• Understand the current processes as they are currently being carried out
• Respect each person’s current roles, responsibilities, and jobs
KANBAN ESSENTIALS PROFESSIONAL CERTIFICATION KEPC™

96
 in Kanban

97
The Culture of Collaboration

KANBAN ESSENTIALS PROFESSIONAL CERTIFICATION KEPC™

 Collaboration in Kanban

The main objective of this module is to see how the Collaboration culture works in Kanban.

Chosen Dev elopm ent Deploy m ent

Kanban Board - Flow

KANBAN ESSENTIALS PROFESSIONAL CERTIFICATION KEPC™

Backlog Seleccionado
Chosen Desarrollo
Development Despliegue
Deployment ¡Prod!
2 2 1
A DOING DONE DOING DONE

B C

D
E
F
G
H I

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 Backlog Seleccionado
Chosen Desarrollo
Development Despliegue
Deployment ¡Prod!
2 2 1
DOING DONE DOING DONE

C
A
D
E
F B
G
H I
A and B are the most
important tasks at
the moment

Backlog Chosen
Seleccionado Development
Desarrollo Deployment
Despliegue ¡Prod!
2 2 1
DOING DONE DOING DONE

A I'm going to
C
E work on "A"

F B I'm going to
G D work on "B"
H I
"C" and "D" are
the next priority

KANBAN ESSENTIALS PROFESSIONAL CERTIFICATION KEPC™

Backlog Chosen
Seleccionado Development
Desarrollo Despliegue
Deployment ¡Prod!
2 2 1
E DOING DONE DOING DONE
I
A
F
G
H
K
J B A is done
L
C

Mmm... I might D
need J+K+L as well
Ah, something to
deploy

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 Backlog Chosen
Seleccionado Development
Desarrollo Deployment
Despliegue ¡Prod!
2 2 1
E DOING DONE DOING DONE
I
A Developing A
F Developing C
C
G
H
K
J B
L

Backlog Chosen
Seleccionado Development
Desarrollo Deployment
Despliegue ¡Prod!
2 2 1
E DOING DONE DOING DONE
I
A
F
C Ooops!
G
H Something is
K B is complete! wrong.
J
L B

D
KANBAN ESSENTIALS PROFESSIONAL CERTIFICATION KEPC™

Backlog Chosen
Seleccionado Development
Desarrollo Despliegue
Deployment ¡Prod!
2 2 1
E DOING DONE DOING DONE
I
A
F
C
G ¡Ooops! Algo está
H fallando.
K
J
L B

I'm going to take

D D... Wait, that
breaks the
Kanban limit of 2

100
Backlog Chosen
Seleccionado Development
Desarrollo Deployment
Despliegue ¡Prod!
2 2 1
E DOING DONE DOING DONE
I
A
F A coffee would be
C
G nice... And then it helps
H by interpreting these
logs.
J K it's urgent, I'll
schedule that
L B
K What can I
support?
D

Backlog Chosen
Seleccionado Development
Desarrollo Deployment
Despliegue ¡Prod!
2 2 1
E DOING DONE DOING DONE
I
A
F
C
G K
H
C is complete!
J
L That's great! Please work K! B

D Count on it, as soon as

we solve the problem
of A

KANBAN ESSENTIALS PROFESSIONAL CERTIFICATION KEPC™

Backlog Chosen
Seleccionado Development
Desarrollo Deployment
Despliegue ¡Prod!
2 2 1
E DOING DONE DOING DONE
I
A
F
C
G K
H

J We don't need any

We're also going to need F B more hands. But this is
L What can I
and G. But the Kanban
Boundary won't let me. support? a recurring problem.
Please write a test to
D prevent it from
happening again.

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 Backlog Chosen
Seleccionado Development
Desarrollo Despliegue
Deployment ¡Prod!
2 2 1
E DOING DONE DOING DONE
I
A
F
C
G K
H

J That's great. Help us

L B make this incident a top
How can I help?, priority, and the devs are
I'm not a Techie working on automated
D but... testing, these two topics
should take precedence

Da y s l a t er ...
Backlog Chosen
Seleccionado Development
Desarrollo Deployment
Despliegue ¡Prod!
2 3 1
E DOING DONE DOING DONE

A
I G D K
H C
KANBAN ESSENTIALS PROFESSIONAL CERTIFICATION KEPC™

Don't you miss the old-school

J F B
late nights and being woken
L up at two in the morning?
M o H. ¡Definitvamente M!
No, wait... ¿H o M? ¿H o M?
M Arrghh...
Jejejeje

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 Dynamics: Kanban Cakes

103
KANBAN ESSENTIALS PROFESSIONAL CERTIFICATION KEPC™
 Simulation Guide

The exercise consists of simulating the process of a bakery, analyzing metrics, and improving the
flow incrementally.

It is a village pastry shop that sells fresh and artisanal cakes, made on the day, without preservatives.
What is not sold on the day is discarded. Its cakes have become so popular that it is a must-see for
tourists passing through the town. The growing demand is a source of delays and complaints. So
we’re going to employ Kanban to help this baking. The first task will be to “make the flow visible”, for
which we have graphed the value stream as it is and the average times that each activity takes. We’re
applying Kanban without changing the flow yet.

There are two roles:

• Employees: One or two people are assigned to each activity (depending on the number of
participants). Your task is to take only one order at a time to process. To do this, he takes a post-it
note from his column, counts the indicated number of seconds and passes it on to the next column
• Clients: All other participants will be clients. At the beginning, they complete the order column with
post-its. With the help of their cell phone, customers start a timer when their order is taken (taken
by the first employee) and stop the timer when it is finished (Delivery) to record the Lead Time
KANBAN ESSENTIALS PROFESSIONAL CERTIFICATION KEPC™

104
 How to Scale Kanban

105
KANBAN ESSENTIALS PROFESSIONAL CERTIFICATION KEPC™
 Scaling Kanban

How to scale Kanban?

The answer is simple: applying Kanban in a

larger-scale context.

Once you consolidate kanban systems for one

or more services, consider three dimensions in
which they can grow in your organization.

This module discusses how kanban is applied as

an agile model on a larger scale.

Scaling Kanban – Growing Wide

Growth Across the Width

Encompass a broader scope of the work item lifecycle by expanding the end-to-end workflow
dashboard (both upstream and downstream).

For example, if the original service models only the development team’s process, explore what
happens before items go into development and after they come out as “finished.”
KANBAN ESSENTIALS PROFESSIONAL CERTIFICATION KEPC™

A broader scope for the process reveals more potential areas to improve customer service effectively.

Functionalities Proposal Functionalities Development

Ideas Study Business Agreed
To do Development Testing Done
Case

Ideas Study Business case Chosen Espec Develop Testing Ready for Delivered
ment delivery

Rejected

106
Growing Up

Given the hierarchy of items that make up deliverables, each level can potentially have different flow
characteristics. For example, a “user story” is a small part of a “functionality” of a software product
(which is a part of a software delivery).

Kanban can be used at each of those levels with different workflows and standards at each level.

Functionalities Develpment
To do Development Testing Done

Chosen Development Testing Ready for Delivered

delivery

KANBAN ESSENTIALS PROFESSIONAL CERTIFICATION KEPC™

Deep Growth

The idea is to connect multiple services at the same level from replenishment meetings that balance
the capacity between services in the organization that is needed to deliver value.

The figure shows how blocked items in one service can be dependent on other specialized services.
A service may offer a specific function (e.g., legal, IT, HR, or accounting services) or be aligned with
the delivery of work that requires a broad set of different skills (e.g., new product development or TV
and film services).

The challenge in scaling up the Kanban ecosystem is to achieve balance and flow between all
interdependent services.

107
 Chosen Develop Testing Ready for Delivered
ment delivery

CONFORMITY APPROVAL DESIGN CHANGE

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108
 Scrum & Kanban

109
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 The Kanban Guide for Scrum Teams

The Kanban flow-based perspective can enhance and complement the Scrum framework and its
implementation. Teams can apply complementary Kanban practices, whether they’re just starting to
use Scrum or have been using it all along.

The Kanban Guide for Scrum Teams is the result of a collaboration between members of the Scrum.
org community and leaders of the Kanban community.

Together, they support The Kanban Guide for Scrum Teams. They share the belief that product
development professionals can benefit from applying Kanban alongside Scrum.

Scrum is not a process or technique. It is a framework within which people can tackle complex adaptive
problems while productively and creatively delivering products of the highest possible value. As
The Scrum Guide points out, it works well as a container for other techniques, methodologies, and
practices.

Kanban flow optimization practices give Scrum teams additional opportunities to inspect the right
thing, at the right time, and then, based on that inspection, adapt as needed. Kanban’s super focus
is transparency, visualization, and flow that maximizes feedback, empiricism, and ultimately value
delivery.
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Kanban and Scrum Complement Each Other Enormously

Kanban and Scrum Are Not Mutually Exclusive

Both Kanban and Scrum are designed to help teams create better products with fewer obstacles
in the way. However, many teams are still wondering if they should use Kanban or Scrum to deliver
exceptional value to their customers. But the reality is that you don’t have to choose between the two;

KANBAN ESSENTIALS PROFESSIONAL CERTIFICATION KEPC™

rather, you need to figure out what practices work best for your team and adapt the system accordingly.

And by flex, we mean using Kanban and Scrum together to plan, track, and manage your work more
efficiently so you can launch better products, faster. This strategy is quickly becoming the norm with
many product teams taking advantage of the fact that Kanban and Scrum go hand in hand.

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 Kanban and Scrum Complement Each Other Enormously

And that’s especially true when it comes to release planning. The Kanban method suggests a model
that is not based on guesswork, intuition, or instinct. With this strategy, you’ll only need a couple of
minutes to reach a reliable delivery commitment.
KANBAN ESSENTIALS PROFESSIONAL CERTIFICATION KEPC™

Kanban with Scrum Theory

Flow and Empiricism

The central idea for the definition of Kanban is the concept of flow. Flow is the movement of value
through the product development system. Kanban optimizes flow due to improving the efficiency,
effectiveness, and predictability of a process.

Optimizing flow in the context of Scrum requires defining what flow means in Scrum. Scrum is
grounded in empirical process control theory, or empiricism. The key to empirical process control
is the frequency of the cycle of transparency, inspection and adaptation - which we can describe as
cycle time through the feedback stage.

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 Transparency
Inspection

Adoption

Flow and Empiricism

When Kanban practices are applied with Scrum, they provide an approach to improve flow through a
feedback loop; optimizing the transparency and frequency of inspection and adaptation, both for the

KANBAN ESSENTIALS PROFESSIONAL CERTIFICATION KEPC™

product and for the process.

Scrum Kanban Scrumban

Processes Iterative and incremental Continuous Iterative and Incremental

on an ongoing basis

People People are at the center People are the pillar Motivated team with
people as a pillar at the
center
Product Focus on effectiveness Focus on efficiency Smart Balance Between
Effectiveness and
Efficiency

Organization Continuous Product Continuous process Continuous Product and

Improvement improvement Process Improvement

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 Definition of «Workflow»

The application of the four Kanban practices is

possible thanks to the Scrum Team’s definition
of “Workflow”. This definition helps Scrum team
members explicitly understand what their rules
are for implementing Kanban practices. This
shared understanding improves transparency
and makes self-organization possible.

Creating and adapting the definition of

“Workflow” is the responsibility of the relevant
roles of the Scrum Team as described in The
Scrum Guide.
No one outside of the Scrum Team should tell
the Scrum Team how to define their workflow.
Similarly, no one outside the Development
Team, including the Product Owner or Scrum
Master, should tell the team how to define the
aspects of the workflow that are internal to the
Development Team’s work.

Note that the scope of the “Workflow” definition

can extend beyond the Sprint and Sprint Backlog.
For example, the definition of “Workflow”
created by a Scrum Team can encompass flows
KANBAN ESSENTIALS PROFESSIONAL CERTIFICATION KEPC™

within or outside the Sprint.

Flow-Based Events
In a Scrum context, Kanban does not require any
additional events other than those described in
The Scrum Guide. However, the use of a
flow-based perspective and the use of flow
metrics in Scrum events strengthen the empirical
approach to Scrum.

Scrum events:

• Sprint
• Sprint Planning
• Daily Scrum
• Sprint Review
• Sprint Retrospective

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Sprint
Complementary Kanban practices do not replace the Scrum Sprint. Even in environments where
continuous flow is desired or achieved, the Sprint is still a regular cadence or heartbeat to inspect and
adapt both the product and the process. Teams that adopt Scrum and Kanban use Sprint events as a
feedback loop of improvement by collaboratively inspecting and adapting their workflow definition
and flow metrics.

Kanban practices can help Development Teams improve their flow and create an environment where
decisions are made «just-in-time» throughout the Sprint based on inspection and adaptation. In this
environment, Development Teams rely on the Sprint goal and close collaboration with the Product

KANBAN ESSENTIALS PROFESSIONAL CERTIFICATION KEPC™

Owner to optimize the value delivered in the Sprint.

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 Sprint Planning

The flow-based sprint planning meeting uses flow metrics to help develop the Sprint Backlog. For
example, using historical throughput to understand the Scrum Team’s capability for the next Sprint.

Daily Scrum

Flow-based Daily Scrum focuses on ensuring that the Scrum Team is doing everything they can to
maintain a consistent flow. While the goal of Daily Scrum remains the same as described in The Scrum
Guide, the meeting itself takes place in front of the Kanban board and focuses on where the flow is
KANBAN ESSENTIALS PROFESSIONAL CERTIFICATION KEPC™

insufficient and what actions the Scrum Team can take to get it back on track.

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Daily Scrum

Additional considerations during flow-based Daily Scrum include the following:

• What work items are locked, and what can the Development team do to unlock them?
• Which work items flow slower than expected? What is the Work Item Age of each work-in-progress
item? What work items have passed or are about to exceed their SLE, and what can the Scrum Team
do to finish that work?
• Are there factors that may affect the Scrum Team’s ability to finish day-to-day work that are not
represented on the board?
• Have we learned anything new that could change what the Scrum Team has planned to work on
next?
• Have we broken our WIP limit? And what can we do to ensure we can finish the work in progress?

The Scrum Guide provides a detailed description of the Sprint Review. Inspecting Kanban flow
metrics during the Sprint Review can create opportunities for new conversations about monitoring
progress toward a goal.

Reviewing Throughput can provide additional information when the Product Owner discusses likely
delivery dates.

KANBAN ESSENTIALS PROFESSIONAL CERTIFICATION KEPC™

117
 Sprint Retrospective

A flow-based Sprint Retrospective adds metrics inspection and flow analysis to help the Scrum Team
determine what improvements they can make to their processes.

The Scrum Team using Kanban also inspects and adapts the definition of “Workflow” to optimize
the flow in the next Sprint. It is valuable to use a cumulative flow diagram (CFD) to visualize the WIP,
approximate average cycle time, and average throughput of a Scrum Team.

In addition to the Sprint Retrospective, the Scrum Team should consider taking advantage of
opportunities to inspect and adapt the process as they arise throughout the Sprint.

Similarly, the definition of “Workflow” of a Scrum team can be modified at any time. Since these
modifications will have a considerable impact on the performance of the Scrum Team, the changes
made during the regular cadence provided by the Sprint Retrospective event will reduce complexity
and improve focus, engagement, and transparency.
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118
 Literature

119
KANBAN ESSENTIALS PROFESSIONAL CERTIFICATION KEPC™
 Material Source

Support Material

• https://scrumorg-website-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/drupal/2019-12/2019-09-Kanban-Guide-for-
Scrum-Teams-Spanish%28South%20American%29.pdf?nexus-file=https%3A%2F%2Fscrumorg-
website-prod.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fdrupal%2F2019-12%2F2019-09-Kanban-Guide-for-Scrum-
Teams-Spanish%2528South%2520American%2529.pdf
• https://kanbanguides.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Kanban-Guide-2020-07.pdf
• https://resources.kanban.university/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/The-Official-Kanban-Guide_
US.pdf
• https://resources.kanban.university/when-do-we-need-sdm-srm-roles-with-kanban/
• https://resources.kanban.university/illustrated-notebook/
• https://itnove.com/blog/kanban/equipos/kanban-cost-of-delay/
• Kanban: Successful Evolutionary Change for Your Technology Business por David J. Anderson y
Donald G Reinertsen | 7 abril 2010
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