Tutorial from LOPSA East System, network, and security senior engineers manage intricate relationships ensuring that everything from simple tasks to complex projects gets completed in a timely manner. In this workshop, we will talk about using agile processes to identify, visualize, and improve work. Outline: Overview of the kanban process. What is kanban? Identify common problems. Define common terminology explicitly. Work through common problems as a group using kanban. Identify metrics for improvement. Review, next steps, additional resources. At the end of this tutorial, attendees will have a solid understanding of kanban and agile processes to take back to their environments.

1. Implementing Kanban to
Improve your Workflow
jennifer.davis@getchef.com
1

2. Introductions
2

3. Introductions
• Name
• Current job role
• Experience with Kanban
• Expectations of this class
3

4. Course Objectives and Style
4

5. Course Objectives
• Upon completion of this course you will be able to
• Describe Kanban.
• Apply principles to solve workflow problems.
• Describe various tools.
• Choose the right tools for your team.
5

6. Agenda
6

7. Topics
• Qualifications
• Workflow
• Prepping for Success
• Intro to Kanban
• Metrics
• Online Tools
• Review
7

8. Breaks!
• 10:30-11:00am Morning Break
• 12:30pm End of tutorial and Lunch
8

9. Additional Questions?
• Kanban?
• Hadoop?
• Monitoring?
• Chef?
!
Ping me
Twitter: @sigje
Email: jennifer.davis@getchef.com
9

10. Qualifications?
10

11. Practitioner
“Excellence is an art won by
training and habituation…We
are what we repeatedly do.
Excellence, then, is not an
act but a habit.”
!
— Aristotle
11

12. Case 1
12

13. Team 1
• small
• semi-siloed from development and qe
• ~10 dev, ~3 qe, ~2 se, 1 product manager, 100s of
customers
13

14. Goal
• Effective use of time
• No duplication of effort
• Improve customer experience
• Promotion to larger projects
14

15. Solution
• Personal Kanban
• Dashboards
• Influence through visuals
15

16. Factors for Success
• Trust
• Visual dashboards
16

17. Case 2
17

18. Team 2
• Small
• Siloed from development and qe
• ? dev, ? qe, 10 se, 1 product manager, 3 project
manager, open source, 100s of customers
18

19. Goal
• Break down rigid single points of knowledge failure
• Reduce development friction
• Eliminate duplicate efforts
19

20. Solution
• Team Kanban
• Incremental improvements
20

21. Factors for Success
• Management buy in
• Training
• Effort to minimize “pushing”
• Weekly team syncs
• Proximity of team
21

22. Workflow
22

23. Workflow
Work that is ..
• orchestrated
• repeatable
• organized
• moving from one state to another.
23

24. WIP
• Work in progress
• work that has had resources applied to it
!
• Resources are ..
• people, money,..
24

25. Properties of Tasks
• name
• start date
• end date
• current state
• description
• priority
• owner
25

26. TIP: Sample Task Handling
• What is it?
• Can you do anything with it?
• What is the next step?
26

27. Properties of Projects
• same requirements as a task and are larger in
scope.
• may be comprised of more than one task.
27

28. Task vs Project
Group Exercise
• What is the difference between a task and a
project?
28

29. Additional property
• Size
29

30. Interrupts
• Non planned work that comes in
• customer request
• incident
• request for help from coworker
• single point of knowledge (you) work
• high priority task push from manager
30

31. Blocked work
• Work that can progress no further:
• dependent teams
• blocked by external team
• insufficiently qualified request
• blocked by requester
• dependent on SPOK
• blocked by team
• time dependent
31

32. Work
Team Exercise
Time: 5 minutes
What does a typical work day look like for work that
you do specifically that is non-interrupt based?
Choose a speaker for the group to share summary.
32

33. Interrupts
Team Exercise
Time: 5 minutes
Do you have interrupts and what are they?
!
Choose a (different) speaker for the group to share
summary.
33

34. Done?
Group Exercise
• When is work done?
34

35. Prepping for Success
35

36. Environment
36

37. Values
37

38. Desire
38

39. Motivation
39

40. Connectedness
40

41. Team Vs Individual
41

42. Objectives
• Defined by the team. Not management.
• Defined by the team. Not individuals.
• Everyone has voice, opportunity to speak.
42

43. Tip: Implement as a Team
Communication. Collaboration.
• Discuss objectives.
• Describe work.
• Define lanes.
• Define a task.
• Define a project.
43

44. Tip: Elect a Champion
44

45. Intro to Kanban
45

46. Kanban
• “visual card”
46

47. Kanban - Unit of work
• request
• issue
• defect
unit of work - specific to environment
47

48. What is it ? A System.
• visual process management
• what to do
• when to do it
• how much to do
48

49. What is it ? A Method.
• incremental, evolutionary process improvement
49

50. 3 Principles
• Current Process.
• Incremental, Evolutionary Change.
• Respect current process, roles, responsibilities and
titles.
50

51. 5 Core Practices
• Visualize.
• Limit WIP.
• Manage flow.
• Make policies explicit.
• Improve collaboratively.
51

52. Kanban Principles
52

53. 3 Principles
• Current Process.
• Incremental, Evolutionary Change.
• Respect current process, roles, responsibilities and
titles.
53

54. Current Process
• Do you know what the current process is?
• Is it documented? Is it explicit? Is it clear?
• Has it been evaluated with team?
54

55. 3 Principles
• Current Process.
• Incremental, Evolutionary Change.
• Respect current process, roles, responsibilities and
titles.
55

56. Incremental Evolutionary Change
• How are you measuring current process?
• Is value clearly understood?
• Is work defined in value not cost?
56

57. 3 Principles
• Current Process.
• Incremental, Evolutionary Change.
• Respect current process, roles, responsibilities
and titles.
57

58. Respect Current State
• Find the current value.
• Not forceful.
• What people want vs How to get there
58

59. Review Question
• What are the 3 principles?
59

60. Kanban Practices
60

61. 5 Core Practices
• Visualize.
• Limit WIP.
• Manage flow.
• Make policies explicit.
• Improve collaboratively.
61

62. Work Unit
• Individual Card
• PostIt
• Color - Type
• Flags
• Blocked work
• Small PostIts
62

63. Operations Cards
Team Exercise
Time: 10 minutes
Use PostIts and flags to
mock up a legend for
work items.
63

64. Tip: Standardize
64

65. Visualize - Avatar
65

66. Visualize - Sample Boards
66

67. States of Work
• specific to environment
• up for discussion within team
• can change overtime
• reflects now not what you want it to be
67

68. Visualize - Sample Boards
68

69. Visualize - Grid with Legend
69

70. Visualize - Evolutionary
70

71. Visualize - Automation
71

72. Tip: Yes and ..
72

73. Operations Board
Team Exercise
Time: 10 minutes
Use large PostIt to mock
up a SysAdmin board.
Don’t forget to add
your legend.
73

74. 5 Core Practices
• Visualize.
• Limit WIP.
• Manage flow.
• Make policies explicit.
• Improve collaboratively.
74

75. Limit WIP.
75

76. Limit WIP - Why?
• Identify bottlenecks
• Weakest link in chain
76

77. 5 Core Practices
• Visualize.
• Limit WIP.
• Manage flow.
• Make policies explicit.
• Improve collaboratively.
77

78. Manage flow
• Measure flow of work items through states.
• How fast are we creating value, minimizing risk, and
avoiding cost of delay in predictable manner?
78

79. 5 Core Practices
• Visualize.
• Limit WIP.
• Manage flow.
• Make policies explicit.
• Improve collaboratively.
79

80. Make policies explicit.
80
Story In Progress:
Acceptance criteria are identified.The
story has been divided into tasks.The
“started” date has been recorded.

81. Make policies explicit.
81

82. 5 Core Practices
• Visualize.
• Limit WIP.
• Manage flow.
• Make policies explicit.
• Improve collaboratively.
82

83. Improve collaboratively.
83

84. Improve collaboratively.
84

85. Review Questions
• Give me an example of the most basic kanban
board.
• Why do we need to make policies explicit?
• Why do we make incremental changes?
85

86. Meetings with Kanban
86

87. Lean Coffee
• Draw “To Do, Doing, Done” on white board.
• Spend 5 minutes to write topics on sticky notes.
• Vote on topics with stickers. Each person gets 2
votes.
• Prioritization of topics based on votes.
87

88. Metrics
88

89. Metrics
• Why?
89

90. Metrics
• What?
• cumulative flow
• type distribution
• efficiency
• average cycle times
90

91. Cumulative Flow Diagram
count of cards in particular state/lane for each day in
a specific time interval.
91

92. Cumulative Flow Diagram
92

93. Distribution
• Count of cards organized by state, task type, or
owner.
93

94. Card Distribution
94

95. Card Distribution
95

96. Efficiency
• relative status (in process, waiting, completed..) of
WIP over time.
• % of work
• gauge efficiency trends
• reduce ratio of work items waiting to be queued
versus items actively processed
96

97. Efficiency Diagram
97

98. Average Cycle Time
• cycle time - time take to move a task from start to
finish including wait time.
• average cycle time - specific to an interval of time
98

99. Little’s Law
N = XR
• N - number in system
• X - Throughput
• R - average time in system
99

100. Utilization Law
U = XS
• U - % of time processing tasks
• X - Output Rate Tasks/Unit of time
• S - Mean service time
100

101. Applying Metrics
101

102. Level 1
• Increase Throughput
• Increase Resource Utilization
102

103. Level 2
• Decrease Variability
• sizing
• cycle time
103

104. Group Activity
104

105. Tools and Resources
105

106. • RescueTime
• Trello
• Leankit
• Rally
106

107. RescueTime - Time tracking
107

108. RescueTime - Time tracking
108

109. LeanKit - Kanban
109

110. LeanKit - Kanban
110

111. Trello - Kanban
111

112. Rally - Scrum
112

113. Dominica DeGrandis
• http://www.ddegrandis.com
• DevOps Kanban game
• Public and private training
• Youtube videos
113

114. Review
114

115. Workflow
Work that is ..
• orchestrated
• repeatable
• organized
• moving from one state to another.
115

116. 3 Principles
• Current Process.
• Incremental, Evolutionary Change.
• Respect current process, roles, responsibilities and
titles.
116

117. 5 Core Practices
• Visualize.
• Limit WIP.
• Manage flow.
• Make policies explicit.
• Improve collaboratively.
117

118. Thank you
• Contact: jennifer.davis@getchef.com
• Twitter: @sigje
118

119. Credits
• Washing the dishes - https://www.flickr.com/photos/mulazimoglu/3863835843/in/photostream/
• Kanban (im Team) - https://www.flickr.com/photos/otacke/
• Kanban avatars - https://www.flickr.com/photos/ninetomorrows/6925604157
• Productivity kanban - https://www.flickr.com/photos/orcmid/3879259373
• Kanban a week later - https://www.flickr.com/photos/alq666/3388196910
• explicit policies kanban board - https://www.flickr.com/photos/dexter_mixwith/6353937575
• team vs individual - http://www.flickr.com/photos/levork
!
!
!
!
119