Tag: Kanban
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Just Enough Kanban
One of the most helpful things you can do when facing a problem is to visualize the situation. In software or service delivery, kanban is a handy method that lets teams visualize and better manage their business or workflows. If you don’t know what else to do, make it visual. Find some way to make…
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Experimenting With Controlling Cycle Time Instead of WIP
Limiting how many stories or tasks can occupy any particular activity in a team’s flow is a commonly recommended practice for teams using kanban systems. This way, the team can avoid overloading their system, reduce multitasking, and improve focus and quality. Applying work-in-progress (WIP) limits to kanban systems at the story or task level reveals…
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Rethinking Retrospectives
I sometimes get asked by managers if they should add the action items created in their team retrospective meetings to their kanban boards. More explicit management of retrospective outputs happens when managers start getting unsatisfied with their teams’ progress at improving their metrics, shortening their lead times, or meeting their commitments. They believe by visualizing…
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Why Work Waits
One of the most common challenges I face when coaching teams is getting their work unstuck and flowing. When I start working with teams, they always seem to be dealing with the same problems: My approach to helping teams get out of these situations is less about changing how the team does their work and…
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Running, Falling, and the Core of Agile
How do you run? Years ago, when I worked as CrossFit Coach, I frequently attended workshops to improve in particular areas, including Olympic weightlifting and Strongman. One workshop I attended was called CrossFit Endurance, which taught the Pose Method of running. I’ve been thinking about how the lesson I learned from that workshop relates to how Agile teams…
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My Agile Sketching Experiment
Between September and October of 2022, because the COVID pandemic put my contracts on hold for a few months, I set a personal challenge to create and share 100 agile-related sketches on Twitter. In October 2020, after posting an average of four drawings a day, I completed that challenge. Because I no longer use Twitter,…
Flow Focused 