Tag: Kanban

Agile

Making Kanban work in matrix organizations

For those of us working in matrix organizations, this is reality. We have to constantly juggle between projects, maintenance and operational work. It takes forever for the work to get done. One who screams the loudest always appears to get attention. Work is typically assigned to teams based on schedules and forecasts. The nail in the coffin is that the estimates are treated as deterministic when they are, in fact, probabilistic; i.e. estimates turn into commitment as soon as it gets entered into the Gantt (or a roadmap)

Lean

Importance of Kanban work-in-progress (WIP) limits

Traffic Jams! For some it is the bane of driving. Accidents, construction, reduced speed zones are all some of the root causes. But did you know of Phantom Traffic Jams? For no apparent reason the traffic slows to a crawl. No accidents or lane closures and there is no easy way out. Researchers have linked such phantom traffic jams to traffic density and variations in driver behavior. A trivial reason such as a driver braking too hard, can cause a phantom traffic jam 8 to 10 kms behind. And this traffic jam takes a life of its own. You could spend hours within that jam. So what does phantom traffic jams have to do with WIP limits on Kanban for software development?

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