1. Agile @ Home
Agile Eastern Europe keynote
Keynote 2012-10-06
(annotated slides)
Henrik Kniberg
Agile/Lean coach
www.crisp.se
2. Let me show you how some of
the ideas from Agile and Lean
software development can be
used in a different context: At
Home!
We have 4 small children, age 1-8.
Needless to say, that can get
complicated sometimes.
Over the years, we’ve found that
many of the practices and ideas
from the Agile/Lean toolkit can
really improve life at home!
Here are some examples of things
that have worked particularly well.
Henrik Kniberg 2
3. Definition Travel Agile
of Done Spike party
Kitchen planning
WIP
Limit
Clothes
WIP
Limit
Homework Kitchen
Burnup Value Stream
chart Map
BigFamilyTrip
Kanban
board
3
4. This is my focus board.
Some would call it a
Personal Kanban
system.
The stickies on the
bottom half are
independent actions,
such as
”buy a new shaver”
or ”call client X”
The index cards on the top half are
”projects”, with stickies showing the
next 1-2 actions for that project.
Let’s look closer...
Henrik Kniberg 4
5. For example preparing
this talk
Or writing a foreword
to someone’s book
Or playing with my
band at a wedding
Some actions
have deadlines
The goal is to focus on
at most 1 or 2 projects
at a time, and minimize
multitasking.*
Henrik Kniberg *Multitasking sucks. See 5
www.crisp.se/henrik.kniberg/multitasking-name-game
6. This part of the board
is for practing new I try to practice one
habits new habit at a time for
several weeks...
... until it becomes,
well, a habit!
Right now I’m trying to learn to
start each day by finishing the
most important thing for that
day, BEFORE opening the inbox
and getting sucked into the
void.
Henrik Kniberg 6
7. We use focus boards for family
stuff too. Here is a party that
we were preparing. 3 sections
on the left refrigerator door
”Must be done”, ”Should be
done”, ”Bonus stuff”
As things get done, we move
the notes to the other
refrigerator door. The ”Done
Door” so to speak...
Here is when we were
preparing for Big Christmas
Invasion with lots of friends and
family staying for several days.
Henrik Kniberg This board even had a time 7
plan!
8. This board was for a BBQ party
a few years ago. Guests would
pair up with somebody they
don’t know too well, grab a
card, and get going!
I know. But seriously, guests
actually like to help :o)
To our surprise, small kids (even
3 year olds!) quickly decoded
our system and hacked it!
”Hey, things that go on the
board actually Happen!”
”We can make grownups
Do Things!”
So... ice-cream cards starting
appearing on the board...
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9. So now we use this quite
often :o) As usual, things that are
Here the kids are planning Done go on the right
and preparing a birthday refrigerator door
party
Each stickynote is a
”feature” of the party.
When time started running out, the
kids automatically started descoping.
Imagine if all project
Henrik Kniberg ”What’s more important, balloons, or
managers could learn to 9
cake? We won’t have time to finish do that to! :o)
both!”.
10. Once Dave (7 yrs at the
time) was behind on his He found it hard to stay
homework, and had quite a focused and motivated
few pages to do
Henrik Kniberg 10
11. So I showed him how to
create a burnup chart.
Here’s the page numbers he
had to finish
This is the ”finish line”. If he
crosses this before bedtime, the
remaining time is play-time!
”Every 5 minutes or so, check This is the ”timebox” – bed time
the time and put and write X for at 8pm
the page number that you are
working on”
After 15 minutes he noticed
something upsetting:
”Time Keeps Going even when
I’m Not Focusing!”
Here’s the timeline. Each
number is a 5 minute interval
(big hand of the clock)
Henrik Kniberg 11
13. The chart helped him get back
into focus, without me having to
nag or remind him.
A clear and obvious
visualization, showing the
benefit of focusing.
Even project
managers can get
it :o)
Henrik Kniberg 13
14. He finished in record time, and
had time to play!
However, we should have made
sure testing & validation was
included in Definition of Done,
since there were some ”defects”...
oh well, next time :o)
Sometimes when he has very much
homework to do, he says ”Daddy, I’d
like to create one of those graph
thingies again, because I want to get
my homework done quickly!”
Henrik Kniberg 14
15. We recently came back from a
BigFamilyTrip – a 6 month trip that took
us through 8 countries.
A trip like that takes quite some
planning and preparation. We used this
planning board for the 8 months or so
we had to prepare for the trip. Very
useful.
Henrik Kniberg 15
16. We decided on a departure date (Oct 1) from the
very beginning, just to make sure the trip happens.
Timeline, with red arrow that
moves. Reminds us that time
keeps going.
Clearly defined
Yellow stickies show when we purpose of the trip
The columns are ”To do”,
”Next”, ”Ongoing”, and plan to be in which country
”Done!”
The three horizontal
swimlanes are ”Must do”,
”Should do”, and ”Bonus
stuff”
Dreams & visions. We
downloaded some inspiring
pictures from Google images,
to exemplify the type of things
we were hoping to experience
during the trip.
Henrik Kniberg 16
17. We did a ”spike” (practice
run), a 4 day trip to
London.
Our hope was that,
anything that can go
wrong, will go wrong on
this trip.
...so we can learn from it
and avoid problems during
the Big trip.
Henrik Kniberg 17
18. We learned what kind of stuff to
pack. And we learned that the kids
(even Emma, 3 yrs) can carry
their own stuff. We learned that Oh, and we had fun too :o)
our baby carriage sucked and
needed to be replaced (broke
after 1 check-in!). And more!
Henrik Kniberg 18
19. After coming we could already
cross some things off the Dream
Gallery (such as the double decker
bus)...
Henrik Kniberg 19
20. ... and we could turn our learnings
into concrete actions (such as ”buy
a better baby carriage”).
Henrik Kniberg 20
21. Oct 1 – Off we went!
Hej då, vi ses i vår!
Följ med på resebloggen: bigfamilytrip.posterous.com
Hälsningar Henrik & Sia & David & Jenny & Emma & Peter
Japan
Västindien
Peru
Nya
Zealand
Henrik Kniberg 21
22. We had an awesome trip! Read more The long-lived planning board and
on http://bigfamilytrip.posterous.com, the 4 day London ”spike” really
we wrote down we we’ve learned about helped us set the trip up for success.
travelling with kids.
22
23. When we got home, 6 months later,
we were surprised at how quickly the
They wanted to pull out all the toys
house got completely messed up,
and clothes they had missed
especially the kids’ rooms.
Just about impossible for them to
take responsibility for their own stuff.
It was just too much.
Henrik Kniberg 23
24. We didn’t really have that
problem during the trip.
... because look: the kids
could only fit so much
stuff in their bags. And
they had to carry their
own stuff!
There’s a term for that in the
lean community:
A ”WIP Limit”
(work-in-progress limit).
WIP limits stop things
from getting out of hand!
Henrik Kniberg 24
25. At home there were no
WIP limits.
So we decided to change
that.
The drawers + the closet =
The WIP limit. You can only
keep as many clothes as
you can fit there. And there
should be extra slack in
each drawer, it should not
be crammed.
Henrik Kniberg 25
26. To implement this, they put
all their clothes in one place
(a ”temporary inbox” you
might say)
Henrik Kniberg 26
27. I handed them one item at a
time and asked ”In or Out?”
”In” means: decide where
that particular thing lives,
and put it there now.
Slack rule: no drawer is
allowed to be crammed full
”Out” means: throw it in the
box (to be sold or given
away or trashed at a later
time).
I was impressed by how
much stuff the kids were
willing to do away with
(many boxes! let us know if
you need anything!)
Henrik Kniberg 27
28. Voila! Tidy room!
And, more importantly, a room
that has few enough things, so
the kids can realistically take
responsibility for keeping it tidy.
Henrik Kniberg 28
29. We had the same
problem in the kitchen
It was a mystery! Why were
we spending so much time in
the kitchen, cleaning dishes,
filling and emptying the
dishwasher, etc? Felt like
hours every day.
Why didn’t we have this
problem while travelling? Heck,
we didn’t even have washing
machines while travelling!
Answer: WIP limits! In our
rental houses and apartments,
there were only a few plates
and utensils, barely enough for
everyone in the family.
So we decided try
WIP limits in our kitchen
at home.
Henrik Kniberg 29
30. A quick calculation revealed
that each one of us uses about
8 things per meal (plates,
utensils, cups, etc).
8
With 3 meals per day,
that is about 24
things.
8
8
31. With 6 people in the
family, plus some shared
stuff like pots, that adds
8 8 8
up to over 160 things per
day!
16
8 8 8
8 160+
8 8
8 8 8
160+ things to take out,
wash up, and put back in
again. That’s a lot!
8 8 8
8 8 8
32. If we instead Limit WIP
to one ”set” per person
(one of each type of
8 thing, total of 8 things)...
16
8
And each person washes
their own stuff....
8
8
8
(except Peter, he’s only 1
yr old...).
8
34. Each person has their
own ”set” of 8 things, in
a dedicated place in the
drying tray.
Henrik Kniberg 34
35. ”Definition of Done” for a A simple rule that even a
meal is when your set of 3 year-old can learn easily
things are back in it’s
place, clean.
If you forget to wash
your stuff then, well,
you’ll regret it next ... because your plate will
mealtime. be icky and hard-to-
Henrik Kniberg clean :o) Effective feedback loops 35
beat nagging any day :o)
36. The new system worked
surprisingly well! Why?
1-2
Because with the old system, a
days!
single item, such as a cup, would
take up to 2 days (or longer!) to
make it out and back into the
cupboard.
With 160+ items in play, each taking
2 days or so to pass through the
kitchen... well, no wonder the
kitchen was often a mess!
1
Mon 7:00
3
4 Mon 11:00
Mon 22:00
2
Tue 22:00
Typically we’d take out the old
batch and insert the next batch in
the evening.
...because filling/emptying
dishwashing machines is boring, so
we resisted it ’till the last responsible
moment.
Henrik Kniberg 36
37. With the new system, we
skip the cupboard
Instead, everything lives in
the drying tray, comes out
for the meal, and is back
<1 in the drying traywithin an
hour! hour!
The kitchen mess
never has time to
1 Mån kl 7:00
build up!
Mån kl 7:30
2
... and we skip the
dishwasher! Ironic huh?
Henrik Kniberg 37
38. The new system
works great! The system is a bit
brittle though.
We spend MUCH less
time doing dishes
It breaks down when
we have guests
coming over, for
And the kitchen is example.
for the most part
nice and tidy In those cases we
temporarily revert to
the old system, with
dishwashing machine
and batching.
But the new limited-WIP
system has become our
”default system”, for
everyday use.
Henrik Kniberg 38
39. Definition Travel Agile
of Done Spike party
Kitchen planning
WIP
Limit
Clothes
WIP
Limit
Homework Kitchen
Burnup Value Stream
chart Map
BigFamilyTrip
Kanban
board
39
