Kanban - the alternative path to agility

Email dja@leankanban.com Twitter @lki_dja Copyright Lean Kanban Inc.
Kanban
the alternative path to agility
How do Bruce Lee, a Red
Squirrel & a London Taxi
relate to business survivability?
David J. Anderson
Chairman, Lean Kanban Inc
Capability Counts
Alexandria VA, May 2017

What do we mean by agility?

Capability Optionality
Agility
What do we mean by “agility”?

Maximum optionality

Agility = Capability x Optionality
Skills
Experience
Capacity
# Options x Frequency of decision making

Bruce Lee’s Journey in Martial Arts

Bruce Lee rejected traditional teaching
and styles of Chinese martial arts
There are some parallels in the story of
Bruce Lee and the emergence of his
approach to Kung Fu
Lee rejected the idea of following a
particular style of Chinese Martial Arts

Snake
Monkey
Mantis
Tiger
Kung Fu Panda simplified the art to only five styles
Crane

There are in fact very many styles…

“Dry land swimming” provides a false sense of
capability
The only way to learn is to train with a live opponent
Lee rejected the many styles of martial arts for various reasons,
mainly that they gave the practitioners a false sense of
capability, putting them at risk in real combat situations
He was against Kata (learning patterns without an opponent)
and described them in derogatory terms such as "dry land
swimming.“

Lee believed he had to train martial artists to adopt an
adaptive style of fighting – to inherently know how to
modify their tactics in response to the competitive threat

Kanban rejects the idea of defined Agile “methodologies”!

Lee wanted to start from first principles and core concepts
Four ranges of combat
• Kicking
• Punching
• Trapping
• Grappling
*Apparently still called the Five Ways, there are actually now six **with the later inclusion of SAA
**The fact that The Five Ways has six elements is evidence of evolution in action
***Incorporated core ideas such as "center line" and single fluid motion from Wing Chun and parrying from Epee Fencing****
****Not a Chinese Martial Art and hence evidence of "no limitation as limitation"
Five* Ways of Attack***
• Single Direct Attack (SDA)
• Attack By Combination (ABC)
• Progressive Indirect Attack
(PIA)
• (Hand) Immobilization Attack
(HIA)
• Attack by Drawing (ABD)
• Single Angle Attack (SAA)

The Kanban Method
General Practices
1. Visualize (with a kanban board 看板)
2. Limit work-in-progress (with kanban かんばん)
3. Manage flow
4. Make policies explicit
5. Implement feedback loops
6. Improve collaboratively, evolve experimentally
(using models & the scientific method)

Lee’s approach still needed a name
He named his approach
Jeet Kune Do - the way of the
intercepting fist - after one of
the practices taught in his
method
He was quick to point out that it
was just a name, a way of
communicating a set of ideas.
He was passionate that
practitioners shouldn't get hung
up on the name or the inclusion
of any one move or action.

Kanban is just a name!
The Kanban Method is named
for use of kanban systems
- a single practice within a wider
philosophy of evolutionary process
development

Jeet Kune Do
Using no
way as way
Having no
limitation as
limitation

Kanban – follow your own path to agility!
Kanban is the Agile method
without a “methodology”!
There is no defined Kanban
Process!

Jeet Kune Do encourages development of a
uniquely personal style
a framework from
which to pick &
develop a personal
style
an evolutionary
approach where
adoption of
maneuvers is learned
& reinforced by
training with an
opponent
Nothing was sacred
"absorb that which is
useful“
discard the remainder

Training with an opponent provides the core
feedback loop to drive adaptation
Lee pursued ever
more elaborate
approaches to
protected real
combat training to
enable the closed
loop learning that
was core to the
evolutionary
nature of JKD

Kata are not adaptive
In comparison with JKD, patterned styles of martial arts
taught with "kata" were open loop and not adaptive.
There is no adaptation of style from practicing kata.
Instead you must follow the style precisely.

The Kanban Method
Change Management Principles
1. Start with what you do now
 Understanding current processes, as actually practiced
 Respecting existing roles, responsibilities & job titles
2. Gain agreement to pursue improvement through
evolutionary change
3. Encourage acts of leadership at all levels

Kanban

What is a kanban system?
(かんばん)

A Kanban Systems consists of
“kanban” (かんばん) signal cards in
circulation

What are kanban systems good for?
Deferred commitment – “just-in-time”, “last responsible moment”
Limiting work-in-progress – focus on quality workmanship
Reducing delay
 Less inventory, less work queuing
 Improved “flow efficiency”
Shorter & more predictable lead times
Implication: If you suffer from over-committing, committing too early,
poor quality or long & unpredictable delivery times, kanban systems will
help

Kanban systems are a point solution
Like the “incepting fist” maneuver, you use kanban systems for specific
reasons
However, it turns out that limiting WIP creates stress that catalyzes the
evolutionary process
 Limiting WIP provokes conversation about why work isn’t flowing in an optimal
fashion

The Kanban Method
– an alternative path to agility!

You are part of a professional services business!
An ecosystem of
professionals
providing
interdependent
services, often with
complex
dependencies.
Professional
Service
organizations
build intangible
goods

Seeing Services
Learn to view what you do now as a set of services
(that can be improved):
 Service-orientation Paradigm…
• Creative & knowledge work is service-oriented
• Services have a requestor who both requests a product
or service and accepts or acknowledges delivery of the
finished item or condition
• Service delivery may involve workflow
• Workflow involves a series of knowledge discovery
activities
• The way in which a request is treated defines its class of
service

Treat each service separately
Demand
Observed
Capability
Demand
Demand
Observed
Capability
Observed
Capability

Kanban Cadences
Strategy
Review
Risk
Review
Monthly
Service
Delivery
Review
Bi-WeeklyQuarterly
Kanban
Meeting
Daily
Operations
Review
Monthly
Replenishment/
Commitment
Meeting
Weekly
Delivery
Planning
Meeting
Per delivery cadence
change change
change
change
change
change
change change
change
info
info
info
info
info
info
info
info
info
change info
Focus on Service Delivery
Driving improvement…
Higher level
management function

Organizational Improvements Emerge

F
F
O
M
N
K
J
I
Pull
For each service implement a Kanban “pull” system
Ideas
D
Dev
Ready
G
5
Ongoing
Development Testing
Done
3 3
Test
Ready
5
F
B
CPull
Pull
*
There is capacity here
UAT
Release
Ready
∞ ∞
Pulling work from development will
create capacity here too –
the pull signals move upstream!
Now we have capacity
to replenish our ready
buffer
Kanban has been called
“Iterationless” Agile. Batches of
work are replaced with
continuous flow of work

Commitment is deferred
E
D
Commitment point
F
F
FF
F
F F
G
Pull
Wish to avoid aborting after commitment
Ideas
Dev
Ready
5
Ongoing
Development Testing
Done
3 3
Test
Ready
5
UAT
Release
Ready
∞ ∞
We are committing to getting
started. We are certain we want
to take delivery.
Ideas remain optional and
(ideally) unprioritized
Kanban implements the Lean
principle of “just in time”
through the practice of deferred
commitment

Test
Ready
F
F
FF
F
F F
Decoupled Cadence Improved Optionality
EG
D
Replenishment
Discarded
I
Pull
Ideas
Dev
Ready
5
Ongoing
Development Testing
Done
3 35
UAT
Release
Ready
∞ ∞
The frequency of system replenishment
should reflect arrival rate of new
information and the transaction &
coordination costs of holding a meeting
Lead time
The frequency of delivery should
reflect the transaction & coordination
costs of deployment plus costs &
tolerance of customer to take delivery
Delivery
For software development skill in
configuration management is an
enabling capability for Kanban

Delivery Capability has 3 Dimensions
Service Delivery
Agility
Commitment
frequency
Lead Time
Delivery
Frequency
LeadTime
Short
Long
Delivery
Service Delivery Agility
Commitment
Frequent
Seldom
Frequent
Seldom
More
Agile
Less
Agile
Kanban system dynamics

The Red Squirrel
Evolution in Action

The Red Squirrel

The Grey Squirrel

Marginalization of Red Squirrel

All the gingers are on the Celtic Fringe of Europe!

In evolutionary processes, alternative solutions often compete to
demonstrate which is “fitter” for the environment

“Fit for purpose”

LTI
Product Component
Service Delivery
Component

Achieve “Fitness for Purpose”
+
These must be balanced to deliver what your
customers need and expect: to be “fit for purpose”
Product component
(capability/brand/non-
functional elements)
Service delivery component
demand /customer expectations/
customer satisfaction)

What makes a pizza delivery service “fit for purpose” ?
Fitness criteria are metrics that
measure things customers
value when selecting a service
again & again
 Delivery time
 Quality
 Predictability
 Safety (or conformance to
regulatory requirements)

Evolutionary Processes

Punctuated Equilibrium
Punctuation Points
• Financial crisis, regulatory changes,
political changes, merger, acquisition,
divestiture, split, IPO, outsourcing, CEO
change, key man exit, reorganization,
arrival of a disruptive
innovation/insurgents in your market
• Easy to insert change
• First 100 days
• Honeymoon period, blame predecessor
Periods of Equilibrium
• Need emotional motivation for change
• Immersive experiential learning
• Stressor
• New species competes for fitness in
existing environment
• Grey squirrel, red squirrel
• Galapagos Island Effect
• Protect mutations
• Isolation strategy
• Innovator’s Solution

Evolution leaves stuff behind

Evolution can be hard to explain…
Four ranges of combat
• Kicking
• Punching
• Trapping
• Grappling
*Apparently still called the Five Ways, there are actually now six **with the later inclusion of SAA
**The fact that The Five Ways has six elements is evidence of evolution in action
***Incorporated core ideas such as "center line" and single fluid motion from Wing Chun and parrying from Epee Fencing****
****Not a Chinese Martial Art and hence evidence of "no limitation as limitation"
Five* Ways of Attack***
• Single Direct Attack (SDA)
• Attack By Combination (ABC)
• Progressive Indirect Attack
(PIA)
• (Hand) Immobilization Attack
(HIA)
• Attack by Drawing (ABD)
• Single Angle Attack (SAA)
Five
Six

Posit Science Feature Request
Requested by:______________________________________ Date Requested_____________
Feature name__________________________________________________________________
Format: [customer] [action] [purpose]
Description____________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
Cost of Delay Classification (required)
Check  the type of Feature per the cost of delay.
 Expedite – critical and immediate cost of delay
 Fixed date – cost of delay goes up significantly after deadline….date:_________
 Standard- cost of delay goes up increasingly over time
 Intangible – cost of delay incurred significantly later
Provide information on one or more of the following (optional)
 Projected Revenue______________________________________
 Opportunity Cost
• Estimated 6 month revenue loss if not implemented_____________________________
• Estimated 6 month operating expenses if not implemented_______________________
• Estimated cost of man hours or other resources if not implemented_________________
 Qualitative Value (customer experience, quality of service, etc)____________________
Suggested stories (optional)
Old
“red squirrel”
New
“grey squirrel”
This portion of the form
quickly fell out of use. It is
an example of an
evolutionary relic

Developing Evolutionary DNA
21st Century Strategy

Built to Last - 1994
3M – the Minnesota
Mutation Machine
An Example of a
Resilient, Robust &
Antifragile
organization

Survivability = Agility x Adaptability
Capability x Optionality
Capability
(to manage change)
Frequency of change opportunitiesx
Skills
Experience
Org maturity

Capability
OptionalityAdaptability
Agility
Survivability
Out-maneuvered
Unfit for purpose
failure
failure
Fragile
Easily disrupted
Robust
Antifragile
Evolutionary
Capability

Capability
Delivered as
management training
& coaching
Focus on managers at
all levels
Business unit scale
Horizontal
Applicable to all
professional services
(not just IT)

Capability
Typical Agile
Method
Delivered as
methodologies,
process improvement
& coaching
Focus on individuals
and teams
Vertical
Tends to be IT, or
software engineering
specific

Organizational Maturity

Emerging
Chaotic/Adhoc
Defined
Managed
Quantitatively
Managed
Optimizing5
4
3
2
1 No consistency of process or outcome
Luck/Individual heroics
Chaos
Consistency of process
Heroic management ???
Consistency of outcome
Consistency of economics
Model-driven improvement
“kaizen culture”
Sense & respond
Continually “fit for purpose”
Resilient
Fragile
Robust
Anti-fragile
“Einheit”
Maturity Level
“Built to Last”
Understress
Follow procedure
& improve
Panic & Regress

Sprinkle on a little “Jerry Weinberg”*
* Weinberg, Quality Software Management, Vol 1, 1997

Emerging
Oblivious
Defined
Managed
Quantitatively
Managed
Optimizing
6
5
4
3
2
1
0
No consistency of process or outcome
Ambivalent / Chaotic
Heroic management ???
Sense & respond
“Einheit”
Maturity Level
Continually
CongruentUnderstress
Follow procedure
& improve
Panic & Regress
Resilient
Fragile
Robust
Anti-fragile

Kanban Implementations correlate with
Organizational Maturity

Personal Kanban
Aggregated
Personal Kanban
Team Kanban
Emergent/Undefined
Workflow
Per Person WIP Limit
CONWIP
Physical space
kanban
Physical token
kanban
Virtual Kanban
Classes of service
Capacity allocation
Liquidity optimization
Aggregated teams

Personal Kanban
Aggregated
Personal Kanban
Team Kanban
Emergent/Undefined
Workflow
Per Person WIP Limit
CONWIP
Physical space
kanban
Physical token
kanban
Virtual Kanban
Classes of service
Capacity allocation
Liquidity optimization
Aggregated teams
Benefits of improving maturity

Evolutionary Change

The Essence of Kanban in Action

Learning&improvement Formula for evolutionary
change …
 Stressor
 Reflection Mechanism
 Leadership
Stressor
ReflectionMechanism
Kanban
Meeting
Risk Review
& SDR
Ops Review
Strategy
Review
Personal
WIP Limit
Column
WIP Limit
Row
WIP Limit
Strategy vs
Capability
Visualization
Replenishment
& Delivery
Planning
Personal
Reflection

Kanban Maturity Model

Work-in-progress on Kanban Maturity Model

0 Oblivious
0 -> 1
1 Emerging
1 -> 2
2 Defined
2 -> 3
3 Managed
3 -> 4
4
Quantitatively
Managed
4 -> 5
5 Optimizing
5 -> 6
6
Continually
Congruent
Feedback
Loops
Improve &
EvolveMaturity Level
General Practice
Visualize Limit WIP
Manage
Flow
Explicit
Policies
Approximately 100 Kanban practices
have been mapped to the 7 levels
and 6 transition states

0 Oblivious
0 -> 1
1 Emerging
1 -> 2
2 Defined
2 -> 3
3 Managed
3 -> 4
4
Quantitatively
Managed
4 -> 5
5 Optimizing
5 -> 6
6
Continually
Congruent
Feedback
Loops
Improve &
General Practice
Visualize Limit WIP
Manage
Flow
Explicit
Policies

0 Oblivious
0 -> 1
1 Emerging
1 -> 2
2 Defined
2 -> 3
3 Managed
3 -> 4
4
Quantitatively
Managed
4 -> 5
5 Optimizing
5 -> 6
6
Continually
Congruent
Feedback
Loops
Improve &
General Practice
Visualize Limit WIP
Manage
Flow
Explicit
Policies
Enterprise Services Planning (ESP)
practices will be mapped to higher
maturity levels & deeper Kanban

0 Oblivious
0 -> 1
1 Emerging
1 -> 2
2 Defined
2 -> 3
3 Managed
3 -> 4
4
Quantitatively
Managed
4 -> 5
5 Optimizing
5 -> 6
6
Continually
Congruent
Feedback
Loops
Improve &
General Practice
Visualize Limit WIP
Manage
Flow
Explicit
Policies
Official launch scheduled for
September 2017
Lean Kanban India, Bangalore

Conclusions

Conclusions
Agility lies at the intersection of capability & optionality
Survivability lies at the interaction of agility & adaptability
The Kanban Method has all the elements needed to help professional
services businesses improve their agility & adaptability across all
knowledge worker activities

Conclusions
Pursuing a non-prescriptive, evolutionary approach has enabled a rich
ecosystem of design solutions to emerge
An understanding of the CMMI model enabled us to put these
implementations in context and correlate patterns to maturity levels
Understanding the mapping of “depth of kanban” to benefits further
enriched the model
The Kanban Maturity Model is set to become a key coaching tool
enabling consultants & change agents to catalyze improvement by
stressing organizations just enough but not so much as to break them

Guided evolution with the Kanban Method
- The future of business agility

Thank you!

About
David Anderson is an innovator in
management of 21st Century
businesses that employ creative
people who “think for a living” . He
leads a training, consulting,
publishing and event planning
business dedicated to developing,
promoting and implementing new
management thinking & methods…
He has 30+ years experience in the high technology industry
starting with computer games in the early 1980’s. He has
led software organizations delivering superior productivity
and quality using innovative methods at large companies such
as Sprint and Motorola.
David defined Enterprise Services Planning and originated
Kanban Method an adaptive approach to improved service
delivery. His latest book, published in June 2012, is, Lessons
in Agile Management – On the Road to Kanban.
David is Chairman of Lean Kanban Inc., a business operating
globally, dedicated to providing quality training & events to
bring Kanban and Enterprise Services Planning to businesses
who employ those who must “think for a living.”

Teodora Bozheva has been and continues to e an invaluable contributor to the
Hakan Forss played a key role in provoking the development of the Kanban
Cadences and the Depth of Kanban Assessment Framework
Irina Dzhambazova captured many of the case studies that enabled the
observation of kanban implementations correlating to organizational maturity
levels
The global community of accredited trainers and coaches (AKTs & KCPs) in the
Lean Kanban community contribute to the development of this on-going work
Acknowledgements

Appendices

Emerging
Oblivious
Defined
Managed
Quantitatively
Managed
Optimizing
6
5
4
3
2
1
0
No consistency of process or outcome
Ambivalent / Chaotic
Heroic management
Sense & respond
“Einheit”
Maturity Level
Continually
CongruentUnderstress
Follow procedure
& improve
Panic & Regress
Resilient
Fragile
Robust
Anti-fragile

Books

2010 – Kanban “blue book”

2012 Lessons in Agile Management
The heavily under-rated book
that underpins the Kanban
Coaching Masterclass and most
of the theory behind the
Kanban Method

2014 Kanban from the Inside

2016 Essential Kanban Condensed

Kanban - the alternative path to agility

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