Part 4 of the "How to build the best Software Products" Series, brought to you by Blossom.co Modern Kanban Workflow Best Practices for Software Teams * Idea / Backlog Handling with Kanban * Define Work * Define Stage Policies * Visualize Work * WIP Limits * Ready Indicator * Blocked Indicator * Bug Handling

1. Brought to you by
How to build the best Software Products
Modern Kanban Workflow
Best Practices for
Software Teams
Part 4

2. Workflow Best Practices for Software Teams

3. WIP Limits1 Idea/Backlog Handling
Define Work
Define Stage Policies
Visualize Work
2
3
4
5
Ready Indicator6
Blocked Indicator7
Workflow Best Practices for Software Teams
Bug Handling8

4. Idea/Backlog Handling
1

5. Recommendations:
!
Separate Board
Collect the "ideas" or "cards to be implemented" on a
separate board and create a new card in your project as
soon as the idea ready to be implemented.
!
High-Level Roadmap
As an alternative use a high-level roadmap where you
create cards related to your higher level goals on demand.
Idea/Backlog Handling1

6. 1
Separate Idea Board
Idea/Backlog Handling

7. 1
Or use a high-level roadmap. Free text format.
Recommended Method: Objectives & Key Results
Idea/Backlog Handling

8. Define Work
2

9. The team should define a way how work gets on a board:
!
• Either choose a idea/feature to implement depending
on what’s important and valuable for the customer
!
• or a board owner defines the work
Define Work
Pro Tip
It’s ideal if the whole team has a good understanding of what’s important to
work on next.
2

10. Define Stage Policies
3

11. 3
Describe what each stage is in a stage policy.
This clarifies what it means for a card to be in a stage.
!
Considerations or requirements that should be met at a
certain stage of the process can be defined as well in a
stage’s policy.
!
Pro Tip
Stage policies set quality standards and minimum requirements for cards to
be in a specific column.
Define Stage Policies

12. 3
Make sure every involved team member understands
the policies well.
Define Stage Policies

13. Visualize Work
4

14. Visualize Work4
By mapping your software development workflow you
get overview about who is working on what and most
importantly why.
!
Work gets visible to all involved stakeholders,
collaboration and communication increases instantly.

15. Visualize Work4
If a feature on your idea board or your roadmap is defined
as ready to be implemented, add it to the project board.

16. Visualize Work4
Pro Tip
Only add features that you are actively working on. By doing this you’ll
prevent having a backlog piling up.

17. Visualize Work4
Cards move along the process from the first stage …

18. Visualize Work4
… to “Implementation” …

19. Visualize Work4
… to “Review” …

20. Visualize Work4
… until they reach the last stage …

21. Visualize Work4
… until they reach the last stage …

22. Visualize Work4
… two cycles done. Time to celebrate :)

23. Work In Progress Limits
5

24. Work In Progress Limits5
Setting the optimal amount of work that your team can
handle at one time will lead to a smooth & continuous
workflow.
!
It also improves quality because you can give greater
focus to fewer tasks.
!
These benefits improve efficiency and you eventually
get more work done in less time.

25. Work In Progress Limits5
The WIP Limit in the “Implementation” Stage is 0 of 2.

26. 5 Work In Progress Limits
The WIP Limit in the “Implementation” Stage is 1 of 2.

27. 5 Work In Progress Limits
The WIP Limit in the “Implementation” Stage is 2 of 2.

28. 5 Work In Progress Limits
The WIP Limit in the “Implementation” Stage is 3 of 2.

29. An Indicator that you are probably doing to much at once.
5 Work In Progress Limits

30. Ready Indicator
6

31. Ready Indicator6
Mark a card as ready to be pulled to the next stage of the
process.

32. Ready Indicator
If a slot is free in the upcoming stage the card can be
“pulled” to into it.
6

33. Ready Indicator56

34. Blocked Indicator
7

35. Blocked Indicator7
Let’s assume a feature you are working on is blocked for
some reason.
!
Example: the API of a service you are integrating with
doesn’t work as described.

36. Blocked Indicator
Make the blocker visible to the whole team by marking
the card as blocked. Also add the reason why it’s blocked
or on which action you are waiting.
7

37. Blocked Indicator
Hovering the red stamp shows the reason for the blocker
in a tooltip.
7

38. Bug Handling
8

39. Bug Handling8
Recommendations:
!
• Add a separate board for bugs
!
• Create new cards for bugs in the main process board

40. Bug Handling: Separate board
Create a separate board for bugs, with stages defined
appropriate to your bug fixing process.
8

41. Bug Handling: Separate board
Define bug fixing policies & when to work on bugs to fit
to the main process workflow.
8

42. Bug Handling: Separate board
Add research information that helps to make bug fixing
easier in the first stage.
8

43. Bug Handling: Separate board
As soon as research is done, a team member with an open
work slot pulls the card into the next stage …
8

44. Bug Handling: Separate board
… the card flows through the process …
8

45. Bug Handling: Separate board
… until the card reaches the last stage.
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46. Bug Handling: Main process board
Create a new card for the bug and add a card title prefix
“B:” for example.
8

47. Bug Handling: Main process board
The card flows through the main process depending on
the policy the team defined for fixing bugs.
For example immediately, as soon as possible, …
8

48. Bug Handling: Performance Metrics
An example metric to measure bug fixing performance
could be the average time of how long a card with the
label "B" is.
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49. Bug Handling: Performance Metrics
Other things to look out for:
Is the processing time steady over time?
Did the bug fixing cycle time get shorter or longer?
8

50. Thank you for reading!
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51. Learn more
Advantages & Benefits of Agile