Scaling Kanban

Eric Willeke is a generalist software practitioner with over 10 years of experience covering development, leadership, coaching, training and consulting roles.

  Agile   ProjectsAtWork  

As Kanban is applied to longer projects up to three months in duration, the principles of visibility, flow, variability and improvement are still in full effect, but challenges must be taken into account, including larger teams and higher-level sponsors, increased uncertainty and complexity, and, by extension, greater organizational pressures.

This is the third article in an ongoing series about applying a Kanban framework to projects and portfolios. In “Small Project Kanban,” we explored how the basics of Kanban apply in small, focused efforts of two weeks.

Things get a bit more interesting when Kanban is applied to projects up to three months in duration. The same aspects of visibility, flow, variability and improvement all apply, but each takes on a slightly different perspective when expanded to a slightly larger scale. However, the overall picture looks the same, and most of the activities at the daily and weekly level in a three-month project continue to look the same as in the two-week effort described earlier.

At a three-month scale, organizational pressures and lack of directional clarity become significant concerns. The organization is much more likely to change the priority of a project relative to other active projects. Team members, especially the most skilled, are likely to be tasked to help resolve emerging crises. Finally, sponsors for …

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