Are You Missing Out on the Benefits of Kanban?
Kanban has become popular in the software development world. However, it is used very selectively. As such, I believe that developers are missing real opportunities to better serve customers in both software operations projects as well as in new development projects.
In this article, I’ll cover the core principles of Kanban that I believe can be applied to any project where improved quality and throughput are desired. Then, you can decide.
First, the roots of Kanban…
From the Plant Floor to the Cherry Blossom Garden
Kanban was first used by Toyota in its manufacturing plants to improve productivity. Later on with its success on the shop floor, Kanban found a home in software development projects, too. Testifying to its wide-ranging application, David J. Anderson notes in his book, Kanban: Successful Evolutionary Change for Your Technology Business that he saw Kanban being used in the management of a cherry blossom garden in Japan. The application was to manage the flow of people’s entry into the garden.
Indeed, Kanban has been successfully implemented in projects across manufacturing, software, product development, change management as well as in maintenance and operations, and for many other endeavors.
The Heart of Kanban is Throughput
Software operations projects are typically besieged by requirements resulting in bottlenecks.
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"This planet has - or rather had - a problem, which was this: most of the people living on it were unhappy for pretty much of the time. Many solutions were suggested for this problem, but most of these were largely concerned with the movements of small green pieces of paper, which is odd because on the whole it wasn't the small green pieces of paper that were unhappy." - Douglas Adams |