MOST Analysis

Mission Statement

The implementation of Kanban can be made more fruitful by fine-tuning the process and adding ways to monitor and measure the success of the method. The implementation of Kanban principles may seem easy but in practice, there may be many challenges that an organization faces. The Kanban method not only affects the program it is being applied but changes the way the entire organization works. Workflows from one desk to the next only when there is capacity. Products will be procured only when there is a need. These practices, though highly beneficial to the organization overall, may be hard to adopt for all employees. So training and knowledge sharing are important to ensure that all employees are able to recognize the real benefits of using the Kanban system. Once the system is rolling, it is also important to measure its progress and its impact. For this, certain metrics have to be chosen which can reflect how Kanban has improved the process. These metrics could be time-based, productivity-based, and so on. For example, the lead time and cycle time shows the average speed of a team on a task during a given time period. Improvements in the lead time and cycle time are indicative of improvements in the process. Another metric commonly used is Throughput, which gives the number of tasks finished with a given time period. Improvements in Throughput also indicate improvements in workflow. These and other metrics can help to continuously monitor the implementation of Kanban and measure its success.

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Objectives

01. Never Pass Defective Products: departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development. Time Allocated: 1 Month
02. Take Only What’s Needed: departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development. Time Allocated: 1 Month
03. Produce the Exact Quantity Required: departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development. Time Allocated: 1 Month
04. Level the Production: departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development. Time Allocated: 1 Month
05. Process Optimization – Lead & Cycle Time: departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development. Time Allocated: 1 Month
06. Process Optimization – Throughput: departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development. Time Allocated: 1 Month
07. Kanban Metrics Charts: departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development. 1 Month

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Strategies

01. Never Pass Defective Products: Each individual department head to undertake departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development.
02. Take Only What’s Needed: Each individual department head to undertake departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development.
03. Produce the Exact Quantity Required: Each individual department head to undertake departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development.
04. Level the Production: Each individual department head to undertake departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development.
05. Process Optimization – Lead & Cycle Time: Each individual department head to undertake departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development.
06. Process Optimization – Throughput: Each individual department head to undertake departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development.
07. Kanban Metrics Charts: Each individual department head to undertake departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development.

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Tasks

01. Create a task on your calendar, to be completed within the next month, to analyze Never Pass Defective Products.
02. Create a task on your calendar, to be completed within the next month, to analyze Take Only What’s Needed.
03. Create a task on your calendar, to be completed within the next month, to analyze Produce the Exact Quantity Required.
04. Create a task on your calendar, to be completed within the next month, to analyze Level the Production.
05. Create a task on your calendar, to be completed within the next month, to analyze Process Optimization – Lead & Cycle Time.
06. Create a task on your calendar, to be completed within the next month, to analyze Process Optimization – Throughput.
07. Create a task on your calendar, to be completed within the next month, to analyze Kanban Metrics Charts.

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Introduction

An overview of the history of the Kanban software development methodology and the significance of the fine-tuning stage

Let’s look at the following exurb. It is from David J. Anderson’s blog post titled “A History of Kanban for Creative Knowledge Work.”

October 2004

Dragos Dumitriu seeks assistance from David J. Anderson, manager of Microsoft’s XIT sustaining engineering. Dragos’ team has a pull mechanism that David designed and helped introduce. Dragos then persuaded his four product managers and his four superiors to support the concept.

The system was implemented by Microsoft Product Studio without the use of a physical board, and the engineering team was located in Hyderabad, India.

The method used operated under the assumption that the test was the bottleneck and was modeled after the Theory of Constraints Drum-Buffer-Rope.

2005

Donald Reinersten followed David to his house in Seattle after seeing him present his flow and FDD material in the winter of 2005 at a conference in Chicago. On the Microsoft campus, David was visited by Donald, who persuaded him to explore Kanban methods.

David makes the choice to go back and redo the XIT implementation as a Kanban system. He finds that not much would alter; possibly the WIP limitations would vary significantly.

David starts referring to the XIT implementation as a virtual Kanban system and presents it the next year in Chicago since he finds Kanban systems easier to describe to others.

The XIT sustaining engineering research was presented at TOCICO in Barcelona in October 2005, and Microsoft later released it as a white paper.

2006

In the winter of 2006, David gives a presentation at the same Chicago conference where Donald had followed him home the year before on the finished XIT narrative as a virtual kanban system implementation.

It is the first time that Kanban systems applied to knowledge work have been shown in public. Only Dragos and David were previously involved.

The Microsoft IT solution was read and used by certain people in the summer of 2006. Notably, Eric Landes from Robert Bosch copied it almost verbatim for use by a team responsible for maintaining an intranet website.

David moves jobs in September of 2006 to work for Corbis as Senior Director of Software Engineering.

He acknowledges that the software maintenance procedure is seriously flawed and collaborates with Rick Garber, the team’s boss, to create a Kanban system.

It was intended to take the place of the current project-centric strategy for small application changes.

Drew McLean, VP of Corbis, recommends the expedite capability—which brought the first alternative class of service to a Kanban system for knowledge work—when engaging with stakeholders.

In November 2006, Diana Kolomiyets, the project manager, and Darren Davis, the development manager for maintenance, took charge of the Kanban implementation.

Diana oversees replenishment meetings every week, plans and coordinates releases every two weeks, while Darren is in charge of standup meetings.
Corbis conducts an operations evaluation of its IT in December 2006. Darren Davis explains the evaluation’s findings after implementing the first Kanban system.

2007

In January 2007, Darren Davis made the claim that the seeming high level of variation inflow was caused by the stasis of improvements following a number of successful releases from the maintenance process. Nobody is sure of what to do next.

He proposes using a card wall that has been set up on a whiteboard across the hall from his cubicle to visualize the procedure. One of his team members came up with this concept. A sign is placed on the wall.

Winter of 2007: Additional improvements are being made to the wall, and space has been set aside for internal needs. For green tickets, there is a WIP limit of two.

David observed a pattern of urgent work with predetermined deadlines. As a type of service, he advises providing a “fixed date” notion.

At the end of this season, what is now known as the Kanban technique emerges, with its six practices and hazards displayed and addressed via capacity allocation and classes of service.

At Corbis, Corey Ladas is employed as a process coach for Kanban after leaving Microsoft.

The new CEO of Corbis inquires in April 2007 as to why the new maintenance procedure isn’t being applied to all aspects of IT if it is performing so effectively. David adopts the idea and introduces Kanban to the entire project portfolio.

Under Corey’s direction, the digital asset management (DAM) project implemented Scrum and Kanban. This two-tiered Kanban board with swim lanes is the first of its kind.

Dan is hired as the development manager for the ERP project in May of 2007. Dan has never used Kanban, yet he and Corey created the project’s methodology.

They transfer the DAM project staff to the ERP project while carrying the two-tiered, swim lane Kanban board with them.

Rick Garber and David attend Donald’s Lean New Product Development conference in Chicago in June 2007. Only 55 people were present in the crowd.

It is the first time the now-famous Kanban approach has been shown, and it includes features like operations review, lead time histogram metrics, classes of service, and metrics for those variables.

David delivers the same speech from June at the conference inside a conference at the Agile Conference in Washington, D.C., in August 2007.
The following day, Karl Scotland, Joe Arnold, and Aaron Sanders, representatives from Yahoo!, are present and speak with David.

They express their admiration for David’s evolutionary approach to change and alternate strategy for achieving agility through the use of virtual Kanban systems.

They clarify that they have attempted to introduce Scrum at Yahoo! but have encountered significant opposition. With the organizations who are opposing, they want to attempt Kanban.

They created a Yahoo! discussion forum where they could share their stories. At Yahoo!, the kanbandev group was created today and is still in use.

2008

At the Agile 2008 conference in August of 2008, Corey Ladas offers more thorough implementation examples. The presentation’s second half focuses on applying Kanban in Scrum-based teams and projects. It serves as the basis for what would be referred to as scrumban.