see skaug.no/ingvald for blog post.
extracting personal kanban from todo list
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Tag Archives: process
sw dev, design: iterating, incrementing vs backlog mapping
Jeff Patton illustrates iterating and incrementing well:
incremental development – we build a piece at a time, having a finished design upfront, expecting no changes.
iterative development – we build something, then evaluate, then make changes to it, i.e., we expect to change it.
(i don’t quite like that both illustrations end up in the exact same Mona Lisa…)
i just saw a very nice description of a backlog mapping by Energized Work, described by Simon Baker. Lisa Crispin also blogged about it after a visit – The Whole Team Approach in Practice.
what i really like about this is the support for starting small, iterate+ increment, while keeping functionality and value visible.
Update:
There’s also a post about a mind-map form illustration high-level user experience replacing backlog, also at Energized Work.
The pink Post-It notes represent the different users. The blue Post-It notes represent the user activities and the yellow Post-It notes represent the high-level user tasks.
Another quote from this (emphasis mine):
We don’t use a burn-down chart to illustrate how much of the backlog is done. We consider this to be waste because the product is a moving target and the backlog can never done until the product is no longer available. However, we do visualize the investment made in the product to date.
kanban and the perfect job
-by Dennis Stevens
“Build projects around motivated individuals. Give them the environment and support they need, and trust them to get the job done.”
This is the 5th principle behind the Agile Manifesto.
….
The Motivating Potential of Kanban
When implemented well, Kanban creates a work setting where the job design delivers on the five core dimensions of the job characteristics model.
- Skill Variety: In Kanban, the team members are involved in the daily planning of their work, engage in discussions around how to get the work done, perform their specific work, and may swarm on other related work.
- Task Identity: In Kanban, the entire focus is on the flow of work. The team members see the work flow from start to end.
- Task Significance: One of the focuses of Kanban is to improve the lives of the team members themselves. The focus on flow of value also helps the team understand how they are improving the the work of the customer and/or the people their organization.
- Autonomy: Kanban allows teams to schedule their work through the pull mechanism. The self-organizing nature of the work also helps them decide how to care it out.
- Feedback: Managing Cycle Times, explicitly tracking defects, and the rapid feedback cycles associated with the limited WIP create feedback on effectiveness at multiple levels.
Kanban inherently results in job design that improves intrinsic motivation and the resulting high levels of performance.