Kanban Adoption at SEPHow Kanban has impacted SEP

1

Agenda

• Context – An overview of SEP

• Maturation of a Kanban team

• A success story: How Kanban saved EHMS

• Lessons learned

• Custom software development company

• 20 Years in business

• Located in Carmel, IN

• 76 Employees

We work in a variety of industries

39%

5%

3%

9%5%

40%

AeroSpace

Automotive

Other

Dept. of Defense

Healthcare

Medical

SEP Market Breakdown

Projects at SEP average 4 – 6

people, last an average of 4 – 6 months, and are

transitional in nature

Prior to Kanban…

2004 –Experimentation began with Feature Driven Development (FDD) on a few teams

As a company, SEP was Agile friendly, but wasn’t able to get buy in from everyone

Any widespread institutionalization of Agile practices was met with resistance and ultimately failed to gain traction

Over time, experience with Agile practices and Lean principles grew but

only in limited pockets…

Nothing changed… until Kanban

After its initial implementation in

2007, it quickly became apparent

that Kanban would be different

Since 2007, I’ve worked with teams to

implement a dozen Kanbans across a wide variety of projects and

surveyed over 30 employees using

Kanban

While coaching these projects, a pattern began to emerge

In an effort to describe and understand this pattern, I began to look at existing learning models

Today, we are going to look at

the Dreyfus Model of Skill

Acquisition and how it can help

us.

Dreyfus Model of Skill Acquisition

• Stage 1 - Novice

• Stage 2 - Advanced Beginner

• Stage 3 - Competent

• Stage 4 - Proficient

• Stage 5 - Expert

The model does two important

things:

• It defines different stages of learning

• It explains how people move from one stage to the next

As leaders, this is important to us because it gives us guidance how

to best train and coach teams.

As we walk through each stage, I will:

• Define each stage

• Share what I saw at SEP

• Demonstrate how a Kanban team matures in a way consistent with the Dreyfus model

Stag

e 1

-N

ovi

ceDefinition

• Little or no previous experience

• All about following rules – context free rules

• Little situational perception

• No discretionary judgment

• Want to accomplish a goal, not learn

Stag

e 1

-N

ovi

ceWhat I observed…

• Teams viewed the board as a task tracking system with a simple set of rules such as:

– When a work item is completed, move it to the next section

– Use a yellow sticky for scenarios, blue for bugs…

– Prioritize the work to be started in the ER queue

• Little or no regard for WIP limits

Stag

e 1

-N

ovi

ce Teams told my they experienced an enhanced understanding of the project – clear priority of work

items, what to work on next, easier to see progress, etc.

Teams experienced a culture change through the introduction of Kanban

boards and standup meetings

(This was a significant change!)

“We never implemented WIP limits. What Kanban DID

accomplish though, was illustrate the development process to a

team that had never thought about it much before. It basically

exposed them to their selves.” - Ryan

Definition

• Still rules based, but start to understand situational conditions

• No holistic understanding – they don’t want it and likely see it as not relevant

• Principles, based on experience, start to be formulated

Stag

e 2

–A

dva

nce

d B

egin

ner

What I observed...

• WIP limits were being followed and, for the first time, teams began to realize how too much work in progress really negatively impacted things.

• Teams started to understand the impact of ‘blocked work items’ and ‘rework’

Stag

e 2

–A

dva

nce

d B

egin

ner

• Team members began to collaborate with each other

• Teams began to identify bottlenecks and areas for improvement

Stag

e 2

–A

dva

nce

d B

egin

ner

“WIP limits seem to be the worst-understood part of the Kanban. When used properly, it exposes bottlenecksand reduces lead time for individual work items. Used improperly, it can starve developers for work or resultin too many people working on the

same work items.”- Keith

The Dreyfus model says taking responsibility is often the critical

point for people when learning a new skill. Without accepting responsibility most people never move to Stage 3 –

Competent

Deming tells us that fear is a barrier to improvement so we should strive

to ‘drive fear out’ of the organization.

As long as fear exists in the organization, it is unlikely that people

will choose to take responsibility.

Kanban provides an way to successfully manage organizational

changes.

Managing changes effectively encourages people to take

responsibility. Thus, Kanban works to drive out fear

Definition

• Start to recognize patterns and principles

• Rule sets become more “rules of thumb”

• Start to establish guidelines

• Seeking out and solving problems - begin troubleshooting issues

• Sees actions in terms of long-term plans and goals

Stag

e 3

-C

om

pet

ence

The whole team participated in making process changes. They

felt a sense of ownership

Stag

e 3

-C

om

pet

ence

What I observed…

The team started “pulling” in alternate practices to optimize

the process

However, unlike previous attempts, practices are being introduced to solve specific

problems

Stag

e 3

-C

om

pet

ence

The team experienced a real sense of gratification as they witnessed the effect of those

changes.

Stag

e 3

-C

om

pet

ence

Interestingly, teams began to become ‘Lean’. They discovered

the principles themselves –cause and effect of flow, value,

quality, and waste

Stag

e 3

-C

om

pet

ence

“It was like switching on a light, no joke. Suddenly, everyone was able to offer ideas on how to improve our processes. It really motivated

everyone.”- Julie

Definition

• Seek out and want to understand the ‘big picture’ – sees situations holistically

• Perceive a complete system instead of a set of individual parts

• Can correct previous poor task performance

• Can learn from the experience of others and take full advantage of reflection and feedback

Stag

e 4

-P

rofi

cien

t

Stag

e 4

-P

rofi

cien

tWhat I observed…

Teams made throughput and reducing cycle time its primary

focus

Teams began to focus on optimizing the whole and reducing the cost of delay

Stag

e 4

-P

rofi

cien

t

Stag

e 4

-P

rofi

cien

t

Teams began actively trying to reduce their WIP limits

Stag

e 4

-P

rofi

cien

t

Kaizen moments became more commonplace

“The entire picture allows me to work with full knowledge of our progress in relation to our goals. The limits in each section forces

me to work in the areas that most need help – in order for the board

to keep flowing.”- Matt

What began as a few minor changes…

…resulted in a team that is

continuously changing and

improving their process – all in 6

months time.

What I saw led me to believe that the

maturation of a Kanban team causes people to learn and understand

Lean principles

So, when teaching a new skill, should we start with the principles

or practices?

Practices!

It’s ok to talk about principles.

However, teaching principles does not equate to acquiring

a new skill.

An expert has experience that “is so vast that normally each

specific situation immediately dictates an intuitively appropriate action.”St

age

5 -

Exp

ert

The expert can distinguish between very important details and those considered irrelevant. They know which details to

focus on and which can be safely ignored.

Stag

e 5

-Ex

pe

rt

Stag

e 5

-Ex

pe

rtWhat I observed…

Before EHMS… there was a long standing, small, successful team - well versed in how they did things, and rarely worked in

a ‘deadline environment’

At the start of EHMS… the team sized ballooned (>2X), the

technology platform changed, and there was a high pressure,

politically charged deadline and we didn’t change the way we worked.

A couple months in… the project was not proceeding well. The lead did not have a feel for what people

were working on or how the project was progressing.

Discontent and frustration was felt throughout the team. There was

negative emotion and no one stepping up to fix the bigger

problems - only heroes dealing with symptoms.

Kanban is introduced… Some minor confusion at first but the

team quickly aligned. It immediately revealed WIP

problems without even having added limits yet. People started to

have a little hope.

A short time later… the team hit the first delivery date, but

sacrificed quality to do it. After delivery, Kanban limits were

enforced. The limits prompted some immediate changes.

The team ‘took the pain’ and fixed the bugs along with process issues.

People who were normally quiet were now pointing out issues and

coming up with different solutions.

Today… The team enforces good behavior in their day to day

activities. The board has changed several times and fits the situation

well.

There is a sense of progress, which leads to constructive attitudes. The team is a bunch of ‘true believers’

now. They are starting to really look at data and see what they can

learn from it.

“I wish we'd started Kanban six months earlier.”

- EHMS Project Lead

Let’s look at some data…

Work-In-Progress

0

50

100

150

200

250

8/1

/20

08

8/9

/20

08

8/1

7/2

00

8

8/2

5/2

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8

9/2

/20

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9/1

0/2

00

8

9/1

8/2

00

8

9/2

6/2

00

8

10

/4/2

00

8

10

/12

/20

08

10

/20

/20

08

10

/28

/20

08

11

/5/2

00

8

11

/13

/20

08

11

/21

/20

08

11

/29

/20

08

12

/7/2

00

8

12

/15

/20

08

12

/23

/20

08

12

/31

/20

08

1/8

/20

09

1/1

6/2

00

9

1/2

4/2

00

9

2/1

/20

09

2/9

/20

09

2/1

7/2

00

9

2/2

5/2

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9

3/5

/20

09

3/1

3/2

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9

3/2

1/2

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3/2

9/2

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9

4/6

/20

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4/1

4/2

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4/2

2/2

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4/3

0/2

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5/8

/20

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5/1

6/2

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5/2

4/2

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6/1

/20

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6/9

/20

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6/1

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6/2

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/20

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7/1

1/2

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9

7/1

9/2

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7/2

7/2

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8/4

/20

09

Tasks

Bugs

Bugs Found

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

Series1

Lead Time (4 wk rolling avg.)

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

Act. Avg.

Lessons Learned

“I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work.” – Thomas Edison

Lesson 1 – Start by teaching practices, not principles

Lesson 2 – Don’t set WIP limits too low for a new team

Lesson 3 – Keep rules about

moving tokens/cards

simple

Lesson 4 – WIP is strongly

correlated to product quality

Conclusions

• Kanban teams mature in a way consistent with the Dreyfus model

• Kanban is an effective tool for teaching Lean principles and managing change in an organization

• There are multiple levels of maturity; in each level, certain behaviors should guide your focus (as the trainer)

™

THANKYOU

Software Engineering Professionals ™(SEP) is a project based developer of software systems and products for business, data and safety critical applications. Over the past 21 years, SEP has grown into one of the largest and most well respected engineering companies in central Indiana.

Chris is a graduate of Purdue University and resides in Indianapolis with his wife and two sons.

Chris Shinkle has been with SEP for over 12 years. He has used Agile and Lean methods to lead large complex projects, most notably, a military aircraft engine monitoring and maintenance system and an FDA regulated remote patient monitoring system. He introduced FDD to SEP in 2004, and then continued to evolve the internal processes and approaches over the following years. In 2007, SEP began to adopt Kanban processes under Chris' guidance, as he trained and mentored engineers across the company.

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