So long scrum, hello kanban

So Long Scrum, Hello Kanban Alex Salazar, @SalaTzar

Founder & CEO, Stormpath

About Stormpath

• User Management API for Developers

• Registration and Login

• User Profiles

• Role Based Access Control (RBAC)

• Permissions

• Password Security

Alex Salazar

We need to use updated positioning

SCRUM, IT’S NOT YOU, IT’S ME

About Agile Scrum

• Most popular Agile process

• Drives efficiency thru timeboxing (Sprints)

• Sprint Planning defines features

• Daily 10-minute Stand-ups

• Sprint Retrospective meetings to fix inefficiencies

• Well-defined and rigid process

Learn more at Stormpath.com

http://www.stormpath.com/

High Overhead of Sprint Planning• Half day event for entire team

• Hours of prep for product team

• Long debates on priority/scope

• Engineers sitting through unrelated issues



Good Estimates are a Myth

• Sprint planning relies heavily on good estimates

• 100% of us are bad estimators

• Effort divining estimates felt wasted

• Work needs to get done regardless



Bad Estimates Break Sprints

• Bad estimates throw off Sprint Plans

• Bigger-than-expected items overload Sprint

• More meetings to fix Sprint and “commitment”

• “Gaming” feature scope to fit into Sprint



Change Management Sucks

• Sprint planning locks in feature set

• Changes to priorities and scope are hard

• Even if work on a feature hasn’t begun

• Changes = more freaking meetings!



Morale Suffered

• Bad estimates led to unrealistic expectations

• Team missed sprint commitments

• Retrospective meetings turn into finger-pointing

• Biz felt Eng missed their targets

• Eng felt Biz kept moving the ball



Spikey Productivity Drove Burnout




ENTER KANBAN


About Kanban

• Pioneered by Toyota manufacturing

• Modified by David Anderson for software dev

• Simple and flexible

• Growing software community support



What is Kanban?

• Continuous flow processIssues are “pulled” through steps

• Often visualized as a boardColumns are steps in the process

Rows/Swimlanes can show priority

• Workers “pull” work right to left on board.



Efficiency through WIP Limits

• WIP: Work-in-Progress

• Forced limit on concurrent work capacity

• Time estimates no longer part of process

• Cycle Time measures velocity at item-level

• Work furthest along is highest priority

• “Stop multi-tasking and context shifting”



Sample Kanban Board



Sane Change Management

• Biz owns “To Do” columnMeans engineering work has not started

Change “To Do” items as much as you want

• Eng owns the rest of the boardOnce item leaves to “To Do” it means engineering

work has already started

Hard to change items outside of “To Do” column

• Engineers insulated from business changes



Kanban = Happy Team

• Flexible & Process-Driven

• Kanban owned by team, not managementSense of ownership and pride across team

• Smooth transition from Scrum (2 days)



Productivity Went Up

• Swap Deadlines for Velocity pressure

• Fewer meetings, more doing

• Reduced multi-tasking and context shifting

• Self-documenting process (thanks to Board)



Structural Focus on Quality

• No deadlines = less temptation to cut corners• Less tech debt

• No skipped code reviews

• 95% code coverage

• Code quality baked into process

• Team fights to ensure quality in their process



Near Zero Overhead

• Sprint Planning? Gone.

• Project Management? Minimal.

• Estimation Poker? None.

• Short Stand-ups

• Engineering spends their time doing



Kaizen vs Retrospectives

• Kaizen: Continuous Improvement

• Forward LookingLess critiquing

Focused on process improvement

No “right” way, just new ideas to try

• More CollaborationIdeas are experiments to be tested

Upbeat, creative feel



Kanban Isn’t Perfect

• Nascent ToolsAtlassian Jira and Greenhopper

Lack of customization

• Urgency is AbstractLess pressure to move fast (no deadlines)

Sense of urgency comes from culture



Keep Calm and Kanban

• Efficiency through WIP Limits

• Not right for everyone

• Helped StormpathHappy team

Less Overhead

Higher productivity and quality

WIN!



Resources

• Read the full article on our blog: http://www.stormpath.com/blog/so-long-scrum-hello-kanban

• Agile Chalk Talk: Kanban and Scrumhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jx6_E5XxqEo

• Kanban: Successful Evolutionary Change for Your Technology Businesshttp://www.amazon.com/Kanban-Successful-Evolutionary-Technology-Business/dp/0984521402

• Atlassian’s “Do Agile Right”: https://www.atlassian.com/agile/kanban

• What is Kanban?http://www.kanbanblog.com/explained/

http://www.stormpath.com/blog/so-long-scrum-hello-kanban

http://www.stormpath.com/blog/so-long-scrum-hello-kanban

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jx6_E5XxqEo

http://www.amazon.com/Kanban-Successful-Evolutionary-Technology-Business/dp/0984521402

http://www.amazon.com/Kanban-Successful-Evolutionary-Technology-Business/dp/0984521402

https://www.atlassian.com/agile/kanban

http://www.kanbanblog.com/explained/

About Stormpath

• User Management API for Developers

• Registration and Login

• User Profiles

• Role Based Access Control (RBAC)

• Permissions

• Password Security

Alex Salazar

We need to use updated positioning

Follow Us on Twitter

@SalaTzar @goStormpath



So long scrum, hello kanban

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