Part 8 (Strategies for Improvement, Up your GAME)
This series discusses the benefits of attending the 4-day KMP Workshop. KMP Workshop is a collaborative and interactive Workshop. After attending the KMP Workshop, you get the KMP Credential from Kanban University. KMP stands for Kanban Management Professional.
This article is the last article of this series. With this article, I will conclude the 4-day KMP Workshop overview and coverage.
Previous Articles of this Series — A recap
Part 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 provides an eye-opening description of the Kanban System Design workshop. Kanban System Design was earlier called KMP-I. Parts 6, 7, and this article describe the Kanban Systems Improvement workshop. Kanban Systems Improvement was earlier called KMP-II.
Moving On — Strategies for improving your capability to deliver
What’s your team’s vacation calendar look like? Are you still worried about ad-hoc leaves? And worried about the day between two holidays becoming a “sick leave.”
Join my KMP Workshop to learn the Strategies for Improvement. The below model contains the medicine to all your pains, or should I call sins of micro-management?
Lead Time Distribution will help you measure the current capability. Once you know your capability, then only you can improve.
Get rid of Velocity and Learn Lead Time.
It’s the 21st century. And you still believe in average velocity measurement.
Do you still believe that average velocity will help you achieve predictability? If you said YES,
Sin no more. Are you still pressing your teams to increase their velocity? Oh Gosh! Please stop.
WAKE UP !
It’s high time that you start using the Lead Time. Use Lead Time to determine the Service Delivery Effectiveness of your team. In KMP Workshop, I will explain how to read and interpret the Lead Time Distribution. I will explain the difference between a “duck’s tail” and a “cat’s tail.” :-) :-). We will discuss “What causes a Long Tail?” and how you can apply Risk Management Strategies to control the Long Tail.
Delays and Dependencies
Remember the last monthly/quarterly planning event that you attended? When you want to unearth all dependencies and create a robust plan. And now, while you are in execution, you wonder how new dependencies are getting identified. What did you miss during planning? How will you face your boss?
It’s time to believe you cannot find 100% of the dependencies in the planning sessions. You don’t have such superpowers. You will certainly discover new dependencies during execution. Dependencies will cause delays. The better way to handle dependencies is to shape the demand of the dependent teams.
You might be getting confused. It’s normal. KMP Workshop has a unique way of explaining this concept of handling dependencies.
Look Downstream for dependencies and look Upstream for demand. Combining these two will help you keep the demand in balance with the current system’s capabilities.
I will explain this concept using two hands-on exercises. In the first exercise, I will ask you to list where the work waits (on which teams).
In the follow-on exercise, I will ask you to get into the shoes of the dependent team. And we will look from the perspective of shaping their demand.
Variations
Now we move on to the next strategy for improvement. Handling variations in the system. It is a fact that all variations will happen. I will help you classify the variations into Common and Special Cause Variations. We will explore how to model Common Cause Variations by improving the processes.
It’s estimated that 85 to 94% of the variations are due to Common Causes.
So, next time when requirements change, or priorities change, do not worry. You can still be predictable in your delivery of releases.
During the KMP Workshop, we discuss Wimbledon Case Study to discuss these variations.
Bottlenecks
We end the “Strategies for Improvement” module by discussing on how to handle bottlenecks. We will discuss the Theory of Constraints given by Eliyahu M. Goldratt. It is based on the premise that a system’s throughput is limited by at least one constraint.
Why is Kanban an Evolutionary Change Method?
We wrap up the KMP Workshop (yes, it’s the 4th day) with a discussion on “How Kanban is so effective for successful change initiatives?”. What to expect when you bring an evolutionary change using Kanban.
The 4-day KMP workshop is a hands-on workshop. This workshop equips you with the knowledge and experience to bring an evolutionary change.
Someone said (Was he Benjamin Franklin? Confucius? Xunzi? Hsüntze? Native Americans Saying? Shuo Yuan? Anonymous?)
“Tell Me and I Forget; Teach Me and I May Remember; Involve Me and I Learn”
And it’s true for KMP Workshop. I don’t tell you, I don’t teach you. I involve you, and you will learn.
