Kanban Experience Workshop

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Course Tabs

Course Overview

Summary:

The Kanban Experience Workshop provides participants an experience of Kanban along with the theory required to understand it. Kanban is based on systems thinking and Lean-flow - concepts which are not always self-evident but are self-verifiable when experienced. The course gives a short background of how delays in our workflow cause waste. It then presents the Kanban team management method in stages. Discussions follow each stage which allows for deeper learning as well as an understanding of what’s missing. This “missing” piece is then presented in the next stage – providing an understanding why each practice in Kanban is important.

The essence of Kanban - explicit workflow; visibility; managing work-in-progress; methods for balancing workflow; how removing delays reduces waste – is presented in this stepwise manner allowing for both experience and understanding of each.

Time is left at the end of the day to discuss topics that will be valuable for Kanban teams – the need for service classes, cost of delay, acceptance test-driven development. This course is intended to those who want to undertake Kanban as a team method and want a quick start in how to do it.

Come as a team. This course is designed for both individual and team play. Have your teams experience how teams work together in Kanban. Special team pricing available.

Good for those wanting to transition from Scrum to Kanban (or just improve their Scrum). Many people are transitioning from Scrum to Kanban because of Kanban's great flexibility in where it can be used, it's ability to accelerate Agile adoptions and it's higher collaboration with management. However, many people wanting to stay with Scrum are also recognizing the core Kanban practices can be incorporated into Scrum fairly easily while achieving significant results. This course will be useful for both.

User-group coordinators: please contact Al Shalloway about how you and Net Objectives can co-promote an offering for your membership that provides them lower tuition than normal and you some revenue to help your group.

Course Objectives:

Learn basic Kanban practices
Understand why limiting work in progress is important
Learn why large stories can block work
Learn why it is important to have development and testing in synch with each other
Understand why work must be organized with the release plan in mind
Understand how acceptance test-driven development helps flow
Understand the main tenet of Kanban as a transition model to effective software development
Learn how to create a Kanban board and have it reflect your work methods
Have an experience of Kanban

See Using the Kanban Experience Workshop to Implement Kanban to see how to extend what you will learn in the course.

Target Audience:

Primary Audience:

This course is intended for several audiences:

Teams wanting to explore what Kanban is prior to implementing it.
Scrum teams wanting to improve their Scrum methods by learning the principles that drive Kanban and can be incorporated into Scrum
People wanting to learn about Agile by understanding Kanban

Developers, testers, product owners, product managers, Scrummasters, project managers.

No knowledge of Agile necessary.

Course Outline

The course alternates between interactive lecture and simulation. It provides just enough theory to understand how to complete the next section in the simulation. The basic Kanban model

The simulation (6 hours)

How and why teams get out of balance
Managing flow by managing Work in Progress (WIP)
Handling interruptions

DIscussions after the simulation (last 2 hours)

How Acceptance-Test-Driven-Development (ATDD) improves flow and quality
Technical dependencies Vs business dependencies
Handling cross-team dependencies
How to use Kanban to improve Scrum
How to incorporate time-boxing into Kanban
Other topics identified by participants

Full Description

The course alternates between interactive lecture and simulation. It provides just enough theory to understand how to complete the next section in the simulation. This blend of theory and practice enables participants to both understand Kanban practices and why they work.

Quick overview of Kanban and why it works
Simulation: manage your work using a Kanban board
Discussion on how to provide work to a team and manage it so that completed features can be delivered quickly
Simulation: manage the work of several features using a Kanban board
Discussion on why Acceptance Test-Driven Development reduces both delays and rework
Simulation: incorporate Acceptance Test-Driven Development into your Kanban method
Discussion: wrap up of the day

This course is not intended as a full Kanban course that will enable a team to start Kanban without coaching. Our full two day Kanban training includes how to create a Kanban board and how to coach a Kanban team. However, for groups wanting to get a sense of Kanban or for organizations who are looking to engage a Kanban coach to start a pilot project, this course is an excellent introduction to Kanban.

When offered as an on-site course, whole teams should attend and play together.

Prerequisites

Required Prerequisites:

No knowledge of Agile is necessary.

To get the most out of the day, it is suggested that the following (short) Lightning Webinars are watched: