Design the Kanban System

This is a series of posts from the main topic STATIK (Systems Thinking Approach to Introduce Kanban) wich it’s an exploratory and collaborative approach to implement Kanban. It helps to understand the current demand and dynamics, to design and implement a Kanban work model that allows increasing the efficiency and quality of the service through the culture and techniques of continuous improvement.

Statik Steps

As an iterative approach, STATIK suggests you go through the following steps.

For each identified service:

1. Understand what makes the business fit for purpose
2. Understand sources of dissatisfaction
3. Analyze the source and nature of demand
4. Analyze current delivery capability
5. Model the service delivery workflow
6. Identify and define classes of service
7. Design the Kanban system
8. Socialize design & negotiate implementation

Modeling your Kanban System

The moment we’ve all been waiting for! It’s time to put together the system learning and vision acquired over the previous sessions and model the Kanban system.

• The main steps of the workflow tend to fall into columns here.
• Activities in progress tend to already be categorized in types of demand.
• Services classes tend to become rows (swim-lanes) on your board.
• The metrics collected can form the basis for defining WIP limits.

At this point, it’s useful to have a checklist of the elements likely to be included, for example:

Kanban Board

A Kaban board is a work and workflow visualization tool that enables you to optimize the flow.

Physical Kanban boards, typically use sticky notes on a whiteboard to communicate status, progress, and issues.

Online Kanban boards draw upon the whiteboard metaphor in a software setting.

Kanban Card

The core functionality of a Kanban card is to visually convey a work item’s progress as it flows through a system or process.

The face of a Kanban card presents details that are relevant to the team, such as:

• A unique identifier or title
• A brief description of the work
• A rough estimate of the size of the work
• Who’s been assigned to it

Face of a sample Kanban card.

Kanban System

Here is an overview of the five steps you’ll want to take in order to implement a lasting and effective Kanban system

• Map your current workflow
• Visualize your work
• Focus on flow
• Limit your WIP
• Measure and improve

Kanban System example.

Remember your first version of your Kanban System should reflect the actual process not the desired. So, there’s no template or default design to adapt to. Instead you’ll create a system that adapts to your reality and context and then start improving your system.

Scaling Kanban?

If you need to bring the benefits of Kanban beyond a team maybe you’re thinking if you could implement Kanban at scale (today we have many Agile Scaling Frameworks as SAFe, LeSS, Nexus, Scrum@Scale). Well, scalability is an inherent part of Kanban and therefore one cannot not scale Kanban. Scaling in a Kanban context means: Doing more Kanban. This can be done in two directions: in depth and in breadth.

Here you are a few examples of above aproaches:

Width-wise growth example

Width-wise growth example. This board also shows the use of minimum and maximum WIP limits.

Height-wise growth example

Height-wise growth example.

Depth-wise growth example

Depth-wise growth example.

A Wider/Deeper example

Upstream + Downstream Kanban example

There’s a short and free Essential Upstream Kanban ebook in the Kanban University resources.

A Kanban board design of their first Kanban System.

“A system is never the sum of its parts”. It’s the product of the interaction of its parts”

Next STATIK’s step is Socialize design & negotiate implementation. Or review the previous step, Identify and define classes of service.