Summary
In this chapter we discovered that Kanban prescribes an evolutional process change originating from your current context. We went through the six practices of Kanban in detail:
Visualize your process and your current status.
Limit how much work you have started so that you don´t build queues within your system.
Improve your flow to decrease the time it takes from when work is started until it's finished.
Make process policies explicit so everybody can participate in improving them.
Implement feedback loops to make sure we continuously learn and implement improvements on both a local and organizational level.
Use known theories such as Lean, Agile, queuing theory, gaming theory, chaos theory, and theory of constraints to collaboratively and experimentally improve your flow.
We also covered Lean, which is described in 14 principles, which tell us to think long-term and focus on quality and have a continuous process flow.
We also described that Agile is about getting short feedback, and being able to technically and mentally change and mobilize brainpower. The latter does also show that Agile is a culture where respecting people, trust, and self-organization are important parts. That is an important step away from the traditional ideas about dividing people into thinkers (managers) and doers (developers).
Finally, we showed you the difference between Kanban and Scrum and discovered that the main difference was that Scrum prescribes roles, meetings, and artifacts, while Kanban is only focused on improving flow. They can also be combined. Whichever one is best depends on the situation.
In the next chapter, we will see how to get to know your process as the first step to set up your Kanban system, and how to make a value stream mapping. The chapter will give you a good foundation when you later on take steps to improve your effectiveness.
