Scaling Kanban for software development in a multisite organization: Challenges and Potential Solution Nirnaya Tripathi, Pilar Rodríguez, Muhammad Ovais Ahmad, Markku Oivo XP 2015 Presenter-Nirnaya Tripathi Date 27.05.2015
Presentation Outline INTRODUCTION LARGE SCALE SCRUM & KANBAN RESEARCH QUESTION RESEARCH METHOD RESULTS CONCLUSION
Introduction Visual Board Helsinki Railway station [1] Helsinki international Airport [2] 1 - http://kuvat.vaunut.org/4bee01ceb549ca79c45141276e851bdc.jpg (photo search credit: Pertti Sepanen) 2 - http://i895.photobucket.com/albums/ac154/flyingfinn_photo/berlin_istanbul_london_03_2010/helsinki_fids.jpg
Introduction Visual Board Helsinki Railway station [1] Benefits of Visual Board: Visibility Signaling Self organizing Helsinki international Airport [2]
Scrum & Large-scale Scrum Scrum framework for Single Team[3] 3 - http://www.bestoutcome.com/assets/images/agile/scrum-overview-resize.png
Large-scale Scrum Large-scale Scrum framework for many teams [4] 4 - Larman, Craig, and Bas Vodde. Practices for scaling lean & agile development: large, multisite, and offshore product development with large-scale Scrum. Pearson Education, 2010.
Large-scale Scrum Area product owner Large-scale Scrum framework for many teams [4] 4 - Larman, Craig, and Bas Vodde. Practices for scaling lean & agile development: large, multisite, and offshore product development with large-scale Scrum. Pearson Education, 2010.
Kanban What is Kanban? Kanban is a change management method arriving from Lean thinking focusing on the following practices [5]. Practice Visualize Work Limit Work- In-Progress (WIP) Make Policies Explicit Measure and Manage Flow Enable continuous Improvement Description Visualize every step in value chain from unclear concept to releasable software. Define limits on the amount of work allowed in each stage. Make the process policies explicit. Measure and Manage Flow to make informed decisions and visualize consequence. Create a Kaizen culture where continuous improvement is everyone s job. Kanban Practices [5] 5 - Boeg, Jesper. Priming kanban: a 10 step guide to optimizing flow in your software delivery system. Trifork, 2011.
Scaling Kanban Kniberg illustrates the application of Kanban at the organizational level with three development teams in a co-located environment [6]. However, empirical study on scaling Kanban to an organizational level with operations in a multisite environment is very limited. Hence our study goal is to empirically explore in this context. Scaling Kanban [6] 6 - Kniberg, Henrik. Lean from the trenches: Managing large-scale projects with Kanban. Pragmatic Bookshelf, 2011.
N4S Deep Customer Insight RESEARCH QUESTION Case Elektrobit Project Plan (Draft)
Research Question To reach our research goal, we define the following two exploratory descriptive research questions (RQ): RQ1: What are the challenges in scaling Kanban in a multisite organization for software development? RQ2: What are the possible solutions for those challenges when scaling Kanban in a multisite organization for software development?
Research Method Case Study Embedded, single-case study Case company: Offer product and services in Telecommunication sector. Company have many development organization across the globe. Case Unit Unit of Analysis 1 Unit of Analysis 2 Location Site A, located in Northern Europe. Site B in Northern Europe. Development Team 5 6 Multisite context Coordinating with team in western Europe Coordinating with Team in India Personnel 50-60 50-60 Kanban application At team level At organizational level
Data Collection & Analysis Data Analysis We used the constant comparison method to analyze the qualitative data. The constant comparison method was performed with the software tool NVivo 10. To code the data, we used an integrated method where we employed deductive and inductive approaches.
N4S Deep Customer Insight RESULTS Case Elektrobit Project Plan (Draft)
Scaling Kanban in a multisite organization Organization B description Organization workflow visualized in seven columns on an electronic board An electronic board is used because it helps teams located at different sites to collaborate on one product efficiently. WIP limit is set for each area product backlog & development column.
Challenges & Possible Solution Challenges 1 Distributed teams: Product area teams located in different sites 2 Feature division: distribution of features across development teams 3 Defining WIP limits: the setting of WIP limits for development teams 4 Product management pushes too many features to the team. If there is a WIP limit based on their perspective, they might force more work Possible solutions Electronic Kanban board with team specific swim lanes can be useful in this case. Product owner team decides the allocation of prioritized features. Those prioritized features can be displayed on the Kanban board for the teams to pull work items. Estimate by common agreement between development teams must be provided during the initial phase of defining WIP limits. Limit the number of features coming into the product backlog. This limit should be set by the product owners and development team representative.
Conclusion Various challenges were identified along with possible solutions when scaling Kanban within an organization. For a multisite environment, an electronic Kanban board appears to be a necessary for an organization. WIP limits could be set for area product owners and development teams by mutual agreement. Average lead time would be an appropriate metric for measuring workflow at the organizational level.
THANK YOU! More information: nirnaya.tripathi@oulu.fi