Implementing Done, In Process, and Ready Queues in LeanKit Kanban

Posted by indomitablehef | Filed under LeanKit, Lean, Kanban, Tools

In two blog posts, “A Variation on Queues - Pipelines for WIP and Done” from December 2008, and WIP Queues: Done vs Ready from September 2009, Derick Bailey, (with comments from Scott Bellware) examined ways to break down WIP queues into Ready, In Process, and Done queues. Ideas from these blog posts made it into our electronic Kanban implementation in LeanKit Kanban, and I’d like to show you how they can be implemented and analyzed using those features in LeanKit Kanban.

In “A Variation on Queues - Pipelines for WIP and Done” Derick describes how:

we can use the concept of a pipeline and split our existing queues into a WIP and Done step. For example, we want developers to pull work from the Analysis queue into the Development pipeline. We can show which cards are ready to move by splitting Analysis into sub-columns of WIP and Done.

I’m replacing his illustrations with mine, from LeanKit Kanban:

Then in September of 2009, in WIP Queues: Done vs Ready he took it a step further describing how the pipeline can be modeled to include a “Ready” state just before an “In Process”, _or_ a “Done” state just after the “In Process” state.

Like this, showing the LeanKit Kanban board in “edit mode”. (we’re proud of our “inline”, wysiwyg board editing features, too)

Notice the drop-down lists in each column/subcolumn header - these allow you to specify that a particular column is a “Ready” Queue, “In Process” queue, or “Completed” queue.

Or, in some cases, you might want both a “Ready” Queue and a “Completed/Done” Queue in your pipeline:

Notice the little Queue Type icons in each sublane header - shown in the call-out bubble. These allow you to see at a glance what kind of queue you’re looking at.

As Derick and Scott Bellware discussed in the WIP Queues: Done vs Ready post and comments, having a “Ready” queue may indicate a “Push” situation in your pipeline:

An important distinction of “Ready” is that it receives items via push rather than pull. It’s a thing that’s usually found and the seam between two process stages or two parts of an organization that aren’t easily reconciled by pull.

Before we move on to how you can use these distinctions in your analysis of process efficiency, here is one more illustration from LeanKit Kanban, showing a Ready/WIP pipeline modeled as a horizontal sublane, instead of a vertical one:

Efficiency Analysis Based on Queue Type

Now let’s look at how making these distinctions on the types of Queues in your process, along with the automatic statistics capture your get from an electronic tool, and the Efficiency Analysis chart in LeanKit Kanban can show you valuable information about the efficiency of your process, and how much “dead” time there might be in waiting for handoffs.

Let’s take, as an example, a more complex value stream, shown below (click to enlarge):

Notice how the parent “In Development” and “Testing” lanes are broken down horizontally into “Feature Groups”, each with a Ready Queue, In Process Queue and a Completed Queue. The Bugs section of the “In Process” lane is modeled with an In Process and a Completed queue, whereas the Bugs section of the Testing Lane is modeled using a Ready queue and an In Process Queue.

Using the Efficiency Diagram in LeanKit Kanban, and all the flexibility it provides to define the parameters used to analyze the data, we can take a closer look at

1. Just the “In Process” and “Testing” lanes and their children/sublanes
2. For the first 3 weeks in January
3. Taking Card Size into account

… in order to see

What percentage of the Cards on the board were “In Process”, as opposed to “Ready” or “Completed” at any given time over the course of those three weeks?

Check out the diagram below in detail, with annotations: (click to enlarge)

So, for this completely made-up data set I used to generate this chart, it looks like we’re running a fairly efficient process. What do those occasional spikes in “Completed” queues mean? Maybe those are Fridays, when people push to finish the work they currently have on their plate. Or maybe it’s no big deal - but noticing patterns like that, and asking the questions that they inevitably bring to mind, can be an important part of the “continuous improvement” of your Kanban system.

Thanks to Derick and Scott, for their contributions to the Lean Software Development and Kanban community and to my own learning process over the past couple of years. Thank You for reading this far down, and please do go and give LeanKit Kanban a spin. You can sign up for a fully functional free account, which includes all the advanced features and analytics described in this post, and allows you one Kanban board and up to 5 users for free.

Indefatigable

Posted by indomitablehef | Filed under LeanKit, Kanban, Personal

I have this little tagline at the top of my blog: “Inimitable. Indefatigable. Indomitable.” Now, those are mostly there because I’m a lover of words, and I just like those words. But I also see them as something to aspire to. I think I can lay some claim to being “Inimitable”, and at times even “Indomitable”. But until recently, I don’t think I ever understood how hard “Indefatigable” can be. (Indefatigable = tireless). You see, I’ve started my own business, with a couple of partners. I still have my regular job, too. My wife says that I’m now working three full time jobs (she counts being a Dad and Husband as one of those jobs, which is nice).

My third job (the new business) starts every night at about 10 or 11PM, after my daughter is asleep, and my wife and I have had time to sit together and drink a glass of wine and watch a little TV. At midnight, we have our daily standup call with my partners here in Tennessee and our European contractors, who are waking up early (at 7 or 8AM) to join the call. This time pretty much guarantees that everyone is equally sleepy.

From there, I work until 2 or 3AM, or even later, and finally collapse into bed when I start falling asleep at the keyboard. Our daughter likes to wake up at 5 or 6 in the morning, so my wife and I take turns being the one to wake up first, and whoever gets that first duty usually gets a few more minutes of sleep right before having to get up and start the day. My wonderful wife is very supportive and works out ways to give me blocks of time on weekends where I can work as well.

It’s been a lot of hard work for the past few months, but we’re finally getting very close to a full product launch. We’ve been in beta for awhile, and we may still call it “beta” for a little while after we launch, but it will be out there and available for use and purchase by early November. I should mention, too, that my partners, Stephen Franklin and Daniel Norton, have also been burning the candle at both ends - and I send out a special “thanks” to Leslie and Mary (their wives) for also being so supportive during this time. And we couldn’t have done it without the help of our intrepid young team of contractors - those guys are rock stars, and I feel lucky to know them.

I don’t expect I’ll be back to regular blogging anytime soon. There’s still much work to be done, and my personal blog is definitely going to take a back seat for awhile. But someday, when “we own the company we want to work for”, I’ll be back to writing on my own a bit.

Oh, yes…the new company! We’re called Bandit Software, LLC. (named after Stephen’s dog, Bandit). Our first product is LeanKit Kanban, and you can sign up for the beta, and get a free account, at http://LeanKitKanban.com

LeanKit Kanban is now in public beta

Posted by indomitablehef | Filed under LeanKit, Lean, Kanban, Asp.Net MVC, S#arp Architecture

There’s still much work to be done, but we’re ready for the masses to come and take a look. Thank You, to all of you who helped us to beta test it during our private beta phase, and those of you at IMIHealth and BBCWorldWide for participating in a full pilot. Your feedback and encouragement have been invaluable.

LeanKit Kanban is a visual process management application, based on Lean principles, and optimized for distributed teams. I invite everyone to sign up for the free 1 board 5 user account at http://LeanKitKanban.com