‘Kanban’ By Anderson

Who should read this book?

People who want to implement Kanban in their team.

Agile coaches.

Why you should read this book (or not)?

‘Kanban’ is a reference in the field of Agile. You should read it when you are convinced Kanban is probably a good fit for your team (that is probably the most challenging part).

Compared to ‘Kanban in Action’ by Marcus Hammarberg and Joakim Sunden, it is harder to read. Anderson covers a broader set of related ideas (e.g. the link with Theory of Constraints & Six Sigma). He also explains in more detail the background & origin of the ideas, which is something I can appreciate. His writing is less structured – in my opinion – because it marks the beginning of Kanban.

I would not be able to recommend one or the other: it really depends on personal taste. Unless you are seeking more in depth knowledge & understanding, reading both books is probably a bit overkill.

Interesting extracts

“Frequent gestures or events enhance trust more than larger gestures made only occasionally. When I teach this in classes, I like to ask women in the class what they think after they go on a first date with a guy. I suggest that they had a nice time and then he doesn’t call them for two weeks. He then turns up on their doorstep with a bunch of flowers and an apology. I ask them to compare this to a guy who takes the time to type a text message on his way home that evening to say, ‘I had a great time tonight. I really want to see you again. Call you tomorrow?’ and then follows up by actually calling the next day. Guess who they prefer? Small gestures often cost nothing but build more trust than large, expensive (or expansive) gestures bestowed occasionally.”

“In kaizen culture the workforce is empowered. Individuals feel free to take action; free to do the right thing. They spontaneously swarm on problems, discuss options, and implement fixes and improvements. In a kaizen culture, the workforce is without fear. The underlying norm is for management to be tolerant of failure if the experimentation and innovation was in the name of process- and performance improvement. In a kaizen culture, individuals are free (within some limits) to self-organize around the work they do and how they do it. Visual controls and signals are evident, and work tasks are generally volunteered for rather than assigned by a superior. A kaizen culture involves a high level of collaboration and a collegial atmosphere where everyone looks out for the performance of the team and the business above themselves. A kaizen culture focuses on systems-level thinking while making local improvements that enhance overall performance. A kaizen culture has a high level of social capital. It is a highly trusting culture where individuals, regardless of their position in the decision-making hierarchy of the business, respect each other and each person’s contribution.”

“This ‘stop the line’ aspect of Kanban seems to encourage swarming behavior across the value stream. When people from different functional areas and with different job title swarm on a problem and collaborate to find a solution, thus maintaining the flow of work and improving system level performance, the level of social capital and team trust increases.”

“Flow Efficiency. A good Lean indicator of the waste in the system is to measure the lead time against the touch time. In manufacturing, touch time refers to the time a worker spends actually touching a job. In software development, this is very difficult to measure. However, most tracking systems can track assigned time (to an individual) against time spent blocked and queuing. Hence, although reporting the ratio of lead time to assigned time doesn’t give us an accurate indication of the waste in the system, it does give us a conservative ratio that shows how much potential there is for improvement.”