During the last week, I attended a course on Kanban (Jedi level, mind you) at Crisp in Stockholm. The course was conducted by David Andersson, who is considered a key figure in applying Kanban to the software industry.
If you’re new to Kanban, I highly recommend this article by Henrik Kniberg as a great introduction. Keep an eye on InfoQ for a comprehensive book on the subject, which includes some excellent case studies.
The course was fantastic and provided a deeper understanding of Lean thinking. Kanban offers simple but powerful tools: visualization (put it up on the wall!), prioritizing value-adding activities, minimizing waste, and performing root-cause analysis.
Kanban itself is straightforward to understand, but mastering it is like any game—simple rules, but a lifetime to perfect.
I also felt a need to delve into the underlying Lean principles that are foundational to both Scrum and Kanban.
I’m less concerned now about whether it’s called Scrum, Kanban, XP, or Lean. They’re just different tools in my agile toolbox. The key is knowing when to use them. That is being smart.
I’m sure I’ll revisit Kanban several times here.