Kanban in Action

Summary

Kanban in Action is a down-to-earth, no-frills, get-to-know-the-ropes introduction to kanban. It’s based on the real-world experience and observations from two kanban coaches who have introduced this process to dozens of teams. You’ll learn the principles of why kanban works, as well as nitty-gritty details like how to use different color stickies on a kanban board to help you organize and track your work items.

About the Book

Too much work and too little time? If this is daily life for your team, you need kanban, a lean knowledge-management method designed to involve all team members in continuous improvement of your process.

Kanban in Action is a practical introduction to kanban. Written by two kanban coaches who have taught the method to dozens of teams, the book covers techniques for planning and forecasting, establishing meaningful metrics, visualizing queues and bottlenecks, and constructing and using a kanban board.

Written for all members of the development team, including leaders, coders, and business stakeholders. No experience with kanban is required.

Purchase of the print book includes a free eBook in PDF, Kindle, and ePub formats from Manning Publications.

What’s Inside

• How to focus on work in process and finish faster
• Examples of successful implementations
• How team members can make informed decisions

About the Authors

Marcus Hammarberg is a kanban coach and software developer with experience in BDD, TDD, Specification by Example, Scrum, and XP. Joakim Sundén is an agile coach at Spotify who cofounded the first kanban user groups in Europe.

Table of Contents

Part 1: Learning kanban
Chapter 1. Team Kanbaneros gets started

Part 2: Understanding kanban
Chapter 2. Kanban principles
Chapter 3. Visualizing your work
Chapter 4. Work items
Chapter 5. Work in process
Chapter 6. Limiting work in process
Chapter 7. Managing flow

Part 3: Advanced kanban
Chapter 8. Classes of service
Chapter 9. Planning and estimating
Chapter 10. Process improvement
Chapter 11. Using metrics to guide improvements
Chapter 12. Kanban pitfalls
Chapter 13. Teaching kanban through games

Appendix A. Recommended reading and other resources
Appendix B. Kanban tools