When I last posted on this blog, I was about to depart for the House of Mouse. Yep, DisneyWorld. The Magic Kingdom, to be precise. You might wonder why i’m blathering on about my vacation in my Kanban blog. However, an amusement park is the perfect place to find Kanban happening out in the wild. Talk about your EverydayKanban! For our case study, let’s look at roller coaster ride. But, first, a key to get our parallels drawn…

Case study key

• People == Task/User Story/Issue
• Queue == Backlog (usually with estimated wait times listed)
• FastPass == Expedite or Fixed Date type of task/user story/issue
• “Next up” lines == To Do buffer (WIP limit applied)
• Roller coaster car == In Progress (WIP limit applied)
• Exit == Deployment

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Hey delivery team, customer, project manager… what do you value? What I value has evolved over time. At one point I couldn’t have succinctly answered that question. Now it is crystal clear and seems like the pinnacle of common sense for a manager of a delivery team like me.

I value finishing work over starting work.

This simple realization has completely changed my viewpoint on how I approach nearly all aspects of my job. Now that I have had this epiphany, it seems unreal that I have to explain this or, especially, argue this point to get people on the same page with me on this topic. I often wonder why this isn’t common sense to all. It’s easy to forget I wasn’t always thinking this way.

In the beginning…

Initially there is comfort, amongst delivery teams and customers, in the feeling you get when you begin things. You begin this, you begin that, and you begin some more. You begin as much as possible. You value starting work. It is the measure of your success.

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Hi, I’m Julia. Welcome to Everyday Kanban! I have been a technical manager for nearly 3 years. About one year into this job I learned about Kanban and I haven’t looked back. I’ve taken my time, implementing the principles one by one, but I’ve come to find that the culture shift in my mind and those around me has made a significant, positive change in my stress level at work. 🙂 So, now we’re here because I want to share Kanban with you and help it make your everyday just a little bit better — or maybe a lot! 😉