Kanban Thinking is a framework that uses kanban-based techniques to solve problems. One of its goals is to avoid being prescriptive, while still capturing the essence of much of what has been learned over recent years. The core components that enable this are heuristics that guide the design of kanban systems by understanding the nature of the system, describing desirable impacts, and identifying possible interventions. The heuristics can be explored by working through the Kanban Canvas.
System
How to assess the systemic problem and who is experiencing it.
Impacts
How to assess the fitness criteria in terms of flow, value & potential.
Interventions
How to assess the evolutionary potential by studying, sharing, stabilising, sensing & searching.
Impacts
Flow
What stories can be told about the work going through a perfect process which has reliability and efficiency?
Potential
What stories can be told about the work being done by passionate people who have flexibility and euphoria?
Value
What stories can be told about the work of creating an unbeatable product which has validity and effectiveness?
Interventions
Study
What could be learnt about customer and stakeholder needs, the resultant demand, and how that demand is processed?
Share
What information is important to share, and how can tokens, the inscriptions on them, and their placements, create a common understanding?
Stabilise
What policies could help limit work in process, and remove unnecessary or unexpected delays or rework?
Sense
What measures and meetings might create insights and guide decisions on potential interventions?
Search
What small experiments could be run to safely learn the impact of different interventions?
Kanban Canvas
The Kanban Canvas is designed to be printed on A0 paper and used to collaboratively explore the model when designing a kanban system.
Download
To receive a link to download the Canvas, please submit your contact details below.
The following translations are available:
- Brazilian Portuguese, by Rodrigo Silva Pinto
- French, by Fabrice Aimetti
- German, by Bruno Baketarić
- Italian, by Marco Bresciani
- Korean, by Seungbin Cho
- Spanish, by Joseph Hurtado
If you would like to provide a translation, please let me know via AvailAgility