Thread by @johncutlefish

Here’s something you see often w/ teams and #kanban

Team: “Can we move cards backwards?” (1/11)

When this happens, we’re in a pickle. In true pull-system fashion, the developer has pulled another card. Test finds an issue that demands developer’s attention. What to do? (2/11)

One solution is to say “hey dev, you can only be on two things at once...one of which is developing”. Seems reasonable...and keeps their bandwidth open to fix issues. (3/11)

Another approach is to have a WIP limit across Development and Testing. Even if we move an item from Development to Testing, we will not be able to “pull” a new item into Development until something moves from testing to Done. The developer better help with testing :) (4/11)

We can indicate that items move from a period of development and test plan refinement to a period of testing and fixing issues. But keep a WIP limit (2) for a combined phase called “development & testing”. This prevents overloading in case issues arise...(5/11)

We can add things to the cards themselves to indicate who has “the ball” ... (6/11)

Super high level, we don’t let things “move left”. Why? Because our columns don’t represent functional groups, people, teams, etc. If there’s any chance a designer will need to assist a developer, or developer a tester ... we need to visualize that. (7/11)

When you have columns represent people/functions, and those functions are needed elsewhere, you get something like this .... people have to stop their work in progress and go downstream (8/11)

With #kanban we want to represent things as they actually are. With most prod dev work we have a combination of:
- currently has the ball
- contributed, is ready to assist again
- is monitoring/doing prelim work (9/11)

It’s loops...not parts moving across a factory floor. Which means we need to accommodate for collaboration and refinement. (10/11)

It often looks more like this... (11/11)

All this to say that to accurately represent their workflow — not their theoretical workflow — many teams would be better off with To Try | Trying | Reviewing, and a judicious use of stickers, flags, etc. Don’t use columns to depict people...rather actual activities (12/11)