kanban mentor

The three primary development models used today are a sequential model (e.g., Waterfall), a timeboxed iteration model (e.g., Scrum) and a continuous flow model (e.g., Kanban). The blog https://kanbanmentor.com/why-do-companies-still-use-waterfall-today/ focuses on the sequential model. This blog focuses on comparing a timeboxed iteration to continuous flow model. It focuses on the waste inherent on most scrum teams […]

The Kanban Applied guide indicates that team interactions are even more important than processes. Teamwork, communication, positivity and morale effect cycle times more than anything else. The guide mentions two types of interactions meetings. Forward looking meetings that focus on helping team members understand their differing communication styles and foster trust. And, retrospective meetings, looking […]

In Hans Christian Andersen’s book, The Emperor’s New Clothes, two weavers give the emperor a new suit of clothes that they say are made of fine fabric that is invisible to anyone who is unfit for their position or who is “hopelessly stupid”. But there actually is no suit. In fear that they will be […]

This blog discusses one of several advantages of a continuous flow model when compared with a timeboxed iteration model such as scrum. Specifically one affecting QA.  A continuous flow model eliminates QA bottlenecks that often occur at the end of every sprint in a timeboxed iteration model. QA in Kanban This blog assumes that your […]

The Scrum guide clearly depicts the meetings that all Scrum teams must hold and when. But there is no guide of mandatory meetings for Kanban. Kanban teams do what makes sense for their respective team. And no two teams need to be exactly alike. Since Kanban is about reducing waste, it is important to note […]

For many years, people have touted the advantages of an iterative development model versus a sequential waterfall model. While waterfall is a laggard as depicted in the adoption curve below, there are still countless companies who still use waterfall today. This blog discusses iterative model advantages compared with a sequential model. Requirements change In a […]

In Kanban, we set Work in Progress (WIP) limits so that we can easily visualize when bottlenecks occur in our workflow. This is explained in the blog, https://kanbanmentor.com/how-kanban-helps-visualize-and-remove-your-bottlenecks/. But, what should you do when you hit one of these bottlenecks? This blog discusses options for when your Kanban team hits a bottleneck. Example of a bottleneck […]

There is no magical formula for how to initially set WIP limits and certainly no one size fits all. It is highly dependent on the team and its unique application. It is more important to simply get started with your new Kanban board than to overanalyze trying to get your WIP limits to their perfect […]

Kanban literally means “sign board” in Japanese. So, every Kanban team has a Kanban board that depicts the team’s workflow tracking all work from the initial inception of ideas all the way through to turning these ideas into a valuable product for their customers. The construct of a team’s Kanban board depends on the workflow […]

How does Kanban streamline your processes? To begin to answer this question, we need to decide to what we are comparing our processes. Are we streamlined compared to our processes before Kanban? Are we streamlined compared to Scrum? Or are we streamlined compared to Waterfall? Well, the answers are yes, yes and heck yes! This […]