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How Kanban Saved Agile

October 8, 2020
5 minute read
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In reality, Kanban isn’t actually saving Agile nor is it intended to, nor is any thoughtful and responsible Kanban practitioner motivated by this agenda. What I’m really trying to convey is how human thinking about the business of professional services (including software development) has evolved since “Agile” as many of us know it was conceived around 20 or so years ago. The Agile Manifesto is the collective statement of a group of software development thought leaders that captured some of their ideas at the time about how the software industry needed to improve. Essentially, it was about the iterative and incremental delivery of high-quality software products. For 2001, this was pretty heady stuff. You could even say that it spawned a movement.

Since the publication of the manifesto in 2001, a lot of other people have had a lot of other good ideas about how the business of delivering professional services can improve. This has been well documented in well known sources too numerous to mention for the scope of this article.

Substantial contributions to the discourse have been generated by and through the Kanban community. The aim of Kanban is to foster environments in which knowledge workers can thrive and create innovative, valuable and viable solutions for improving the world. Kanban has three agendas: survivability (primarily but not exclusively for the business executives), service-orientation (primarily but not exclusively for managers) and sustainability (primarily but not exclusively for knowledge workers). Kanban provides pragmatic, actionable, evidence-based guidance for improving along these three agendas.

Evolutionary Theory is one of the key conceptual underpinnings of the Kanban Method, most notably the dynamic of punctuated equilibrium. Evolution is natural, perpetual and fundamental to life. Long periods of equilibrium are punctuated by relatively short periods of “transformation”—apparent total and irreversible change. An extinction event is a kind of punctuation, so too is the rapid explosion of new forms. Evolutionary theory is not only a scientifically proven body of knowledge for understanding the nature of life. It can be also applied to the way we think about ideas, methods and movements.

For example, science has more or less established that the extinction of the dinosaurs, triggered by a meteor impact and subsequent dramatic atmospheric and climate change, was in fact a key punctuation point in the evolution of birds. In other words, dinosaurs didn’t become extinct, rather they evolved into birds. That is, something along the lines of the small dinosaurs with large feathers hanging around after Armageddon learned to fly over generations in order to escape predators, find food and raise their young. Dinosaurs evolved into birds. Birds saved the dinosaurs.

There has been a lot of social media chatter and buzz lately about how Agile is dead. It is a movement that has run its course, or so the narrative goes. After all, 20 years is more or less the established pattern for the rise and fall of management fads. But too much emphasis on the rise and fall of fads can blind us to larger, broader (deeper) over-arching trends.

The agile movement historically has been about high-performing teams. More recently, market demand has lead to the profusion of “scaling” approaches and frameworks. Scaling emerged out of the reality of systemic interdependence in which most Agile teams find themselves. Most agile teams are responsible for aspects of workflows—stages of value creation—as contributors to the delivery of a service or multiple services. Agile teams capable of independently taking requests directly from and delivering directly to customers are extremely rare. For the rest, classical Agile or Scrum is not enough. The feathers just aren’t big enough. Agile teams attempting to function independently (pure Scrum) in an interdependent environment are vulnerable to the antibodies of the system, especially when such interdependencies are merely denounced as impediments to agility.

Some organizations find themselves in a state of evolutionary punctuation (the proverbial sky is falling) that can trigger rapid adaptations and the emergence of local conditions in which independent service delivery teams can thrive. Most large, established organizations seem to be more or less in a state of equilibrium. Whether real or imagined, this is what change agents have to work with. However, more often than not, the typical Agile change agent seems adamant that the sky is always falling and that everyone accepting that the sky is falling is the first step to real and meaningful change. This is not an attitude held by Agile change agents alone. This is a standard feature of traditional 20th Century change management methods, the key selling point for change management consulting.

Naturally, most self-identifying “Agilists” see themselves as change agents. Many of them find themselves in the position of change management consultants. But the motivation for change can quickly become misaligned: Change needs to happen in order for Agile to work. If you are passionate about Agile, you will seek to bring about the environmental changes that will allow for Agile to thrive. We don’t need to follow this path too far until Agile becomes an end in itself. It is understandable then that for some, Agile appears to be a dead end, or just dead.

But if there is a larger, overarching historical process playing out, what might that be? Perhaps it has something to do with the evolution of human organization. Perhaps we are living in a period of punctuation.

For my working definition of Kanban, please refer to my previous article 14 Things Every Agilist Should Know About Kanban (this contains links to the Kanban body of knowledge, including Essential Kanban Condensed by David J. Anderson and Andy Carmichael).

 

by Travis Birch

 


 
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  • Kanban System Design® (KMPI) badge

    Kanban System Design® (KMPI)

    26 to 27 SEP 2023 (2 days) - Starting Tuesday - Online - David Vicentin

    Early-bird Discount! C$1795.00 C$1525.75 Until 12-Sep Register Now

    - Improve Knowledge Work Productivity -

    This 2-day workshop - Kanban System Design (KSD) - also known as 'Kanban for Real Agility®' - provides you with the fundamentals of the Kanban Method® . It is designed specifically for leaders starting their organization on the gentler path towards Real Agility™. This learning event is ideal for you if you are responsible for the delivery of a service. Learn the concepts of flow, pull, classes of service, and learn to deal with interruptions and multi-tasking. Learn the Systems Thinking Approach To Implementing Kanban (STATIK) through a multi-step interactive case study review.

    This KSD course, (formerly known as Kanban Management Professional 1 - KMP I), is the first of two courses towards the Kanban Management Professional (KMP) credential. The KSD is the prerequisite to the Kanban Systems Improvement course (KSI). By completing both this course (KSD) and the KSI, participants can earn their KMP credential with Kanban University®.

    Key Benefits
    - Participate in a Kanban simulation for immersive learning
    - Design your service's Kanban board with guidance from our Kanban experts
    - Start your Kanban adoption and in evolving your system
    - Earn 16 PDUs | 16 SEUs
    - Obtain your Kanban University® KSD certificate
    - Completion of this and the KSI class will earn you the Kanban University® KMP credential
    - Get a profile listing on the Kanban University® alumni page
    - We are a Registered Education Provider with Kanban University® and PMI®
    - Taught by and overseen by Accredited Kanban Trainers (AKT's)

    EXCLUSIVE: Free "Kanban for Managers" e-book written by BERTEIG consultants!

    Download the recommended reading by "David J. Anderson and Andy Carmichael":
    Essential Kanban Condensed

    Please register using a corporate email address, for corporate loyalty program discounts.
    Read More

    Location:

    Online

    Date:

    Tue 26-Sep-2023
    Wed 27-Sep-2023

    Time:

    09:00 AM to 05:00 PM (EST)

    Trainer:
    David Vicentin

    David Vicentin


    Senior Agile/Lean Consultant
    About Trainer
  • Kanban System Design® (KMPI) badge

    Kanban System Design® (KMPI)

    12 to 13 DEC 2023 (2 days) - Starting Tuesday - Online - David Vicentin

    Early-bird Discount! C$1795.00 C$1525.75 Until 28-Nov Register Now

    - Improve Knowledge Work Productivity -

    This 2-day workshop - Kanban System Design (KSD) - also known as 'Kanban for Real Agility®' - provides you with the fundamentals of the Kanban Method® . It is designed specifically for leaders starting their organization on the gentler path towards Real Agility™. This learning event is ideal for you if you are responsible for the delivery of a service. Learn the concepts of flow, pull, classes of service, and learn to deal with interruptions and multi-tasking. Learn the Systems Thinking Approach To Implementing Kanban (STATIK) through a multi-step interactive case study review.

    This KSD course, (formerly known as Kanban Management Professional 1 - KMP I), is the first of two courses towards the Kanban Management Professional (KMP) credential. The KSD is the prerequisite to the Kanban Systems Improvement course (KSI). By completing both this course (KSD) and the KSI, participants can earn their KMP credential with Kanban University®.

    Key Benefits
    - Participate in a Kanban simulation for immersive learning
    - Design your service's Kanban board with guidance from our Kanban experts
    - Start your Kanban adoption and in evolving your system
    - Earn 16 PDUs | 16 SEUs
    - Obtain your Kanban University® KSD certificate
    - Completion of this and the KSI class will earn you the Kanban University® KMP credential
    - Get a profile listing on the Kanban University® alumni page
    - We are a Registered Education Provider with Kanban University® and PMI®
    - Taught by and overseen by Accredited Kanban Trainers (AKT's)

    EXCLUSIVE: Free "Kanban for Managers" e-book written by BERTEIG consultants!

    Download the recommended reading by "David J. Anderson and Andy Carmichael":
    Essential Kanban Condensed

    Please register using a corporate email address, for corporate loyalty program discounts.
    Read More

    Location:

    Online

    Date:

    Tue 12-Dec-2023
    Wed 13-Dec-2023

    Time:

    09:00 AM to 05:00 PM (EST)

    Trainer:
    David Vicentin

    David Vicentin


    Senior Agile/Lean Consultant
    About Trainer
  • Kanban Systems Improvement® (KMPII) badge

    Kanban Systems Improvement® (KMPII)

    11 to 12 JUL 2023 (2 days) - Starting Tuesday - Online - David Vicentin

    Early-bird Discount! C$1895.00 C$1610.75 Until 25-Jun Register Now

    - Optimize Services for Flow and Performance -

    This 2-day workshop - Kanban Systems Improvement (KSI) - focuses on the leadership aspect as well as the roll out and daily operation of a multi-service system using Kanban as a management method. You will also learn how to use Kanban to manage, optimize, scale, and evolve your system over time.

    This KSI course, (formerly known as Kanban Management Professional 2 - KMP II), is the second of two courses towards the Kanban Management Professional (KMP) credential. The Kanban System Design (KSD) course is the prerequisite to this course. By completing both the KSD as well as this course (KSI), participants can earn their KMP credential with Kanban University®.

    Learning Objectives
    - Managing Evolutionary Change
    - Dealing with Resistance to Change
    - Feedback Loops and Continuous Learning
    - Implementing and Scaling out Kanban
    - Balancing Demand and Capability
    - Optimizing Flow and Predictability

    Key Benefits
    - Earn 16 PDUs | 16 SEUs
    - Obtain your Kanban University® KSI certificate
    - Completion of this and the KSD class will earn you the Kanban University® KMP credential
    - Get a profile listing on the Kanban University® alumni page
    - We are a Registered Education Provider with Kanban University® and PMI®
    - Taught by and overseen by Accredited Kanban Trainers (AKT's)

    EXCLUSIVE: Free "Agile Advice" e-book written by BERTEIG consultants!


    Please register using a corporate email address, for corporate loyalty program discounts.
    Read More

    Location:

    Online

    Date:

    Tue 11-Jul-2023
    Wed 12-Jul-2023

    Time:

    09:00 AM to 05:00 PM (EST)

    Trainer:
    David Vicentin

    David Vicentin


    Senior Agile/Lean Consultant
    About Trainer
  • Kanban Systems Improvement® (KMPII) badge

    Kanban Systems Improvement® (KMPII)

    25 to 26 OCT 2023 (2 days) - Starting Wednesday - Online - David Vicentin

    Early-bird Discount! C$1795.00 C$1525.75 Until 11-Oct Register Now

    - Optimize Services for Flow and Performance -

    This 2-day workshop - Kanban Systems Improvement (KSI) - focuses on the leadership aspect as well as the roll out and daily operation of a multi-service system using Kanban as a management method. You will also learn how to use Kanban to manage, optimize, scale, and evolve your system over time.

    This KSI course, (formerly known as Kanban Management Professional 2 - KMP II), is the second of two courses towards the Kanban Management Professional (KMP) credential. The Kanban System Design (KSD) course is the prerequisite to this course. By completing both the KSD as well as this course (KSI), participants can earn their KMP credential with Kanban University®.

    Learning Objectives
    - Managing Evolutionary Change
    - Dealing with Resistance to Change
    - Feedback Loops and Continuous Learning
    - Implementing and Scaling out Kanban
    - Balancing Demand and Capability
    - Optimizing Flow and Predictability

    Key Benefits
    - Earn 16 PDUs | 16 SEUs
    - Obtain your Kanban University® KSI certificate
    - Completion of this and the KSD class will earn you the Kanban University® KMP credential
    - Get a profile listing on the Kanban University® alumni page
    - We are a Registered Education Provider with Kanban University® and PMI®
    - Taught by and overseen by Accredited Kanban Trainers (AKT's)

    EXCLUSIVE: Free "Agile Advice" e-book written by BERTEIG consultants!


    Please register using a corporate email address, for corporate loyalty program discounts.
    Read More

    Location:

    Online

    Date:

    Wed 25-Oct-2023
    Thu 26-Oct-2023

    Time:

    09:00 AM to 05:00 PM (EST)

    Trainer:
    David Vicentin

    David Vicentin


    Senior Agile/Lean Consultant
    About Trainer

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