In this video, we will discuss an overview of Kanban. We will start with an overview of the Kanban method. Agile methods or approaches to achieving agility. The methods are also sometimes called frameworks or methodologies. Agile on its own is more of a mindset than an actual approach to managing projects. To agile methods, add a bit more structure to the agile ideas. Common agile methods are Kanban and Scrum. There are others as well, such as XP or Extreme Programming. Even though the methods are different, they each embody the core principles of agile. Example principles are empower the team, focus on continuous improvement, work in small batches, and deliver increments or value. The ideas from different methods are often combined by teams to create a custom method for each team. The Kanban method is an agile method commonly use to manage a continuous queue of work items or issues. The Kanban method leverages many of the ideas of the Toyota production system which we will discuss later in the course. Some of the ideas used in the Kanban method include limit work in progress. At any given time, the team should only be working on the amount of work that it can handle sustainably. Remove bottlenecks to improve flow. Ideally, you would like to have the team outputting a steady stream or flow of work. The reality is that there will be bottlenecks in the process. Issues will become stuck in certain places and may pile up in other places. These can be because of a problem with the process itself, or just the reality of the complexity of the issues. Either way, the team works together to remove these bottlenecks once they are identified. Attempting to remove bottlenecks forces the team to see the whole process rather than just a portion of it. When removing the bottleneck, it is best to find the root cause and fix the process there. Pull rather than push work where it makes sense. For many steps of a process, it is better for someone working on the next step to pull the work from the previous step rather than having it pushed on them when the previous step is finished. We will discuss this idea more later. Why would a team choose to use the Kanban method? The Kanban method is a very lightweight and efficient agile method. All agile methods by definition are lightweight, but Kanban is lighter compared to the others like Scrum. You can think of the Kanban method as a bare-bones way to achieve agility. This means that it is quite easy to understand and begin to use. Some teams find that they are more efficient using Kanban than other agile methods. The Kanban method can also be used as an evolutionary approach of transforming to agile. You can use your existing team in their existing roles, and begin to use the Kanban method. Kanban doesn't need a reorganization, new types of meetings, or new roles. You can start implementing it now. You can then continuously improve to become more agile over time. The Kanban method tends to work well if the workflow is service oriented. Examples include some of the work of the operations team, support requests, maintenance development, and a human resource departments new hire funnel. Anywhere where there is a continuous flow of work can be a good candidate for the Kanban method. This does not mean that Kanban should not be used to develop products. It is used to develop products as well. The Kanban method supports multi-team and multi-project workflows. An issue can be moved among teams using a single board or multiple boards that are specific to each team. Each team can accomplish the work of the issue in any way that they choose. Next, we will discuss Kanban boards. Like all boards, the Kanban board is a tool used to visualize the workflow of a team. Here are the columns of the default Kanban board in Jira. You can see that there are four columns. When issues are created, they're automatically appear in the backlog column. The issues in the backlog might need a bit more discussion or planning before they are ready to be worked on. When an issue is ready to be worked on, it is pushed to the ''Selected for Development'' column. This can be thought of as the team's prioritized to-do list. When someone from the team is ready to work on an issue, that person pulls the top issue from the ''Selected for Development Column'' into the ''In Progress'' column. When the work of the issue is done, it is pushed into the ''Done'' column. You can see that Kanban boards are a simple and effective way to visually manage the team's work. Even though we are showing the default Kanban board, the column configuration can be customized to match the way that your team works. Kanban boards focus on improving the flow of issues through the workflow. New issues are continuously added to the backlog and are always being prioritized, usually by the business team. Once the issues are ready to be worked on, they are pushed to this ''Selected for Development'' column, and then flow through the statuses of the workflow. Work is continuously being finished before starting new work. When a team member is ready to work on a new issue, they simply choose the top issue under ''Selected for Development''. This ensures that the team is always working on the most important issue as defined by the team. Next, we will discuss separating the Kanban backlog from the Kanban board. In Jira, the backlog column on a Kanban board can be separated from the rest of the board. This has a few advantages. It allows the development team to only see and focus on issues that they can work on because issues in the backlog column are not ready to be worked on. The backlog column also can become quite long and hard to manage in this format. A separate backlog column is easier to manage, and any work there is not visible to the rest of the team. To move a column from the Kanban board to the Kanban backlog, you click the more icon associated with the board, then select ''Board Settings'', and then the ''Columns'' tab. On the left of the column configuration page, you can see an area called Kanban backlog. If you drag a status or statuses to that column, the status will be moved to the Kanban backlog and will no longer be visible on the Kanban board. In this example we have dragged the backlog status from the backlog column to the Kanban backlog. Notice that Jira informs you that the backlog column will no longer be visible on the Kanban board. Once you have configured the Kanban board with a Kanban backlog, when you view the Kanban board you no longer see the backlog column. This is a simplified board that allows the development team to see only the issues that are ready to be worked on. Jira has also added a backlog tab to the sidebar. This is where you can see and manage the issues in the backlog. When you click on the ''Backlog'' tab, you see the backlog. These are all of the issues with the status that was dragged to the Kanban backlog when configuring the board. In this case, these are the issues with the status of backlog. Notice that the items in the backlog are in a list, and you have a lot more room to edit the backlog. Above the backlog is the first column of the board. This is there so that you can easily move issues from the backlog onto the board, allowing the team to see the issues. Also, if you would edit an issue here, changing the status to any column on the Kanban board, the issue will move out of the backlog and onto the Kanban board. Here is a review of what we've discussed in this video. Kanban is a lightweight agile method. A Kanban board has a continuous flow of issues moving from backlog to done columns. In Jira, the Kanban backlog can be separated from the Kanban board, simplifying the Kanban board and allowing separate backlog work.
