5 months have now passed since we introduced Kanban and Agile to two teams. Here is a half way report:
Good stuff
- Trust has grown significantly, to developers and to managers
- The work they put in is now visible and appriciated in the organisation
- "We now have visibility and can affect our situation" / team member
- Both have taken significant steps from specialized individuals to teams. This is seen in frequent cooperation and problem solving.
- Knowledge sharing has intensified dramaitically
- Managers can instantly spot problems by walking through the department looking at the kanban boards
- 2 months after introduction, one team was voted "best in company" that sprint. It was also acknowledged as second highest "good" thing in company retrospective same period
Challenges remaining:
- It is hard to find clear team goals (there are no sprints)
- Knowledge sharing puts pressure on senior members, it is important to give something back, making their work fun
- A constant struggle fixing root causes outside team limits
- Teams evolves so rapidly it is hard for organisation to keep up!
The positive problem of the month
I was called in to one teams retro…
"we think we have a problem.."
"uhm.. (holding my breath) . tell me"
"well in our retro, we have too few problems…"
I’d love to see more of this 🙂
