The Kanban Kick-start Field Guide is now available!
What is it?
The Kanban Kick-start Field Guide is a practical guide to help you kick-start your team into using the Kanban method. It gathers the experience from introducing Kanban to 50+ teams at Sandvik IT.
Who wrote it?
The Field Guide was written by two lean/agile coaches, Christophe Achouiantz and Johan Nordin, for Sandvik IT. Sandvik IT being rather large, the context is “the Enterprise“, though the experience in the guide can be used in other contexts.
Why do you make it available?
We want feedback! We believe that we need the wisdom of our peers for the Field Guide to become great.
While we are quite pleased with the current version, we know that it can be improved further. Perhaps you have some insight, experience and knowledge that would make the Kanban Kick-start even better? We want to hear from you!
So this is not a definitive version?
No. This is just the first release! We plan on updating the Field Guide based on the feedback we get from the community. The Field Guide is already alive within Sandvik IT where it is used to spread knowledge, help new coaches and document the standard way to start with Kanban.
Is it some new method / framework / process?
No. It simply describes a practical way to introduce Kanban, especially when you have limited coaching resources and limited time from the team.
What makes it special?
- It describes is a one-day workshop to get the team started with Kanban.
- It is down-to-earth practical with a step-by-step approach that anyone with Kanban experience can easily follow.
- It is centered on the team and for the team.
- The goal is for a team to quickly get in control so that it can improve.
So, I just need to follow the recipe? No need to think?
No. The steps are simple, but they are designed to challenge the team – and the coach – to really grasp the team’s current condition. A good kanban system can only be designed when truly understanding a team’s situation.
Is it free?
Yes. Actually, the field guide is released under a Creative Common license Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported. This means that you can copy, distribute or transmit and adapt the work freely. Though, you cannot use it for commercial purposes and you must attribute the work to Sandvik IT, as well as use the same or similar license if you alter, transform or build upon this work.
What is Sandvik and Sanvik IT?
Sandvik, founded in 1862, is a high-technology, engineering group. The Sandvik Group conducts operations in five business areas: mining, machining solutions, materials technology, construction and venture. Worldwide business activities are conducted through representation in more than 130 countries. In 2012 the Group had about 49,000 employees with annual sales of approximately 11,880 MEUR.
Sandvik IT is supporting the Sandvik group’s IT needs. In 2012, Sandvik IT has about 900 employees in 40 countries, supporting 365 applications for more than 30.000 users.
Don’t you have a ePub version or similar available?
Not quite yet. We use many tables in the guide and they do not come out quite well in ePub.
I have some questions, feedback, contribution, issues. How do I contact you?
You can start by leaving a comment on this blog. You will also find detailed contact information in the Field Guide.
Good reading!
The Field Guide has been available for a month now and it has already been downloaded 700+ times!
Here is a summary of the feedback we've got so far (on [kanbandev] yahoo group, LinkedIn or via direct mails).
The reception has been very positive: "Thanks for publishing!", "Great stuff!", "Kudos!", "Very useful", "Impressive!", "Great work!", "well structured", "easy to use", etc.
The Field Guide was mentioned in a number of news aggregators and in some blogs and other works. Here are some links:
http://yuvalyeret.com/2013/05/08/bootstrapping-agile-by-yourself-using-kanban-my-agile-israel-2013-talk/
http://inventricks.wordpress.com/2013/04/22/resources-for-a-kanban-kick-start/
Based on the feedback we've got, these are the area that we plan on improving in a future release:
– The "philosophy" we use may need to be made clearer: we have designed a "kanbanification" process to get to the core asap (the emotion to see and understand your work). Richness and complexity of the kanban system is pulled in later.
– In PREP 1 the intent must be made clearer. It is about getting a Go/No GO from the manager to start a Kanban implementation by agreeing to pursue an increment and evolutionary change with the team.
– In PREP 2 we will make clearer that the coach must have a service-oriented approach when understanding the team.
– There may need a new PREP step: a larger retrospective with the team in case the team isn't ready for the Kick-start (this is discussed in the text but it may need to be clearer)
– There may need a new BOOST step: "Break large items into smaller ones"
– We currently refer a lot to 'teams' and very little to 'value streams'. We will try to address that.
That's it for now.
We will post more feedback as we go.
Hi
Thanks Christophe Achouiantz and Johan Nordin for your "Kanban Kick-start Field Guide", I like it a lot!
Regards, Fredrik Josliden (Lean/Agile coach at Ericsson AB)
Hi
This is such a nice post on "Kanban kick-start field Guide" i really like it and it help me alot to working and understanding the term of software developmet australia. So thanks for sharing this info with us.
Hi Christophe we just "build" or own kanban rollout concept and defined workshops.
Thanks to your guide we saved much time 🙂
Thanks!
Alex
Great! Thanks for the feedback!
Hi Christophe, may I translate this book into traditional Chinese under CC3.0 ?
Hi Tony,
As long as it is under a Creative Common license you are very welcome!
Let me know how it is going for you and if you need any help.
Cheers!
/Christophe