VISUALIZING NON-LINEAR WORKFLOW USING A KANBAN MATRIX 1. Managing and Visualizing Non-linear Workflows using a Kanban Matrix.

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1 VISUALIZING NON-LINEAR WORKFLOW USING A KANBAN MATRIX 1 Managing and Visualizing Non-linear Workflows using a Kanban Matrix Gerard Meszaros LSSC2011@gerardmeszaros.com Abstract Many approaches to building a Kanban board involve mapping the workflow and creating (at least) one column for each role or specialization. Each piece of functionality progresses in a sequential manner across the columns. This report describes the use of a different style of Kanban board, the Kanban Matrix, that can be used when the work can be done in many different orders or the tasks are too variable in size to achieve efficient one piece flow. Each cell in the matrix represents a potential task (a work type involved in delivering one item) and the status of the task is communicated using colour and text. This allows tasks to be done in any order or even in parallel.

2 VISUALIZING NON-LINEAR WORKFLOW USING A KANBAN MATRIX 2 Introduction I was working on the second draft of the book xunit Test Patterns (Meszaros, 2007). The content was largely nailed down in the form of 19 smells and 69 patterns, a couple of dozen sidebars, a dozen introductory chapters plus a number of appendices spread across roughly 400 files. But there was an ever expanding list of edits (kinds of things to do ) to each chapter that I needed to keep track of. I initially broke the work out by chapter and defined Finished for each chapter as having finished the complete list of edits on that chapter. But as I worked on subsequent chapters, I often found yet another edit to do to each chapter, including all the chapters that I had already Finished. Also, many of the edits were fairly small and were more efficient to do on a group of chapters than to do a whole bunch of edits to a single chapter. But they were still too large to do to *all* chapters at once. Furthermore, some edits (kinds of things to do ) could be done at the same time as others while other edits needed a different mindset. So I concluded that neither the Chapter nor the edit ( kind of thing to do ) was the optimal unit of work for single piece flow. As the number of edits climbed well past 10 and with over four hundred files, the prospect of managing this work at the per edit per file level was daunting. Initial Solution I started out by building a classic XP-style (extreme Programming) planning board on the wall using Post-it whiteboard sheets. (See Cohn, Mike (2011) for more information.) I put up a sticky note for each chapter and created task stickies for the

When I finished the last edit, I moved the chapter sticky into the Chapter Done column. Figure 1 Classic XP-style task board. Problems Encountered.

3 VISUALIZING NON-LINEAR WORKFLOW USING A KANBAN MATRIX 3 4 or 5 edits that I had identified. (See Figure 1 Classic XP-style task board.) I started working on one chapter, applying each edit and moving it across the columns as each edit was finished. When I finished the last edit, I moved the chapter sticky into the Chapter Done column. Figure 1 Classic XP-style task board. Problems Encountered. As I worked on subsequent chapters, I found additional things to do. Things like make the voice consistent by changing all occurrences of You... to We.... This required adding additional edit stickies to my wall for each of the chapters. This was especially problematic for chapters that were already marked Done since now they had to be moved back to the Backlog column. Figure 2 - XP-Style task board with new edit task added shows the board after the new Edit 4 was added. Note how Chapters 1 and 2 are already marked Done yet they have a task outstanding.

VISUALIZING NON-LINEAR WORKFLOW USING A KANBAN MATRIX 4 Figure 2 - XP-Style task board with new edit task added Also, there was no way to keep track of how much work remained because some edits

4 VISUALIZING NON-LINEAR WORKFLOW USING A KANBAN MATRIX 4 Figure 2 - XP-Style task board with new edit task added Also, there was no way to keep track of how much work remained because some edits applied to all chapters while other applied to just a few. Final Solution The solution I ended up using was a matrix of Chapter vs. Edit. Each chapter was represented as a row in a spreadsheet. Each edit was represented as a column. The current status of the edit for the chapter was represented as both text and a colour. (See Figure 3 Column per edit with color-coded status.) Text was used to track the requirements of the step. Yes meant the work was required. N/A meant it was not needed. The cell could also contain specific notes if there was something particular to remember about it. Colour was used to track the status.blue fill with Yes meant it was not yet started. Green indicated the step was completed. Yellow indicated it was in progress. Note that there is no Chapter Done column any more

VISUALIZING NON-LINEAR WORKFLOW USING A KANBAN MATRIX 5 since the status of the chapter is implied from the

Figure 3 Column per edit with color-coded status Whenever I discovered a new edit to be applied to many or

Initially, this column would be blank indicating I don t know whether it applies to this chapter.

5 VISUALIZING NON-LINEAR WORKFLOW USING A KANBAN MATRIX 5 since the status of the chapter is implied from the status of the individual edits on the chapter. Figure 3 Column per edit with color-coded status Whenever I discovered a new edit to be applied to many or all chapters I would add a new column to the table. Initially, this column would be blank indicating I don t know whether it applies to this chapter. (See Figure 4 - Color-coded status with newly added edit.) As I worked on other tasks on a chapter, I would fill in this column as I noticed whether a newly added edit was required. Figure 4 - Color-coded status with newly added edit

VISUALIZING NON-LINEAR WORKFLOW USING A KANBAN MATRIX 6 Choosing Work Whenever I finished something, I would update the colour of the steps/chapters that I had just finished and then pick the next

6 VISUALIZING NON-LINEAR WORKFLOW USING A KANBAN MATRIX 6 Choosing Work Whenever I finished something, I would update the colour of the steps/chapters that I had just finished and then pick the next (set of) item(s) to work on. When the individual steps were small, I would typically pick a set of files to apply the same step to as shown in Figure 5 - Same edit applied to several files at same time. Figure 5 - Same edit applied to several files at same time This would repeat until I had filled the entire column with green at which point I would pick the next step. Some steps involved a lot more work (e.g. Rewrite chapter 5 to... ) so I would do these one at a time and would start them when I felt fresh. When I was tired, or had only a short period of time available I would focus on the more mechanical edits. When the edits were small enough that the overhead of opening the affected files was a large part of the effort (e.g. Change all occurrences of we to I ) I often chose several similar edits to do at the same time as shown in Figure 6 Different edits applied to same file at same time.

VISUALIZING NON-LINEAR WORKFLOW USING A KANBAN MATRIX 7 Figure 6 Different edits applied to same file at same time Managing WIP and Levelling Work As this experience predated the publication of

7 VISUALIZING NON-LINEAR WORKFLOW USING A KANBAN MATRIX 7 Figure 6 Different edits applied to same file at same time Managing WIP and Levelling Work As this experience predated the publication of software-specific uses of Kanban, I did not explicitly model WIP limits on the Kanban matrix. But keeping WIP low was a key goal behind its use. The strategies I used for choosing the next batch of work implicitly kept WIP low because each batch consisted of a small set of Chapter(s)/Edit(s) intersections, and often it was a single edit applied to a single chapter. In fact, it was the desire to level the work by making the batches similar in duration -- short enough to finish in a single sitting-- that that led to the use of the Kanban Matrix. The 100+ by 20+ matrix allowed a large degree of flexibility in choosing tasks that suited my time availability, energy level and mood while maintaining a high level of discipline and making progress highly visible. Other Applications I have used the Kanban Matrix on several other projects including a systems integration project and a team-based book writing project.

8 VISUALIZING NON-LINEAR WORKFLOW USING A KANBAN MATRIX 8 Integration Project Management We used a Kanban Matrix for visualizing and managing work when integrating SAP-based and PeopleSoft-based CRM functionality with an enterprise customer database as shown in Figure 7 - Integration Project Archicture (some components omitted). Figure 7 - Integration Project Archicture (some components omitted) We decomposed each integration into stories per scenario and tasks representing various planning and development activities being done in parallel by the SAP, PeopleSoft, Enterprise Customer and messaging-middleware resources. See Figure 8 - Waterfall workflow. Each cell was coloured in as the work was completed. Some resources worked story by story while others followed a traditional waterfall/bduf approach. The matrix allowed the two approaches to be reconciled and managed.

9 VISUALIZING NON-LINEAR WORKFLOW USING A KANBAN MATRIX 9 Scenario New Customer Req New Customer ACK New Customer NACK Edit Customer Edit Customer ACK New Quote Edit Quote SAP HLD CRM HLD MOM HLD SAP Coding CRM Coding MOD Integration Coding Testing Acceptance Testing Legend: In Progress Work done Figure 8 - Waterfall workflow Interestingly, when we first suggested a story-by-story approach, the ERP resources involved in the project all rejected the approach as impossible. At the insistence of the business sponsor they agreed to build a proof of concept by focusing initially on one integration scenario that including all the components. After this was built and demonstrated we were able to convince them to continue working scenarioby-scenario (as shown in Figure 9 - Incremental workflow with implicit WIP limits) rather than reverting to a waterfall approach. Scenario New Customer Req New Customer ACK New Customer NACK Edit Customer Edit Customer ACK New Quote Edit Quote SAP CRM HLD HLD MOM HLD SAP Coding CRM Coding MOD Integration Coding Testing Acceptance Testing Legend: In Progress Work done Figure 9 - Incremental workflow with implicit WIP limits The visibility provided to the business by the Kanban Matrix was a key motivator to adopt this approach. While we did not explicitly model WIP limits on this board, the board could easily be refactored to reflect the implicit WIP limits as shown

10 VISUALIZING NON-LINEAR WORKFLOW USING A KANBAN MATRIX 10 in Figure 10 - Incremental workflow with explicit WIP limits. Integration testing was done by the devloment resources while acceptance testing was done by business resources. Speciality: Scenario New Customer Req New Customer ACK New Customer NACK Edit Customer Edit Customer ACK New Quote Edit Quote SAP (1) CRM (1) MOM (1) Integration HLD Coding HLD Coding HLD Coding Testing (1) Acceptance Testing (1) Legend: In Progress Work done Figure 10 - Incremental workflow with explicit WIP limits Team Based Book Writing Project When I was asked to join a team at Microsoft Patterns & Practices writing a book on acceptance test engineering (Melnik, Meszaros 2011), we used a similar approach on a whiteboard wall to organize the work. Initially, the tasks were Write first draft, Peer Review First Draft, Revise First Draft and PO (Product Owner) Review First Draft. Team members signed up for a particular task for each chapter/chunk. As the content matured, we evolved towards finer-grained tasks that were less of a workflow and more like the kinds of things to do described earlier. The matrix ended up being roughly 30 columns wide! Comparative Analysis The Kanban Matrix represents largely the same information as a traditional kanban board but it uses different visual clues thereby avoiding some of the restrictsion of the traditional board.

11 VISUALIZING NON-LINEAR WORKFLOW USING A KANBAN MATRIX 11 Workflow Definition A traditional kanban board uses a single token for the deliverable and uses columns to represent the different groups of workers between whom the work flows. This requires that there be an order in which the tasks/columns are carried out. The Kanban Matrix uses one row for each deliverable and columns for each task in the workflow regardless of who does the work. Therefore we may have many more columns than (types of) resources. In the personal book project, I had one column per task type even though there was only one resource (I.e. Me!) In the team-writing project, we also had one column per task type even though we had a pool of resources for some task types while other tasks could only be done by our Product Owner. In the integration project, we had one column for each workflow phase (a macro task type) for each team (the resource type). Tracking Progress The traditional kanban board uses movement of the token representing the deliverable between the columns as the indication of progress. Because there is a single token, this imples that only one column can be active at a time. The Kanban Matrix indicates progress through a change of colour. This allows many tasks to be in progress simultaneously for the same deliverable. Backlog (Todo) and Work Completed (Done) The traditional kanban board only shows the deliverables being worked on and the next few deliverables on deck. Availablity of slots in the on deck column is

12 VISUALIZING NON-LINEAR WORKFLOW USING A KANBAN MATRIX 12 often the trigger for the Product Owner to identify the next few deliverables, a process sometimes called backlog grooming. The Kanban Matrix shows all deliverables including those to be done at some point in the future and those already completed. This allows the Kanban Matrix to act as a Release Burndown chart but in a format more akin to an FDD Parking Lot diagram (De Luca 2003) but it typically results in a much larger board. Filtering out the future and completed tasks dynamically (when using a tool or spreadsheet) can reduce it to a size more comparable to a traditional kanban board. Tools Support Required Traditional kanban boards are usually compact enough to represent on a physical wall chart. Movement of deliverables is accomplished by moving the card. A Kanban Matrix is often too large to post on physical board and updating the colors of the cells is challenging when using felt markers. As a result, most Kanban Matrices I have used were stored electronically and reprinted when a physical board was desired. For usage by a single user, a simple spreadsheet may be all that is required. Cell coloring can be based on conditional formatting or done explicitly. For multiple users, the file locking problems associated with sharing a single document may be an issue. In these cases, a cloud-based shared spreadsheet such as Google Docs (Google 2011) may be preferable. Limiting Work In Progress Traditional kanban boards indicate a limit on the number of items that can be in a particular state of the workflow by annotating a WIP limit on the corresponding

13 VISUALIZING NON-LINEAR WORKFLOW USING A KANBAN MATRIX 13 column. The number of items in that state can be determined by counting the item cards in that column. The size of each deliverable is assumed to be similar enough that the WIP limits are relevant. A Kanban Matrix does not assume that items in each column are of similar size. We can still annotate the columns with a WIP limit but it is less meaningful in that there is no assumption that particular columns would be done by the same resource(s). Instead, it makes more sense to apply WIP limits to a (team of) resource(s). (See Limiting Work-in-Progress in the next section.) Possible Enhancements This report has thus far focused on actual experiences using a Kanban Matrix. The following are some ideas about how the Kanban Matrix could be enhanced to be more widely applicable. Limiting Work-in-Progress Since the Kanban Matrix doesn t assume that the work items are a similar size, it makes sense for a resource to aggregate several cells into a single task. This makes tracking WIP difficult since we don t want to count each cell as having the same weight. One way this potential shortcoming could be avoided is to limit the total size (rather than number) of all the cells taken on by a particular resource or team. Each cell could have a numerical size estimate (as shown in Figure 11 - Two teams pulling work based on own WIP limits) and the WIP limit for a resource or team could limit the sum of these estimates that are selected and marked in progress. When more than one heterogenious resource or team is pulling work from the same

14 VISUALIZING NON-LINEAR WORKFLOW USING A KANBAN MATRIX 14 Kanban Matrix, we would need to mark the in progress cells with that team s in progress color or in progress pattern to be able to know how much work they had in progress as shown in Figure 11. Here, the Yellow team has a WIP limit of 8 points and has taken on the first 3 items totalling 8 points in the row labelled Pattern.1 while the Purple Team has taken on the 3 rd thru 5 th items in the column labelled Edit.2 totalling 9 points. Chapter Edit.1 Edit.2 Edit.3 Edit.n Narr.1 Done Done Done Done WIP Narr.2 Done Done Done Done Legend: Limit Narr.n TBD Unknown (TBD) Smell Not Needed Smell Size: 2 Smell.n Yellow Team IP 8 Pattern Purple Team IP 10 Pattern Done Work done Pattern Figure 11 - Two teams pulling work based on own WIP limits Hybridizing with Traditional Kanban Boards Many of the benefits of the Kanban Matrix could be realized by combining them with traditional kanban boards. For example, a single column in a traditional kanban board could be replaced by Kanban Matrix that breaks down the work into smaller pieces that could be done in parallel. When the card for the item moves into the matrix column, status on the potentially parallel activies could be shown using color rather than card movement.

When individual steps are very small, they can be aggregated into more manageable tasks easily.

15 VISUALIZING NON-LINEAR WORKFLOW USING A KANBAN MATRIX 15 Conclusion The Kanban Matrix is a good way to visualize work when it is nonlinear. It allows individual steps to be done in any order and for some steps to be skipped for some work items. When individual steps are very small, they can be aggregated into more manageable tasks easily. One disadvantage is that it may make it harder to visualize the amount of work in progress simply because the progress of many more items can be tracked at the same time. These disadvantages might be overcome by merging Kanban Matrix concepts into more traditional kanban board formats..

16 VISUALIZING NON-LINEAR WORKFLOW USING A KANBAN MATRIX 16 References Cohn, Mike (2011) Task Boards. Training for Scrum Task Board use (website). Retreived 14 March 2011 from De Luca, Jeff (2003) Parking Lot Chart Example 1. Feature Driven Development website. Retreived 14 March 2011 from Google (2011) Melnik, G., Meszaros, G. (2011) Acceptance Test Engineering, Volume 1 Thinking About Acceptance. Redmond, WA: Microsoft Press Meszaros, Gerard (2007) xunit Test Patterns Refactoring Test Code. Saddle River NJ: Addison-Wesley Professional

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