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Kanban in Action
Summary
Kanban in Action is a down-to-earth, no-frills, get-to-know-the-ropes introduction to kanban. It's based on the real-world experience and observations from two kanban coaches who have introduced this process to dozens of teams. You'll learn the principles of why kanban works, as well as nitty-gritty details like how to use different color stickies on a kanban board to help you organize and track your work items.
About the Book
Too much work and too little time? If this is daily life for your team, you need kanban, a lean knowledge-management method designed to involve all team members in continuous improvement of your process.
Kanban in Action is a practical introduction to kanban. Written by two kanban coaches who have taught the method to dozens of teams, the book covers techniques for planning and forecasting, establishing meaningful metrics, visualizing queues and bottlenecks, and constructing and using a kanban board.
Written for all members of the development team, including leaders, coders, and business stakeholders. No experience with kanban is required.
Purchase of the print book includes a free eBook in PDF, Kindle, and ePub formats from Manning Publications.
What's Inside
How to focus on work in process and finish faster
Examples of successful implementations
How team members can make informed decisions
About the Authors
Marcus Hammarberg is a kanban coach and software developer with experience in BDD, TDD, Specification by Example, Scrum, and XP. Joakim Sundén is an agile coach at Spotify who cofounded the first kanban user groups in Europe.
Table of Contents
PART 1 LEARNING KANBAN
Team Kanbaneros gets startedPART 2 UNDERSTANDING KANBAN
Kanban principles
Visualizing your work
Work items
Work in process
Limiting work in process
Managing flow
PART 3 ADVANCED KANBAN
Classes of service
Planning and estimating
Process improvement
Using metrics to guide improvements
Kanban pitfalls
Teaching kanban through games
Kanban in Action is a down-to-earth, no-frills, get-to-know-the-ropes introduction to kanban. It's based on the real-world experience and observations from two kanban coaches who have introduced this process to dozens of teams. You'll learn the principles of why kanban works, as well as nitty-gritty details like how to use different color stickies on a kanban board to help you organize and track your work items.
About the Book
Too much work and too little time? If this is daily life for your team, you need kanban, a lean knowledge-management method designed to involve all team members in continuous improvement of your process.
Kanban in Action is a practical introduction to kanban. Written by two kanban coaches who have taught the method to dozens of teams, the book covers techniques for planning and forecasting, establishing meaningful metrics, visualizing queues and bottlenecks, and constructing and using a kanban board.
Written for all members of the development team, including leaders, coders, and business stakeholders. No experience with kanban is required.
Purchase of the print book includes a free eBook in PDF, Kindle, and ePub formats from Manning Publications.
What's Inside
How to focus on work in process and finish faster
Examples of successful implementations
How team members can make informed decisions
About the Authors
Marcus Hammarberg is a kanban coach and software developer with experience in BDD, TDD, Specification by Example, Scrum, and XP. Joakim Sundén is an agile coach at Spotify who cofounded the first kanban user groups in Europe.
Table of Contents
PART 1 LEARNING KANBAN
Team Kanbaneros gets startedPART 2 UNDERSTANDING KANBAN
Kanban principles
Visualizing your work
Work items
Work in process
Limiting work in process
Managing flow
PART 3 ADVANCED KANBAN
Classes of service
Planning and estimating
Process improvement
Using metrics to guide improvements
Kanban pitfalls
Teaching kanban through games
361 pages, Kindle Edition
First published September 1, 2013
63 people are currently reading
788 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 55 reviews
June 5, 2014
I liked the practical writing style and the pragmatic approach taken by the authors. Contrary to what I have experienced at "lean" and kanban focused conferences, there is no bashing of other ideas nor any fundamentalism in this book. Very nice, and quite in line with lean and agile values.
Instead the authors places kanban in context, also discussing alternative and complementary approaches that teams may want to try. They also do away with the misconception that Kanban is something that you can use instead of your current process.
One of the last chapters adresses common critizism towards Kanban. Reading the authors views in that section was the most interesting part for me.
For the concept, style of writing and pragmatic approach it is clearly five stars for this book.
Instead the authors places kanban in context, also discussing alternative and complementary approaches that teams may want to try. They also do away with the misconception that Kanban is something that you can use instead of your current process.
One of the last chapters adresses common critizism towards Kanban. Reading the authors views in that section was the most interesting part for me.
For the concept, style of writing and pragmatic approach it is clearly five stars for this book.
May 5, 2014
We've been using Scrum at work for several years now -- and we've had a lot of success with it. But recently, the team I'm on has started to notice that (for various and unnecessary reasons), our workload is not as amenable to Scrum as it used to be. So we're starting to talk about looking for something else and Kanban is the most obvious starting point.
Skimming Wikipedia had given me a rough idea of what Kanban was, but this book filled in the details in a breezy, entertaining, and enjoyable-to-read fashion. It uses comic illustrations and interactions between a fictional team who's trying out Kanban to highlight the sort of situations that come up when using Kanban and how to deal with them.
In particular, this book heavily emphasizes the idea that Kanban isn't a system or process so much as it is a set of principles and rough guidelines. Because it's not itself a process, you can implement Kanban on top of whatever process you're currently using -- something I've not managed to glean before.
My one criticism of this book as that all of the examples are far too neat. In the real world, I'd expect you to run into far more gray areas that aren't handled quite as easily the ones the book's imaginary team faces. In particular, I'd have liked to see some examples for adding Kanban to an existing Scrum workflow -- the authors point out that this is possible several times, but never really get into what that means. Too often, they just shrug their shoulders and say "It depends".
I guess that's what consultants are for. But if you'd rather do some reading instead of (or before) paying those consultants, this book is probably not bad place to start!
Skimming Wikipedia had given me a rough idea of what Kanban was, but this book filled in the details in a breezy, entertaining, and enjoyable-to-read fashion. It uses comic illustrations and interactions between a fictional team who's trying out Kanban to highlight the sort of situations that come up when using Kanban and how to deal with them.
In particular, this book heavily emphasizes the idea that Kanban isn't a system or process so much as it is a set of principles and rough guidelines. Because it's not itself a process, you can implement Kanban on top of whatever process you're currently using -- something I've not managed to glean before.
My one criticism of this book as that all of the examples are far too neat. In the real world, I'd expect you to run into far more gray areas that aren't handled quite as easily the ones the book's imaginary team faces. In particular, I'd have liked to see some examples for adding Kanban to an existing Scrum workflow -- the authors point out that this is possible several times, but never really get into what that means. Too often, they just shrug their shoulders and say "It depends".
I guess that's what consultants are for. But if you'd rather do some reading instead of (or before) paying those consultants, this book is probably not bad place to start!
April 1, 2014
True surprise - a positive one. I expected this book to be something like 'Kanban for dummies', but as I consider myself agile zealot, I've decided to read it anyway and it was a good pick:
1.) It's not trivializing the topic - each chapter truly has its purpose and it's clear that author have a clear vision of what they'd like to hand on. It's a problem with half of agile books - they feel like you're reading the same sentence over and over.
2.) The examples make sense and they are not too trivial. I knew the topic, I've read D. Anderson's books and I wasn't bored at all.
3.) It's exactly as comprehensive as you'd like it to be. It refers to ToC (Theory of Constraints) but about as much as possible; it mentions the tools, but doesn't focus on them as they are only the helpeers; etc. Good balance indeed.
Cons:
1.) Somehow I didn't like the chapter about "Kanban games" at all - they all felt unclear and IMHO introducing any of those to any team I've worked with would not be a better clarification than going through some cases.
2.) If you've read D. Anderson's "Kanban" there's still not much for you here. Don't misunderstand me - "Kanban in Action" is really good, but it's D.A. who has nailed it completely and his book should be enough for 95% of wanna-be-kanbaneers. That's why I'm giving only 4 stars.
Anyway - if you want to read about Kanban: go for D. Anderson's "Kanban". But if by any kind of accident you get this book instead, no harm done - it's a decent read and you'll get the idea for sure.
1.) It's not trivializing the topic - each chapter truly has its purpose and it's clear that author have a clear vision of what they'd like to hand on. It's a problem with half of agile books - they feel like you're reading the same sentence over and over.
2.) The examples make sense and they are not too trivial. I knew the topic, I've read D. Anderson's books and I wasn't bored at all.
3.) It's exactly as comprehensive as you'd like it to be. It refers to ToC (Theory of Constraints) but about as much as possible; it mentions the tools, but doesn't focus on them as they are only the helpeers; etc. Good balance indeed.
Cons:
1.) Somehow I didn't like the chapter about "Kanban games" at all - they all felt unclear and IMHO introducing any of those to any team I've worked with would not be a better clarification than going through some cases.
2.) If you've read D. Anderson's "Kanban" there's still not much for you here. Don't misunderstand me - "Kanban in Action" is really good, but it's D.A. who has nailed it completely and his book should be enough for 95% of wanna-be-kanbaneers. That's why I'm giving only 4 stars.
Anyway - if you want to read about Kanban: go for D. Anderson's "Kanban". But if by any kind of accident you get this book instead, no harm done - it's a decent read and you'll get the idea for sure.
April 26, 2014
An excellent book about Kanban. If you are new to Kanban, start with this one and later you can continue with the bible Kanban Successful Evolutionary Change for Your Technology Business from David J. Anderson.
If you already know something about Kanban and you want to be inspired, you can pick this book too. And if you are into agile for couple of years and you want to move on, this can show you the possible way.
Kanban in Action is both: practical and strong in theory as well. And there is a valuable virtue, because the book is highly actual - the Kanban community is very lively and Kanban itself is quickly evolving, which is mirrored in the book.
This is the fourth book about Kanban which I read. And I have to say: it's the best Kanban book on the market today.
If you already know something about Kanban and you want to be inspired, you can pick this book too. And if you are into agile for couple of years and you want to move on, this can show you the possible way.
Kanban in Action is both: practical and strong in theory as well. And there is a valuable virtue, because the book is highly actual - the Kanban community is very lively and Kanban itself is quickly evolving, which is mirrored in the book.
This is the fourth book about Kanban which I read. And I have to say: it's the best Kanban book on the market today.
January 20, 2014
TL;DR If you already read a little about Kanban, you can skip half of this book.
Visualize your actual workflow using stick-it notes on a board with columns representing stages of your process. Lower the times it takes to a workitem to be done/shipped/deployed (lead time) and increase throughput. How? Stop starting, start finishing and limit your work-in-progress (WIP). How do you limit your WIP? Setup constraints on WIP per team member, per process stage (columns on board) or per work classes (lanes/rows on board). This is basically what you learn in the first third of the book.
The book is rather long with lots of repetition of basic principles. I've realized that I might not be the target audience when the authors started to explain a simple ratio equation on multiple pages with the words: "Eh, what?". On the other hand, if you are non-technical person looking for an easy-to-follow and comprehensive guide to start using Kanban, grab this book. In overall I've learnd all I wanted to know about Kanban and kudos to the authors for the chapter about drawbacks of using Kanban.
Visualize your actual workflow using stick-it notes on a board with columns representing stages of your process. Lower the times it takes to a workitem to be done/shipped/deployed (lead time) and increase throughput. How? Stop starting, start finishing and limit your work-in-progress (WIP). How do you limit your WIP? Setup constraints on WIP per team member, per process stage (columns on board) or per work classes (lanes/rows on board). This is basically what you learn in the first third of the book.
The book is rather long with lots of repetition of basic principles. I've realized that I might not be the target audience when the authors started to explain a simple ratio equation on multiple pages with the words: "Eh, what?". On the other hand, if you are non-technical person looking for an easy-to-follow and comprehensive guide to start using Kanban, grab this book. In overall I've learnd all I wanted to know about Kanban and kudos to the authors for the chapter about drawbacks of using Kanban.
August 26, 2016
Excellent book. I learn a lot along the reading. Practical, objective, well written and to the point. Kanban is a meta-process: an improvement process for an already-existing process.
The book teaches how you can start using Kanban today, independently of the current situation of your project, only making the work visible. Improvement opportunities will appear when you start reducing the working in process.
You can learn the principles of Kanban through some games such as pass the pennies. A great way to understand why limiting the work in process is a good idea, as well as why improving the parts do not necessarily improve the whole system.
Does not matter if you are using Scrum or not; Kanban can fit as well. One of the most important thing is the mindset behind it, what goes through the theory of constraints and the queuing theory (aka Little's law). Must-read.
The book teaches how you can start using Kanban today, independently of the current situation of your project, only making the work visible. Improvement opportunities will appear when you start reducing the working in process.
You can learn the principles of Kanban through some games such as pass the pennies. A great way to understand why limiting the work in process is a good idea, as well as why improving the parts do not necessarily improve the whole system.
Does not matter if you are using Scrum or not; Kanban can fit as well. One of the most important thing is the mindset behind it, what goes through the theory of constraints and the queuing theory (aka Little's law). Must-read.
May 1, 2019
They did a great job on explaining the theory and the application of Kanban in an engaging way. I already knew quite about about the fundamentals so while I read the full book to make sure I wasn't missing anything, it was presented in such a way that you really don't need to. You can skip chapters, read summaries and sidebars and really find the information you're looking for easily. I appreciate the bits of humor that they threw in there to keep it from being a dull business book. Would definitely recommend.
April 21, 2017
I did read this book as preparation for the PMI-ACP exam. It is a really good book, especially for beginners and intermediate level Kanban enthusiasts. The first section is fantastic and gives the reader a quick but effective introduction to Kanban, condensing the most relevant concepts in a few pages. In the other two sections concepts are fleshed out in a progressive manner, for readers looking for more details and advanced topics. If you want to learn about Kanban, I recommend you this book.
October 11, 2013
This is a very good and visual hands-on book about Kanban. Plenty of advices for agile coaches, developers, ScrumMasters and any other team members. We get to learn the basic of Kanban and we goes beyond to have good success with it.
Disclaimer: I did the tech review of this book for Manning Press.
Disclaimer: I did the tech review of this book for Manning Press.
February 22, 2017
Great book. First chapter with a practical view and then beyond the principles and practices how Kanban can be integrated with other practices or can be enriched with some agile practices. And to finish a chapter about games and tools so a very complete and very enjoyable reading.
Lead time: 21 days.
Lead time: 21 days.
May 14, 2014
If you want to start with Kanban methods and also to understand many of its details I fully recommend you to read this book. It's an excellent introduction to Kanban and also shows how to optimize it.
August 17, 2014
Easy read, informative, and insightful. It's very practical and they use plenty of real-world examples and scenarios to start applying Kanban principles immediately. I had no trouble reading or understanding their concepts. It's well-written.
August 30, 2014
Excellent introduction to the concepts of Kanban. I learnt so much. The book is very well-written and explains topics in just the right amount of detail with plenty of references to articles and books if you want to go deeper. Recommended.
October 23, 2014
The most complete and didactic book about kanban I've read so far.
Lot's of good ideias for teams inside.
Lot's of good ideias for teams inside.
July 5, 2018
best kanban book so far
July 26, 2014
Almost perfect. The part on user stories could have been more detailed.
November 28, 2023
O livro caiu como uma luva, pois há tempos pensava em sugerir a migração do processo atual da empresa, Scrum, para algo que imaginava ser mais adequado à nossa realidade: o Kanban.
A leitura é muito simples e repleta de exemplos, inclusive abordando exatamente o meu cenário.
Acho que vale muito a pena para quem quer se aprofundar neste método.
Em tempo, já faz 3 meses que migramos para o Kanban, 1 mês que estamos seguindo o #noestimate e estou absurdamente satisfeito. Nunca imaginei que pudesse ter tantos ganhos de produtividade e motivação no time apenas por mudar o processo seguido.
A leitura é muito simples e repleta de exemplos, inclusive abordando exatamente o meu cenário.
Acho que vale muito a pena para quem quer se aprofundar neste método.
Em tempo, já faz 3 meses que migramos para o Kanban, 1 mês que estamos seguindo o #noestimate e estou absurdamente satisfeito. Nunca imaginei que pudesse ter tantos ganhos de produtividade e motivação no time apenas por mudar o processo seguido.
September 29, 2018
This book is a practical introduction to kanban in software development. The first part is a fictional story about a team adopting kanban, the second part is explaining the things mentioned in the story, and the third part has things going beyond that.
Overall it's good, but could have used some boiling down. If you're in hurry, you could read just the story in the first part and then dip in the later chapters that look interesting.
Overall it's good, but could have used some boiling down. If you're in hurry, you could read just the story in the first part and then dip in the later chapters that look interesting.
May 27, 2018
Immediately applied the concepts at work!
January 24, 2018
very good book about flow agile, kanban in this case. stop starting and start finishing.
March 27, 2019
Книга про Канбан в разрабоке ПО, написана консультантами которыми ему обучают в организациях. В примерах часто вспоминается опыт из Spotify, наверное хорошие консультанты. Даются основные принципы, а дальше - про практические аспекты как настраивать процесс согласно им. Теория и исторический контекст, затрагиваются вскользь, авторы сразу предупреждают. Так как, оказывается, на одних Канбан-приципах не уедешь, поверхностно освещены смежные области: бережливое производство, теория ограничений, и так далее.
Книга вполне хороша, если вы новичок в данной теме. Хоть она и поверхностна, дает достаточно понимания, чтобы начать с этим работать, к тому же легко читается. Есть и ссылки куда копать глубже, если есть такой интерес.
Книга вполне хороша, если вы новичок в данной теме. Хоть она и поверхностна, дает достаточно понимания, чтобы начать с этим работать, к тому же легко читается. Есть и ссылки куда копать глубже, если есть такой интерес.
August 31, 2018
Managing visualized KANBAN, especially when it in progress/action. There is a storyboard, which analyzes many aspects of KANBAN when its in usage.
Why KANBAN is required, how to identify the issues, how to create or implement process, number of methodologies like Agile and Scrum we can use it in KANBAN, challenges, moving the cards, prioritizing, metrics, measuring the tasks, etc.,
Why KANBAN is required, how to identify the issues, how to create or implement process, number of methodologies like Agile and Scrum we can use it in KANBAN, challenges, moving the cards, prioritizing, metrics, measuring the tasks, etc.,
May 14, 2018
tl;dr Version: Highly Recommended
Buy the book and hold on to it as a reference.
Read the full review on my blog...
Buy the book and hold on to it as a reference.
Read the full review on my blog...
Read
July 29, 2019I've really tried to read it; I've got the main idea. But this imaginary-story-telling style for a non-fiction book is so stupid that I can't do this anymore. The same style has Goldratt and maybe the book "Phoenix project"
January 5, 2018
Desde un enfoque práctico y divertido, los autores se convierten en consultores de una hipotética empresa que tiene problemas de eficiencia. A base de método y visualización resuelven los problemas de la empresa y explican la teoría del Kanban: Learning Kanban; Understanding Kanban; Advanced Kanban; Reading and; Tools.
July 17, 2016
Kanban was a tool, developed by Toyota years ago, which is proved to enable continuous improvement in the organization by delivering products to the customer just in time and thus reducing the number work in progress (WIP). The notion is that by reducing the number of WIP, the time to produce and deliver the finished product will be reduced.
While applying kanban in manufacturing companies is relatively easy due to their tangible products, the application of kanban in knowledge-type of work is still vague. This book provides clear explanation on how to implement kanban in in knowledge-type of work, in this case software development. The underlining point of kanban in this book is to visualize the unseen works in knowledge work and manage them to flow. Flow in this matter means to eliminate interruptions in the processes of delivering products, thus reducing buffers and queues of works that can impede productivity.
Marcus explains kanban in a practical and fun way, which makes the concept easy to grasp, even for anyone who has not heard a word about kanban. While most of the companies nowadays have turned from "man power" to "mind power", the concept and principle provided in this book could help in improving companies' efficiency and effectiveness in terms of work processes.
While applying kanban in manufacturing companies is relatively easy due to their tangible products, the application of kanban in knowledge-type of work is still vague. This book provides clear explanation on how to implement kanban in in knowledge-type of work, in this case software development. The underlining point of kanban in this book is to visualize the unseen works in knowledge work and manage them to flow. Flow in this matter means to eliminate interruptions in the processes of delivering products, thus reducing buffers and queues of works that can impede productivity.
Marcus explains kanban in a practical and fun way, which makes the concept easy to grasp, even for anyone who has not heard a word about kanban. While most of the companies nowadays have turned from "man power" to "mind power", the concept and principle provided in this book could help in improving companies' efficiency and effectiveness in terms of work processes.
October 28, 2014
Highly accessible introduction to kanban, an agile method that strives to visualize work in progress, which, by extension, may act as a catalyst towards continuous improvement of the software development process. Recommended to any member of a software development team, whether BA, QA, project manager, or developer. If your team currently employs the method, this title can offer certain techniques to extract maximum benefit from it. If not, perhaps you can be its evangelist and bring about the change to your group, for you will undoubtedly see the potential kanban offers, as succinctly and convincingly presented by the authors.
March 16, 2015
I really liked this book. I've enjoyed its structure. It has three parts. First is a high level overview of the whole Kanban process. Together with a imaginary team "Kanbaneros" we are learning how Kanban should work and basic concepts are introduced. After this introduction you could try to start using Kanban process.
Second part is about details of Kanban process. You can go through whole part and learn specifics or use it as reference.
Third part covers advanced topics. And those are really some advanced ideas to try.
I would recommend this book to team who is considering using Kanban process or is already struggling with introduction of it.
Second part is about details of Kanban process. You can go through whole part and learn specifics or use it as reference.
Third part covers advanced topics. And those are really some advanced ideas to try.
I would recommend this book to team who is considering using Kanban process or is already struggling with introduction of it.
March 25, 2016
"Stop starting, start finishing" is worth the cost of entry alone. It's a great introduction and practical guide to Kanban. I just don't know what it is with this entire genre of business-help books that make the authors want to write chincy stories with paper-thin characters just so they can setup "How Kanban saved the world" scenarios.
October 21, 2018
Great book! A lot of story telling. Super first chapter. Easy and fun to read. Can be recommended as a reading for the whole team. It’s probably also possible to ask team members to just read specific chapters and then discuss them together before implementing some of the practices. Really super book!
Displaying 1 - 30 of 55 reviews