Hello and welcome to Lesson 1 of my course on working with Kanban in a Scrum team. In this lesson, I will provide an overview of Kanban principles, including its history and core concepts. By the end of this lesson, you will have a solid understanding of how Kanban works and why it can be an effective tool for managing workflow in a Scrum team.

So, what is Kanban? Kanban is a visual system for managing work as it moves through a process. It originated in the manufacturing industry in Japan in the 1940s as a way to improve efficiency in production lines. Over time, it has been adapted to a wide range of industries and processes, including software development.

At its core, Kanban is based on the following principles:

1. Visualize workflow.

2. Limit work in progress.

3. Manage flow.

4. Make process policies explicit.

5. Implement feedback loops.
 

Let's take a closer look at each of these principles.

1. Visualize workflow: Kanban emphasizes the importance of visualizing the work that needs to be done and the process it goes through. This is typically done using a Kanban board, which is a visual representation of the workflow. For example, in a software development team, the board may have columns for "Backlog," "In Progress," "Review," and "Done."

2. Limit work in progress: Kanban recognizes that too much work in progress can lead to inefficiency and lower quality output. Therefore, it encourages teams to limit the number of tasks that are in progress at any given time. This helps to prevent bottlenecks and ensure that each task is completed before moving on to the next.

3. Manage flow: Kanban focuses on optimizing the flow of work through the process. This means identifying and removing bottlenecks, minimizing wait times, and ensuring that work is delivered as quickly and efficiently as possible.
 

4. Make process policies explicit: Kanban emphasizes the importance of making process policies explicit, so that everyone involved in the process understands how it works and what their role is. This helps to prevent misunderstandings and confusion, and ensures that everyone is working towards the same goals.

5. Implement feedback loops: Kanban recognizes that feedback is essential for continuous improvement. Therefore, it encourages teams to implement feedback loops, so that they can learn from their experiences and make adjustments to improve their process.

Examples:

To give you an example of how Kanban can be used in a Scrum team, let's imagine that you are part of a software development team working on a new feature. You could use a Kanban board to visualize the different stages of the development process, from requirements gathering to coding, testing, and deployment. Each task would be represented by a card on the board, and you could use color-coded labels to indicate the priority and status of each task.

By limiting the number of tasks in progress and managing flow, you could ensure that each task is completed before moving on to the next. And by making process policies explicit and implementing feedback loops, you could ensure that everyone on the team is working towards the same goals and continuously improving the process.

Conclusion:

In Conclusion:, Kanban is a visual system for managing work that emphasizes the importance of visualizing workflow, limiting work in progress, managing flow, making process policies explicit, and implementing feedback loops. It can be a valuable tool for managing workflow in a Scrum team and improving efficiency, productivity, and quality. In the next lesson, we will explore how to set up a Kanban board for your team.