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Let's assume I decide to manage a certain project using Kanban. This happens to be a customer service kind of project where the dev team delivers continuous improvement so Kanban is definitely well suited and scrum would probably be over the top and ultimately unnecessary.

Let's also assume I want to measure the performance of the team. I know someone prescribes to take a, say, two weeks activity and count the number of tasks delivered in that timespan. You can repeat that process every two weeks and so monitor performance. It is advisable to break down stories so that they are kind of comparable and basically become a unit of measure.

I have never used Kanban before but being able to break down stories into similar sized ones sounds like a not very feasible goal to me. In fact the more I think about it the more it seems difficult.

What about adding story points to each task on the board before starting development as we do in Scrum? Would that be a theoretically sound practice?

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  • What would you consider "good performance"? You need to know what you think is important before you start to measure things, or you'll be judging people on things that don't matter.
    – Erik
    May 19, 2019 at 20:21
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    Neither Scum nor Kanban measure team performance. They both estimate delivery based on predictable, localized cadences.
    – Todd A. Jacobs
    May 19, 2019 at 23:48
  • @ToddA.Jacobs oh really? So why does Scrum measure velocity and works hard to increase it? Obviously velocity allows predictability but that's not the whole story, is it? Performance (and therefore velocity) monitoring is a matter of interest in Scrum.
    – nourdine
    May 19, 2019 at 23:59
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    Related: pm.stackexchange.com/a/17705/4271
    – Todd A. Jacobs
    May 20, 2019 at 0:29
  • @ToddA.Jacobs interesting answer ... ultimately and although it is not a performance metric to be used to continuously push the limit, it seems to me velocity is a performance metric all the same. It surely can be used to spot things that start to get wrong in the team as well.
    – nourdine
    May 20, 2019 at 7:11

2 Answers 2

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The idea of managing a project with kanban is subtly off the mark and may cause frustration for you. Kanban is a method of optimizing process. This means you absolutely can apply kanban to the development process and improve that process. A more efficient process will often support a more successful project, there is a ton about project management that kanban doesn't cover that you need to account for.

I'm not certain how the size of items is connected here. "Small batch sizes is an idea that comes from lean and most kanban teams find that the size of their items when they start are problematic and need to be smaller, but size is relative and you will have to decide in your context. Similarly, story points often don't add value in teams using kanban, but if they add value for you, great.

On to performance measurements. Some very common ones are:

  • Throughput: amount of items done in some period of time (5 backlog items per week or 3 features per quarter for example)

  • cycle time: time it takes from start of work until delivery

  • lead time: time from when a need is identified until it is delivered

  • escaped defects: number of bugs that slip past the team

  • value delivered: like throughput, but measured in some value units realized instead of work items done.

It is important to keep in mind that kanban is much more than the board. If you aren't familiar with the kanban method, you probably want to learn more about the practices in it. In my opinion, it can be harder than scrum because, while it is very lightweight, it takes a lot of discipline and transparency. Also, if you are starting with Kanban, I would highly recommend looking into STATIK as an approach to starting with kanban.

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  • The performance measurement you mentioned are ok I suppose. You seem to know the subject way better than I do, so I take those measurements are popular and accepted among Kanban people. On the other hand, simply from the perspective of a rational person, I find it hard to consider reliable, or even acceptable, the throughput measurement to name one. If during week 1 the team completes 10 very simple tasks and in week 2 the same team completes 3 horribly complex bugs what conclusion can I draw? Nothing I suppose. It's like asking if it's faster a train or heavier an elephant. See what I mean?
    – nourdine
    May 19, 2019 at 23:06
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    I know exactly what you mean. This is a common challenge with kanban. It is great for optimizing a process toward some end. Want to deliver more value per quarter? Awesome. Want to reduce turn-around time? Great. Want to know if your programmers are any good? This gets fuzzy.
    – Daniel
    May 19, 2019 at 23:13
  • In truth, this isn't much different anywhere else. Knowing if a developer is good has always been a difficult task. I can identify the ones in the extreme (never get anything done, create a lot of bugs or always pulls through amazing work and creates very few bugs) but real objective measurement has always been elusive.
    – Daniel
    May 19, 2019 at 23:16
  • Coming from Scrum it would seem sensible to me, to add an estimate of the task effort using poker. Devs then get fed estimated tasks and carry on using kanban as normally prescribed. At regular intervals I work out velocity and boom! If it works for Scrum why shouldn't it work for kanban. It's just an estimate on the story after all. Any programming techniques or other technical choices the team makes will get reflected on the velocity and I will get a way of monitoring the guys and the workflow will still be handled in a lightweight manner with kanban. I cannot see what could go wrong.
    – nourdine
    May 19, 2019 at 23:25
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    You can estimate in both Scrum and Kanban if you finds it adds value. Most teams don't. I usually warn people off of using velocity or throughput for measuring team performance because I've seen to many teams with high velocity that can't get a feature to the customer for anything. I'd much rather judge them on value delivered in a period Nd get them to rally around that. Also, measuring teams or larger groups over individuals allows you to promote healthy behavior like knowledge sharing and assisting each other, which usually leads to better results.
    – Daniel
    May 20, 2019 at 1:47
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My suggestions for measuring performance in a Kanban team would be:

  • Customer feedback - including internal customers like people from the business side of your organisation
  • Collaboration - time spent supporting other team members, etc.
  • Adaption and innovation - track ideas and solutions arising from the team

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