53
votes
Accepted
Task estimation for PMs who are not developers
If at all possible, they don't.
They ask developers to estimate it.
Estimates should always be made by the people who will perform the work being estimated. If this is not done, then you run the ...
- 14.8k
43
votes
What is the ongoing value of the Kanban board to the developers as opposed to management
Good question - well phrased.
Best answer is "Never be the senior guy with a secret".
Development is difficult to schedule. Last week I told my manager that the new tool enables me to solve ...
- 8,728
21
votes
What is the ongoing value of the Kanban board to the developers as opposed to management
A Kanban board helps developers synchronise their work.
Sue glanced up at the Kanban board to see if there were any new items waiting for her to code.
Mark had noticed that the review stage on the ...
- 19.4k
18
votes
Accepted
How much project management is a software developer supposed to do?
Responsible vs. Accountable Roles in a Pull-Queue System
The question you're asking is really an X/Y problem. You have a couple of other problems that you haven't actually called out in your question:...
- 49.8k
17
votes
Accepted
Kanban - spending time on somebody else's work
TL;DR
Your question strongly implies management metrics tied to individual utilization rather than flow or cycle time. The 100% utilization fallacy is antithetical to Kanban, and to agile systems in ...
- 49.8k
13
votes
Accepted
In kanban, what should we do about routine work in each day?
I'd create a card for these with a week N tag. In Kanban it is important that all the work you do is visible, but it does not require you to over administer the project. If you have a work item (card) ...
- 11.9k
13
votes
How to write implementing HTTPS as a user story?
I would focus on the need, rather than the implementation. The user story would then simply be:
"As a user, I want any personal information I give (Company) to remain private and secure."
With HTTPS ...
- 14.8k
13
votes
How should we hand-off and ticket UI designs to the devs to ensure the developed design matches the provided UI mockups, while still being agile?
I've seen this happen with design so many times. It's a structural problem with how people and teams are organized. Now, I feel like I should say that cross-functional teams are not required to be ...
- 16.9k
12
votes
Accepted
What is lead time?
Wiki has the common definition of this term:
A lead time is the latency between the initiation and execution of a
process.
If your working area is software development, then the definition from ...
- 5,301
12
votes
Accepted
Are daily stand ups the same for Kanban and Scrum teams?
TL; DR
In Scrum, a time-boxed daily stand-up with a structured format is mandated by the framework. If you don't have a daily stand-up, you aren't following the core Scrum methodology.
Kanban is ...
- 49.8k
12
votes
As an Agile Coach, how do I deal with argumentative and uncooperative team members?
TL;DR
You are taking a potential team composition problem and making it your problem. That is not agile; that is a misunderstanding of your role. From an agile coaching perspective, teams need to be ...
- 49.8k
12
votes
Accepted
What are the artifacts in Kanban?
My answer is: there are no predefined artifacts in Kanban.
Scrum has predefined roles, events, and artifacts but Kanban doesn't. Kanban just describes 4 principles and 5 practices:
Start with ...
- 5,301
12
votes
What is the ongoing value of the Kanban board to the developers as opposed to management
As a developer, a kanban board shows me two things of interest:
What work am I and my team members currently working on
What work is ready to be picked up when I complete my current task
Besides ...
- 2,760
12
votes
Daily StandUp in a small co-located team
One of the advantages of having such a small team is that, indeed, the people in the team are able to communicate freely throughout the day. A lot of the daily stand-ups might thus often end very ...
- 14.9k
12
votes
Accepted
Kanban - Move card from In Progress state to Backlog (moving cards backwards)
The main ideas with Kanban is to visualize your work and to limit work in progress. This allows you to maximize flow while at the same time see where you have bottlenecks.
If you started work on ...
- 14.9k
11
votes
Accepted
What to do if team can't be made cross-functional?
First off, I should note that, as per my understanding of the term 'cross-functional team', it is not a team where every member can do everything. Rather, it is a team that is capable of doing ...
- 14.8k
11
votes
Accepted
What's the difference between Kanban vs Lean Kanban?
Lean is to Kanban as agile is to Scrum. One is a concrete implementation of the other.
Using the term "lean kanban" is just an attempt to court favour from Google/Bing for keyword density and is the ...
11
votes
Task estimation for PMs who are not developers
Have Task Performers Provide Estimates
In agile frameworks (and even in sensible non-agile frameworks), project managers should never estimate work items themselves. Instead, the people who will ...
- 49.8k
11
votes
How much project management is a software developer supposed to do?
I think this has a canonical answer, at least from a traditional PM point of view if not with Agile or Kanban or whatever else.
If a piece of work was unable to be finished for whatever reason, by ...
- 37.1k
11
votes
How should we hand-off and ticket UI designs to the devs to ensure the developed design matches the provided UI mockups, while still being agile?
Let me challenge the frame of your question a bit:
Why do you have such specific requirements that change for every ticket?
Is it really necessary to have different margins between buttons on ...
- 8,428
10
votes
Accepted
In Kanban, What should I do if the card has a bug that need to be fixed in Test column?
That's a great question and a topic of much debate in Kanban communities! However, there are two aspects to this - one, what is your actual engineering practice when a defect is found during ...
- 2,145
10
votes
Accepted
Does multiple cards in progress by a single person reduce kanban efficiency
There is no such thing as "kanban efficiency". Only developers efficiency.
Kanban WIP limits were implemented to avoid waste stemming from multitasking or waiting for others.
However there can be ...
10
votes
Accepted
What are the "pillars" of the Kanban process?
TL;DR
What are the pillars of Kanban process? Are they the same [as Scrum] or is something different?
Kanban doesn't define "pillars" in the same sense as Scrum. However, as one of the core agile ...
- 49.8k
10
votes
Accepted
Is there any negative productivity impact on having more than one task in progress?
Having more than 1 item In Progress for a single person will kill productivity. Multitasking is horrible for getting things done quickly and/or well. See Agile team full of part time developers for ...
- 14.8k
10
votes
Accepted
Does a user story need to be small and why, when using Kanban
In a word: feedback.
Whether you’re coaching a soccer team, flying a drone, planning a city, or writing a dissertation, the sooner you can get feedback, make adjustments, and get more feedback, the ...
10
votes
Accepted
How can I create an Epic based on requirements following best practices?
There are two schools of thought about what an Epic is.
Some define an Epic as a large user story, often one that cannot be delivered in a single iteration. However, it can be placed and ordered in a ...
- 18.9k
9
votes
Fast start guide for ScrumMaster
Zsolt gave a really great checklist for tackling any new project. I'd even point traditional project managers at this. I'm going to try and provide some additional Scrum focused detail.
Brand New ...
- 12.5k
9
votes
Accepted
Fast start guide for ScrumMaster
Do you do diligence and figure out as much as possible about the project, the people, the customer, and the stakeholders on your own.
Talk to each team member face to face about the things above, do ...
- 11.9k
9
votes
Accepted
Kanban team engages in technical discussions after daily standup
Your team has opted a good way for the Technical discussions. Following few points should be kept in mind during the discussion and should be monitored:
Discussion is not repetitive
All the ...
- 374
9
votes
Accepted
What to do when WIP limits must be broken?
Embrace Change but Keep Costs Visible
"What happens when we're at our WIP limit and 'do it now' work crops up?"
If you've structured your process with spare capacity, rather than striving for 100% ...
- 49.8k
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible