Patterns for getting to a lower WIP level in a system

Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
Pinterest
WhatsApp

The Freeze, No New Work, Limit Later, and some Mashups...

Some of us have the luxury of designing processes for greenfield systems meaning there is no history/legacy to deal with.

Typically though, we are dealing with Brownfield/Legacy systems – This usually means there is some work in the system already, there are outstanding commitments, and some existing queues between steps in our processes.

I’m working with several clients that decided to start using a Kanban system to manage their work, and believe Limited Work in Process is key to improving their performance.

But a challenge most of them share is how to deal with is something along the lines of:

  • We already have a commitment to deliver V10 with 20 features by end of October.
  • Our testing department is backlogged – its still dealing with the previous release V9 while development is already working on those 20 features for V10.
  • V10 is critical to the business.

We then discuss various ways to get from here to there.

The Freeze

Essentially prioritize all work. Anything that is in process but above the WIP limit, goes to the freezer – a new temporary lane/area where work is put on freeze until there is room for it.

The immediate effect would be an acceleration of all work inside the WIP limit, and significant risk to the commitment made about the frozen work. Yes, you say that the original commitment took all the work into account so why is there a risk just due to changes in parallelism? Well, because we focus on the higher priority work, the reality is that we might spend more effort on it, to deliver it with reasonable quality (not necessarily an attribute of previous releases…), we might spend more time investing in Versatility in order to sustain a lower more focused work in process limit. So, it would be prudent to negotiate the commitment level on a couple of lower priority features from the release… and give the business a heads up this might happen.

This is one of the fastest ways to achieve a new inventory/WIP level in the system. If we are looking to show quick results and are able to negotiate a temporary change in service levels with the business, this can be a great approach.

This strategy is elaborated in depth in the Theory of Constraints body of knowledge.

No New Work

This is a more evolutionary version – don’t freeze current work, but deny new work until we reach the desired work in process levels. This means anyone finishing work on something will look at how he can help someone else, instead of starting something new. There will still be effects on the release commitment, but milder ones.

The price we pay here is that it will take more time to reach the new inventory/WIP level. It’s easier to negotiate with the business, but the results will show more slowly…

Visualize now, Limit Later

This is even a more evolutionary version. You start with Kanban principle #1 – Visualize work. You don’t put any WIP limits for now. You see how work looks like, you try to manage WIP, but don’t limit it. Perhaps when negotiating commitments to the next release V11 you take into account a period of cleaning the system/queues and the implications of lowering the WIP, and at that point you go into a Freeze/No New Work period, with a bit more confidence in how this will look like, based on a few weeks/months of visualizing your work.

This clearly is the risk-averse approach. Just be careful of running out of improvement energies and forgetting that just Visualizing Work is not enough…

Differentiated Service

A tweak on all of the approaches above can be to treat different work types differently. This is what we call Classes of Service in Kanban.

For example, Normal work above the WIP limit will be frozen. Fixed date work will hopefully be inside the WIP limit and be allowed to finish. New Fixed date work can be allowed to start, with the condition that a Normal work will be frozen in exchange for introducing it. If all work currently in the system is Fixed Date, we can decide whether to allow the new Fixed date to start (should be a comfort zone for most organizations 😉 or to have a serious discussion with the business on the risks it introduces and how we want to address them.

We can also say we visualize all work, but limit specific types of work.

Feedback

What do you think about those approaches?

Which of the above did you find useful in real life?

Do you have other strategies for starting up in the real world?

Subscribe for Email Updates:

Categories:

Tags:

Kanban Kickstart Example
Sprint Retrospectives
lean agile change management
GanttBan
System Archetypes
Agile Mindset
Retrospectives
Process Improvement
Agile for Embedded Systems
Agile Release Planning
Certification
Acceptance Test-Driven Development
ROI
Agile in the Enterprise
NIT
Agile Delivery
Agile Techniques
Frameworks
Presentation
The Kanban Method
Pomodoro Technique
Program Increment
Value Streams
System Team
Limiting Work in Progress
speed at scale
Lean Agile Leadership
Scrum Master
Scrum With Kanban
Agile and DevOps Journey
Agile Contracts Best Practices
Agile Games
Risk-aware Product Development
Manage Budget Creation
Kanban Game
Jira Cloud
Agile India
Lean Agile
Amdocs
Advanced Roadmaps
Lean Budgeting
Continuous Delivery
Hybrid Work
Lean Agile Basics
Webinar
SAFe DevOps
Jira
Legacy Enterprise
Certified SAFe
Spotify
POPM
Development Value Streams
Entrepreneurial Operating System®
LAB
IT Operations
Team Flow
Agile Outsourcing
Agile Project
Nexus Integration Team
Lean and Agile Techniques
SAFe
Professional Scrum Product Owner
Legacy Code
Quality Assurance
Confluence
AgileSparks
ATDD
Agile Project Management
Scrum.org
Scrum Master Role
Business Agility
Daily Scrum
Systems Thinking
Agile Development
Artificial Intelligence
Jira Plans
Video
SPC
Lean-Agile Software Development
Scrum Guide
Elastic Leadership
AI
Covid19
Nexus and SAFe
User stories
Introduction to Test Driven Development
Software Development
Agile Exercises
LPM
Kanban
LeSS
Managing Projects
Implementation of Lean and Agile
ARTs
An Appreciative Retrospective
Change Management
Nexus
Story Slicing
Implementing SAFe
Product Management
SAFe Release Planning
Nexus vs SAFe
Software Development Estimation
Continuous Integration
Lean-Agile Budgeting
Continuous Deployment
PI Planning
Principles of Lean-Agile Leadership
Agile Community
Risk Management on Agile Projects
EOS®
Agile
Lean Software Development
Lean Agile Organization
Agile Assembly Architecture
Agile Basics
Engineering Practices
Iterative Incremental Development
Large Scale Scrum
Continuous Planning
Agile Risk Management
QA
ALM Tools
TDD
Slides
Games and Exercises
Continuous Improvement
Agile Product Ownership
Risk Management in Kanban
Built-In Quality
Achieve Business Agility
Sprint Iteration
Introduction to ATDD
PI Objectives
Professional Scrum Master
DevOps
AI Artificial Intelligence
Effective Agile Retrospectives
Scrum Values
Scaled Agile Framework
Kaizen
chatgpt
Applying Agile Methodology
Operational Value Stream
Coaching Agile Teams
Kanban Basics
predictability
Lean and Agile Principles and Practices
Kanban 101
Keith Sawyer
System Integration Environments
Rapid RTC
ATDD vs. BDD
speed @ scale
Lean Risk Management
Jira admin
A Kanban System for Software Engineering
Agility
Professional Scrum with Kanban
Scrum Primer
Self-organization
transformation
Sprint Planning
Perfection Game
Lean Startup
Test Driven Development
What Is Kanban
Rovo
Agile Program
RSA
SA
Agile Marketing
Agile Games and Exercises
Agile Release Management
ScrumMaster Tales
Enterprise DevOps
Portfolio for Jira
BDD
Tools
Planning
RTE Role
Product Ownership
Scrum
Accelerate Value Delivery At Scale
The Agile Coach
Managing Risk on Agile Projects
Releases Using Lean
Agile Product Development
WIP
Tips
Code
Reading List
Release Train Engineer
agileisrael
Agile Israel Events
Lean Agile Management
Kaizen Workshop
ART Success
Atlassian
RTE
Nexus and Kanban
Agile Israel
Scrum and XP
Agile Testing Practices
AgileSparks
Logo
Enable registration in settings - general

Contact Us

Request for additional information and prices

AgileSparks Newsletter

Subscribe to our newsletter, and stay updated on the latest Agile news and events

This website uses Cookies to provide a better experience
Shopping cart