This is the third installment of the series devoted to high WIP. The first one explained the general issues of the high WIP. In the second one, we listed the specific problems typical for software development team. In the last installment of the series, we will look at how high WIP affects the team’s morale….
Tag: kanban
A penalty for high WIP, or why spreading yourself thin will kill you
This is the second installment of the series devoted to WIP (Work in Progress). As explained in the first installment of this series, each open task leads to some additional work and to a number of problems. Let’s have a look at them. Context switching With many tasks pursued in parallel, we are forced to…
What is WIP (Work in Progress)
WIP, or Work in Progress (AKA Work in Process) is the number of tasks that the team is currently working on. All the tasks which have been started, but have not been completed yet, increase the WIP. Thus, if the first column on our kanban board is ToDo, and the last one is Production, then…
Ending Life of Kanban Cards (Vlad The Impaler Fatality)
The question is what to do with the kanban cards after they were taken from your kanban board? The simplest answer is to “throw them away”. Well, yes, sure, they are not needed anymore. My colleagues from the next-door team (hello @tkowalcz!) have a different idea. The cards end up on a stake. Sweet, isn’t…
What is “Done”?
When can you say that a task is done? This is an old topic but still important and still being discussed over and over by almost any team. Lately my team decided to come with a definition of done. This post presents our view on “what is ‘done’?”. Introduction We tried to address every aspect…