Infusing Some Kanban (follow-up)...

A week ago, I posted about infusing a few Kanban concepts into our team process and making other tweaks to our standing meetings. Here is a follow-up for those of you who are interested in how it turned out.

In parallel to the previous bullets:

• our cards on the wall have not been restricted to 5. BUT, the good news is that every time we go over 5 the team yells penalty at the CEO (the product owner) and requests that we swarm on existing cards before moving to new ones. The intention is there. (improvement!)
• the CEO is doing a better job of throwing things into the queue as we pull instead of having a weekend brainstorm and puking out a whole new set of priorities on Monday morning (improvement!)
  
• Our standups are more efficient and effective. At first I thought we were missing things because less was said and we ended early, but I'm slowly growing confidence that we are simply focusing on the correct things, consolidating topics into single threads, and reducing the noise. (improvement!)

Also:

• We are definitely focused on the "what" now instead of the "who".
• Standups are easier to follow for outsiders (if desired)
• It is easier to see where things are getting delayed

I will also say that it has become easier for me to coach. Instead of focusing on all the things I am trying to understand and piece together, it is easier for me to keep an ear for anti-patterns and push the team a little more.

So far, a success. I guess I am now a heretic for morphing the standing meeting away from the 3 questions per person. I can live with that.