I just finished the SDC conference in Wellington and am now in Sydney, ready to start SDC here tomorrow morning. One of the highlights for me was the experiential workshop Shane Hastie and I led about kanban Tuesday afternoon.
We started with a backlog and a minimal board: not started, in process with a WIP of one (how could more than one of us talk?) and a done column. We had a number of potential stories, and let the participants tell us when we were done and guide us. We started with a quick introduction and asked “Are we done?” They said, “No!” so we kept going. “Are we done now?” “Not yet” and they told us what we needed to do to be done. So we did that.
We gave them some examples of boards given different lifecycles, and for their project, we timeboxed them to 40 minutes. They each had different boards, and totally different outcomes for their projects. It was a blast. (I forgot the correct cable for my camera, so you’ll have to wait to see pictures of their boards.)
As with all experiential training, everyone learned something different, and I think everyone realized that flow is different from timeboxes. A great time.
