I broke the WIP limit TWICE, still on the team - slides

I’ve finally uploaded the slides for my I broke the WIP limit TWICE, still on the team talk. I gave this talk at Lean Kanban France and at Make Better Decisions with Modern Management Methods (a.k.a. Lean Kanban the Netherlands 2013), and will give it at the same branded conference in London in a week (a.k.a. Lean Kanban UK 2013).

Also on slideshare.


And here is the abstract in case you are interested:

Hi, my name is Zsolt, I broke the WIP limit several times, I’m still on the team and I’m happy about it. Most probably you’ve had a similar experience (except maybe you weren’t happy at all) when you first started to work in a team that got hit by the Kanban method introduced by one of your fellow teammates. At first, it is hard to follow and understand all the principles and practices, especially when they “hit” us, and therefore we make mistakes. This is good and natural because this is how we live our lives: we fail, we recover and start over.

Starting over requires us to do at least two things: re-learn the principles and practices, and look for examples on how others recovered. I believe that understanding the pull system, the WIP limits, and the difference between manufacturing and software development will give us enough to recover faster from failures and accelerate the learning process. Moreover, I assume that I did more wrong than right during my journey in Kanban land, and it cost me a lot. I believe that if I share these stories with you, it will save you a great deal of trouble for yourself, and if not, at least you’ll have some ideas on how to recover.

Clearly, this talk is not for advanced practicioners, but I think they are as rare as unicorns anyway. So, if you have doubts, or want to know why we do things in the Kanban method as we do now, and you are also interested in some practical ideas, this talk is the right place for you.


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