The ScrumBan [R]Evolution

Ajay Reddy has spent more than a decade helping teams and organizations improve how they work. His engagements emphasize a hands-on approach, collaborative experimentation, verified business outcomes, and improved team satisfaction. After discovering Agile approaches as a software engineer, he transitioned to coaching others in adopting Agile. Reddy founded CodeGenesys, the Lean-Agile consulting boutique. In 2010, he co-founded ScrumDo.com, which provides cloud-based project management tools to facilitate better Scrum and Kanban implementations. As its managing partner and product owner he helps teams in 145 countries realize Scrumban's benefits. He recently co-created the GetScrumban.com game to help people discover Scrumban's capabilities.

Foreword by David J. Anderson xv Foreword by Jim Benson xix Preface xxiii Acknowledgments xxvii About the Author xxix Part I: Introduction 1 Chapter 1: Manifestations: Scrumban Demystified 3 A Helpful Perspective 3 A Framework for [R]Evolution 4 Stop Drinking the Kool-Aid 8 Let's Get Started 9 Part II: Foundations-Starting with the End in Mind 11 Chapter 2: The Matrix and the Mess: Where It All Begins 13 Part 1: The Matrix (Scrumban's Origins) 14 Part 2: The Mess (Reasons Scrumban Is Needed) 28 Tying It All Together 39 Chapter 3: The Mission: Clarifying the Relationship between Purpose, Values, and Performance 41 Why We're Paid to Work 41 The Importance of Shared Purpose 42 The Importance of Adaptive Capabilities 43 Tying It All Together 51 Chapter 4: Motivations: Why Scrumban Works 53 Where It All Began 53 Layering the Kanban Method 57 The Significance of Complementary Values 64 Scrumban's Relationship to Agile Thinking 66 Other Frameworks and Models 66 Some Final Thoughts on Systems Thinking 68 Tying It All Together 69 Part III: Execution-Putting Scrumban into Practice 71 Chapter 5: Mobilize: Rolling Out Scrumban 73 Your Starting Condition 73 The Kickstart Process 74 The Kickstart Event 86 Some Final Thoughts 98 Tying It All Together 101 Chapter 6: Method: Working under the Hood 103 Managing Uncertainty and Risk 103 How Scrumban Improves Management of Risk 106 Releases and Sprints 119 Feedback Loops 144 Design Thinking 147 Ticket Design 149 Board Design 150 Tying It All Together 153 Chapter 7: Measurements: Gaining Insights and Tracking Progress 155 Why Measure? 155 How to Measure 158 Constructing Histograms 161 Scrumban Measurements 161 Productivity Metrics 161 Quality Metrics 169 Risk Metrics 172 Extending Scrumban beyond IT: The Balanced Scorecard 178 Tying It All Together 182 Part IV: Improving-Advanced Topics and Practices 185 Chapter 8: Management: Management Is Doing Things Right-Leadership Is Doing the Right Things 187 Convictional Leadership 188 Servant Leadership 190 Good Leaders Recognize Knowledge Work Is Different 191 Reinforcing Leadership through Management 194 Facilitating Evolving Roles 199 Tying It All Together 204 Chapter 9: Maturing: Like a Fine Wine, Scrumban Can Get Better with Age 205 Prioritizing and Managing Change 206 Evolving Your Core Capabilities 214 Further Evolving the Understanding and Management of Risk 221 Scaling beyond IT 229 Tying It All Together 235 Chapter 10: Modeling: To Boldly Go Where Few Have Gone Before 237 Why Model? 237 Starting with Metrics and Distribution Patterns 238 What Is Modeling? 239 A Sample "What If " Experiment 255 Bootstrapping 258 Some Final Words 258 Appendix: More: For the Stout of Heart 259 Scrum in a Nutshell 259 Scrum and Scrumban: Some Quick Comparisons 262 Scrumban Roadmap: A Quick Reference for Getting Started 267 Using Scrumban to Introduce Scrum 273 Scrumban and SAFe 277 Scrumban Stories: The Full Case Studies 278 Supplemental Information and Resources 315 Index 335