It has become a commonplace that the throughput of a team’s or individual’s work is significantly slowed by context switching. If, instead of trying to multi-task and performing many different tasks within a given lapse of time, we finish a task before we start another, there will be much less context switching. Consequently, we would […]
flow
When is a kanban tool not a kanban tool?
An indicator of the increasing popularity of kanban is the number of software tools and online services that claim kanban functionality. For those practitioners who have seen the tremendous benefits of kanban, this should be a gratifying development. But what does it really mean for a tool to support or to enable kanban? And what […]
Using Sankey diagrams for kanban
A Sankey diagram is used to provide a visual analysis of flows. While it might be most commonly used to display the flow of materials through a distribution system, such as petroleum and its derived products, Sankey diagrams are well adapted to provide visual analysis of the flow of any type of work. Thus, they […]
Psychology, Flow and Kanban
Kanban and Flow The benefits accrued to an organization by adopting Kanban methods are closely related to the concept of flow as described by Mihály Csíkszentmihályi (Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience, New York: Harper and Row, 1990). Having a social scientific underpinning for Kanban, we may be assured that it is not just a flash-in-the-pan […]