Kanban Zone on full display at Agile Arizona 2019

This year we decided to take Kanban Zone on the road by teaching, speaking and sponsoring at Agile Arizona 2019. This regional Agile conference was full of great speakers and we were very happy to not only speak about Portfolio Kanban, but also set up a booth that showed how Kanban Zone works well on any display (mobile, tablet, laptop, and large touchscreen).

This was also an opportunity to create some fun merchandise like the perfect way to relax by squeezing, bouncing or throwing the official Kanban Zone red ball.

Workshop (4 hours) - Improve Efficiency & Delivery with a Portfolio Kanban

The first session that we offered was a 4 hour workshop that focused on both envisioning the ideal Kanban system for an organization and also creating multiple types of connected Kanban boards. Here is the full description:

Description

Unleash full transparency and traceability from ideation to completion. Create a Portfolio Kanban System to improve the way you deliver value to customers and keep everyone focused on the right work at the right time. Inspired by the House of Lean and the Agile Manifesto, the Portfolio Kanban System can increase efficiency while continuously improving the flow of delivery. Join me in this interactive workshop that will provide examples and the ability to design and use your own Portfolio Kanban System.

Agenda

• • Agile Manifesto & House of Lean
  • Feature Driven Development (FDD)
  • Kanban
  • Portfolio Kanban
  • Kaizen

Learning Objectives

• • How to build a Kanban board using the 5 step exercise
  • How to design an effective Portfolio Kanban System
  • How to develop a culture of continuous improvement

Although this half-day workshop is usually something that we only deliver in private with our clients, it was very fun to interact with participants from multiple industries in a single session. Once we covered all the basics of Lean, Agile and Kanban, we proceeded to illustrate multiple ways to leverage a Portfolio Kanban system. Lastly, we used you our 5 step process to building an effective Kanban board and it was fantastic to get an entire room to collaborate on creating a portfolio board, as well as a discover board.

Talk (1 hour) - Portfolio Kanban to focus on the right work at the right time

The following day, it was time to participate as a speaker and deliver a short one-hour presentation about Portfolio Kanban. This was a very condensed session that covered a lot of information about creating and using a Portfolio Kanban. Here is the full description:

Description

Agile is about delighting the customer by prioritizing valuable work for customers, as well as balancing technical debt and other work that is crucial for the health of your product or service. Wouldn't it be nice if all your work was clearly aligned to a customer or goal? Well, it can with Portfolio Kanban.

Forget complex scaling frameworks. Embrace instead simplicity by designing the ideal flow of work and pulling it using Kanban. Focus on the right work at the right time with Just-In-Time backlogs. Use "brutal" prioritization and stop wasting time estimating, instead leverage Kanban metrics and techniques to generate "good enough" estimates.

Finally, you will discover how to improve organizational flow with Portfolio Kanban, by tracking metrics like lead/cycle time and throughput. This is everything you need to know to set up and continuously improve the way to deliver the most valuable work to your customers, fast!

You can also view the entire presentation below…

It was a pleasure to be part of this conference and to meet many Kanban enthusiasts. We are looking forward to future similar events that we can join as a sponsor, speaker and/or workshop facilitator. If you are seeking to learn more about Kanban, then visit our always growing resource area.

If you need a dynamic speaker to introduce Kanban or venture into advanced topics like Portfolio Kanban, then contact us. We are always happy to share our knowledge about Kanban, so don’t hesitate to engage with our Kanban experts.