Manchester Digital Laboratory

See also: getKanban Quick Play on Wednesday 14th November – note that despite the name, this Saturday session is just a longer more detailed run of the game, and requires no prior experience either!

 The Kanban method for managing software development is based on three simple but powerful ideas:

• Visualise work
• Limit work in process
• Continually improve the system

Don’t let this simplicity fool you however, the Kanban method has some powerful tools and guidance, especially for teams who have to balance a difficult variety of work.

The getKanban board game

One of the quickest ways to become familiar with the ideas and mechanics of Kanban is to take part in a real life simulation. The getKanban board game is a fun and engaging way to simulate software development, which compresses days or weeks into minutes or hours. This session will take a number of teams through a realistic scenario. Each team will collaborate to agree on a strategy and make day-to-day decisions, and the teams will complete among each other for financial success.

You’ll get a taste of the visual tools, charts, and metrics that surround effective management for software development. If you’ve encountered other development processes, you’ll see that Kanban is more than just Scrum without time boxes.

You’ll take away insights that will help you deal with typical software development challenges and possibly inspire you to look more closely at what some of the most forward thinking teams are experimenting with.

The game needs no prior experience. There will be an introduction before we start and a debrief / discussion afterwards.

Who should attend:

• Developers
• Testers
• Business Analysts
• Technical Leaders
• Managers of all levels

About the organisers

Ash and Royd are both independent Agile & Lean coaches who have both used getKanban in commercial training courses. They are offering these two free / low-cost events to make an introduction to Kanban more widely accessible. (There is also a thriving local community of Kanban practitioners in the Limited WIP Society, meetings of which can attract 50 or more people.)

Afterwards

We’ll aim to finish by 12:30pm (1pm latest), so we’re done in time for lunch. If anyone wants to hang around afterwards, we’ll head across the road to Common where we can continue the discussion over food, coffee and/or a pint.