All Entries in the "Expert" Category
Would You, Could You on a Plane?
As a matter of fact, yes. I boarded the first leg of my flight from Seattle to Hanoi. I had 19 hours of flying ahead of me. I also had a backlog, and no wifi. Agile Zen was not going to be useful for me. So, I opened Open Office Writer and made a quick [...]
When Good Tasks Go Bad
Yesterday we were introduced to Richard, who is juggling the demands of several clients trying to keep each of them happy. His largest project entails working alone on a client’s mission-critical legacy system. So in the last blog post we discussed his tasks and task types. As we discovered, outlining those task types proved invaluable [...]
What Are Your Task Types?
Flexibility is an unsung virtue. People want absolutes: “Do this, then do that, don’t deviate and then you’ll achieve success.” But we all know that absolutes are often false, and that context is king – in life, in work, and in all human endeavor. So limiting our WIP needs to take context into account, even [...]
Guest Post: My Current Personal Kanban System
One of my favorite observations about using kanban-like systems for time management is that I have never drawn the same task board twice. Every system that I have designed has had some unique feature to it. Even if I start out with something generic, it will quickly evolve into something that reflects the unique circumstances [...]
Dependencies in Personal Kanban
Dependencies are things that occur in succession. One thing happens, then another thing can happen. Ideally, on a kanban, the value stream will visualize these transitions. For a value stream like this: Analysis -> Creation -> Refinement -> Launch refinement is dependent on both analysis and creation. That neatly takes care of dependencies, but in [...]
Am I Productive, Efficient, or Effective?
Productivity: having the power to produce Efficiency: the ratio of the output to the input of any system Effectiveness: being able to bring about a desired result Personal Kanban is considered a Productivity tool, because it gives us the power to produce more. It is likewise said to increase Efficiency by limiting WIP and increasing focus [...]
Respect Your Backlog and Manage It
Your backlog is bigger than it should be and it needs to be managed. Everyday people tell us how they are overwhelmed by their backlog, and cannot possibly manage it within a Personal Kanban because it could contain hundreds or thousands of tasks. Let’s examine this. On Stephen Smith’s blog, he describes using Personal Kanban [...]
Rapture – Training Your Mind for Completion
Don’t strain your brain, paint a train You’ll be singing’ in the rain… – Blondie Your brain is a muscle. As we repeat certain actions, our “muscle memory” becomes comfortable with those actions, and programs itself to anticipate them. As it trains itself to anticipate them, it optimizes for them. This is the basis of [...]
Getting “Personal” with Your Kanban
So why call it “personal” if I can use it with my family, in the classroom, or with a team at the office? In life and in business, we create value. For Personal Kanban, “personal” relates to personal value. Personal Kanban tracks and visualizes items of personal value – tasks, work, and goals. Industrial-style kanban [...]
WIP and Priorization: Recommended Portions
You’ve been hiking all morning and the mercury is nearing 100. You’re parched. You need water – lots of it. But even in your thirst, you want that water to be manageable. Which holds more water – a lake or a drinking glass? Which will satisfy your thirst – a fire hose or a drinking [...]
