Kanban is not a process. It's not a framework. It's nothing of those things. You can attach Kanban to any process that you use. A different way to say that is that Kanban is the flow strategy. So it's a strategy that helps you to optimize the flow of value through your value streams from ideation to customer. And then we can talk about all the different practices and principles.
“Kanban is a flow strategy that helps you to optimize the flow of value through your value streams from ideation to customer."
Dimitar Karaivanov is a Lean-thinker, a Kanban practitioner, and the CEO and co-founder of Kanbanize. In this episode, Dimitar shared his story on how he got fascinated by the simplicity and the effectiveness of Kanban, which then led him to start Kanbanize. He shared in-depth the concept of Kanban and why Kanban becomes one of the most popular Lean practices. Dimitar then shared about the principles, practices, and anti-patterns behind Kanban, as well as tips on how companies can improve their Kanban practices, including dealing with external dependencies.
Listen out for:
- Career Journey - [00:05:06]
- Kanbanize Story - [00:07:05]
- Kanban - [00:10:25]
- Why Kanban Becomes Popular - [00:12:24]
- Kanban Principles - [00:14:53]
- Visualize the Workflow - [00:20:23]
- Limit Work in Progress - [00:23:11]
- Manage Flow - [00:28:26]
- Make Process Policies Explicit - [00:30:49]
- Feedback Loops and Improve Collaboratively - [00:31:43]
- Kanban Metrics - [00:33:52]
- Kanban Anti-patterns - [00:36:17]
- Handling External Dependencies - [00:40:39]
- Tips to Improve Your Kanban Practice - [00:42:01]
- 3 Tech Lead Wisdom - [00:43:40]
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Dimitar’s Bio
Dimitar Karaivanov is a Lean-thinker and a Kanban practitioner with a solid background in the areas of software development and process improvement. Dimitar is also a keynote speaker and the author of ‘Lean Software Development with Kanban’. His expertise was gained through more than 15 years of career development at companies like Johnson Controls, SAP, and Software AG.
Dimitar has envisioned and brought to life the idea of Kanbanize aimed at solving problems in the way companies manage big initiatives spread across multiple teams. Through the success of his company, he has proven that Kanban can be used not just for change management, but also for product development. He is passionate about achieving extreme performance at scale and applying Lean / Kanban outside IT, and is an active member, supporter and promoter of initiatives within these communities.
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For more info about the episode (including quotes and transcript), visit techleadjournal.dev/episodes/49.
