Lean from the Trenches: Managing Large-Scale Projects with Kanban

by Henrik Kniberg

Lean is a direction, not a place.

How We Sliced the Elephant The key to minimizing risk in large projects is to find a way to “slice the elephant,” that is, find a way to release the system in small increments instead of saving up for a big-bang release at the end. Ideally, each increment should independently add value to the users and knowledge to the teams.

Instead of setting up policy rules for this, the teams simply talk about this during the daily meetings and make decisions on-the-fly based on the current situation. This is the key to staying agile in a big project and not getting bogged down in bureaucracy.

A cadence is something that happens over and over at regular intervals, forming a rhythm or heartbeat in the project.

Most team members focus on their team-level board, while team leads and managers focus on both the team-level board and the project-level board.

avoid death marches

We don’t even have sprints. All we want is to agree on which features are next in line.

Perfection is a direction, not a place!

So, the important thing isn’t your process; the important thing is your process for improving your process.

Culture can be defined as “things that everyone does without noticing it.” An outsider is more likely to notice, and challenge, the status quo.