Changeban - A Lean Startup style Kanban simulation
Channel: Aptile - Lean Agile Coaching and Collaboration
Date: 2019-05-01

Mike Burrows introducing and facilitating Changeban, the open source Lean Startup style Kanban simulation game from Agendashift. This was recorded at the Advanced Agendashift workshop in London, April 2019.

Changeban models a Lean Startup style process to confirm the value, feasibility and adoption of each change that flows through a system. We see how we should act on our learning with each step of our process. Because this is a simulation using Kanban we also learn how to use visual management, and the benefits of using WIP limits to create a controlled pull of work through the system. Finally, we left with the challenge of thinking how we can learn even more quickly from the experiments in our own work - building a habit of "double-loop learning".

Watching this video will be useful if you plan to facilitate your own Changeban session using the open source materials available through www.agendashift.com/changeban

A great way to experience and learn from Changeban is alongside the other exercises of the Agendashift workshop. Get in touch to find out how!

00:00 Introduction: Separate experiments from execution; consider what we have learned, and how we could have learned it more quickly
03:05 Changeban: Board design and process model
07:03 Game rules and scoring
21:12 Iteration 1 (facilitated start, step through the rules, edited group play)
29:23 Calculate scores (iteration 1)
31:03 Observations from iteration 1, introduce Work In Progress limits (WIP limits)
32:00 Question about the two types of WIP limit - per column, or across a span of columns
33:07 How to score a perfect 20 - items rejected equally from every activity in the process
33:42 Clarification of "Endgame rules" (the rules are the same, the actions available become more limited)
35:15 Iteration 2 - The same rules, but now we respect WIP limits; how WIP limits affect activity; work items are allowed to move more than one column per round; if we don't shuffle the cards, we'll get the same "luck"
38:20 Start Iteration 2 - Edited gameplay
39:32 First team finishes, so maximum of 2 minutes left 
39:50 Calculate scores (itereration 2); metrics can drive dysfunctional behaviour
41:32 Observations from iteration 2; higher scores; more collaboration (and better knowledge about how to get a perfect score); think about "rejection" as a win; board designs for blocked work; winning strategies
47:56 Starting vs Finishing and "pull systems"
52:55 When we reject work, what have we learned; how could we learn faster? Two levels of learning - "double loop learning"
54:22 (Skipped: how to describe work that flows through this process - constructing experiments)