An Introduction to Kanban with Silver Catalyst

Posted on July 3rd, 2009 in Agile, Kanban by siddharta || 5 Comments

This 15 minute video shows how to implement a Kanban process using Silver Catalyst. In the process, we’ll see various practices of Kanban illustrated such as:

  • How to customize the workflow to map to the value stream
  • How to track custom data (like class of service) for each work item
  • How to setup work in progress limits
  • How to pull work items through the value stream
  • How to block work items and stop the line
  • How to use card colour to identify work item type
  • How to track cycle time and lead time for each work item
  • How to use the throughput and work item breakdown reports and link it with a continuous improvement process

You’ll also see how Silver Catalyst can help with the four basic Kanban principles:

  • Pull value through the value stream
  • Limit work in progress
  • Make it visible
  • Establish a cadence


Working in an Agile team?
Silver Catalyst is a lightweight project management tool for agile teams. Check it out!

5 Responses to “An Introduction to Kanban with Silver Catalyst”

  1. David Joyce Says:
    July 7th, 2009 at 6:19 pm

    Interesting tool.

    You have Lead Time and Cycle Time the wrong way round. Also you should be able to exceed WIP limits on occasion but you should give a reason. Finally if an item is blocked then it may not temporarily count as an item WIP limit.

  2. siddharta Says:
    July 8th, 2009 at 7:23 am

    Hi David, thanks for pointing out mixup with lead & cycle time. WIP override is coming later this week :)

    About blocked items – Doesn’t counting it as WIP force the line to stop and the block to be resolved? If we don’t count it, you could just ignore it and continue producing more WIP.

  3. Andy Roberts Says:
    July 9th, 2009 at 4:09 pm

    I like the class-of-service implementation, including the reporting. It’s a bit of a shame the iteration-related features (iterations themselves, and burndown charts) seem to be a permanent feature of the app. It would be good to be able to turn them off.

  4. siddharta Says:
    July 13th, 2009 at 4:41 pm

    Hi Andy, Yeah the iterations are there at the moment. We’re working on a setting that would turn them all off (along with the burndown). Watch out for the release next week :)

  5. siddharta Says:
    July 15th, 2009 at 1:20 pm

    Blog post explaining the WIP override feature is up here – http://www.silverstripesoftware.com/blog/archives/161

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