Sizing Tasks

Patty

unread,

Sep 9, 2013, 2:54:27 PM9/9/13

to persona...@googlegroups.com

Hi everyone,

This week we would like to get the conversation started on sizing tasks. Please feel free to share your experience with us!

One frequent question Jim and Tonianne get asked at classes is how to size tasks. They have written several articles on task sizing on the Personal Kanban Blog, including the following two, HOW TO: How to Limit WIP #4 How to Size Tasks (Sort of) and Do the Right Small Thing. How are you keeping your WIP low and your work coherent? Do you try to make your tasks small? If so, what's your strategy?

Don't be shy! We would love to hear from you!

Patty

--

Patty Beidleman

Community Manager

Modus Cooperandi: Performance Through Collaboration

Follow @ModusCoop on Twitter

Jim Benson

unread,

Sep 9, 2013, 6:19:10 PM9/9/13

to persona...@googlegroups.com

Or maybe a different way of thinking about this is ... do you do small batches? How do you make sure your work is identifiable, coherent, and easy to complete?

Please do join the conversation. This is one topic that people struggle with mightily.

Jim

--
Jim Benson
Collaborative Management

Modus Cooperandi: Performance Through Collaboration

Personal Kanban: Effective, Lightweight Personal and Small Team Organization

Author: Personal Kanban: Mapping Work | Navigating Life (Winner of the Shingo Prize 2013)

My Evolving Web Blog | Follow me on Twitter

Skype: ourfounder
Phone US +1.206.383.6088
Add Me on Linked In

--
-- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups Personal Kanban Community of Practice group. To post to this group, send email to persona...@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to personalkanba...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at https://groups.google.com/d/forum/personalkanban?hl=en
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Personal Kanban Community of Practice" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to personalkanba...@googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.

Agustin Villena

unread,

Sep 9, 2013, 7:02:48 PM9/9/13

to persona...@googlegroups.com

Hi!

I my practice I use Personal Kanban for team leaders as a stepping stone towards Team Kanban and more disruptive agile practices.

The reasoning is : If leaders practice PK, they should understand the principles behind Kanban and do a better job coaching their teams.

I use a simple sub.steps process:

- "Empty your cup" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/101_Zen_Stories) similar ti GTD "flush" about to-do items in about one or two weeks

- Check the quality of items:

> Are they actionable? I use here the pepperoni versus slice metaphor. Is the item is actionable, is a pepperoni slice. If not, it represents a swimlane on the PK board, and slices should be defined

> Are they value oriented? If note, they are rewitten to define a clear "definition of done"

This process is called the Kanban Challenge (sorry, only in spanish for now)

http://www.leansight.com/desafio-kanban/

Greetings

Agustin

Mikael Suomela

unread,

Sep 21, 2013, 3:41:20 PM9/21/13

to persona...@googlegroups.com

Hi!

I'm for one struggling with this one. I try to identify the nature of the task and then divide it into quite small pieces (mostly round half an hour or so). Of course variability is a problem, some tasks require a kind of mini-mission attitude, for example: change a broken tube into amplifier: -> locate dealer -> go there -> buy tube -> go to warehouse -> service amp. It could be done in separate steps, but somehow it is better to do this kinds of things as mini-missions... waiting time is reduced by quite a lot and of course for a guitarist a non-working amplifier is a showstopper.

Knowledge work is in this sense different, but mini-missions are here applicable as well... Let's say you edit a video. It could be done in separate steps, but the thing is that stopping work on the video means losing sense of flow and place...

But I'm very aware that requirements arising from real life break mini-missions usually into smithereens...