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> never move back an item to a previous column. If something more important came up, you “cancel” the current task and start the new one. This helps to identify

> never move back an item to a previous column. If something more important came up, you “cancel” the current task and start the new one. This helps to identify bottlenecks Could you explain this a bit further? I'm imagining three columns, todo / doing / done, and I'm working on a widget when I'm asked to put out a fire. I'd imagine that the fire is moved from todo to doing and that the widget work is moved from doing to todo, but it sounds like you're advocating for something different. Could you explain more about it or link to resources that might help me understand? Thanks!

haolez 7y ago
You need a mechanism to keep track of your unpredicted interruptions, so that you can improve your process continuously (which is what Kanban is about). Moving items back makes this harder (although possible). What I saw some teams doing was to mark such items as cancelled, explaining in the tickets why they got cancelled, so that a manager can then see which columns (i.e. steps of a process) are interrupted more often. This could point to a bottleneck in this process. In the near future, the "rest" of the cancelled ticket would make it back into the backlog as a new ticket entirely. This has the added benefit of keeping your backlog cleaner.
- nefitty 7y ago
  I will try this today with my own personal kanban board. I do find myself with cards moving back and forth a lot. The way I've dealt with "Cancellations" is I have a list called "Waiting" where I stick tasks that are blocked. Sort of like pending review but it could also involve waiting for a resource, a response, etc. I think if I implement cancellations with details it could help me figure out what processes are broken that caused fires(i.e. this report is suddenly due, overriding everything else. Did I miss a memo? Do we have a solid process for anticipating these sorts of reports in the future? etc.) I could then go back during some planning time to view what needs some brain time. Thanks for suggesting this!
  - haolez 7y ago
    There is another hidden benefit: sometimes a ticket that is moving forward and backward is a fat ticket that should have been a few thinner ones. When you recreate a ticket that was cancelled, you are compelled to review its scope and adjust accordingly.
    - ChristianBundy 7y ago
      This makes a lot of sense, thanks for taking the time to explain.

haolez 7y ago

You need a mechanism to keep track of your unpredicted interruptions, so that you can improve your process continuously (which is what Kanban is about). Moving items back makes this harder (although possible). What I saw some teams doing was to mark such items as cancelled, explaining in the tickets why they got cancelled, so that a manager can then see which columns (i.e. steps of a process) are interrupted more often. This could point to a bottleneck in this process. In the near future, the "rest" of the cancelled ticket would make it back into the backlog as a new ticket entirely. This has the added benefit of keeping your backlog cleaner.

nefitty 7y ago
I will try this today with my own personal kanban board. I do find myself with cards moving back and forth a lot. The way I've dealt with "Cancellations" is I have a list called "Waiting" where I stick tasks that are blocked. Sort of like pending review but it could also involve waiting for a resource, a response, etc. I think if I implement cancellations with details it could help me figure out what processes are broken that caused fires(i.e. this report is suddenly due, overriding everything else. Did I miss a memo? Do we have a solid process for anticipating these sorts of reports in the future? etc.) I could then go back during some planning time to view what needs some brain time. Thanks for suggesting this!
- haolez 7y ago
  There is another hidden benefit: sometimes a ticket that is moving forward and backward is a fat ticket that should have been a few thinner ones. When you recreate a ticket that was cancelled, you are compelled to review its scope and adjust accordingly.
  - ChristianBundy 7y ago
    This makes a lot of sense, thanks for taking the time to explain.