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I'm in charge of the "processes and training" department in my company. Our main activities are:

  • Document and publish the process of the company as well as procedures and functions of each sector
  • Develop and document efficiency metrics to measure the performance of certain sectors
  • Provide training on demand on various issues, internally and for clients

What would be an appropriate agile way to manage the tasks of such department? How would such way be best implemented in TFS?

MCW
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Fernando Moyano
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    Hello and welcome to PMSE. You seem to be asking about an application of a specific tool. What I'd suggest is to take a step back and choose the right approach first. From what you say, a Kanban seems a better start to document existing process and then improve it. I've made an edit to your question to make it more general - you can revert that edit if you want. In the meantime, you may want to take a look at http://pm.stackexchange.com/questions/12548/how-can-we-apply-agile-to-a-consulting-firm/12549#12549 , since it should apply to your department as well. – Alex Leonov Dec 30 '14 at 19:44
  • Thanks Alex, I'm ok with the edit. I'll also take a closer look to Kanban and see how it can help – Fernando Moyano Jan 02 '15 at 17:57

1 Answers1

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Kanban is suitable for ongoing work

Kanban is suitable for managing ongoing work that does not have a specific start and an end. Sounds like the work you described is of this nature.

I understand that TFS has a Kanban template. However, I have not used this even though I have used the TFS Agile/Scrum template.

Here are some of the key aspects of Kanban:

  • Visualize the workflow: Everyone should be able to see what everyone else is working on.
  • Set Work In Progress (WIP) limits: To minimize context switching.
  • Learn and improve continuously: Monitor the flow and keep making small, continuous improvements.

One of the key monitoring techniques for Kanban is the Cumulative Flow Diagram. This will show you where the bottlenecks are and they can become targets for improvement.

You can also set up separate horizontal lanes (swimlanes) for the three types of work that you described.

Glorfindel
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Ashok Ramachandran
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