January News & Views from the Kanban Community

In This Issue

Kanban Coaching Exchange with Joey Spooner

Do You Really Need Predictability?

Getting Started with Kanban, Part 2: Interview with Anna Radzikowska

13 Best Kanban Software/Tools For Project Management In 2022

Kanban for Lawyers: A Journey to Agility

Flow is King. Agility is a Side-Effect.

Kanban Coaching Exchange with Joey Spooner

Thursday, January 13, 2022
1:30 PM to 2:30 PM EST
6:30 PM to 7:30 PM GMT
7:30 PM to 8:30 PM CET

Join host Helen Meek for the first Kanban Coaching Exchange of 2022! Joey Spooner, Vice President of Community Development and Product Management at Kanban University, will share how the Kanban Method utilizes evolutionary change to transform your organization without suffering the pandemics of transformationitis and reorganizationitis.

Do You Really Need Predictability?

There are certainly business cases where predictability doesn’t actually matter. If you are working upon release dates that take place twice per year and you always meet these deadlines, or there are no deadlines at all and you deliver results whenever you deliver results, why would you need predictability? Click below to look at this question from a slightly different perspective.

Getting Started with Kanban, Part 2: How to Start, Kanban Board vs Kanban Method, Kanban Method Advantages and Challenges

Wondering how to use Kanban in your work? You don’t know where and how to start? Get some ideas from Mauvisoft’s series of interviews with Anna Radzikowska, Accredited Kanban Trainer and Certified Kanban Coach, who specializes in teaching Kanban world newcomers.

13 Best Kanban Software/Tools For Project Management In 2022

In today’s business environment, organizations need to be Agile and flexible enough to keep up with fast-growing market demands. Your work management structure needs to provide a clear plan, process and responsibilities so that critical initiatives can be delivered on time and on budget. With these challenges in mind, Agile and Lean management methods are gaining traction around the world. Taking a fresh approach to an old concept, the core concepts/principles of Kanban remain a way to easily implement Agile and promote enterprise agility. In this article, Digité brings you the 13 Best Kanban Software/Tools that can help you in implementing a Kanban System in your process.

Kanban for Lawyers: A Journey to Agility

The legal services industry is going through an accelerated and highly complex transformation, from which there is no going back. The globalization of all industries, the appearance of disruptive technologies and the digitalization of knowledge services are but a few of the challenges that the legal sector is facing. The greatest challenge is being able to create agile organizations and robust businesses that are capable of reinventing themselves.

Flow is King. Agility is a Side-Effect.

Succinctly put, Flow is the movement and delivery of customer value through a process. Without Flow, our organizations simply cannot endure long enough to deliver value to our customers. Mike Freislich relates his experiences of how to see Flow in your organization, as well as tips and tricks to identify and eliminate impediments to Flow.

Building the Best Trainers of The Kanban Method

At Kanban University, our vision is to teach others our pragmatic way of managing work. We accomplish this by building the best trainers to deliver Kanban knowledge worldwide.

Is becoming an Accredited Kanban Trainer (AKT) your next career move? It starts with getting accredited as an AKT through our Kanban Train the Trainer (TTT) course. Find our courses below in English, Spanish and Russian (NEW!).

2022 Train the Trainer Classes

January 31 – February 11, 2022

Trainer: Bianca Griffioen
Language: English
2:00 pm to 6:00 pm Central European Time
8:00 am to 12:00 pm Eastern Standard Time US

March 28 – April 8, 2022

Trainer: Todd Little
Language: English
9:00 am to 1:00 pm Eastern Daylight Time US
3:00 pm to 7:00 pm Central European Summer Time

May 16 – 27, 2022

Trainer: Fernando Cuenca
Language: Spanish
9:00 am to 1:00 pm Eastern Daylight Time
3:00 pm to 7:00 pm Central European Summer Time

May 16 – 27, 2022

Trainers: Helen Meek & Dan Brown
Language: English
1:00 pm to 5:00 pm British Summer Time
8:00 am to 12:00 pm Eastern Daylight Time US
2:00 pm to 6:00 pm Central European Summer Time

October 10 – 21, 2022

Trainers: Kirill Klimov & Aleksei Pimenov
Language: Russian
4:00 pm to 8:00 pm Kiev/Eastern European Summer Time
9:00 am to 1:00 pm Eastern Daylight Time US
3:00 pm to 7:00 pm Central European Summer Time

November 14 – 25, 2022

Trainers: Helen Meek & Dan Brown
Language: English
1:00 pm to 5:00 pm GMT UK
8:00 am to 12:00 pm Eastern Standard Time US
2:00 pm to 6:00 pm Central European Time

If you don’t find a class that fits your availability, please message us at KU@kanban.university. We collect interest and have the ability to build a class into the schedule that may suit your needs.

Kanban Use Is Gaining Momentum!

2022 is a great time to consider traveling the Accredited Kanban Trainer path and certifying your own Kanban University classes.

We are seeing an increase in Kanban use, and this leads to interest in Kanban training. Going virtual and yet maintaining the same level of interactive training experience is paying off by making Kanban University classes more accessible, but still engaging, actionable, and relevant to students.

Accredited Kanban Trainers (AKTs) teach the Kanban University foundation classes: Team Kanban Practitioner, Kanban System Design, and Kanban Systems Improvement – that spread Kanban across the globe. The AKT accreditation also puts you in an exclusive group of professionals who have demonstrated mastery of the Kanban Method at a high level.

If you have attained the Kanban Management Professional Credential and feel you have enough practical Kanban implementation experience to write a quality case study, then it’s time to take the next step on your Kanban development path.

Get accredited as an AKT with our Kanban Train the Trainer (TTT) courses open for application below.

2022 Train the Trainer Classes

January 31 – February 11, 2022

Trainer: Bianca Griffioen
Language: English
2:00 pm to 6:00 pm Central European Time
8:00 am to 12:00 pm Eastern Standard Time US

March 28 – April 8, 2022

Trainer: Todd Little
Language: English
9:00 am to 1:00 pm Eastern Daylight Time US
3:00 pm to 7:00 pm Central European Summer Time

May 16 – 27, 2022

Trainer: Fernando Cuenca
Language: Spanish
9:00 am to 1:00 pm Eastern Daylight Time
3:00 pm to 7:00 pm Central European Summer Time

May 16 – 27, 2022

Trainers: Helen Meek & Dan Brown
Language: English
1:00 pm to 5:00 pm British Summer Time
8:00 am to 12:00 pm Eastern Daylight Time US
2:00 pm to 6:00 pm Central European Summer Time

November 14 – 25, 2022

Trainers: Helen Meek & Dan Brown
Language: English
1:00 pm to 5:00 pm GMT UK
8:00 am to 12:00 pm Eastern Standard Time US
2:00 pm to 6:00 pm Central European Time

If you don’t find a class that fits your availability, please message us at KU@kanban.university. We collect interest and have the ability to build a class into the schedule that may suit your needs.

Get to Know Kanban Fellows:
Dragos Dumitriu, Dimitar Karaivanov, and Frank Vega

It has been our pleasure to celebrate the 17 inaugural Kanban University Distinguished Fellows for 2021. We are sharing our final three interviews with Kanban University Chairman Todd Little below.

Watch and learn how Dragos, Dimitar and Frank got started with Kanban, their contributions to the community, and how they have seen it evolve over the past 10 years.

What do you value most about the Kanban community?

“Every time I would go to a conference I would learn something new. We’re all learning and it’s continuous learning. However, I want to differentiate the learning from teaching. Nobody was coming to teach. People were coming to share – to share experiences, to share results, and we all learned. You go to a lot of other conferences and someone is trying to teach you. There’s a bunch of pedantic pontificators out there and they never have any results to show. In this community, people come to talk about results, to talk about their case studies.”

Dragos Dumitriu

Lean Champion at Adobe

How have you seen Kanban and the Kanban community evolve over the past 10 years?

“It has been quite a ride. One thing that I always appreciated about the community is that we get so many brilliant people that always contribute more and more to complete the body of knowledge of Kanban. 10 years ago, 11 year ago, it wasn’t where it is today and I think a great deal of this achievement should be contributed to the community. Kanban University is definitely a trusted partner for us and we will do whatever we can to help you guys grow.”

Dimitar Karaivanov

CEO and co-founder of Kanbanize

What do you value most about the Kanban community?

“It’s the amount of openness and sharing that I see from many of the folks that appear at the conferences, not just in the U.S. but globally. I know that I can ping someone on LinkedIn or reach out to them via email and they’ll share their insights and experiences. For me it’s been very helpful to have that, especially when you work as an independent consultant on your own and not part of an organization on a day-to-day or month-to-month basis.”

Frank Vega

President/CEO of Vega Information System Services, Inc.

#KanbanFellow

Coaching with the Kanban Maturity Model

The Kanban Maturity Model codifies more than 10 years of experience implementing Kanban across diverse industries, from small businesses to extremely large enterprises.

At the Kanban Global Summit (March 14-16, 2022), you will learn how to use the KMM to gain a better sense of achievement, provide better products and services, delight your customers, and realize superior business results.

Start with Teodora Bozheva’s interactive introduction to the Kanban Maturity Model. Then see how one organization put it into practice with an experience report from Abigayle Wall and Dharmesh Chavda.

Kanban Global Summit registration is open now with early bird savings available until January 7, 2022. Reserve your spot today!

Kanban Week 2022 will follow the CDC’s Covid safety guidelines, along with state and local guidelines for California and the city of San Diego, to ensure a safe event for attendees.

Save With Year-End Specials From Our Kanban Tools Partners

The holidays are here, bringing Black Friday sales and seasonal specials to all, even in Kanban land.

Our Kanban tools partners have several offers available to help you save while gearing up for a successful Kanban New Year in 2022.

Get started below!

KMM+ – Get 20% Off Subscriptions

The Kanban Maturity Model provides pragmatic, actionable, evidence-based guidance and shows how to achieve true enterprise agility. KMM Plus gives immediate access to updated information and knowledge.

Enjoy a 20% discount on KMM+ subscriptions until the end of November 2021. The offer applies to all types of annual subscriptions.

SwiftKanban – Get 20% Off Annual Plans

SwiftKanban is pleased to offer the Kanban University community a special discount. Sign up for a free trial with the promo code SWIFT-KU21 and you’ll be entitled to a flat 20% discount when you sign up for any paid annual plan of SwiftKanban. This offer is valid until December 25, 2021. Compare plans here.

Businessmap – See the Three Pillars in Action

Businessmap aims to enable true agility in companies by helping them:

• Optimize workflows and deliver faster,
• Gain visibility across their projects, and
• Connect planning with execution.

These three pillars characterize the Businessmap software and what it stands for. The company’s mission is to discover new management ways and share this knowledge through amazingly powerful tools. That’s why, as part of this mission, they’ve decided to package the evolution of the product over the years and present it to you by visually portraying the Businessmap pillars.

Kaiten – Get Up to 60% Off With Black Friday Offer

Kaiten combines the ease of use (like Trello) with Kanban functionality. Bring everyone in a single space and stop switching between different tools. Reports, visual signals, multiple boards in the space, portfolio Kanban, upstream/downstream—anything you love about Kanban you’ll find in Kaiten.

Be one of the passengers of the discount spacecraft on Planet Kaiten and save up to 60%. This offer is good until December 12, 2021.

Nave – Get 30% Off With Black Friday Discount

With Kanban Analytics from Nave, you’ll be able to:

• Make data-driven decisions based on actionable insights
• Identify bottlenecks that are hindering your performance
• Build predictable delivery workflows

With the Black Friday discount, save 30% on all Kanban Analytics Annual Plans. Upgrade your membership with 30% off on all annual plans. The offer is limited until November 30. Subscribe now with coupon code KU21.