My keynote talk at Asia's First Lean Kanban Conference at Bangalore, Dec 11-12

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30. Our Product
• Network Management domain
• Windows-based specialized hardware (“Appliances”)
• Installed in data centers for traffic monitoring, analysis
and network troubleshooting
• but not generally on production network
• Typical users are technical folks – CIO, Network
Manager, Network Engineers
• Selling cycles typically align with quarterly or annual
budget cycles
• Many sales require implementing customer specials

31. Old Process, circa 2003
• Customer Bugs prioritized based on multiple business parameters,
including (partial list) -
• Severity
• Impact on Revenue, Volume, Competitive, etc.
• Case age
• PMO would prepare Maintenance Release Plan of Record (MR POR)
and get buy-in for various types of MRs -
• Service Packs – bunch up ~50-60 bugs typically every quarter
• Hot Fixes – 1-2 high-urgency bugs that can’t wait until next SP
• Patches – workaround for customer-specific issues
• SPs would have
• Above The Line (ATL) requirements – must fix
• Below The Line (BTL) requirements – fix if time permits

32. Problems with Old Process
• Dev team had no bandwidth to take on maintenance releases
• Huge pile of customer escalations without “home”
• Compounded by high incoming field rate
• Low closure rate (largely due to no dedicated resources)
• Large wait for customers to get bug fixes
• Tech Support often tasked team directly and broke the process
• Hot fixes not always available to all customers
• Sometimes, a new bug fix might break a hot fix
• If a hot fix failed in the field, rollbacks would be very difficult
• Difficult to estimate time to resolve a bug and give an ETA
• High-priority bugs could arrive at any time
• Customer specials could arrive anytime with top priority
• High internal rejection rate of bug fixes by Tech Support

33. New Process, 2004-05
Dedicated
Customer
Sustaining
Team
New
“Cumulative
Hot Fix”
process
Improved
collaboration
with all
stakeholders

34. Our Kanban Process in action…
GUI
Product A
Backend
Product B
Product C
Product D
Protocols
Device Drivers
PMO
CST
Manager
Tech
Support
QA Team
Dev
Team
=
15
WIP
=
15
WIP
=
2
WIP
=
1wk
WIP
=
1wk
Queue
=
0
Queue
=
Infinite

35. Process improvement…the
beginnings…

36. Cumulative Hot Fix Process

37. Weekly Build Process

38. So, what is happening?
• Though not an originally stated vision or goal, the “Work in
Progress” (WIP) is being limited to # of team members
• At any time, one developer is assigned only one piece of
work, thereby achieving “One-Piece Flow”
• New work is only assigned when current work is
completed (or cancelled/stalled), and a team member is
available
• No wait state or switching costs at an individual level
• Smaller lead time for bugs (in contract to lead time for SP)
• The process is allowing ‘continuous deployment’ of each of
the hot fixes – even though it is only being practiced in a
limited manner
• Finally, the flexibility gained is not a zero-sum game – there is
no penalty on performance in rest of the process

39. Did this move the needle?
• Bugs addressed each quarter
• Quality of bug fixes
• “Homes” for bugs
• Total bugs open
• Open days open
• People motivation

40. From SPs to Cumulative Hot Fixes
Maintenance Releases (Service Packs, Patches, Hot Fixes)
Q3 2003 Through Q4 2006 (Fiscal Year)
Hot Fixes
Patches
5 2 1
5 3 1 0
0 1 0 0 0
1
0 2 3 4 4 4 4 2 2 2 1 2 3 1
0
2
8
11
16 18 20
62
28 27
26 26 24
28
21
100
92
87
96
88
92
85
80
97 96
93
100
94
91
7
12
15
25 25 25
30 30
28 27 26
32
22
66
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
Q3 03 Q4 03 Q1 04 Q2 04 Q3 04 Q4 04 Q1 05 Q2 05 Q3 05 Q4 05 Q1 05 Q2 06 Q3 06 Q4 06
100
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
Service Packs Patches Hot Fixes % Successful
Percentage of released
Maintenance Releases
(Service Packs,
Patches, Hots Fixes)
that addressed
customer reported
Total Maintenance
Releases (Service
Packs, Patches, Hot
Fixes) for this
quarter.
Service
Packs

41. Increase in bugs with “homes”
Customer Direct and Indirect % w/Homes - Historical
Week Ending February 03, 2006
55
Percent with Releases Identified: 56% (Driect), 80% Indirect, 68% (Combined)
46 45 47 44 45 45 44
55
52 54 56
35
45
39 38 41
51
46
31
40 40
59
63 60 61 61
68 69
74 72 69 69
55
73
80
68
61
5356
48
54 55
52 51 51 51 50 49
54 55
47 47
11
15 18 16
47
53 55
43 42 43
75
82
76 76 75
82 83 82 81
71 72
65
87
82
75
47
51 51 50 48 48 48 48 48
53 54 51 51
21
27 27 25
44
52 51
41 42
67
72
68 69 68
75 76 78 76
70 71
60
80
71
64
44 47
100
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
5/6/2005
5/13/2005
5/20/2005
5/27/2005
6/3/2005
6/10/2005
6/17/2005
6/24/2005
7/1/2005
7/8/2005
8/5/2005
8/12/2005
8/19/2005
8/26/2005
7/15/2005
7/22/2005
7/29/2005
9/2/2005
9/9/2005
10/14/2005
10/21/2005
10/28/2005
9/16/2005
9/23/2005
9/30/2005
10/7/2005
11/4/2005
11/11/2005
11/18/2005
11/25/2005
12/16/2005
12/23/2005
12/30/2005
12/2/2005
12/9/2005
1/6/2006
1/13/2006
1/20/2006
1/27/2006
2/3/2006
Direct Indirect Goal (80% w/Homes) Combined

42. Total Bugs Open
Severity Across Products (Historical)
Week Ending March 31, 2006
222
243
191
224
213
236
230
210211
201199
196197195
161
147146146146
132
122
131
121
127
127125
111
148150
65
605857
57
53
626466676768 71747575
6866
5049495052
494746
69707069
6063
7473
68
6160
5555
4749 5149
44
3538
323332343536
130
120
110
100
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
01-Oct-04
31-Dec-03
29-Oct-04
19-Nov-04
10-Dec-04
21-Jan-05
31-Dec-04
11-Feb-05
04-Mar-05
25-Mar-05
06-May-05
15-Apr-05
27-May-05
17-Jun-05
08-Jul-05
29-Jul-05
19-Aug-05
09-Sep-05
21-Oct-05
30-Sep-05
11-Nov-05
02-Dec-05
13-Jan-06
23-Dec-05
03-Feb-06
24-Feb-06
260
240
220
200
180
160
140
120
100
80
60
40
20
0
17-Mar-06
Total Severity 1 Severity 2 Severity 3 Severity 4 Severity 5

43. Average Days Open
Severity: Average Days By Severity (Historical)
Week Ending March 31, 2006
203
155
244242246246244248
136
234235
232
226223
260
244
275275
268
299
232
210207
201
179
165
172
162
156
180
168
163
156152
147
142
139143
132135
148
140
155
144147146144
145
135
157156156
152
148
149
144
140
133
154155157
144147
177179183182
163166
164162165
154
146
149
141
134134
123
117
123
500
475
450
425
400
375
350
325
300
275
250
225
200
175
150
125
100
75
50
25
0
01-Oct-04
31-Dec-03
29-Oct-04
19-Nov-04
10-Dec-04
21-Jan-05
31-Dec-04
11-Feb-05
04-Mar-05
25-Mar-05
06-May-05
15-Apr-05
27-May-05
17-Jun-05
08-Jul-05
29-Jul-05
19-Aug-05
09-Sep-05
21-Oct-05
30-Sep-05
11-Nov-05
02-Dec-05
13-Jan-06
23-Dec-05
03-Feb-06
24-Feb-06
300
275
250
225
200
175
150
125
100
75
50
25
0
17-Mar-06
Avg Days Open Severity 1 Severity 2 Severity 3 Severity 4 Severity 5

44. People motivation
• Started with 16 people dev team
• We had zero attrition in the team
• Once the backlog started coming down, engineers were ramped
off the team to do new features
• Eventually dismantled the team and rolled-up engineers into dev
teams when backlog came down to single digits
16 16 16 16 16 16 16 16 16 16 16 16
12 12 12 12 12
10 10 10
4 4 4 4 4
6 6 6
18
16
14
12
10
8
6
4
2
0
Resource Staffing
Sustaining Mainline Approved Headcount

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