Xanpan is a hybrid agile methodology that combines elements of Kanban, Extreme Programming (XP), and Lean. It focuses on iterative development, team autonomy over work, quality practices, flow-based prioritization, and visual management. Key practices include breaking stories into tasks, estimating in story points, applying work-in-progress limits, and allowing both planned and unplanned work. The methodology is meant to be adapted by individual teams to their needs rather than followed strictly.

1. What do you get if
you cross Kanban
with Extreme
Xanpan Programming?
allan kelly
BCS Agile
Twitter: @allankellynet LLKD13 day March 2013
http://www.allankelly.net
http://www.softwarestrategy.co.uk
The Cigarettes & Colas talk

2. Allan Kelly
Director, Software Strategy Ltd
– Consulting & Training for Agile
Author
– Changing Software Development: Learning
to be Agile (2008, Wiley)
– Business Patterns for Software Developers
(2012, Wiley - ISBN: 978-1119999249)
97 Things Every Programmer Should Business Analysis
Know and Leadership:
Henney, 2010 Influencing
Context Encapsulation in change
Pattern Languages of Program Design
Penny Pullan &
Volume 5, 2006 James Archer
2013

3. We don’t need another Methodology

4. Choose your Cola
Ken & Jeff’s
Scrum-Cola
David Anderson
Kanban-Cola
Kent Beck
XP-Cola
Allan Kelly
Xanpan-Cola

5. Where did Xanpan come from?
1
• Experience (Lean+XP) First XP Kanban
concept & Lean
– Blue-White-Red
• Kanban
• XP XP Kanban
2
& Lean
• Plus Product
Management
– Seeing others
– Reports of other cross-overs
nb an
S P
cr &
an
Ka Le
X
um
&
• Making sense of what I see 3
M
ff
Pr age
u
an
od m
st
uc en
er
th
t t
O

6. Principles
• Iteration routine
• Team Centric - Planned & Unplanned work
• Invest in Quality / “Quality is Free”
• Dis-economies of Scale
• Flow: Emphasize, Level, Span, Constrain
• Goodhart’s Law
• Constructivism learning
• Visualise

7. Practice
1. Technical practices: TDD, CI, etc.
2. Teams can work on more than 1 stream
– Flow multiple projects/product to 1 team
3. Break Stories to Tasks
– Colour code work
– Estimate in Points
– Small is better - Think Small!
4. Benchmark against self (velocity)

8. Practices
5. Flow
– Use Product “Ownership” (Product Management
& Business Analysis) to restrict flow
– Apply WIP limits
– Absolute Prioritization
6. Planning levels (horizons)
7. Pick’n’Mix
8. Action over words

9. Practices
9. Fit work to the time
– Deadlines are good
10.Evolutionary change
– Small Bangs are OK but Big Bangs not a good idea

10. Some detail….

11. Iterations & Flow
• Iterations bring structure
But
• Strict iterations break flow
– “Story must be finished in sprint”
– “Story cannot be bigger than a sprint”
– Sprint tail overwhelmed by finished stories
– Testers drop standards
• Strict iteration
– Difficult at first – learn to think small

12. Iterations & Flow
• Stories spanning sprints levels work
– Break down stories to tasks
– Tasks only counted when completed
– When all tasks done, Story done
• 3 Strikes & you are out!
– Story span 1 Sprint, OK, good
– Story spans 2 Sprints, umm… Red Flag
– Story spans 3 Sprints, Out! Story too big

13. Breakdown
• In planning meeting
• Part
– Software Design
– Requirements elicitation
– Opportunity to reduce scope
– Estimation exercise
Image from Paul Goyette, Creative Commons License
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wrecking_ball.jpg

14. Epic Discouraged but accepted
Blues – Stories
• Business facing
Story
Story • Have automatic business value
Story
Story • Deliverable in own right
• Deliverable sometime soon
• Typically software feature but
anything which brings value –
documentation, etc.
Task
Task
Task
Task Whites – Tasks
• Typically developer tasks
• No business value alone

15. Yes, Estimation
• Estimate White tasks in planning meeting
– Ball-park estimate Blues
• Estimates in Points
– Your currency £ $ €
– One currency I’ve come to
– Forget hours like Planning
Poker but
choose your
own poison

16. Estimation worthwhile? “I can bring a
project in to
the day”
• For scheduling? Perhaps
– Some teams report good results
– Some teams placebo effect
– Long run average accurate enough
• Provides Developers with safety valve
• Useful input to design process
(Forget actuals – retrospective estimates)

17. Reds
Yellows
Unplanned work
Green
Specific to you

18. Planned & Unplanned work
• Work planned in planning meeting
• Unplanned work allowed at any time
– Tag it, e.g. Yellow card
– Retrospective estimation
• At end of the iteration count points unplanned
– Graph/Track planned v. unplanned
– Incorporate into planning velocity

20. Light Sabre
Every team must design their own board

21. Goodhart’s Law
Any observed statistical
regularity will tend to
collapse once pressure is
placed upon it for control
purposes.
Velocity & points break
down if abused
And so do other
Professor Charles Goodhart, CBE, FBA
measurements

22. Is Xanpan useful?
• Maybe
– Take it
– Use it
• Inspiration
– Roll your own
Image from Ildar Sagdejev under Creative Commons license
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:2009-02-15_Rolling_a_cigarette.jpg

23. Which brand of Cola
are you drinking?
allan kelly
Software Strategy Ltd.
www.softwarestrategy.co.uk/allankelly
allan@allankelly.net
Twitter: @allankellynet
(c) Allan Kelly http://www.softwarestrategy.co.uk 24