One of the regular questions I get asked when I talk to people about KFC Development is about how it is different. As a result I came up with a set of KFC Consequences to try and help articulate this.
- Kanban Consequence – Eliminate backlogs, timeboxed iterations and estimates.
Eliminate might be a slightly strong word, but there is certainly less reliance on these things, and thus less wasted investment in them. Ultimately a high performing team would not need them in a typically recognisable form, although they may use variations. For example, an ‘incubation area’ might replace the backlog as a simple place to keeping ideas before they are refined into MMFs. Similarly, classification might replace estimation.
- Flow Consequence – Use larger, value focussed features
Rather than an emphasis on driving user stories into smaller and smaller pieces, there is more of an emphasis on right-sizing pieces of work based on their value. User story decomposition is used more as an analysis technique.
- Cadence Consequence – Commitment via measurement and SLAs, rather than planning and timeboxes.
Instead of planning batches of work into timeboxed iterations as a mechanism drive productivity and commitment, the mean lead time of MMFs is measured and used as an SLA against which due date performance is reported. Thus it is actual performance which drives productivity, rather than forecast performance.