Marcus and Joakim are at a conference presenting a practical introduction to kanban. They’re finishing the presentation; let’s join them in action.
“To sum up: kanban is an approach to software development based on the principles of Lean. It has quickly been picked up by many organizations around the world. You can pick it up too! Starting tomorrow, you should stop starting and start finishing. And with that,” Joakim concluded, “our quick, practical introduction to kanban ends. But remember what we said earlier—you could get started tomorrow. Getting up and running with this isn’t hard—the effects can have a dramatic impact on your productivity.”
“Thank you all for coming! We’ll be hanging around here for a couple of minutes if you have any questions,” Marcus added, trying to close the discussion in order to end the presentation on time—for once.
As Joakim started to clean the whiteboard and remove all the stickies from the wall, Marcus answered a couple of quick questions, pointing some people to the slides available for download as he headed toward the exit. He didn’t get far, though. Halfway to the exit a woman abruptly stopped him.
“What’s this? Why are you leaving? Don’t tell me we missed it all?!” The woman looked disappointed and almost as though she’d been cheated.
“Missed what? The presentation? Yes, it just finished, but you can catch the video online,” Marcus replied.