[marcosdumay]

I was curious to understand what exactly software managers were calling by "kanban" now that the name is fashionable.

Well, I was not disappointed. The articles talks about everything, except anything marginally related to the meaning of "kanban" in manufacturing.

[sbuk]

Can you elaborate?

[marcosdumay]

In physical production (where it comes from), kanban is a lean method for ensuring that you don't spend on producing right now something that is not needed right now.

It works by tokens that "pull" the production from other productive unities that are ultimately "pulled" from external (client) demand.

The article talks about all kinds of rituals and gains, but never once touches that "pulling" activity that is central to the concept, nor the lean objective.

[sbuk]

Thanks. I'll confess to being a Kanban noob. Do you have any resources that you can share? Looking with Google seems to present more of this sort of article.

[marcosdumay]

Wikipedia has a surprisingly good explanation:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kanban

There's a link to Toyota's site at the bottom, as the inventors, they have plenty of authority on it.

Wikipedia has also an article about Kanban in software development. As expected, the introduction does not even make sense, but the methodology section contains a form of continuous improvement, what could work. Also, I could not understand how any of the experiences related on the article could come from the Wiki's methodology - it has probably no relation at all with was implemented at the author's place.