Monday, October 29, 2012

Kanban: Assets and Liabilities

The next time you look at a Kanban board, pretend to be an accountant. Look through the eyes of an accountant. You'll probably see two columns like most accountants do - Assets and Liabilities.

Don't see them? 

Work that is "Done" or "Released" is an Asset. Companies make money when work is done. You'll probably find this on the right side of the board.

Now look to the left. Those are your liabilities. All this work that's "In-Progress" - they are liabilities. You can be proud of them, but they are not making you money. In fact, it's quite the opposite - they are burning money.

So what do you do with this knowledge?

Start converting your liabilities into assets. Don't add new work (i.e. increase liabilities), instead create more assets (i.e. complete work). Work from the right side of the board.

Stop starting, Start Finishing.

1 comment:

Olivia Ochoa said...

Thhanks for writing this