Kanban Project Portfolio Simulation
This simulation facilitates comprehensive and realistic experimental learning among a group of 4-12 participants. The participants are organized in a Project Management Office (PMO) and three functional teams producing and delivering features for multiple projects.
A typical simulation starts with Project Managers aiming to utilize the capacity of the teams as much as possible for completing their projects. Although the three Kanban teams are efficient and effective on a micro level, they do not always produce the most valuable (for the project) features, which results in bottlenecks and workflow inefficiencies on the organization level. While discussing the workflow and KPIs on the system level, experienced facilitators guide the participants to introduce essential Kanban project management practices for the PMO. The participants practice using flow-related data to make decisions related to scheduling multiple project work to increase the business outcomes on the organizational (project portfolio) level. As a result, the PMO and Kanban teams focus on delivering outcomes on an organizational level that help them increase the delivered project results by 60% - 110%.