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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%.

Team Kanban Simulation

This simulation facilitates comprehensive and realistic "learning through experience" among a team of 3-5 participants. The simulation features a simple story of events providing a light and simple context of the simulated environment. The team journey starts with working "business as usual in a push mode" and observing what causes the delays, the high workload, and the consequences of working without clear flow and customer-oriented policies. After a reflection, they define concrete actions and gradually transform to a Kanban team working in a "pull system" with WIP limits and relevant flow-oriented policies. Participants, guided by knowledgeable facilitators, "experience by doing" the critical Kanban practices such as visualization of workflow, the introduction of WIP limits, conducting team Kanban and retrospective meetings, elaboration of policies related to work types and classes of services, interpreting of Cumulative Flow Diagram and Scatterplot Charts, dealing with variability in the context of planning and organizing work and others.