What Is Kanban Cadence?
In an Agile organization, Kanban cadence represents the flow and rhythm of Kanban meetings. These meetings are not run the same as they are in Scrum. Each team member is free to participate without committing to regular time-boxed meetings.
The goal of Kanban cadence is to maintain a steady rhythm of meetings to ensure that teams can meet their set objectives and provide the best possible product or support for the end-user.
The Kanban cadence involves a set of seven meetings that are divided into three groups (feedback loops). These meeting groups are:
- Getting things done
- Doing what needs to be done
- Improving workflow
While some Agile practitioners may refer to these scheduled meetings as Kanban ceremonies, the Kanban method specifically uses cadences to establish a regular rhythm without the need for a time-boxed sprint.
What are the 7 Kanban cadence meetings?
The seven Kanban cadence meetings are:
- Daily standup meetings The goal of this meeting is to gather team members and talk about what work is being done, how it is carried out, and how it can be improved.
- Weekly replenishment/commitments meeting This meeting involves filling the Kanban board with set objectives and outlining how team members will achieve each objective.
- Bi-weekly service delivery review This meeting involves obtaining customer feedback and implementing suggested changes where necessary.
- Delivery planning meeting The Kanban team will need to make regular updates and provide new results from each meeting.
- Monthly risk reviewThis Kanban meeting is to identify impediments that could stall the team’s performance.
- Bi-monthly operations review meetingDuring this Kanban cadence, various team members from different departments gather to examine the whole project workflow and identify areas for improvement.
- Quarterly strategy reviewThis final meeting is held to review the project strategy. Stakeholders gather to figure out how to move forward regarding the company’s set objectives.
Each meeting serves a particular goal in the organization.
