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Violin plots for services & kanban

16 March 2018 by Robert Falkowitz 1 Comment

Concept of a violin plot

I have frequently remarked that “traditional” analysis of service events and the plotting of data is highly misleading. This is due to a distribution of data that is neither symmetric nor normal. A useful data plotting tool for asymmetric, non normal data distributions is the violin plot. This article joins my series of articles concerning […]

Filed Under: Graphical management tools, Kanban, Service Management Tagged With: asymmetric distribution, box plot, histogram, interquartile range, lead time, median, normal distribution, probability density, reliability, tools, violin plot

When is a kanban tool not a kanban tool?

7 February 2018 by Robert Falkowitz

value stream on card board

An indicator of the increasing popularity of kanban is the number of software tools and online services that claim kanban functionality. For those practitioners who have seen the tremendous benefits of kanban, this should be a gratifying development. But what does it really mean for a tool to support or to enable kanban? And what […]

Filed Under: featured, Kanban, Tools Tagged With: blockage, class of service, deterministic management, flow, kanban board, Little's Law, muri, priority, probabilistic management, pulling work, pushing work, queue length, team autonomy, Theory of Constraints, tools selection, value stream, visualization, WIP limit, work item

How to select kanban tools

10 February 2017 by Robert Falkowitz Leave a Comment

Drill

I am often asked what software tools are available to support the use of kanban. Many lists of such kanban tools already exist (see the end of this article) and I do not intend to repeat the same information here. Instead, I would like to explain my view of the architecture of kanban tools and […]

Filed Under: featured, Kanban, Tools Tagged With: kanban board, kanban tools, reporting tools

Using Sankey diagrams for kanban

31 January 2017 by Robert Falkowitz 3 Comments

Sankey diagram

A Sankey diagram is used to provide a visual analysis of flows. While it might be most commonly used to display the flow of materials through a distribution system, such as petroleum and its derived products, Sankey diagrams are well adapted to provide visual analysis of the flow of any type of work. Thus, they […]

Filed Under: Graphical management tools, Kanban Tagged With: flow, kanban, Sankey diagram, visual management

How can a Marey chart help analyze the flow of work?

19 January 2017 by Robert Falkowitz 5 Comments

Marey Chart

The type of diagram called a Marey chart might be more than a century old, but it can be a useful new addition to the arsenal of tools at the disposal of lean and kanban practitioners. What is a Marey chart? A Marey chart is commonly used to analyze transportation systems. It displays the times […]

Filed Under: Graphical management tools, Kanban Tagged With: cause analysis, cumulative flow diagram, kanban, lead time histogram, marey chart, problem solving, value stream map

Manifesto for Service Management Tools

17 June 2014 by Robert Falkowitz 4 Comments

The service management marketspace is populated with hundreds of tools, nearly all of which resemble each other more than they are distinct. Fundamentally, they are a place to log tickets of various types, to push those tickets to various roles for their updating, to document the structures upon which the handling of those tickets depends […]

Filed Under: Service Management Tools Tagged With: 2nd line of support, 3rd line of support, manifesto, ontology, plugins, tools

Types of Tool Automation

13 October 2013 by Robert Falkowitz Leave a Comment

Types of tool automation The fundamental difference between a software tool and most types of tools is that software can be programmed to automate one or more tasks. Most other tools do not automate work at all, only extending the capabilities of the wielder of the tool. Certain mechanical tools can automate a task, but, […]

Filed Under: Automation, Availability mgmt, Change management, Incident Management, Risk management, Service level management, Service Management Tools, Tools Tagged With: automation, change management, Incident Management, incident management tools, service management tools

On the architecture of IT service management tools

17 November 2012 by Robert Falkowitz 3 Comments

New IT service management tool architecture

A common issue when implementing ITSM tools Often, while working on projects to implement a new IT service management tool, I have encountered the following remarks from one or more IT engineers. “Why are we implementing that new tool? Our team already has tools to do that.” To do what? Well, to manage the investigation, […]

Filed Under: Service Management Tools Tagged With: application architecture, incident, Incident Management, incident management tools, ITIL, ITSM, service management architecture, service management tools

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