"We're facing challenges aligning our development capacity with the seemingly endless demand. This has led to an abundance of projects, resulting in delays and unpredictable delivery times. Limited visibility into our capacity and unexpected support requests from production or marketing have only compounded the issue."
Solution
Portfolio Kanban : launching project on 'pull' basis rather than pushing into the development pipeline.
Analysis
Initiating projects hastily to meet customer demand may appear beneficial, because the sooner a project is started the sooner it is finished, right? However high utilization of resources does not improve throughput. This approach places stress on the organisation, increases overhead, and reduces development capacity, similar to a congested highway.
A common-sense solution exists. Just as manufacturing departments employ Master Production Schedules to balance supply and demand, we should smooth out our demand profile to align with available capacity and business priorities. This so called load- leveling entails developing tools such as demand and capacity specifications and implementing 'lean business cases' for prioritization. A portfolio board can then make informed decisions and regularly approve updated roadmaps on a fixed schedule.
Result
Stability and tranquility. Less leadtime and more throughput of projects , reliable project roadmaps.