Lean from the Trenches

Chapter 6Tracking the High-Level Goal

People are more likely to focus on the high-level goal if they know what it is.

I know, that sounds rather obvious. But yet in many organizations I’ve worked with, managers think that everyone knows the high-level goal, and then it turns out that each person has a different answer when we ask them what that goal is.

Our high-level project goal is usually posted right on the Kanban board. For example, during Q1 2011 we had the goal “Deliver on April 5 a version with no important defects that is releasable to the whole country.” A milestone along that path was to deliver to two new regions on March 14.

When we reach a goal, we write a new goal statement for the next release. The goal statement acts as ...