At the moment I am working with an amazing group of people, bringing a huge cultural change to one of the world’s largest utility companies. In this cultural change I am getting the chance to work with some great agile coaches who, as they are want to do, are propagating a number of Kanban boards.

It’s great to see how these guys are communicating, and empowering teams to take charge of their delivery, and it’s even greater to see how the teams are reacting, and growing the processes to really bring out the best of what they are doing.

As this revolution affects the whole company, the boards have proliferated to the point where they need some guiding force to unite their purpose. There is a single vision which must not be lost as individual boards, which we should consider as facets of the company’s customer facing self, grow in power and influence.

I was discussing this over coffee with some of the coaches, and as I took in this requirement I said, “What we need is…”
One Board To Rule Them All

They agreed, but didn’t pick up on what was coming next. I then said, “We need…”

The Board Of The Rings

This is the official version of this story from the person who said it first among the afore mentioned peer group, and although this article is a bit, “tongue in cheek,” it’s worth noting that the board of the rings is now in place, and binding the others together, as it rightly should.