This presentation was given at the Lean Software and Systems Conference 2012 (LSSC12)

What does Kanban have to say about risk? Some of the answers may surprise you.

Even early on in its implementation, Kanban can help you to recognize certain types of risk quickly and to manage them visually. As the dynamics of your processes are revealed in action, Kanban may prompt changes to the way your work is structured, scheduled and monitored, with clear benefits in process performance. Less obviously, Kanban may challenge deeply-held assumptions about when, where and by whom risk should be managed, perhaps with wide implications for your organization. Most surprisingly of all, Kanban may encourage you to embrace certain types of risk, both to improve your process capability and to help achieve better results from the systems you build and maintain.