Flow-based software development (FSD, aka “lean”, pull-based, or kanban) is software development paradigm that can have a profound effect in certain software development projects, e.g. maintenance projects. This experience reports shows one project team’s experience when moving from a timebox-based development process (scrum) to a flow-based process.

Flow-based software development (FSD, aka “lean”, pull-based, or kanban) put focus on improving flow of work items (normally software features) through a software development work process. But what does it mean in practice? We show the nitty-gritty of how to set up a project to run flow-based instead of timebox-based, and when it makes sense to do so. We show a simple KPI model to better capture the state of a project using FSD, and how it can be used as a basis for conducting experiments aimed at process improvements.