I've read in several sources about Kanban. Using Atlassian's description as my current main source of information about how it works, I wonder how the effects of estimations on prioritization should be included in the flow.
Mentioned description suggest a Kanban board with these lanes:
- To do
- In progress
- Ready for review
- Done
The Product Owner then makes sure everything in lane 1 is prioritized. However, priority often depends on estimated effort (something might get higher prio if a quick fix is available, pushed back if it turns out to be a lot of work, etc), and estimating (a) takes time and (b) is best done by those that'll be doing the work.
I'm familiar with Scrum, where the team sits down to estimate on set times. There is no such thing with Kanban it seems. How would this typically work? I can see several options:
- The PO guesses, and the team learns to give feedback if the guesses are off;
- Introduce a "Lane 0" with "To Estimate" items;
- The PO mixes estimating him/herself and interrupting a team member's work to get an estimate;
- Introduce fixed moments for estimations (e.g. 0900 and 1300 hours);
I've searched and found some opinions like this one ("estimation is optional"), but am curious if there's any canonical advice at all?