We are starting to use Kanban and my boss just asked me a question, as one of two people with prior Kanban experience within the group, that I don't really know how to answer.
My previous experience and training with Kanban had developers pulling stories in from the backlog by priority, in our case that was the topmost card. However, my boss would like certain stories to go to the developers that have domain knowledge for particular areas. For example, let's say Joe has the most experience in working with Contracts and a contract story comes onto the board. He would like Joe to be the one to work on that particular story.
This, to me, feels a little "off" and could lead to some developers having significant extra work due to having worked in any given area of functionality. My previous experience with Kanban worked under the assumption that any developer should be able to pick up the next card and figure out what to do and that this practice would eventually eliminate any single functionality area experts and level out developer expertise over time. However, I can also see how using subject matter experts can help move a story through the process faster.
What is the most "Kanban" way of handling priority vs. expertise when it comes to pulling in the next story?