Every project needs a champion. When it loses that champion, a project will typically falter and sometimes die. The secret to keeping people excited about your vision is to present the idealised vision of the end product as attainable. That is what Kanban does.
That is why in this article, we talk about what Kanban project management really is, its principles, benefits, and then how you can adopt these concepts for your projects.
What is Kanban Methodology?
The Kanban methodology is agile and encourages improvement and flexibility regarding tasks as well as the workflow. This methodology permits the entire progress of the project to be viewed at a single glance.
Kanban was the method of controlling inventories in the supply chain in the manufacturing context with a just in time manufacturing practice. The same concept, though, is adapted in project management of British Academy for training and development through the Kanban methodology by ensuring that the amount of work that needs to be done equals the actual work capabilities possessed by the team.
What are the origins of Kanban?
Kanban originated in Japan in the 1940s. Engineer and businessman Taiichi Ohno was developing his simple Kanban system for Toyota Automotive in Japan. This later evolved into a system of lean manufacturing meant to place optimal control over processes, inventory levels, and work in progress at each stage of the production process.
Kanban (看板) is the Japanese word for “signboard,” or visual signal. As a noun, it is mostly manifested in a Kanban board where Kanban cards on top indicate individual tasks grouped by status.
When do you want to make use of Kanban?
In its versatility lies its simplicity. Kanban fits into the existing workflows, honoring existing roles and responsibilities. It can be applied in any industry. A content editor could use it, while so could an eCommerce business.
When work shows up in an unpredictable manner, knowledge workers in that environment are particularly suited to using Kanban principles to deploy tasks as soon as they are ready rather than waiting for other work items.
When priorities are volatile and interruptions can happen at any time, the Kanban system is most preferable because work can be added at any stage. Kanban may also be deployed when there are no iterations.
What are the key elements of a Kanban board?
Here are some key elements of kanban discussed below,
Columns: The various stages of the team's workflow, such as To Do, In Progress, or Done, are visualised as columns on the board.Cards : these are the different types of work that can be done: tasks ,sometimes referred to as works in flow or end to end requirements, and so on. Cards can represent complete projects, or they may be put into work subdivisions for carts.WIP limits: work items should never be more than the counts specified in these limits at any state of the workflow.Swimlanes: These are used to define different horizontal divisions that can be applied for enthusing, for example, usage by teams or even departments.Tags : Tagging cards also referred to as labeling, tags are good forms of organising, sorting, and filtering your cards, giving meaning to the actions, stressing on activities that are considered critical to find what you might need to do to achieve certain goals.Basic Practices of Kanban Methodology
With each Kanban principle dissected, it is high time we now get into the sight of Kanban in action. The 6 principal practices in the core of an operative Kanban system are as follows:
1. Make your workflow visible
The Kanban tool works its best if there is a visual board filled with Kanban cards that you can drag around. Actual boards in real space, somewhere in your office wall with good sticky notes on it or on an electronic Kanban system in the form of software, are your options. The process is then visualised on this board for complete transparency. This is a simple method for your team to understand what has to get done.
2. Limit Work in Progress (WIP)
Kanban is known as a pull methodology, ensuring that your team completes their tasks in hand before new tasks are taken on. Hence the task at hand would focus the team and would signal to the stakeholders that there is limited capacity for each team, thus forcing its careful consideration.
No one should see more than 1 to 2 items on the "in progress" or "doing" column at any one time. When an item is done, the team can then pull another item from "to do" to "doing" in the same manner.
3. Manage the workflow
Key to Kanban is observing your workflow with a view to continuous tracking of production levels. Therefore in practice, this means identifying bottlenecks in your process and carefully monitoring how long work items are sitting in different stages.
If items are blocking the work or hanging around in handoff stages, then you would know that there is something that needs correcting on your team. Eventually, the teamwork will flow like a charm, and delivery becomes smooth and predictable.
4. Provide structure to your process policies
Formatting process policies this way will make all jobs easier. it will help create that "work how" framework that all understand and feel good within.
Creating some common checklists around each work type start process policy creation from the Kanban methodology task accomplishment definition, detailed columns or swim lanes, pull card criteria, and acceptable WIP are identified.
5. Find time to review and provide feedback
Implementation of feedback loops forms part of effective Kanban systems. And more importantly, feedback allows your teams to "fail fast" and "fail often", though this may sound counterproductive, it is actually one of those ingenious means of establishing the foolproof work system.
Better than being on the right track from the beginning rather than trudging in that same direction for weeks, months, or even years. Some easy ways to create feedback loops are regular process reviews and key tracking metrics to keep an eye on the flow of work.
6. Betterment and evolution scientifically
The Kanban method is gradual, everyone attains it, and within time, and makes the changes possible by encouraging experimentation on the hypothesis, conducting the test, concluding upon the test results, thereby encouraging gradualism within the inquisition.
The more tests you do and the more changes you make, the stronger your system grows, and the larger the impact of the change.