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Kanban - A Solution to Chaos
Kanban (看板) - A Japanese term - meaning 'Visual Signal' - first developed by engineers at Toyota For efficient Manufacturing, and called it ‘Just in time’ Toyota Production System. The production in the factory is directly proportional to the customer demand.
Kanban as a software
As the Information Technology industry saw a boom in the 21st Century, Engineers soon realized Kanban’s potential and its need in Project Management to Increase efficiency.
It is a work management system, with primary focus on Work Visualization, & track Work in progress at any given point in time, Limit work in Progress and thereby Maximize work efficiency.This process is called FLOW.
In a Business where a lot of different team are involved -Eg: Services, Operations & Technology, There is a possibility of Work done by different teams and verticals are intangible and invisible.
Kanban helps in Visualising work done by each team so it can be understood better on what stage is given task progress is at a given point in time. This helps in all the teams to be on the same page.
Kanban Boards & Kanban Cards
The teams working in different verticals create a KANBAN Board and filling in with Kanban cards and set up work in Progress Limit.
Kanban starts with you listing tasks that needs to be done now.- this is one of the first step
Kanban also encourages leadership and ownership of the respective tasks at all the levels. Kanban and the team are interrelated and the progress and efficiency is directly proportional to the two elements (The team & Kanban boards and cards)
KANBAN BOARD
Kanban is a Pull System.
The board has vertical columns where Task headers are updated and the cards contain the smaller goals to achieve the header Task & Once the task is complete the cards are pulled from the right side of the board to the left side - indicating that the task is complete.
This helps in efficiently using the available bandwidth for tasks and monitoring progress.
The boards contain tasks from left to Right listed in columns. With Backlogs, What's the plan for today, In progress, Blocked & Done
The cards move from the left of the kanban board to the right as the progress is made in each vertical. This allows the team to identify current bandwidth for allocated work tasks and can be used for further prioritising tasks.
This Process of movement of cards from left to right is called the Workflow
Ideal way is to keep the columns as simple as possible and increase the number of columns later.
In the Agile principle for software developers & project management, One Kanban card can be considered for one user story.
If not used in the development vertical Kanban card can be considered as a Work Item.
What Should a Kanban card contain?
1. Title & a description
2. Owner
3. Due date or TAT
The cards get updates from Team members as it moves from one stage to another - this is when kanban cards get its weight age.
Keeping the Kanban card small enough can help the team to achieve the set task in a reasonable amount of time. This will ensure the cards move from one column to another swiftly.
It's also important to keep the card with a reasonable amount of tasks this will help manage the number of cards in the column.
Work Flow & Its Key benefits
Kanban cards give a visual idea of work tasks. It also helps in understanding what tasks the team can handle quickly & move the card from one column to another - this helps in understanding team's efficiency in certain tasks.
This efficiency is called - Flow, the movement of cards from start to end or Done (status)
Kanban helps work task to move from Backlog to Done status.Once this is understood it's time to measure & this measure is called - Lead time
The Kanban board also provides visual assurance that a given task is done.
To Summarize
Applying Kanban methodology in a work environment which involves different teams results in efficient project management.
It gives a visual assurance of task completion via physical and digital boards
You can start with what you have
Helps to limit Work in Progress to achieve high efficiency
Without disturbing the current process it can adapt and provide an efficient workflow path.
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