Kanban is a popular agile methodology that helps teams deliver value to customers faster and more efficiently. But what exactly is Kanban and how does it work? In this article, you will learn the basics of Kanban, its benefits, and how to apply it to your projects.
Kanban is a Japanese word that means "signboard" or "visual card". It originated from the Toyota Production System, a lean manufacturing approach that aimed to reduce waste and optimize flow. Toyota used Kanban cards to signal the need for more materials or work items, creating a pull system that matched the demand and supply. Later, Kanban was adapted to software development and other knowledge work domains, where it became a popular agile framework.
Compared to Scrum, another popular Agile methodology, Kanban doesn't prescribe roles or timeboxed iterations, offering greater flexibility. However, it lacks Scrum's structure and discipline, which can lead to inefficiency in some contexts. Unlike the Waterfall method where one stage must be completed before starting the next, Kanban allows for more fluidity and continuous delivery. Yet, it doesn't provide as clear a roadmap as Waterfall. Technically, Kanban's visual nature and Work In Progress limits make it an excellent tool for identifying bottlenecks and inefficiencies. However, it requires rigorous discipline and commitment from teams for effective implementation.
Kanban is about improving flow of work. Visualise your work and find the bottlenecks in flow using Kanban board. One important aspect of Kanban is WIP limits. In my experience without WIP limits you cannot implement Kanban framework to its full potential. Kanban is best suited when you cannot plan the work in advance and most of the time team is working on adhoc requests like production support projects.
In Simple words, Visualized board show progress of the work from the "Not Started" till "Completed" and going through set of phases based on the business context, very engaging, very simple and effective, very applicable with any team at any level with any business
???? Uma chuva de equívocos nos comentários… Método Kanban != kanban != Sistema Kanban O cart?o, o quadro ou o sistema puxado s?o apenas elementos do Método Kanban criado por David Anderson há praticamente 20 anos. Infelizmente, ou n?o, o nome do Método se inspirou no que era usado no Toyota Production System (TPS) e esta confus?o de conceitos acontece até hoje. Elementos do Kanban: - 9 valores - 2 grupos de princípios - 6 práticas gerais Tudo pode ser visto em formato de Maturity Levels, porque n?o há “Kanban errado”, mas sim implementa??es menos maduras ou que tentam gerir sem muita consciência.
There are a lot of comments on here highlighting why so many Kanban implementations fail before they even start. The intent and purpose of Kanban extend beyond serving as a visual management of flow or to highlight bottlenecks. It is a way of working that focusses on continuous improvement through evolutionary change. While Kaizen focuses on the philosophy of continuous improvement, Kanban provides a practical framework for implementing and managing that improvement. Attempting to implement Kanban without fully understanding it’s intent and problem it solves won’t help you move the needle.
Kanban is based on four core principles that guide its implementation and practice. To begin with, Kanban uses a visual board to display work items and their status, such as "to do", "in progress", and "done" - this helps teams see the big picture and monitor progress. Additionally, Kanban limits the number of work items that can be in each status, creating a constraint that prevents overloading the system and encourages focus and quality. Furthermore, Kanban tracks the flow of work items through the system, measuring metrics such as lead time, cycle time, and throughput. This helps teams optimize the flow, reduce waste, and deliver faster. Finally, Kanban promotes a culture of continuous improvement where teams inspect and adapt their processes, policies, and practices based on feedback and data.
Using the concept of limiting the amount of work you have in progress (WIP) at any point in time along with measuring throughput and cycle time causes a team to focus on getting work finished, rather than starting new work. It forces teams to consider the effectiveness of the whole process that work flows through, rather than the specific efficiency of any one individual step. Increased attention on finishing work will also increase the amount of value you are creating for your end customer on a regular basis.
Kanban helps visualize different work stages like To-Do, Work in Progress (WIP) and Done. Here, WIP helps to emphasize to limit the amount of WIP at any given time. By setting this limit, it helps the team to not overboard themselves and they set realistic goals to achieve the completion of the existing tasks before starting a new one. This helps improve the workflow and reduces multitasking.
The most important principle of Kanban is the 'Cap' that is applied to WIP in order to ensure maximum efficiency. On your Kanban board, a limit is applied to the number of tasks that can be performed at once. This most of the times ensures that the whole team works together and completes all related tasks around the same time.
The following are the four core principles of Kanban: #1. Kanban recognizes the value of your existing processes and practices. #2. Pursue incremental, evolutionary change. The concept of continuous improvement is critical to Kanban and is achieved through incremental, evolutionary changes. #3. Kanban encourages teams to focus on improving the flow of work rather than changing the process itself. #4. Kanban encourages leadership at all levels of an organization. It empowers team members to take ownership of their work and make decisions that improve the flow of work.
Los principios son fáciles, 3 o más columnas ordenadas de izquierda a derecha, en donde arrancas primero con la tarea pendiente, y vas moviendo la tarea hacia la siguiente columna hasta finalizar la misma. ??útil es siempre dejar en claro cuando una esta completamente terminada, para un workflow mas serio y bien estructurado.
Kanban offers many benefits for teams and organizations that adopt it, such as increased customer satisfaction, reduced waste and inefficiency, enhanced collaboration and communication, and improved flexibility and adaptability. Specifically, Kanban helps teams deliver value to customers more frequently and reliably, eliminating unnecessary work, delays, and rework. Furthermore, it fosters a transparent and collaborative environment where teams can share information, feedback, and ideas. Finally, Kanban allows teams to respond to changing priorities and requirements without disrupting the flow of work.
Kanban can be started anytime, as no specific roles have to be established or any work structure is to be changed before. This is quick and simple to realize. However, ALL relevant work has to be visualized and then sorted so that work actively being processed is clearly distinguishable from work not being started so far and work being DONE already. Many teams also prefer to visualize work being in some kind of waiting stage, as one or more circumstances might inhibit it from being further developed at the moment, so special action and attention are needed.
In one of my application support projects, we implemented Kanban with remarkable results. By visualizing our work and setting WIP (Work in Progress) limits, we reduced response times for customer requests, leading to increased customer satisfaction. Waste and inefficiency were notably diminished as we eliminated unnecessary tasks and identified bottlenecks in our workflow. The Kanban board created transparency, enhancing collaboration and communication among the team members. This improved flexibility enabled us to adapt swiftly to shifting priorities, ensuring our support services remained efficient and responsive. Kanban unquestionably enhanced both the team's performance and customer satisfaction in this IT support project.
Kanban helps understands the time invested in each tasks, regularly review and analyze the processes. It can help us retrospect to improve flow, quality, and overall efficiency.
Kanban simplifies task tracking with visual workflows. It adapts to various industries, prioritizes tasks, and prevents work overload, ensuring smooth operations. Continuous improvement is a key aspect, promoting regular process refinement. Transparency aids in task progress tracking, fostering accountability and trust. Metrics like lead time provide predictive planning, which is beneficial for project management. Kanban's collaborative nature enhances communication and problem-solving, collectively boosting productivity and efficiency in diverse work settings.
Las ventajas del kanban es meramente de organizacion y control de workflow. Porque analizamos como el equipo avanza con las tareas, y podemos dar prioridad a lo importante del Sprint. Tener un orden de prioridades y estados de la tarea (las columnas), nos ayudan a alcanzar los objetivos del sprint.
Kanban is a flexible and adaptable methodology that can be applied to any type of work or project. To achieve successful implementation, there are some common steps to follow; such as defining your workflow, setting your work in progress limits, pulling your work items, and measuring and improving your flow. Firstly, you should identify the steps and stages of your work items on your Kanban board. Secondly, decide how many work items can be in each stage at any given time based on capacity and demand. Thirdly, start working on the highest priority items from the "to do" stage and pull them to the next stage when ready. Lastly, collect and analyze data on Kanban metrics such as lead time, cycle time, and throughput. Then identify and resolve any issues or impediments that affect your flow before experimenting with changes and evaluating their impact.
One common notion in the IT industry is to apply Kanban with operational/Infrastructure or service based teams. The common argument here is, the nature of work of the Service/Infra teams is different as they often can't plan or predict their backlog in advance , even for a week or two, so planning a sprint make no sense. Also, the prioritization keeps on changing, on daily or at times, hourly basis for such teams. Additionally, even with Kanban framework, teams can still take benefits from events like Retrospective or activities like backlog refinement etc.
Kanban, adaptable across industries and projects, involves defining workflow stages on a visual board, setting task limits, prioritizing work, tracking metrics, and iteratively improving the process. In the standard Kanban framework, tasks are typically sorted into the following columns. It starts with the "To-Do" column, where pending tasks are listed. As work progresses, tasks move to "In Progress" for active development. Once completed, they enter the "Review/Testing" column for validation. Finally, tasks that meet all criteria are placed in the "Done" column, signifying their completion. This column-based system provides a clear visual representation of task status and streamlines workflow management.
El Kanban se acopla fácilmente con diferentes metodologías agiles, y procesos agiles como Scrum, XP, Scrum-XP. Es capaz de aportar un flujo de trabajo continuo y firme para el desarrollo de tareas.
KANBAN is acceptable and has already been implemented in major industries. Its implementation helps things stay on track, improve the process, and control the KPIs through out the projects.
The Product Owner, PM, manager, etc. needs to very carefully stay on top of the prioritization of the work that is feeding the TO DO section of the Kanban as the users of the method/tool will simply pull from there, typically without much thought to the prioritization. Failure of leadership to ensure accuracy with respect to the prioritization will wreak havoc on your productivity and, in turn, on employee morale.
Kanban is a simple but powerful methodology that can help you achieve better results. To get the most out of Kanban, you should make your Kanban board visible and accessible, review and refine it regularly, engage and empower your team, and learn and improve continuously. Use a physical or digital board that can be easily seen and updated by everyone involved in the work. Hold frequent meetings with your team and stakeholders to review the board, discuss progress and issues, and plan next steps. Involve your team in the design and improvement of your Kanban system and encourage them to take ownership of their work items. Seek feedback from customers and stakeholders on the value and quality of your work. Keep looking for ways to improve your Kanban system and performance.
Visualizing Workflows: Map all process stages on a Kanban board for clear oversight. Limiting WIP: Set work-in-progress limits to prevent overloading and highlight bottlenecks. Managing Flow: Regularly adjust processes to ensure smooth workflow. Explicit Policies: Define and communicate rules for task movement and decision-making. Feedback Loops: Use retrospectives for continual process refinement. Tracking Metrics: Measure efficiency with metrics like lead and cycle times. Customer Value Focus: Prioritize tasks that offer the most customer value.
To me, the key to an effective implementation of Kanban isn’t just in the tool, but how it’s handled. Yes, adapting Kanban boards for remote teams maintains efficiency, but let's not forget the human element in this matter. Digital boards can sometimes lack the tangible presence of a physical board, potentially leading to less engagement. The solution is regular team check-ins and updates, ensuring everyone is on the same page. Regarding team ownership, while Kanban's visibility does promote accountability, it's important to balance this with a supportive environment. Too much peer pressure can backfire, causing stress and burnout. It’s striking that fine balance, visibility with empathy, and adaptability with consistency.
I found that embracing Kanban's best practices was instrumental in enhancing project outcomes. We established a physical Kanban board in our IT project that was consistently updated, providing real-time visibility for the entire team. Frequent review meetings enabled us to discuss progress and tackle any issues promptly. Empowering the team by involving them in the board's design and encouraging ownership of tasks increased engagement and productivity. Kanban's simplicity, combined with above best practices, significantly improves project's efficiency and results.
Best practices are just that, best. But that does not mean they are immovable or inflexible. Best practice is a physical Kanban in a central location to where the work is performed. But with distributed teams, this best practice no longer is best. In that case, you can still use a Kanban board housed on a common shared drive or Microsoft Teams. That does not mean it is not using Kanban, it just means you have adapted to what your team needs to thrive. Another best practice that I have carried through my multiple fields as a project manager has been ensuring teams have ownership of their work. Kanban lends itself to this due to its very visualized nature thereby using innate human peer pressure to be sure things go smoothly.
Don't forget the continuos improvement. It's an important part of the evolutionary change Using the metrics, have meaningful conversations in order to improve
Combining Kanban with other Agile methodologies, such as Scrum or Lean, presents a strategic approach that capitalizes on the strengths of each. By integrating Kanban with Scrum, teams can enhance structured sprints with visual task management and continuous flow, offering greater adaptability to shifting priorities. This synergy improves workflow visibility, responsiveness, and overall productivity. Additionally, when incorporating Lean principles alongside Kanban, organizations can streamline processes, reduce waste, and optimize resource allocation. In both cases, the result is a tailored and efficient approach to project management that maximizes the benefits of Agile, driving improved outcomes and heightened customer satisfaction.
The Kanban method is not a traditional Agile methodology; instead, it's a Lean approach that has found widespread application in the IT industry, particularly in Lean Software Development. Unlike other Agile methodologies like Scrum and Test-Driven Development (TDD), Kanban does not adhere to fixed time-limited iteration cycles (e.g., 2-4 week sprints). The key distinction is that it emphasizes working on one task or issue at a time, providing a high degree of flexibility. Similar to other Agile frameworks, Kanban provides metrics such as Cumulative Flow Diagrams to track progress and productivity, akin to the Burndown or Burnup charts in other Agile approaches.