How can you visualize Agile project progress with Kanban?

Kanban visualizes Agile project progress using a board divided into columns representing work stages. Tasks are represented as cards and moved across columns as they progress. Work in Progress limits prevent overload. Regularly reviewing the board shows progress and identifies bottlenecks. Analyzing cycle time and lead time provides insights for improvement. Kanban fosters transparency, collaboration, and continuous improvement.

Certainly, the Kanban board stands out as the ideal standard for project visualization, yet its implementation can be tailored to your creativity—whether crafted in a specialized tool or use of colored sticky notes. The Kanban board is representative of the tasks done e.g. Green represents tasks completed, Red represents the backlog, yellow represented the WIP. Also in case of the ticket assigned in software development there is a Kanban flag being assigned whose status needed to be updated as and when progress changed.

As a Scrum Master, i can visualize Agile project progress with Kanban by using a board that represents the workflow stages, moving tasks across columns, setting WIP limits, and regularly reviewing and refining the board with the team

Well, of course the Kanban board is the golden standard in visualisation of the project, but it can depend on your creativity - it can be made either in a dedicated tool, in MS Lists, even in Excel. Content should be useful for you and the team, avoid ready-made templates promoted by certain methodologies. From my experience - the most funny way of progress presenting, requested by one of my clients was to use weather forecast icons - with clouds, sun, etc. instead of "normal" statuses like "in progress", "blocked" etc.

Team members may monitor the progress of every work or user story, from the backlog to completion, by utilising a Kanban board. Through the use of this visualisation, bottlenecks may be found, work in progress can be monitored, and a seamless task flow is ensured throughout the project.

We have noticed that some agile projects better suited for Kanban are those with fluid or unpredictable workflows, where priorities change frequently, and continuous delivery is essential. Kanban is specially effective for support or maintenance projects, where tasks arrive sporadically and need immediate attention without adhering to fixed sprint timelines. This flexibility makes it effective for managing projects with variable workflows, enabling teams to visualize work all at one place, aids in tracking progress, identify bottlenecks, make informed decisions in real time, enhance productivity, insights and continuous improvement.

Kanban is a valuable tool for agile projects because it helps teams manage their work more efficiently. It provides a clear and visual representation of the project's progress on a Kanban board, allowing team members to easily see the current status of each task. This helps in identifying and resolving any bottlenecks or issues quickly. Kanban also promotes just-in-time delivery, meaning that work is only started when there is capacity to handle it. This prevents overloading team members and ensures a smooth workflow. Additionally, Kanban offers planning flexibility, allowing teams to adapt to changes and priorities easily. Overall, Kanban enhances productivity, focus, and collaboration in agile software development projects.

To ensure we visualise the flow kanban is used in agile projects 1. Using kanban we know very how much WIP limit we can keep inorder to produce working software 2. Frequent inspection and adaptation is required to maintain the flow

Kanban approaches will help the team understand their flow of work, and how to improve it. The key improvement from a software development perspective is to shorten the cycle time. Data shows that the faster we get feedback on a defect or improvement, the less time/money it costs to implement. In that sense Kanban will help you to reduce costs and improve the quality of the product.

In my experience Kanban is an excellent tool to measure and improve your flow. And there are 2 perspective to flow - 1.Identify the bottlenecks in your system - WIP can help majorly in identifying the bottlenecks upfront 2.Identify the delay in the flow - start measuring Cycle time and lead time to understand where the time taken is more and retrospect to understand the delay

Kanban board usually combines with the 3 line items: to-do's, backlogs and ongoing. Also in the manufacturing industry and software development the user story board graduated to development and then to deployment. The delivery is based on the the milestones which again depends on the statement of the items on the Kanban Board.

Creating a Kanban Board is a good first step to start using Kanban. However, if you really want to benefit from Kanban aim to create a Kanban System - not just a board. In order to do this, introduce Work In Progress (WIP) limits. By doing so, you can achieve a more stable delivery and a sustainable lead time.

When you first design your Kanban board, you need to reflect your process as it is today. Make sure you capture each queue and handoff in the value stream so you have an honest picture of how work is done. When your board accurately reflects your value stream, you can introduce improvements. Only update your board's design to reflect changes to the real process. When people don't understand this fundamental Kanban concept, they mistake the technique for a specific value stream, which is why some folks think Kanban is only applicable to some types of work. This isn't true.

Setting up a Kanban board for agile projects is a straightforward process. 1. Identify your project's workflow: Understand the stages your work goes through, from initiation to completion. This could include tasks like backlog, analysis, development, testing, and deployment. 2. Create columns on your board: Divide your board into columns that represent the various stages of your workflow. For example, "To Do," "In Progress," "Review," and "Done." 3. Add cards to represent tasks: Create cards or sticky notes for each task or user story. These cards will move across the board as work progresses. Include details like task descriptions, assignees, and due dates.

One thing that i've found helpful with a Kanban board again is the visualization nature of the work that a team needs to complete on a daily or by iteration basis. But again, as I mentioned above, the more columns you have, the more time is spent. Moving tickets across those Kanban board columns where our teams really should be focused on value delivery. So just have a few columns that your team understands where the work is within the agile scrum process.

Using a Kanban board for agile projects can help teams visualize and manage their work efficiently. 1. Setup your board: Divide your board into columns that represent the stages of your workflow (e.g., "To Do," "In Progress," "Testing," "Done"). 2. Create tasks: Write down each task on a sticky note or card and place it in the "To Do" column. 3. Limit work in progress (WIP): Set a WIP limit for each column to prevent overloading. This ensures that team members focus on completing tasks before starting new ones. 4. Track progress 5. Visualize bottlenecks: If a column becomes congested, it indicates a bottleneck. Identify the cause and take necessary actions to resolve it,

The core things here are - when reviewing the board with a team, you go from right (closest to done) to left; what needs to happen top get work to a done state? - stop starting, start finishing; teams should be focussed on swarming to assist at any bottlenecks before they pull any new work - get things unblocked; don't have a blocked column. Instead mark work as blocked and the team should swarm onto addressing the blockage - it's okay to reject items; we can discard work from our system if it's going to be stuck for too long, or if we discover it is much larger than we thought

A kanban board is the perfect tool to visualize the workflow, bottlenecks and resource allocation. It suits perfectly with the agile framework as it allows for adjustments on demand at anytime. It allows teams to track their progress and what needs to be done to achieve their sprint goals.

Standups are still an important event in Kanban as the team needs to talk each day about the top stories and how to complete them.

Once the Kanban board is established, it becomes a powerful tool for teams to visualize project progression, effectively manage work in progress, and track tasks from initiation to completion. As work advances through each stage of the workflow, team members move corresponding cards across the board, providing a real-time overview of the project status. By limiting work in progress, teams maintain a steady flow and concentrate on finishing tasks before taking on new ones, thereby enhancing efficiency and productivity. Regular reviews of the board enable teams to identify bottlenecks and areas for improvement, fostering continuous enhancement of the workflow process.

Consult and expert to select the right tool to be used. If you have a larger program, which has cross dependencies, you should look for a tool that allows seamless connection across different boards.

When you move beyond the team, start to visualise the organisation as a network of connected services. How do these services inter-relate and what are the upstream and downstream Kanbans that feed a give team, or are fed by them. Identify constraints and feedback loops, and start to apply systems thinking archetype analysis to gain a greater understanding.

In my experience I have used Kanban extensively for EPIC funneling in the portfolio level and program level and it work well for the readiness of the EPICs for the successful PI planning - This way we get a top view of where the EPICs/themes etc. are moving across the board

To scale Kanban for larger agile projects, you can: Extend the Kanban Board: Create boards that capture workflows across multiple teams. Use Swimlanes: Subdivide work for different teams or product lines. Standardize Practices: Harmonize workflow steps for consistency. Set WIP Limits: Apply these limits across all teams to manage capacity. Synchronize Efforts: Regularly align team outputs and objectives. Track Dependencies: Visualize and manage cross-team dependencies. Adopt Hierarchical Boards: Implement multiple board levels for various project scopes. Foster Feedback: Hold retrospectives to continually refine processes. Effective scaling ensures Kanban's benefits are realized even as project scope and team size grow.

If you've got a good reason for using Kanban, you've almost certainly got a good reason for not using Projects. This whole idea of fixing scope up-front when you've discovered the least about what needs to be done is stupid. Then you want to assume the scope is correct and track against it? That's zombie behaviour. Following a scope that should have died a long time ago... doubly stupid. This is what killed off Waterfall as soon as we got the tools that cost to build and cost of materials became negligible. If you're doing development work it has inherent unknown unknowns. Waterfall attempted to discover all of these up-front and turn the remaining work into Production work. It never turned out that way. Stop. Then Kanban is ok.

Frequent connection with teams using kanban board daily for atleast 15 mins is needed For what ? To ensure we maintain transparency Why? To deliver meaningful products

When using a Kanban Board, there are three common fatal mistakes that can hinder the efficiency and effectiveness of your workflow: 1. Ignoring Work Limits 2. Excessive Complexity and High Detail 3. Failure to Continuously Track Progress

Entender que o Kanban n?o é apenas um quadro e sim um milh?o de possibilidades e que vai além de um simples gerenciamento de projetos, abre oportunidades incríveis para as entregas, pro time e eficiência no trabalho. As entregas hoje s?o dinamicas e vivemos em um mundo de mudan?as, se tivermos um controle rígido de etapas, sem a separa??o do que é idealiza??o e do que é entrega de fato, corremos sérios riscos de cair em um limbo de "padaria" - pe?a seu p?o amigo, fica pronto em 5min. O processo de ter cadências e poder enxergar essas etapas claras do que é upstream e downstream no seu projeto, é revelador e com certeza você terá grandes sucessos, tanto com cliente, quanto time. Pense Kanban!

As a leader in agile transformations, I emphasize three key Kanban practices: Visualizing Work to enhance transparency and manage workflow; Limiting Work in Progress to avoid task overload, improve quality, and speed up delivery; and Continuous Improvement to foster a proactive and adaptable team environment. Implementing Kanban increases operational efficiency and team satisfaction, leading to faster product delivery and a sustainable competitive edge. Embrace these principles to transform your workflow and workplace.