Kanban is a method of visual process management with an emphasis on "just-in-time" tasks and avoiding overloading team members.

In this approach, the process from the description of the task to its implementation is clearly shown to the participants in the process. Kanban indicates what to produce, when to produce, and how much to produce.

Projects are represented by boards containing lists (columns). The lists contain cards depicting tasks. Cards should move from one list to the next (by dragging), thus depicting the movement of a function from an idea to testing a ready-made solution. The card can be assigned to the users responsible for it. Users and boards can be combined into teams.

While Kanban seems like an easy way to improve your workflows, it's actually more than just visualizing your work.

Advantages of the Kanban method

• Information center for work tasks

• Teamwork

• Workflow transparency.

• Priorities and situation control

• Clear focus on tasks

• Load management

• Motivation and retrospective

• Reduce the need for status updates

• Pleasure from moving tasks

• Increased visibility of the flow

• Improved execution speed

• Coherence between goals and performance

• Improved predictability

• Improved dependency management

• Increased customer satisfaction

The main elements of Kanban

Board

Lists / columns

Cards

Limits of work in progress

Kanban board

The board represents a project or place to track information, where you visualize all the working elements. This is a place to organize tasks and collaborate with colleagues. There are cards, columns, and limits for current tasks (WIP).

This allows team members to see and manage workflows in real time. The board must be divided into at least 3 columns because each process can be divided into at least three stages - Request, Execution, and Result.

You can organize individual tasks (cards) in the visual pipeline with stages and move the cards along the pipeline as they move through certain stages (each stage has its own column) to completion.

The Kanban board helps you bring clarity to your workflow and increase efficiency.

You can start building your process management system by setting up the simplest Kanban board with three main columns - "What to do", "In progress" and "Done". Or organize a simple customer relationship management (CRM) system, using such steps for leads as "Raw", "Interested", "Contacted" and "Converted" (consumers).

Kanban cards

The Kanban card is a visual image of a working element (tasks, opportunities, ideas) that moves on the Kanban board from left to right, going through various stages until completion. They contain important information about the task and its status, such as description, deadline, size, responsible persons, etc. Kanban translated from Japanese literally means visual (kan) card (ban). This is a key element of the Kanban system, as it represents work that has been commissioned or is already being performed.

A card can be something you need to do, such as a blog post or something to remember - "Write an article" or "Write a post on a social network".

Cards can contain a variety of useful information. Drag the cards through the lists to show progress.

The cards "radiate" information for one work item so that teams can stay up to date and quickly identify problems.

Kanban columns

The columns break the Kanban board vertically, and each represents a different stage of the workflow. Each Kanban board has at least three default columns: Need, In Process, Done. Depending on the complexity of the workflow, these three steps can be divided into many smaller columns.

The lists contain cards organized at different stages of the project (stages of the process). They can be used to create a workflow when cards are moved through lists from start to finish, or simply act as a place to keep track of ideas and information. There are no limits to the number of lists you can add to the board, and they can be arranged as you wish.

Basic (and effective) setting up lists for the board can be simple "What to do", "Work" and "Done" when the cards start from the "What to do" list and move to the "Done" list. The Svit.One platform is tailored to your unique needs, the most important thing is to customize the workflow according to the needs of your team.

Restrictions on current operation Restrictions on WIP.

WIP stands for Work In Progress. WIP is the number of tasks the team is currently working on. This metric determines the workflow potential of your team at any given time.

Limiting your current work means limiting the number of tasks your team can work on at a time to create a smooth workflow and to avoid overwork and distractions.

Limits of work in progress (WIP).

WIP stands for Work In Progress. WIP is the number of tasks the team is currently working on. This metric determines the workflow potential of your team at any given time.

Limiting your current work means limiting the number of tasks your team can work on at a time to create a smooth workflow and to avoid overwork and distractions.

Work in progress (WIP) limits the maximum number of work items at different stages of the workflow (kanban board columns). They can be defined for each person, for stages of work, or for the whole work system. Implementing WIP restrictions allows you to perform individual work tasks faster, focusing your team on current tasks before starting new ones.

Limiting the amount of work in progress makes it easier to identify inefficiencies in a team's workflow. The bottlenecks in the assembly line are clearly visible before the situation becomes dire.

WIP constraints improve bandwidth and reduce the amount of "almost done" work, forcing the team to focus on a smaller set of tasks. At a fundamental level, WIP constraints encourage a "done" culture. More importantly, WIP restrictions show blockages and bottlenecks.

In short, limiting work in progress with Kanban contributes to higher quality and improved performance. The WIP constraint helps to optimize performance by allowing new work to be performed only when available.

Other terms Kanban

Swimlanes that break the Kanban board into pieces. Teams use them to visually separate different types of work on one board and group homogeneous tasks.

Cycle Time: Cycle time begins when a new task enters the workflow stage and someone is actually working on it.

Lead Time: lead time starts from the moment a new task is set (it doesn't matter if someone is actually working on it) and ends with the final logout.

Throughput: the number of work items that complete (complete) a system or process over a period of time. Bandwidth is a key indicator of how productive your team is over time.

Kanban Cadence: Cyclical meetings that stimulate evolutionary change and service delivery according to purpose.

Kanban software: belongs to the digital system that allows the practical application of Kanban methods and principles for various teams and organizations of all sizes. The program interface works in drag-and-drop format, all data is updated dynamically in the background.