Project Management Part 10: Agile Framework - Kanban

Summary

Kanban is a project management method developed by Taichi Ohno at Toyota in the 1940s. It uses a visual board and cards to track tasks and workflows, ensuring tasks flow smoothly from the backlog to completion. Key features include limiting work-in-progress, measuring efficiency, and promoting collaboration within teams. Kanban is ideal for organizations looking to improve existing processes without major disruptions. However, it can be challenging for large projects, and may be less effective in dynamic environments. It emphasizes continuous improvement, simplicity, and problem-solving to deliver results faster and more efficiently.

Takeaways

• 😀 Kanban is a visual project management framework developed by Taichi Ono at Toyota in the 1940s.
• 😀 The key feature of Kanban is using boards and cards to visualize tasks and workflow in a project.
• 😀 The Kanban board divides tasks into columns: To Do, In Progress, and Done, for better task management.
• 😀 Kanban helps teams see ongoing tasks, understand complex information, and identify risks or issues in the workflow.
• 😀 The roles in a Kanban team are simplified to the Product Owner and team members.
• 😀 There are no mandatory meetings or events for the Product Owner in Kanban, unlike other frameworks.
• 😀 The main focus of Kanban is to limit work in progress (WIP) and ensure tasks flow smoothly from backlog to completion.
• 😀 Kanban is ideal for organizations with ongoing processes that need continuous improvement without disrupting the entire system.
• 😀 The workflow visualization in Kanban allows teams to measure and analyze efficiency, identifying bottlenecks and opportunities for improvement.
• 😀 The policy of explicit agreements ensures clarity about goals and processes, which are communicated to all team members to guide improvements.
• 😀 Kanban promotes collaboration, simple implementation, sustainable improvement, and is particularly effective for teams with multiple projects.

Q & A

What is Kanban and who developed it?

Kanban is a project management framework that uses visual cues, such as cards, to manage tasks and workflow effectively. It was developed in the 1940s by Taichi Ono, an engineer at Toyota, Japan.

What are the key features of the Kanban framework?

Kanban has several key features, including: roles limited to Product Owner and Team Members, a focus on reducing work in progress, and a visual system for managing tasks. It is also suitable for continuous tasks, project maintenance, UX design, and marketing collateral.

How does the Kanban board work?

A Kanban board is a visual tool used to represent the project's workflow. It consists of columns such as 'To Do', 'In Progress', and 'Done'. Tasks are represented by Kanban cards, which are moved between columns as work progresses.

What are Kanban cards and what do they contain?

Kanban cards represent individual tasks on the Kanban board. They contain information about the task details, including the person responsible for completing it.

Why is limiting work in progress (WIP) important in Kanban?

Limiting WIP ensures that the team focuses on completing tasks before starting new ones, preventing distractions and maintaining productivity. This helps improve workflow efficiency and avoid bottlenecks.

How does Kanban help in measuring and improving workflow?

Kanban allows teams to observe and analyze workflow efficiency. By identifying bottlenecks and delays, teams can use metrics to improve processes and ensure smoother task transitions, thereby optimizing the overall workflow.

What does 'explicit policies' mean in the context of Kanban?

Explicit policies refer to clearly defined processes and goals that are communicated to all team members. This ensures that everyone understands their roles and how their tasks contribute to achieving the project's objectives.

What are the main advantages of using Kanban?

The main advantages of Kanban include fostering collaboration among team members, its simplicity, its focus on continuous improvement, efficiency in managing multiple projects, and the ability to quickly identify and solve problems, thus reducing costs.

What are some potential disadvantages of Kanban?

Some disadvantages of Kanban include difficulties in planning large projects, potential for poor productivity in certain cases, high risk of process misuse, challenges in determining task priorities, and its unsuitability for fast-paced environments.

In what type of environments is Kanban most effective?

Kanban is most effective in environments with continuous workflows, project maintenance, UX design tasks, and marketing collateral. It is especially useful in teams with multiple ongoing projects that require visual tracking and incremental improvements.