What are the benefits of using Kanban?
Using Kanban can provide significant benefits in workflows and processes to produce outputs. Effective use of Kanban for workflow and process management can:
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Reduce waste
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Deliver resolutions to issues faster
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Improve communication between teams
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Facilitate increased output
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Improve product quality
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Improve process efficiencies
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Identify bottlenecks that slow production
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Support closer teamworking
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Reduce stress in all involved in the workflow
The shared visualization of a process using Kanban boards drives collaboration between teams as they can actively see work moving through the system towards final delivery. They can also easily identify tasks that are not being completed as planned, so they can work together to address any issues. Kanban boards also provide managers with an easily understood “birds-eye” view of workload and how work is progressing. The Kanban boards can help managers to understand the impact unplanned work has on their teams, so they can set realistic priorities and manage expectations with senior staff.
What are Kanban boards?
A Kanban board is a tool within Kanban, which provides a visual representation of how work in a workflow is progressing to completion. Teams use Kanban boards to manage workflows collectively, providing a visual image of tasks and their status, but individuals can also use Kanban boards. A Kanban board has a number of columns, each representing a stage in the overall workflow or process. In a simple Kanban board, these stages could be “To-do,” “In-progress” and “Completed.” It is good practice to keep Kanban boards as simple as possible, as complex boards are difficult to understand. Kanban boards have the following features:
Visibility of work
A visual card represents each unique work task and the card includes the name of the task. The card is moved from left to right on the Kanban board as a task progresses through the stages. If the Kanban board is a physical board, then the normal practice is to use a sticker for each task. Moving a sticker on the Kanban board is a visual signal of progress. Different colored stickers can be used on the Kanban board to differentiate between types of task, which can also be achieved with different rows on the Kanban board. Using these visual signals provides easily understood communications.
Limiting work-in-progress
Many uses of Kanban boards specify a limit of how many cards can be in a column, as a means to limit work-in-progress. Before another card can be moved into the column, the team must work together to move one of the existing cards to the next column. Using the Kanban board in this manner can help increase the flow of work, as tasks are worked and completed to make way for others. A Kanban board will also identify bottlenecks where there is a queue of tasks waiting to be moved to the next column. If the limit is often reached, then this is a signal of an excessive amount of committed work. It is not a solution just to create an extra Kanban board.
Commitment point
Once a task has been entered on the Kanban board, it should be moved through the workflow as quickly as possible. If work-in-progress is limited, then there will probably be a backlog of tasks waiting to be added to the Kanban board. The commitment point is the moment in time when the team “commits” to completing the work by entering the task on the Kanban board.
Delivery point
This is where the work has been completed to the customer’s satisfaction and the task can be removed from the Kanban board.
Digital Kanban boards
Physical Kanban boards should be used where possible, as the act of manually updating the Kanban board is the best method for collaboration among individuals. Where this is not possible, due to remotely located individuals and teams, then a digital Kanban board can be used. These digital boards can be easily shared and updated across time zones and locations, allowing many of the benefits of Kanban to be realized. Tools are available that support multiple-linked Kanban boards, with tracking, audit trails and automatic notifications of changes made on the Kanban board.
How Kanban can improve team performance
The updating of Kanban boards of the status of tasks is best done as a team activity rather than individuals working alone. This approach enables team members to know each other, and to share openly progress and blockage of progress using the Kanban board. The Kanban board supports collective responsibility for moving tasks through the workflow to completion. Blocked tasks are visible to all, which prevents people from keeping issues to themselves. Effective implementations of Kanban give rise to a supportive culture where people help each other to resolve issues. All of these behavioral and cultural impacts from using Kanban boards will improve the performance of teams as well as individuals.
Scrum or Kanban?
Many software development teams use both Scrum and Kanban are techniques. The Scrum approach uses a technique to complete software developments during sprints of standard time intervals. Each sprint will include the delivery of a number of different pieces of work. The sprint has defined start and end dates. Any work not completed at the end of a sprint is carried forward into the product backlog. The end date is not delayed to accommodate completing it.
This contrasts with the Kanban software-development approach, where there is no concept of standard time intervals of development cycles or fixed end dates. In this Kanban approach, the development of a piece of work continues until it is completed and delivered.
Software development teams that use Scrum often do use a form of Kanban board to provide visual illustrations of the sprint contents and status; however, this Kanban board is cleared at the end of each sprint. The Kanban board is then populated with the new work agreed for completion during the next sprint. A Kanban board used in the Scrum technique also has fixed dates for completion, whereas a true Kanban board has no dates associated with the columns.
Many software development teams now use a combination of Scrum and Kanban. Scrum is used for planned work to deliver new functionality and non-urgent fixes. Kanban is used to develop any urgent fixes that must be delivered before the planned end date of the sprint.