One of the most important arts that every firm needs to master is project management. Whether you are in manufacturing or retail, it can be hard to deal with the long list of projects every year. The only way to deliver results is to complete all those projects successfully. But managing a project is not an easy task as the project manager has to wear many hats and use an ideal approach for dealing with the different aspects of the project. One such methodology that has proved to be a panacea for all the project managers is Kanban.
Kanban is a Japanese word that means signboard. And as the name suggests, the Kanban method includes a board used as a visual representation of the tasks involved in the project. Different cards are used on this board to show the progress of the tasks, which is how keeping track of the project becomes easy.
But have you ever thought about how Kanban boards ensure quality in managing your project? Let’s find out through this blog post in a detailed manner.
A glimpse of Kanban’s history
In 1940, an engineer at Toyota realized that the inventory management system used by retail shops could fit like a glove in his firm. Before this, they decided the number of manufactured units solely based on forecasting, which led to overproduction issues.
But on the other side, retail shops used a much more effective inventory management system in which the shelves were refilled or the stocks were ordered based on the actual sales. It led to the introduction of the pull system in Toyota and completely wiped out common inventory management issues like overprocessing and overproduction.
The basics of Kanban board
Whether you look at the physical Kanban board of the 1950s or the modern-day online board, they all have three essential elements:
Kanban board- This board is used to visualize the workflow and keep tabs on the project’s progress.
Kanban list or lane– A list on the Kanban board contains cards related to each other in terms of the task’s progress. These cards are used in the Kanban board’s titled column, which is what people call a to-do list on the board.
Kanban card- As discussed above, the cards used on the board contain information about each task. For example, a card on the board can have information about a product that needs to be made or a job that needs to be completed.
With these vital elements of the Kanban board, the possibilities of how you implement the board in your firm are limitless. You can create two boards for managing the product launch of your firm. You can use the first board for tracking the progress of the launch, and the only way to do it is to keep moving the cards from one list to another. And the second board can be used by the marketing team for dividing all the planned activities related to the product launch.
Top features of Kanban
While using a standard project management app, you always list tasks and then make notes regarding the progress of those tasks. Well, things work a bit differently in the case of Kanban boards.
Here are some of the standard features that you will find in most of the popular Kanban apps:
Moving the cards between boards and lists
The app you are using must give you the option of moving cards between columns as it is one of those features that you are going to use regularly. So, you can easily change the placement of cards while moving them from the list.
Send invitation and assign cards
A Kanban app allows you to send invitations to team members, which can be done on two levels; cards and boards. By adding people to the board, you give them the option of adding cards, editing cards, and leaving comments. Also, when you add members to the card, you get notifications for all the activities related to that particular card.
Hold discussion and add notes
A virtual board gives you the option of adding endless comments, but such features are not available on the physical board since soon you will run out of sticky notes. You even get description fields in most of the virtual boards, and this is the place where you can add notes and hold discussions.
Kanban board has got all the features necessary to streamline your existing or new project. With visual representation, you can keep a better track of what’s been done and what is pending in the list. But you have to make sure that you are choosing the virtual board instead of relying on the physical board.
