Setting Up a Kanban Board

 

After all the research and analysis you have done, you are now convinced that Kanban Board is the most common and best way to visualize tools to manage and track project updates. That Kanban board is the tool providing ‘To do’, ‘In Progress, and ‘Done’ lists to view for team members, scrum masters, and even stakeholders. After going through it you have decided to go with the kanban board for your project management. So now the question you are having is how to build a kanban board.

Creating a Kanban board is an easy task. In this article, we will discuss the steps required to take for building a kanban board. Even though this task can be done in seconds putting a little more time into preparing and upfront thinking will make it far more useful. Before going into the steps of building the kanban board let’s see the types of kanban boards used. The Kanban board is of two types.

Physical Board- It is a physical form of kanban board where the white or blackboard is used along with stick notes that note down the work items. This board is divided into vertical columns where stick notes are tagged from left to right indicating the work progress and workflow.

Digital Board- With the increasing popularity of the kanban board in software development organizations and engineers, the digital form of the kanban board is created similar to the physical form which can be used remotely and asynchronously where no physical space is required for it.

Now let’s move forwards towards how to set kanban with the below steps.

 Picking up Tool

At very first select the kanban board type you are going to use a physical or digital one. One must go with the required tools like for physical kanban board select a wall where the board can be created or attached, sticky notes, markers or index cards and tapes. While doing so give some time to what types of tools should be used for increasing fun and interaction for example using different color sticky notes for prioritizing, planning, and brainstorming. The physical kanban used can be only visible to a certain amount of people and require a complete team to be present at the same location. In such cases, it is wise to go with a digital kanban board. While doing so make sure every team member is accessible to required tools like computer system and internet. Due to its popularity, there are various applications and features available on the internet in tools that consist of kanban board capabilities. Examples of such tools are Google calendar, GitHub, Invision etcetera.

Create Basic Board

With complete thought create the columns required. At basic even creating To do, WIP, and Done columns will do the job but, changing columns many times is not a good start so it is better to take some time at the start and then define all the required columns with granularity. While marking the column ensure that the columns are marked representing the organizational workflow. Putting too many columns is also problematic and complex to use so avoid doing the same.

Decide Policies

This step includes setting and letting team members know the purpose and goal of the kanban board in their project. Once the board is ready the with team members decide some ground rules like who will be responsible for adding and removing the cards, what stands to be taken in a blocked card case, time duration and intervals of reviewing workflow etcetera. While doing so work closely with product management.

Organize Backlog and Current Work

Now as the framework and rules are decided it is time to add items to the board. Add items along with their due dates, complete description, owner of work, and status on the respective columns. While adding it on board ensure its priority and timeline of completion. Putting the most complex one at the top and further ones in descending order according to their importance is the right way to do it. If the scope of the item seems broad try to break out the item into small valuable pieces.

Create Feedback Friendly Environment

With changing times and stakeholders complete product keeps on evolving, which deviates from the originally fitted items and changes its needs. By adjusting and managing the board with obtained input and suggestions and keeping the team environment and feedback atmosphere friendly you can provide a better kanban board to serve the organization. This friendly atmosphere will help to increase the board usage and benefits more.

With the above easy steps and putting a simple effort to have a through-out thought on kanban board specification and columns, you can achieve a large benefit in project management that will show its impact on the performance of the team in a positive way.

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