Have you ever lost track of a task that you are doing or are waiting for someone else to finish before you need to make the next step? By creating a personal khanban you don’t have to worry about that anymore! This winter I learned about what a kanban is and how to efficiently use one and I am not going to share my knowledge and experience with you.
A kanban is a digital or physical tool that helps visualize work, limit in-progress work, and maximize efficiency. A kanban uses columns and cards to establish order in daily work by continusiosly improving to help commit to the right amount to work to get it done in time. The main goal of the kanban is to continuously improve.
A kanban can be a physical one where sticky notes are being used as cards or other physical elements are being added. A good way to set this up is by creating different columns on a wall or window with painter's tape and then placing the different sticky notes in those different columns. A physical board is good for an office situation where people are working around it since they are always seeing it.
If you move around a lot for your job or there are some people working from home a digital kanban is a good alternative. Personally, I use the app Trello to make mine. It gave me a template to use for my kanban that got me started and I adjusted it as I used it to fit my needs better. The Trello app can be used on my computer, iPad, and phone so I can bring it with me wherever I go. This allows me to add different tasks anywhere so I never forget anything that I need to do.
There are five main elements of an effective kanban: visual signals, columns, work-in-progress limits, a commitments point and a delivery point.
The main element of a kanban is the visual cards in the form of sticky notes, tickets, or digital versions. If you are working with a team then the team will collaborate to make these cards, and add notes to them from their projects. Each project and specific task should have it’s own card so they can easily be completed. If a task takes more than a few hours it should be broken down into smaller tasks. The differend cards are placed on the different sections of the kanban so everyone can see what is being done and who is completing what. If making a personal kanban it is the same except you are the sole creator of it.
Another main element is the columns that are used. The different cards work through the workflow and through the different columns. Workflows can be as simple as backlog, in progress, pending, and done.
WIP limits are the limit of the number of tasks that you can be woring on at a certain time in a specific column. When a colom has a WIP number that is the max number of cards that can be in there are any given time. I have a WIP limit on my in-progress column so I never take on too many tasks at once.
This is a column for the backlog of the tasks that need to be done. When working with a team the cards that are in this column are the tasks that currently need to be completed. From here members can assign themselves tasks and start working on them. They would then move their task to the in-progress column.
This the end of kanban and the place where all completed tasks are placed. This can be when the projects are delivered to the client or the specific part of the different assignments is completed. The goal is to complete the tasks in the commitment point as fast as possible to where they end up in the delivery point. The time it takes to complete takse is called the lead time and groups are working to reduce that time to make their workflow as efficient as possible.
A kanban with these five elements will help lead your team or your personal projects to success.
This quarter my professor encouraged my class to try this new organization style to keep track of all my tasks and our tasks for group projects. I had two separate kanbans this quarter, a personal one and one for my group. On my personal one, I tracked all the assignments I had for my three classes. I created a different backlog for each class and color coded my classes to add another leved of orginization. Then I had a WIP limit on my in progress column so I would’t be working on more then three assignments at a time. I had a pending column where I would put tasks that I was waiting for someone else before I was able to keep working on it. Finally I had a done column where all the tasks I finished or assignment I turned in went in.
As a group, I found it was a good organizational tool to keep track of what everyone was doing in the group. For the group kanban we were able to assign ourselves to specific tasks that we were working and everyone could see that. It made it easy to know who was working on what and make comments on the different cards to everyone in the group. If I needed help with a section I could tag different members and ask for help in the comments. I was able to see what has already been completed and what still needs to be done all in one place.
Overall I think the kanban system is a very effective tool for organization and work optimization for both personal and group work. After the quarter of using it for both types, I know I will keep using it as a personal organization system and I will try to get future groups to implement it as well. My main takeaway from this is I am no longer forgetting tasks that are later since I have it all in one place now.
