How to Use Kanban - A Guide for Beginners

Aldrin Cerezo | 2024-08-04

If you are looking for a simple and effective way to manage your tasks, projects, or workflows, you might want to try kanban. Kanban is a popular framework that helps teams and individuals visualize their work, limit work in progress, and improve efficiency. In this blog post, we will explain what kanban is, how it works, and how you can use it to boost your productivity.

What is Kanban?

Kanban is a Japanese word that means "signboard" or "card". It originated from the Toyota production system in the 1940s, where workers used cards to communicate the status and demand of materials between different stages of the manufacturing process. The cards helped to reduce waste, optimize inventory levels, and increase customer satisfaction.

Later, in the 2000s, kanban was adapted to software development and other knowledge work by David Anderson and others. They introduced the concept of a kanban board, a tool that helps teams visualize their workflow and collaborate more effectively. A kanban board consists of columns that represent different stages of the work process, and cards that represent individual work items. The cards move from left to right as they progress through the workflow until they are done.

How Does Kanban Work?

The basic principles of kanban are:

• Visualize your work: By using a kanban board, you can see all your tasks and their status at a glance. This helps you to identify bottlenecks, prioritize work, and track progress.
• Limit work in progress (WIP): By setting a limit on how many tasks you can have in each column of your kanban board, you can avoid multitasking, reduce distractions, and focus on finishing what you start.
• Manage flow: By monitoring how fast and smoothly your tasks move from one column to another, you can measure your performance, identify issues, and make improvements.
• Make policies explicit: By defining clear rules and expectations for each stage of your workflow, you can ensure consistency, quality, and transparency.
• Implement feedback loops: By regularly reviewing your work process and results with your team or stakeholders, you can learn from your mistakes, celebrate your achievements, and make adjustments as needed.
• Improve collaboratively: By involving everyone in the continuous improvement of your work process, you can foster a culture of innovation, experimentation, and learning.

How to Use Kanban?

To start using kanban, you need to follow these steps:

1. Define your workflow: Think about the steps or stages that your tasks go through from start to finish. For example, if you are writing a blog post, your workflow might look something like this: Idea -> Research -> Draft -> Review -> Publish. You can use these stages as the columns of your kanban board.
2. Create your kanban board: You can use a physical board with sticky notes or cards, or an online tool like Trello or Kanbanize. Create a column for each stage of your workflow and label it accordingly. Optionally, you can also add swimlanes to separate different types of tasks or projects.
3. Populate your board with tasks: Write down all the tasks that you need to do or that are already in progress on cards or notes. Add any relevant information to each card, such as deadline, assignee, description, etc. Place the cards in the appropriate columns according to their status.
4. Set WIP limits: Decide how many tasks you can have in each column at any given time. This will depend on your capacity, complexity, and urgency of your work. A good rule of thumb is to start with a low number and adjust it as you go. Write down the WIP limit at the top of each column.
5. Start working: Pull a task from the leftmost column (usually To Do) and move it to the next column (usually Doing). Work on it until it is done and then move it to the next column (usually Done). Repeat this process until all your tasks are completed.
6. Monitor and improve: Keep an eye on your kanban board and check if there are any problems or opportunities for improvement. For example, if you see that a column is full or empty for a long time, it might indicate a bottleneck or a waste. If you see that a task is taking too long or too short to complete, it might indicate a quality or estimation issue. Discuss these issues with your team or stakeholders and make changes as needed.

Benefits of Using Kanban

Some of the benefits of using kanban are:

• It helps you to organize your work and keep track of your progress.
• It helps you to focus on one task at a time and avoid distractions.
• It helps you to balance your workload and avoid overcommitment.
• It helps you to deliver value to your customers faster and more frequently.
• It helps you to improve your work process and performance continuously.

Conclusion

Kanban is a simple and effective way to manage your tasks, projects, or workflows. By using a kanban board, you can visualize your work, limit work in progress, and improve efficiency. To use kanban, you need to define your workflow, create your kanban board, populate it with tasks, set WIP limits, start working, and monitor and improve. By following these steps, you can enjoy the benefits of kanban and boost your productivity.