Workflows That Actually Flow: Kanban Boards & Project Success

When you’re new to project management, the dizzying volume of tasks and dependencies can feel overwhelming.

In order to churn out a successful project, all these bits and pieces must be organized into a framework that’s clear and naturally supports the forward flow of work on the project.

The easiest way to do this is with a visualization tool that can provide the clarity and structure needed for everyone on the team to understand the workflow. 

Here’s everything you need to know about Kanban boards and how they can act as an anchor for work management across projects and even entire organizations. 

What is a kanban board?

At its core, a Kanban board is a visual workflow management tool. It presents tasks as cards arranged across columns that represent different stages of a project's lifecycle. These typically move left to right as the project progresses.

Each column is specifically labelled to reflect the status; common examples are "To Do," "In Progress," and "Done," but they can be customized to reflect the specific workflow of any project. 

The idea is that the visual representation of tasks in the cards helps people understand project status more quickly and intuitively, making bottlenecks easier to identify. 

In other words, Kanban boards keep workflows organized visually and in doing so, can help project managers optimize them to a tee. 

Why are Kanban boards so effective? The principles of Kanban

What differentiates kanban boards from other task management tools like a simple spreadsheet or collaborative to-do list?

Well, Kanban is grounded in several key principles that aren’t offered in totality with most other visual task tools, save the Gantt chart. Here’s what underpins the functionality of Kanban boards in project management:

• Visualize the workflow - Kanban boards provide clear, visual representations of all tasks and their current status. This can be understood immediately without dialing down into the individual details of each task. 

• Limit Work in Progress (WIP) - By setting WIP limits, project teams can focus better on completing existing tasks before starting new ones, preventing overload and promoting efficiency.
• Manage flow - Kanban emphasizes the smooth and continuous flow of work, helping you identify potential issues visually and then easily address any impediments by modifying the workflow in just a few clicks. 
• Make process policies explicit - With Kanban boards, there’s less ambiguity on the sequence of work and what’s expected at each stage because the rules governing the workflow are streamlined, clearly defined, and communicated visually. 
• Implement feedback loops - Regular reviews and retrospectives allow for continuous improvement of the workflow, which can promote better efficiency and even help increase project profit margins at the end of the day. 
• Collaboration and experimentation - Kanban’s intuitive, approachable format can contribute towards a culture of continuous improvement through collaboration and experimentation.

Benefits of Kanban boards

Why use a Kanban board in the first place? Here are the top five reasons people choose them to manage projects:

Increased visibility - A Kanban board provides a crystal-clear overview of project status to help you quickly and easily identify potential issues before they affect the timeline, budget, or quality of deliverables. 

Better efficiency - With a Kanban board, it’s easy to see at what stage project delays are getting stuck and who may be the one who is overloaded with work. These insights can help you quickly respond and create a more efficient workflow throughout the project lifecycle. 

Flexibility - Kanban boards are commonly used in agile project management and can be applied to virtually any type of project, from a home renovation to a website design. Its easy-to-use features make it adaptable to most desired workflows and operational processes. 

Focus and productivity -  Kanban boards can visually limit work in progress, preventing team members from feeling overwhelmed with numerous tasks. By concentrating on a smaller number of active tasks, individual team members can focus their attention on completing tasks efficiently, reducing multitasking and improving the quality of their work.

How to set up your Kanban board

Most project management software offers customizable Kanban boards. As we mentioned earlier, Kanban boards are considered like a base-level of functionality for task management. 

You can even get them in most free versions of the software, though these will lack more advanced functionality like automations which you’ll have to pay for. 

Getting started with a Kanban board is easy; here’s how to set one up:

1. Define the workflow: Figure out the distinct stages of your project and create corresponding columns from left to right. 
2. Create task cards - Each project task will be represented by a task card containing relevant details such as task description, assignee, and due date. You can also attach pertinent documentation within task cards, so that team members have all the information they need to complete the task. 
3. Set WIP limits - Determine the maximum number of tasks allowed in each column to prevent overload. In many Kanban boards, you can even set up an automated alert that will let you know when an overload is approaching. 
4. Customize your labels and colors: Use labels and colors to categorize tasks and highlight important information like priority level.

How to get the most out of your Kanban board

Don’t forget to keep your team in the loop with best practices in your customized Kanban board. Make sure that everyone updates the task cards as the work progresses, so that the real-time project status is accurate. 

If your team isn’t actively working in and updating the Kanban board, issues will inevitably arise to make the workflow inefficient. To that end, many project managers will hold a brief weekly meeting to review the board with the team, discuss progress, and identify any potential roadblocks.

Speaking of roadblocks, pay attention to columns that are getting longer with a higher number of tasks, as this often indicates a bottleneck in the workflow. 

Along the way, be sure to do regular updates based on feedback and performance data to make sure that the structure of your Kanban board still supports the workflow you want in place. 

And finally, there are various ways you can automate your Kanban board to level-up your workflows even further. For example, with many project management tools, you can create a new task card automatically from a Slack message 

Integrating Kanban with other project management tools

Kanban boards can be effectively integrated with other project management tools like Gantt charts and task lists. For automations, you can often integrate them with collaboration tools like Slack. Integrations like these will help your Kanban boards provide a more comprehensive view of project progress, combining their innate visual clarity with the detailed planning capabilities of other tools.

Optimize your workflows and churn out successful projects with Kanban

By visualizing the workflow, limiting work in progress, and continuously improving the process, teams can achieve greater project success. 

For new users of project management software, mastering the use of Kanban boards is a valuable skill that will contribute to streamlined workflows and successful project outcomes. And it’s designed to be easy!