What is the Kanban method?

2022-10-19T13:14:43+02:00Agile methodology, Dashboard Kanban|

What is the Kanban method? What is the Kanban methodology? As for the boards, do you know how to adapt them to your organization? If you want to improve the management of projects in your company, you need to know what the Kanban method is, what it consists of and how the boards will help you to organize and know the tasks of the work team.

A bit of history of the Kanban method

Before knowing what Kanban is, it is necessary to know its origin.

The Kanban method was born in Japan in the late 40’s, specifically in the Toyota factory, where the “Just in time” method was implemented in the production system, based on manufacturing vehicles depending on customer demand and not as until then, when they were manufactured in a chain and tried to be sold in the market. This method consisted of dividing the process into different phases that had to meet certain objectives before starting the next phase, thus achieving an increase in the quality of the products.

Now, what is the Kanban method?

As we have seen, the Kanban method was developed by Toyota and consists of recording tasks through a visual symbology based on “Just in Time”.

We know its history, but what is kanban, how would it be defined?

The Kanban method would be defined as an inventory and parts flow management and control system that uses cards to name tasks.

Put another way, Kanban could be described as a visual method that is used to control tasks through their phasing to completion.

Kanban as an agile methodology

This method has become part of the agile methodologies, where the Scrum methodology is also found, which try to manage the work and adapt it to the project conditions.

While they are both agile methodologies, there are differences between Scrum and Kanban but they can be complementary work methods.

pass your tasks to done

The 4 principles of the Kanban Method

The Kanban method is based on 4 basic principles that cannot be ignored if you want the method to succeed:

  • You start with what you do immediately, it is not necessary to create a new project to start working with Kanban
  • The objective is to pursue change and evolution of the project, always with small and continuous incremental changes, although radical modifications are not contemplated
  • Respect for processes, responsibilities and roles
  • Promotion of leadership
the kanban method

How does the Kanban method work?

We already know its history, we know what it consists of, but we still need to visualize how the Kanban method works.

The Kanban methodology is based on visual references, on boards and colored cards, even on software that simulates such boards and cards.

The colored cards indicate the tasks, and their place on the board, both digital and physical, indicates the status of that task: completed, being worked on and/or pending to be started.

how to work in a kanban board

Advantages and benefits of using the Kanban method

There are several advantages for companies using the Kanban method:

  • It detects and eliminates bottlenecks, thus streamlining the project
  • It is a very visual and very simple methodology thanks to the representation of cards, which is why it is easily incorporated into the methodology and processes of a company
  • It helps optimize the implementation time of the team’s tasks. At each moment each team member knows what task has to be developed and at what point it is
  • The processes are carried out in a shorter period of time, thanks to the optimization of the implementation time of the tasks in the team
  • Activities that do not add value to the team are eliminated, because the processes have been delimited, so the team only worries about what brings results

Kanban for software development

The principles of the Kanban method are timeless, as we have seen they emerged in the 1940s, and thanks to this, development teams have achieved great results by applying this agile methodology leveraging JIT (Just in Time) principles. Thus, teams have more flexible project planning options and faster results are obtained and there is transparency throughout the development cycle.

The cost to the company is minimal, as software development teams only need a board and cards, and for those who want to work with the Kanban method digitally, there is software that simulates these boards and cards.

The Kanban board

The work of all team members revolves around a Kanban board, the tool that allows to visualize the color cards and thus optimize the flow between team members.

Until now, physical boards were common in any company using the Kanban methodology, but little by little, virtual boards are gaining prominence. These virtual boards allow and encourage teleworking since any team member can access it from his or her own home.

The function of a Kanban board is to ensure that the team’s work is visualized, that its workflow is unified and that all factors blocking the development of the work are identified and resolved.

The Kanban board should be considered the only reliable source of information about the team’s work.

Go to Top