A Kanban Board is a simple tool. The Kanban board is workflow visualization, which is very helpful in improving teamwork. Since the KanBan launched, the Kanban board having a very long journey with good results as well. Kanban started as a visual production system. With the time, a Kanban method was formulated. So that led to the introduction of the Kanban boards. Now, it is a widely used tool in project management.
Components of Kanban Boards:
Kanban Cards: The cards have all the information related to a particular task like assignee, deadline, description, etc. it helps in visually representing the task.
Kanban Columns: the Kanban board has several columns. These columns represent the various stages of your workflow.
Work-in-Progress Limits: By using this, you can limit the maximum amount of tasks in the different stages of the workflow. It is a constructive way to limit the burden and pressure on the team members so that they can concentrate on the current task.
Kanban Swimlanes: These are useful to differentiate among the various activities, teams, classes of service, etc.
You Can Also Read –
1] EIG vs Non-EIG Companies – Compare which is Best for you?|
2] {Secrets} Why Lead Generation Is So Important In Business?
How to Use a Kanban Board?
Step #1 Visualize Workflow on the Kanban Boards & Spot Weaknesses
The Kanban Board is beneficial while searching the problematic areas in any given processes. If tasks appear faster in the Kanban Column and leave slowly, then Kanban boards in jira indicates that a lot of work might accumulate for over time. Therefore, it is advisable to map your workflow to find out the problem areas and quickly make improvements.
Example of a bottleneck process-
Once you come across a problematic column or bottleneck problem, you need to find out a means to solve it. One possible solution is to limit the work in progress. Give the members adequate time to complete the tasks before burdening them with new ones. Apart from this, you can also redistribute tasks among the team to overcome the obstacles.
Step #2 Use the Kanban Board to Limit your Work in Progress with full of Focus
Too much multitasking may lead to incorrect work. Therefore, to stop your team members from multitasking, you can limit the Work in Progress as per your requirement. You can apply a limit on the total number of tasks that can be in progress at any given time on the board or put individual limits on each stage of the workflow. The Kanban will ensure that the members of the project assigned also focus well on their assigned tasks. And complete them as well on time.
Step #3 Use of Kanban boards In Jira:
By attending meetings to discuss the some official progress of any project is often a waste of time many times. So that the kanban boards in jira helps you to save your valuable Time on Unnecessary Meetings
A latest version of Kanban Board in jira is an excellent means to stay up to date with each other’s work. All the team members get to have an idea about the project’s progress and do not have to spend time in unnecessary meetings. Moreover, you will not even have to struggle with those huge report books anymore. You can use all your precious time very productively.
Step #4 Visualize Work Blockers on Your Kanban Boards:
Many obstacles may come in your way in any project. A Kanban board helps you identify all the problems through proper visualization. Generally, on physical boards, red magnets are used to highlight blockers, whereas digital Kanban boards use more advanced ways to visualize the blockers like stop signs on blocked cards. It ensures that whenever there is any problem, the work does not stop until unless command came from Kanban board. The team members can label the problematic task as blocked and can start working on another assignment without breaking any Work In Progress limits.
Step #5 Collect Key Workflow Metrics and Improve:
A Contemporary digital Kanban dashboard efficiently gathers information about the cycle time of your tasks. Like lead-time, and other key performance indicators. It is beneficial in making data-driven decisions about any alteration in the process. You can save yourself a lot of time because you will not have to struggle with collecting metrics by hand. Moreover, a kanban board in jira helps you improve since you can easily prioritize the tasks.
Recommended Tools For Kanban Boards in Jira:
1. PlanStreet
In PlanStreet, Kanban Board helps in Agile project management with backlog management, detailed release planning, and sprint planning. It enables change management, team collaboration, and creative flexibility to meet the ever-changing market.
Release Planning
PlanStreet creates Sprints and user stories in the detailed release planning Kanban board. Project managers and product leaders can create user stories under backlog columns. You can recreate or modify your own Sprints from the Agile Kanban board at any given time to make proper arrangements.
KanBan release planning is also pretty much helpful in monitoring progress in project to another to save important time. Moreover, the Kanban board allows you to perform release planning activities. It allows moving stories from backlog sprint to new sprint and between sprints.
Backlog
PlanStreet has a backlog column as part of the release planning Kanban board, where product owners create user stories. The Backlog feature helps users to create, plan, prioritize, and reorder stories. It consists of integrated checklists, threaded comments, and can assign multiple team members. The story-point system is an excellent way to stay up to date with your team members’ work. Product owners can create and manage backlog for each scrum team.
Sprint Planning
Sprint planning is another amazing feature available. It helps you plan user stories for either single or multiple sprints. You can organize, start, or complete sprints easily. Team members can view current and future sprints in chronological order in the Agile Kanban board. In PlanStreet, there is a detailed sprint of the Kanban board for each sprint and that is very much important. The kanban boards in jira allows project leaders or managers and product owners for group tasks as per teams and priorities to cover project in given time. Also, you can easily go back to your incomplete user stories from overall sprints database. And back to the backlog for the future sprints. Moreover, you will not miss or forget any deadlines since users can see important information about current sprints, several story points, etc. anytime.
Therefore, PlanStreet is an amazing tool to help you reduce your burden. Give it a shot, and your project shall be organized and completed within the deadline.
2. Trello
Trello is a user- friendly and customizable tool available. The key feature of this tool is power-ups like voting, analytics, adding a map, and the automation “butler.” Other features include creating checklists, adding colored labels for better visualization, etc. Moreover, it allows you to create a regular as well as a business team.
In terms of its cost-effectiveness, there is a free version available. However, it has limited options, which are only useful initially. Trello has its fair share of drawbacks. One of them is the lack of a direct communication channel. In addition to this, the support services are not available immediately and quite hard to reach. If you face any customer issues, you may have to struggle a little to reach customer care.
Therefore, Trello is a good option for beginners and small companies because of its user-friendly interface and free versions, but for larger businesses, you may find better alternatives.
3. MeisterTask
MeisterTask has Kanban Boards that allow you to create checklists and easily monitor task completion. It provides you with access to statistics such as time-tracking and performance but only for the paid version. kanban boards in jira intuitive design makes it quite easy to use. You will probably feel like you are playing a videogame.
MeisterTask offers a lot of integrations available such as Slack, Github, Zendesk, Confluence, Gmail, GSuite, but only for the paid version. In the free version, very limited integrations are available. The company’s support service is very quick and helpful. Concisely, the free version is a great option for freelancers and small companies, but for larger firms, the free version is not of much help due to limited features.
4. Monday.com
This software has many features to offer. There are timelines to monitor progress, but best kanban boards in jira charts to visualize the milestones, numbers to keep track of statistics, and even a llama farm. The llama farm is a very interesting widget that helps you keep track of the finished tasks. It displays a llama for each item on your board. You can even invite viewers to your board, who will provide you with valuable feedback.
Apart from this, you will have to choose from various paid plans as per your requirements. It also has a very quick support service to help you. However, a large number of features make it complex. You will get lost somewhere along the road. There is an overburdening learning curve.
Therefore, it is a good option only for somebody who is already familiar with similar software. It is quite difficult for newcomers to begin with it. Overall, it is only suitable for small businesses, since it could get a bit too expensive for large companies with many users.