A Kanban board is a project management tool
designed to help you visualize your work
using cards, columns, and specific
commitment and delivery points to help you understand
how your work flows so you can get your work done.
I'm Max, a PMM on Jira software
and I manage all of my projects with a Kanban board.
In fact, this video series is managed on a Kanban board.
In a lot of ways,
if you're watching this video on the internet right now,
Kanban boards work.
We're going to start our discussion talking about
the elements of a Kanban board.
Basically, what you should have on your board
to make sure it helps you manage your work.
Now there are two philosophies about this.
The first is by David Anderson
who popularized the Kanban Method.
The Kanban Method is largely responsible for taking Kanban
from a manufacturing process into software.
And David Anderson defines five
key elements of a Kanban board.
One of the first things you'll notice about a Kanban board
are the visual signals, cards, stickies,
tickets, or otherwise.
Kanban teams write all of their work items onto cards,
usually one item per card.
For agile software teams,
you can think of these as one user story per card.
Cards help teammates and stakeholders get a glance
at what everyone is working on at one time.
Another hallmark of the Kanban board are the columns.
Columns represent a specific activity
that together compose a workflow.
Cards flow through the workflow until completion.
Workflows can be as simple as to do, in progress, and done
or much more complex.
Two important components of a workflow
are the commitment point and the delivery point.
Kanban teams often have a back log for their board
where customers and teammates put ideas for new projects
that the team can pick up.
The commitment point is the moment when
a team picks up one of those projects and work begins.
The delivery point is the end of a Kanban team's workflow.
For most teams, this is when the product or service
is in the hands of the customer; they're done.
The time that it takes to get from the commitment point
to the delivery point is called lead time.
Lastly, WIP limits.
WIP, or work in progress, limits are simple mechanisms
to limit the number of cards
in any one column at any one time.
Kanban teams find that by limiting work in progress,
they actually move projects through the board
in a more timely manner.
Those five components as described by David Anderson
are more than enough to manage the flow of work
with a kanban board.
There's another philosophy, however, that's much simpler.
Let's walk.
The second philosophy is personal Kanban
by Jim Benson and Tonianne DeMaria.
In personal Kanban there are only two rules,
visualize your work and limit work in progress.
And you can do this however you see fit.
Personal kKnban is great for boards that
maybe only you contribute to
or a small team with a simple workflow.
The simplest Kanban boards are physical boards
where teams divide their workflow into vertical columns.
They take a white board or a black board
and they mark up the board,
filling each column with sticky notes.
The sticky notes then flow through the workflow
to demonstrate progress.
The first advantage of a physical board
is it's super easy to set up.
The second reason that I love physical boards
is they're so tangible and fun.
Kanban helps you visualize your work.
And there's something about this colored sticky note
and moving it from one column to the other
that is so motivating and easy to engage with.
If you are starting to visualize your work,
you might as well start with a physical board.
Digital boards are preferable for a whole host of reasons.
The first is that if your team is remote or distributed
or just not all in the same building,
then you really want to have a digital board.
You want everyone to have equal access to the information
and be able to access it from anywhere.
Second is the digital boards are just plain fast.
If you've ever used Jira or Trello,
you know that you can create boards
and columns and cards in seconds.
Lastly, digital boards like Jira come complete
with all the data and information
you need to make informed decisions
about how your team is working.
While it's not impossible with physical boards,
being able to analyze WIP, cumulative flow diagrams,
cycle time and many more with just a click or two,
is a huge advantage over physical boards.
Those are the key things you want to look for
in a digital board.
We've included a link in the description
for a tutorial of how to make
your first board in Jira software.
My mentor Zach Nies gave me great advice
for how teams should get started with Kanban boards.
He shared that teams should start with a physical board
built on a white board or a window
with sharpies and pens and sticky notes.
This physical board is going to be
a great conversation starter.
People will walk up to the board and look at it
and start these conversations about how you work,
about how you write these cards,
about how you move work through these columns.
These early conversations are going to lead
to some changes in your workflow.
And those changes are essential to getting Kanban right.
Once you understand how your work flows,
you're ready to graduate to a digital tool
like Trello or Jira.
These tools are going to help you measure your progress
and you'll be able to share your workflow
with people outside of your immediate location.
And when you're ready to do that, we can help.