This article will discuss how Kanban affects work transparency and helps build an effective project management system with a CRM and a control system.
What Is Kanban?
When you start to dive into the topic of project management and team management, you notice that the words “transparency,” “systematization,” and “efficiency” are found in every article.
At some point, they are perceived as “marketing water” to sell special tools. But these are crucial metrics that ensure staff management is built correctly. That is why project management system tools, for example, on Planfix, like Kanban, are being introduced.
It is important to remember that this is just a tool with a task management system that will not lead your team to multi-million dollar profits by itself but will ease your business process.
Kanban is a method of managing a process by breaking it down into stages. The essence is simple — to achieve a result, you need to think about the workflow’s stages, write them out and transfer them to a special board in the task management tool, and then move from one stage to another.
If you are reading this article, you most likely have either launched your project or just understood management’s intricacies. In any case, you have a project, and the task is to make it easier to manage the work process. The easiest way is to break it down into stages, prescribe tasks and distribute them among these stages. For example, you run an event agency. You and your team have a huge number of tasks for all events that need to be managed.
You can create a kanban board for each project, outline the process of preparing an event step by step, prescribe tasks, and assign performers before you open a detailed visual plan of the work to be done.
The task cards inside the kanban board should contain detailed information about what needs to be done. Each card within a kanban should have a title, a brief description of the task, a due date, and the performer’s name. You and your team can decide for yourself what exactly should be on the card, but the ones listed above are a necessary minimum.
What Is the Main Value of the Kanban Method?
First, we need to figure out the difference between Kanban and another Agile tool – SCRUM. When you get acquainted with these methods, it may seem that they are one and the same.
SCRUM is a method of working on tasks within a kanban board, but all tasks must be completed in one sprint. A sprint is a short period in which a team must complete a predetermined pool of tasks. Most often, a sprint lasts from a week to two. Sprints are used in the SCRUM methodology.
After the team has “run” the sprint and completed all the tasks, new ones are set, and the team runs again.
The main advantage and difference between Kanban and other project management methods is the transparency of processes.
In the Kanban method:
- We schedule the process without reference to a two-week deadline;
- The deadlines are more flexible;
- We see everything – how many tasks need to be completed, who the performers are, what kind of workload each of the employees has, what tasks are sagging and urgently need to be taken to work.
Basically, any process can be transferred to a Kanban board.
Principles on Which Kanban Is Built
Kanban is based on the idea of lean manufacturing – we do only what will bring results in the time we need. It is based on several principles:
Implement kanban boards for the processes that the company already has
The method itself is not a magic pill but rather an amplifier.
The Kanban method in management will help:
- Build a structure in all current processes.
- See the strengths and weaknesses in the work.
- Gradually move towards better results.
For example, you have a small leather bag shop. There are several processes: production, promotion, sales, and customer service. Each process can consist of mini-processes.
For example, promotion includes:
- Marketing on social networks.
- Working with influencers.
- Filling out the site and catalog.
- Maintaining a YouTube channel.
Constantly refine the process with employees
Here you need to be prepared for the fact that kanban boards and the stages themselves can change over time if it ceases to meet the team’s requirements and does not help it achieve results.
The main idea behind the principle is that Kanban is not time-based in the way that SCRUM is. Therefore, if the results do not meet expectations, the process needs to be changed at the level of steps – stages.
Use the Kanban method to involve all participants in the process, grow new leaders, and allow them to take responsibility for decisions and share risks.