What is Kanban?
Kanban is a Lean Management method developed by Toyota Production System (TPS) in the 1940s to optimize "Just-In-Time" production processes in the automotive industry. Toyota aimed to produce only as much as was actually demanded.
The goal of Kanban is to increase the efficiency of production or task fulfillment by visualizing the workflow, minimizing bottlenecks, and striving for continuous, incremental, and evolutionary improvement. Additionally, it aims to reduce the risk of each measure by implementing many small changes instead of one large change.
Although Kanban originated in production, it is now used in many other areas, especially in software development and project management. The word Kanban can be translated as card, board, record, or container.
Benefits of Kanban
The key benefits of Kanban at a glance:
- Gain an overview and transparency of project progress and problems
- Precisely prioritize and manage task priorities
- Identify and avoid task bottlenecks and constraints
- Identify and implement improvement potentials
- Obtain a basis for decision-making
- Make changes or adjustments without disrupting ongoing operations
- Shorten lead times
- Improve medium- to long-term resource planning
Overview of processes and tasks
Visualizing tasks on a board clearly shows which tasks are pending, in progress, or already completed. This gives teams an overview of ongoing tasks and progress. Combined with measurable metrics like cycle time, throughput, and work in progress (WIP), these insights provide a basis for decisions.
Continuous process improvement
Kanban focuses teams on continuous optimization. It helps understand the workflow better and identify bottlenecks and inefficient processes. The result is a smoother workflow and accelerated task completion.
Precise task prioritization
Kanban encourages regular reviews and retrospectives to help teams refine their prioritization strategy. These activities are an integral part of the continuous improvement process, ensuring that the most important tasks are prioritized and the workflow is continuously optimized.
Optimization of resource utilization
Work In Progress (WIP) limits ensure that teams use their resources effectively by limiting the number of tasks being processed simultaneously. This prevents overload, promotes focus among team members, and reduces stress, thereby increasing satisfaction.
Flexibility and adaptability
Kanban offers teams the flexibility to quickly adapt to changing requirements without redesigning the entire workflow or disrupting ongoing operations. They can reset priorities, reassign tasks, and adjust workflows to respond to unforeseen events.
Continuous improvement
By fostering a culture of continuous improvement, teams actively seek ways to optimize their work. Regular review, feedback, and experiments enable them to enhance their performance and evolve continuously.
Transparency and collaboration
Kanban creates a transparent working environment where all team members can easily track the progress of tasks and projects. This promotes collaboration within and between teams, leading to improved team performance and quality of outcomes.
Kanban practices
To effectively introduce and use Kanban in work environments, a solid understanding of its core practices is crucial. They serve as a guide for implementation and provide a framework for continuous improvement of workflows and processes.
Visualizing workflow with Kanban boards
Kanban relies on visual tools like the Kanban board to make the workflow transparent. The board represents the entire work process through columns and cards. The columns segment the process, while the cards represent individual tasks. Typically, tasks start in the "To Do" area, move to "In Progress," and finally to "Done."
Each card contains all the necessary information about the task and can include additional details such as responsible persons and the definition of done. Process rules, determining when a card can move from one column to the next, can also be integrated.
Kanban boards can be flexibly designed, using additional columns or subdivisions to visualize different states and dependencies. This allows for quickly identifying bottlenecks and optimization potentials, continuously improving the workflow.
Reducing parallel work with WIP limits
In Kanban, the number of tasks per column is limited by the WIP limit to prevent too many tasks from being processed simultaneously. This ensures that teams are not overloaded and can quickly respond to changes or new opportunities.
It is important to note that in Kanban, tasks should not simply be passed from one person to another. Instead, the person pulls the completed task from the previous column (pull principle) once they are ready. This creates a continuous workflow, supported by clear visualization to show when tasks are "done" and can move to the next step.
Managing work in process with process rules
Process rules provide a transparent and objective foundation for all team members by setting clear guidelines for Work In Process. They define when a task can move to the next column, when a task is considered complete, and whether the WIP limits are appropriate. These rules allow for precise process definition and should be simple, concise, and clear. They must be continuously reviewed and adjusted to ensure their relevance.
Managing workflow with service classes
Kanban uses service classes to manage workflow and consider different priorities. These classes allow tasks to be evaluated and grouped based on criteria such as urgency, cost, or risks. It is important to limit the number of tasks per service class to avoid overload.
There are four types of service classes: "Expedite" for particularly urgent work, "Fixed Date" for tasks with a fixed time frame, "Standard" for regular activities, and "Intangible" for tasks with potential future impacts.
It is advisable to experiment with which service classes, limitations, and process rules are appropriate, as Kanban does not impose rigid specifications.
Driving continuous improvement with feedback loops
Gradual improvements to existing workflows, processes, and systems are characteristic of Kanban to continuously achieve progress. Regular feedback loops are used to assess these improvements, taking place in special meetings (weekly or monthly). The length of these cycles should be individually adjusted to allow for appropriate evaluation of the changes.
These meetings aim to identify useful changes, reinforce them, and learn from past experiences. Ineffective changes should be withdrawn or mitigated. It is important to emphasize that in a continuous improvement process, there is no final goal as the conditions constantly change. Kanban supports adapting flexibly to these changes and continuously improving.
Applications of Kanban
Kanban offers flexible solutions that seamlessly integrate into various work environments. This adaptability is reflected in its broad application across different industries and teams. Some examples include:
Software development: Kanban is used in software development to organize the development process, track software bugs, and implement new features. By visualizing the development cycle, teams can identify barriers and improve delivery times.
Project management: Kanban provides an effective method for organizing and tracking projects. Project managers use such boards to plan tasks, track progress, and identify bottlenecks to meet project goals on time.
Marketing and advertising: Kanban is used in marketing and advertising to plan campaigns, create content, and manage marketing activities. Teams can keep track of ongoing projects and improve collaboration between different departments using boards.
Customer service and support: in customer service and support, Kanban boards can be used to track customer requests, prioritize service tickets, and improve response times. By clearly visualizing all inquiries, critical ones can receive faster attention and prioritized handling.
Production and manufacturing industry: in the production and manufacturing industry, Kanban is used to optimize material flow, track production orders, and manage inventory. This allows production companies to reduce lead times and increase productivity.
Kanban values
The Kanban method is based on a value system that promotes the core principles of continuous improvement and agile collaboration. These values form the foundation for successfully applying the method in various work environments. They emphasize the importance of transparency, flexibility, collaboration, and continuous improvement to help teams achieve their goals effectively and continuously evolve. The following values form the basis for introducing Kanban:
- Respect for all opinions and perspectives
- Agreements for improvements and the common goal
- Balance of skills and points of view across the team
- Transparency in task representation, task perception, and task completion
- Shared understanding that work is a flow of activities
- Focus on collaborative work.
- Ensuring that the work always flows to the beneficiary
Kanban Principles
Applying Kanban is based on four fundamental principles that help optimize and continuously improve work processes. They are essential for teams to increase the effectiveness of their work processes, enhance productivity, and ultimately achieve better results.
1. Principle: start with the here and now
The introduction of Kanban begins with a look at the present. Where are we in the project? What has our journey been so far? What practices shape our daily work? The method requires no special configurations or system requirements. Instead, it’s about capturing the status quo and manifesting the desire for change.
2. Principle: pursue evolutionary change management
Kanban aims for continuous, incremental changes in workflows, processes, systems, projects, services, and organizations. This approach to "evolutionary change management" emphasizes the ongoing implementation of small improvements to bring about a steady transformation. Like natural evolution, many small adjustments are made to identify the most effective improvements. This continuous improvement process is an ongoing cycle, seeking optimal performance without ever ending.
3. Principle: integrate current processes, roles, and responsibilities
Applying the Kanban method is based on recognizing and integrating current processes, roles, and responsibilities. Instead of bypassing existing structures, improvements aim to support them and increase the efficiency of workflows. Kanban is not a rigid prescription for change but a framework to collaboratively determine which adjustments are necessary and valuable. This integrative approach promotes acceptance and engagement from all involved, leading to sustainable and impactful improvements.
4. Principle: promote leadership at all levels
Leadership is a cornerstone of progress and development. Both leaders and employees must be willing to accept and implement continuous adjustments. Successful changes in an organization require the active participation of everyone, from individual team members to the highest levels of management. This doesn't mean that every person must apply the same method. Rather, it is about leadership supporting the changes initiated by the method and ensuring that they are implemented at all levels of the company. Only through such comprehensive involvement can organizations effectively achieve their goals and ensure that optimizations are fully implemented without distortions or resistance.
Implementing Kanban methods with Atlassian products
Atlassian's products are inherently geared toward agile work methods, aiming to highlight the full potential of teams and processes. Many of these products already feature integrated Kanban boards, while others can be extended with apps that add this functionality. They all promote the creation of flexible workflows, thereby enabling efficient collaboration and optimized work processes.
Kanban in Jira
Kanban is a core component of Jira. With the integrated boards, teams can visualize all workflows, create sprints and delivery points, assign and prioritize tasks, and track the progress of their projects. Work is organized in columns that represent various work phases, such as "To Do," "In Progress," and "Done." Jira also provides a backlog where customers, product managers, or team members can place project ideas to be picked up when time allows. By dragging and dropping task cards—known as issues—team members can easily update the status of individual tasks and effectively manage the workflow.
Additionally, Jira offers extensive customization options for Kanban boards, including the ability to adjust columns, set WIP limits, and establish custom workflows.
Kanban in Jira Service Management
Jira Service Management provides IT and service teams with a platform to manage service requests and issues—and now also features Kanban boards. This allows support staff to better track service tickets, manage SLAs (Service Level Agreements), and improve the efficiency of their support processes.
Unlike Jira, the cards represent requests or service tickets instead of tasks. With prioritization features and due dates, they receive the attention they require. This ensures that critical requests are brought to the forefront and addressed more quickly, thereby maintaining SLAs and increasing customer satisfaction.
Kanban in Trello
Trello, similar to Jira, is a task management tool based on Kanban. It consists of a board that can accommodate numerous columns and cards.
Here too, teams operate according to the pull system. They take on work when they have capacity, rather than having work pushed into the process from outside. Team members can assign themselves to cards they are working on. They can even add checklists to their cards for sub-tasks, which can also have individual assignees if necessary.
The board can be configured to match the desired process exactly. Trello can even be used for journals or private to-do lists.
