Choose the Right Kanban Board Example for Your Needs
A Kanban board is a useful tool that helps businesses to handle their workflow more smoothly. Yet, not every team needs exactly the same approach in this respect. To work out which one is best for your needs, we can look at some Kanban board examples.
What Should Every Kanban Board Include?
Even the most basic board of this type will include certain types of information to help you start. The simplest starting point is with three columns; To Do, In Progress, and Done. Each of these columns will then have a series of tasks under it.
The overall idea of any kanban board example is that those tasks move across the board as they progress. It is a question of finally reaching the Done column once the task finishes, so it should be very easy to track the progress from start to finish.
Clarity of design is important, to avoid confusion. With each kanban example, you need to mark the columns, so that anyone can see at a glance where each task is currently sitting. It is worth bearing in mind that the first boards of this type were developed in the 1940s as a simple planning tool, which is still the main focus that they have today.
A Simple Example to Start
Some teams need a very simple board with the basic columns that we have looked at above. This could be the case with a small team who all work closely together in the same office and handle short, relatively uncomplicated pieces of work.
In this situation, they may just need a whiteboard with the different columns written across it. They could then use coloured sticky notes to write details on each task and confirm who is dealing with it.
This simple Kanban board example isn´t right for everyone, of course. But it is a fast way of trying out the process and understanding the benefits that it can bring. Remember that this is a visual representation of the work going on, so it should be easy to read and understand. If it isn`t, then it isn`t completing its main purpose successfully.
You may decide to start off in this way, as a sort of test run. If you can see the benefit of organising your work like this but think that the whiteboard method is too limited, the next step would be to look at how to add in more complex details without losing any clarity or control.
Dealing with More Complex Projects
There are many situations in which a more flexible or detailed process may be desirable. For example, you may have a process that includes a number of steps that you would rather list separately on the board.
This could be the case with sales, where a case may pass through a number of people´s hands before being closed. Another example is with software development, where stages such as testing, client feedback and security updates may be necessary. Lengthy or complex processes preserve in many other industries too.
The result of this could be that the simple, whiteboard version of a kanban board may quickly become awkward for you to use. Having too many columns or notes on this board could turn it into something that confuses everyone rather than helps them.
Thankfully, there is a possible solution that you could look at. This is because the most sensible approach for complex projects is to move on to online examples of Kanban boards.
Online Kanban Board Example for Added Benefits
The power and flexibility of online tools can be of great benefit in cases such as those we just looked at, where a whiteboard doesn´t let you capture the full details cleanly and effectively. In general, online collaboration tools add value by letting you keep track and report more easily, as well as store all documents in a single place.
By going online, you can use a range of tools to customise the board and make it work right for you. You are going to be able to synchronise it across the team, add the tasks to your calendar and access the details at any time and wherever you go. No matter how big or complex a project is, it will always fit neatly into an online Kanban board example.
This approach is perhaps more important than ever these days, as more people than ever before are working remotely instead of sitting beside their colleagues in the same office. This brings benefits such as greater productivity and higher levels of engagements, but it can be more difficult to manage tasks that several people need to deal with.
That simple whiteboard approach that we looked at earlier just doesn´t work when everyone is in different places or working at different times of the day. On the other hand, when you use an online board everyone knows exactly what is going on at all times. This makes it far easier to keep a remote team on track and working together as smoothly as possible.
Summary
There is no doubt that starting to use a Kanban board has been a smart move for many teams over the years. The only way to take full advantage of the benefits it offers is to take a few moments to consider the exact approach that best suits you.
One sensible way of getting started is by trying the powerful Kanbanchi tool, which can be used to effortlessly organise any size of the project online while keeping your whole team on track and pulling in the same direction.