What Kind of Team Needs an Online Kanban Chart?
A Kanban chart can be an incredibly useful tool for many different types of team. Yet, if this is something you haven’t used before, you might wonder whether it is right for your business. The best idea is to take a look at some of the common reasons why different types of the team use this sort of tool to plan and visualize their tasks.
A Virtual Team
When a team is split out over different offices and various parts of the world, keeping track of their tasks is one of the major issues. It can be difficult to track what each person is up to and even trickier to understand the overall view of where you stand as tasks are passed from one person to the next.
The Kanban methodology started off with the idea of using sticky notes on the wall to track the progress of tasks through each stage in the manufacturing industry. However, the arrival of online Kanban chart options means that it is now possible to carry out a similar process even when the team members are never physically in the same location.
This is a great way of seeing what the whole team is up to and spotting any backlogs that could be building up. It remains the same simple, visual approach that made Kanban popular in the first place, but has been adapted to meet modern demands in the remote working era. It is especially popular in software development, but the principles are suitable for just about any kind of industry.
Teams with Multiple Projects
Having a number of projects on the go at one time is difficult, as it means that there are likely to be over-lapping tasks that affect different pieces of work, as well as resources that are needed on more than one project. Trying to understand how it all fits together is a huge challenge that can seem impossible at first.
Kanban can help enormously with this. Keeping a clear view of the big picture while being able to drill down to the details on individual tasks and sub-tasks ensures that you stay in control at all times. You can see exactly what is going on and how it is going to affect other projects or parts of the same piece of work.
In addition, using the right sharing permission will help the correct information to reach the right people and will also ensure that the details remain secure at all times. There is no need to give everyone in the company access to every file, so everyone gets to see the projects that they need to know about.
A Team That Uses Agile Methodology
You will often see the Kanban method mentioned together with the Agile methodology. These are two ways of working that go together very well, as the Kanban approach fulfils all of the Agile principles and lets you stay in control as you go through the different phases in the Agile development life cycle.
Having said that, it is also possible to use an online Kanban chart even if you aren’t adopting an Agile methodology. You shouldn’t make the mistake of thinking that Kanban and Agile are the same thing and can only be used together, as they are different methodologies that work well together rather than part of the same tool.
You can use Kanban to follow your tasks and projects on virtually any type of project. The majority of teams using some form of lean methodology turn to Kanban to help them visualize their workflow, with some sources stating that over 80% of lean teams are now using Kanban to help them.
Those That Use Google Workspace
We have seen a significant shift towards working with online suites of productivity tools in recent years, with the Google Workspace package a particularly attractive choice for many types of business. This lets you keep all of your tasks and processes under the Google umbrella and carry out the majority of your daily tasks with a minimum of fuss.
In this way, it is easier to set up meetings, share documents, and send emails, among other things. There is no need to leave the suite to carry out tasks, which means that you have a greater deal of security as well as faster, slicker processes. It is no wonder that many major companies are now using it, as well as plenty of smaller firms around the planet.
The one issue here is that there is no Kanban chart or tool included on Google Workspace. Because of this, you might be tempted to use some of the existing Google tools to try and carry out task tracking in a way that they weren’t designed to do. This can lead to problems, such as informal, undocumented manual workarounds that people carry out in different ways.
Why Kanbanchi Is Right for These Teams
Finding the right type of Kanban tool is ideal for helping you to implement this way of working without any fuss. One of the major advantages offered by the Kanbanchi software in this respect is that it is the only Kanban board that is perfectly integrated with Google Workspace.
This means that your team can use all of the power of Workspace with an additional tool that slots in seamlessly alongside it. Kanbanchi uses a similar-looking interface too, so that it is easy to get started with and doesn’t require any lengthy training sessions for people to feel comfortable with it.
By adding the right Kanban chart to your existing processes, you can make it easier for your team to complete their goals and keep track of everything that is going on very easily.