Benefits of Project Boards and Why You Need One Now
As a project manager, you know you need to invest a significant amount of time planning. Project boards create a visual of the work and are a great way to prioritize and manage shifting priorities. If you have not been using a project board, now is an excellent time to consider using one. It can help you plan and bring a visual element to your project.
What Does a Project Board Do?
A board is a versatile tool that can capture your issues and tasks from one or more projects. It is a centralized resource that provides a visual of the workflow and increases the effectiveness in managing the work. Also, a project board is a collaborative tool that encourages discussion and review of tasks, what will happen next, and how improvements can be made.
There are numerous types of boards available to adapt to the methodology used within an organization, such as:
- Scrum boards – used for teams who plan their work in sprints, includes maintaining a backlog for upcoming tasks for review and assessment for future sprints.
- Kanban boards – is a Japanese term meaning a visual card with the focus to track the work in progress.
- Visual Management/Task boards – provides a visual to support keeping track of the work. Tasks are presented as cards, just like a Kanban board, and used similarly to prioritize and deliver work. A basic layout can be To Do, Doing and Done.
Any of the above boards can support implementing an Agile methodology within an organization.
Setting Up a Project Board
The board example focuses on Kanban. It has similarities to Scrum, Visual Management, and Task boards. You can create all these boards with a project board software.
How to create a Kanban board
A Kanban board workflow is made up of lists and visual cards. These lists are spread across the board and can be broken up however you like. For example, a Kanban board used in software development can be broken down to Backlog, To do, In progress, and Done. The team can decide on the naming conventions of the columns.
Benefits of Project Boards
There are a lot of good reasons to use a project board. Here are some of the most important ones:
- Presents a visual of the scope – itemizing and outlaying the work in a board can accelerate the assignment and completion of the tasks.
- Sets expectations for deliverables – the board displays the deliverable state, dependencies on the task and depending on the methodology used in the organization, the date of completion. It promotes a results-oriented culture, and is motivating and inspiring for project progress.
- Creates a template for future projects – a template creates a foundation to expedite the creation of future projects. It helps to plan, execute, and repeat successful processes.
- Efficiently assign tasks – the project board workflow provides a clear picture of the tasks and who is assigned to them. It facilitates the discussion of project changes, prioritizing work, and reviewing the progress towards an objective. Among the team, task assignment creates a sense of ownership and accountability for the assigned task.
- Helps to identify issues – as with any project, there will be issues to review and assess. The board can bring attention to those issues, the mitigation plan, and the status of the resolution. It can also support predicting and avoiding problems.
- Reports – It can be used as the reporting tool to communicate information to the project management board, the decision-makers, on a regular basis facilitating trust, credibility, and reliability in the project management.
Why You Need One Now
Once your board is set up, it is an effective tool giving you a greater ability to manage projects. It presents a snapshot of what’s happening and when. You can construct a template to use as a base to onboard other projects. In addition, you can use it as the primary board to pull in information from other boards, and these boards can be comprised of different types of boards such as Scrum and Kanban. It is open and adaptable to meet your needs.
A project board is an invaluable tool for the team and stakeholders to see the work in progress and to keep everyone informed with the latest status. How you implement and use the tool can help drive the project to success.
You can make the most of your online project management software like Kanbanchi to stay focused and work more effectively. It is a dynamic, flexible tool that can meet your project’s needs.