Characteristics of Kanban for Better Workflow and Development

What is Kanban?

Kanban is a method that can be applied to various teams all across the organization that makes them more efficient by improving and visualizing workflow. If you are searching for an enormously prominent system for your agile and DevOps software teams, then we have one word for you- Kanban. Using a Kanban Board, you will be able to put efforts toward bringing costs down. If you wish to build a flexible sustainable competitive edge and empower the team to accomplish tasks faster and efficiently, introduce Kanban Board. With the right approach and kanban certification online you can set foot in this technology.

What are Kanban Characteristics?

However, when you do introduce this to your team, there are certain characteristics of kanban that should be addressed to make this an ideal system. These characteristics make sure that there is the right collaboration between all the members of the team.  Kanban is one of the most demanding methods and with a kanban course online, you will be able to learn more about it and its characteristics. Now, let’s look at some of the characteristics below:

Top 5 characteristics of Kanban:

1. Improvement in workflow
2. Limiting Work-In-Progress
3. Continuous Delivery
4. Pull Approach
5. Visual metrics

Let’s find more about them in the article:

Improvement in Workflow

Kanban helps you attain flexibility in your planning. There are various marked flow lanes, clearly marked columns, and various Kanban cards that represent different items in your workflow. Clearly, you are going to have transparency in the workflow. For example, if you are working on a marketing strategy for a product launch, you can decide the tasks, and while you are using the Kanban board, you will be able to visualize how things are progressing. Different aspects of projects are monitored with a clear understanding within the whole team.

Limiting Work-In-Progress

One of the most important Kanban practices is to limit the work in progress. It is seen that more than 60% of people who are currently part of the tech sector are suffering from work overload that happens when new tasks are started simultaneously with the older pending tasks. Work In Progress (WIP Limits) sets the count of items that are introduced in each workflow state or even in the whole process. It is indicated by a column and it helps to avoid stress on resources at a workflow state. Moreover, bottlenecks can be resolved with the participation and cooperation of the whole team. The stage transition can be moved significantly with decreased chances of delay.

Continuous delivery

When the team is focusing on what customers want, the scope becomes much clearer and leads to more customer satisfaction. Optimization of work from starting to the end can be achieved through the release cycles. Moreover, it will increase more interaction with the customers. The developers can focus on the things that are required and can deliver them on time. This will lead to continuous delivery of the product. The quality of product is sustained and the right pace can be helpful in delivering complex projects. With right kanban training, this characteristic of kanban can yield greater results.

Pull approach

When the products are built on actual demand, not with the forecast, it is going to deliver a successful result. The method called pull approach can help in achieving the same. If one team is working at a faster pace than another, there is going to be friction as more work is going to be piled on another team. Using this approach, the wait time can be reduced and actual results can be generated. This is the perfect way to have resource balance. This intricate working mechanism can help in making sure a fine product is delivered to the customers by the end of the cycle. And now that you have satisfied customers with one of the best kanban characteristics, you are going to be in news in the market for delivering better products.

Visual metrics

One of the enticing characteristics of the Kanban Board is visual metrics. If your team wants to facilitate the scheduling of WIP limits which are on the state in workflow or need to be aware of the state of tasks throughout the process, visual metrics is your friend. Not only will you be able to see past performances but it also allows you to have forecasts.

Using the chart which is one of the major characteristics of kanban you can get the below advantages:

• Will be able to evaluate the quality of your growing product that goes from various cycles from technical, functions as well as user perspectives. This can be done at regular time boxes.
• Focus on yet-to-develop things is there along with adjusting the development plan that is necessary for the workflow.
• The pace of development can be identified by looking at the average cycle per development and the number of items that are developed.

No particular roles assignment

A team with a shared leadership sense can be much more productive. When there is an exclusion of the prescribed roles within the team, the responsibilities are dispersed among the team members. The board has a clear picture of the tasks that are assigned to respective team members and with self-organization and shared responsibilities, everyone is more engaged in the whole process rather than thinking of less significance of their role in the organization. No role assignment in Kanban can lead to better productivity and better end product. Furthermore, when the team is empowered, they will be more accountable for the success of the project.

Also Read: kanban For Marketing

Conclusion:

These kanban characteristics are definitely worth considering for project development. Not only are you going to get transparency with everything that goes into a cycle, you will have happy customers for you in the end. This unique set of characteristics is surely going to work wonders for your team.

If you wish to learn more about it and are looking for certification, you can find the best Kanban training with StarAgile. This certification training course is designed in such a way that one is able to understand and then implement the Kanban methodologies at all levels of the enterprises. With a perfect kanban course, you can get your kanban certification and open doors for bigger opportunities.