Kanban Meetings: What are they, Process & Types

Companies in different industries, especially the IT sector, often schedule internal meetings for proper team organization and collaboration. During such meetings, members discuss various aspects of different projects available, all in an effort to streamline the overall workflow. 

Statistically, operational inefficiencies cost businesses 20-30% of their revenue loss, so having consistent meetings is vital. 

Different solutions are available for agile development, like the Kanban retrospective. Learning Kanban training online is important to prepare the team for different tasks and properly address major workflow issues. 

Statistically, 67% of employees mentioned that spending excess time in different meetings reduces their work productivity. So, planning a smarter meeting style is necessary. 

In terms of Kanban meetings, there are multiple points to consider for companies. This post details more on that. 

Kanban meetings: a brief overview 

Kanban meeting is useful for companies to streamline team tasks by tracking their progress till completion. The team evaluates the overall workflow, addresses challenges, and categorizes the tasks based on their completion status. Certainly, this makes it easier for team leaders to organize the members’ efforts toward the projects better to optimize the completion process. 

Tracking the tasks for a Kanban planning meeting can get complicated, so planning well is important. There are many categories to divide the tasks into, reorganizing different tasks simultaneously as per in-progress, to-do, and completed piles. 

Process of Kanban meeting: a basic outline 

Here is a typical example of what the employees and employers deal with during the Kanban meeting. 

Team members access the online or physical board for Kanban ceremonies. 

The leader is chosen with the most certified skills and experience on the meeting topic. 

Participants follow tasks from top to bottom slides and right to left columns on the board. The priority tasks that require quick completion are placed in the right column and onward. 

Specific team members explain the potential obstacles with the project and update on each progress. 

If one task is at a standstill due to confusion, lack of resources, or other issues, the team marks it in red. 

One by one, the team discusses all tasks on the Kanban board, and all tasks are assigned. 

Types of Kanban meetings 

While the Kanban Events typically have the same goals for workflow efficiency improvement, quicker delivery, and proper client satisfaction. Yet, there are different types available.  

• Daily stand up 

Frequency: Daily 

Recommended Duration: 10-15 minutes 

This is a quick meeting that is held while standing. Notably, discussions here cover the questions of the workflow, factors that impede the team, and points where improvement is necessary and possible. These are more immediate-future-focused meetings without major consideration of the big picture. 

• Service delivery-related review meeting 

Frequency: twice a week 

Recommended Duration: <30 minutes

Satisfying the client is the primary purpose of teams; else, all efficiency is lost. During this meeting, the team notices the service quality of the work and how the customers are receiving the team's work. To elaborate, participants here include customers, delivery team representatives, and service delivery managers. 

• Risk review-related meeting

Frequency: Once a month

Recommended Duration: 1-2 hours  

During these Kanban ceremonies, the team notes the risk factors, like backlog amount and blockers, potentially risking quick and efficient delivery. Therefore, members assess what led to the failures and prepare solutions to rectify them in future processes. 

• Replenishment meeting 

Frequency:1/Week

Recommended length of meeting: 30 minutes 

Teams choose some of the tasks available in the team assignment backlog to ensure a streamlined task completion process for all projects. The team members discuss handling all the backlog tasks to avoid reordering. Accordingly, during these Kanban meetings, participants consider the service classes for innovative work items, predicting delivery dates and member skills. 

• Delivery planning

Frequency: Variable on various factors

Recommended duration: 1-2 hours 

It is not possible to deliver the project output as soon as it is completed. So, during this meeting, the team plans what parts are left to fine-tune or prepare and which are ready to launch. 

• Operations review 

Frequency: Once a month 

Recommended Duration: 2 hours 

The managers from multiple departments/divisions assess all interconnecting internal systems and teams. Overall, they see the full picture of the output quality of each individual team. After that, they plan what to do to improve the processes. 

• Strategy review 

How often: Per quarter 

Recommended length of meeting: half a day 

During these Kanban meetings, participants view the full operation, considering factors such as new changes and the overall market landscape. Also, they compare the delivery rate with the market change rate to note potential issues and optimize teamwork accordingly.

How do Kanban meetings differ from Scrum meetings?

The daily Scrum meetings or Kanban meetings have some overlapping points but have several differences. Here are some of the differences:

Tips to optimize Kanban meeting events

Focusing on these points will help with proper certified Kanban training for better meeting quality, especially during daily stand-up meetings. 

• Prioritize time management: All participants must follow the schedule. 
• One should not extend the meeting time with unnecessary discussion points.
• Participants should avoid bringing distracting things into the meetings.
• The focus should only stay on the topic at hand. 
• Members should share information instead of reporting them, as this is a collaborative meeting. 
• Doing proper initial preparation for the tasks is vital. 

Conclusion

For IT professionals, following a high-quality Agile development process requires frequent discussion on different tasks and progress. Thus, Kanban meetings are useful for optimizing team workflow management, and following it the right way is important. 

Enrol now in StarAgile's Kanban Certification Program, which can be completed online from the convenience of your own home or office. StarAgile has already trained over 300,000 professionals with a 100% success record.