How to Create Project Management Kanban

Because there are so many things to keep up with on a daily basis (including planning and managing of work), project managers need a better way to stay on top of it all. This is where visual management makes a difference.

Working Iteratively

Teams that want to create a project management Kanban should familiarize themselves with the concept of iterative work. While a first iteration may not be fully complete, it may be “good enough” so that the next work item can begin.

Later, if the team decides it’s worthwhile to revisit that “good enough” piece of work and make it better, they can choose to prioritize a second iteration. If, on the other hand, the team decides not to pursue a second iteration of a work item, no time was wasted trying to perfect it the first time around.

Project managers who are comfortable working iteratively may find more immediate success using a Kanban. When work is broken down, it affords teams the chance to revise the project plan numerous times throughout the project as new things are being discovered. This helps keep the project on track in light of the most recent changes.

The theme of iterative work extends beyond the project and process management level and can be thought of in terms of change management as well.

By breaking down any amount of work into manageable tidbits that can be clearly represented visually, a team can improve their ability to react to changes in a way that doesn’t create too much wasted time or effort.

Working in iterations gives the team a chance to present the work to the stakeholder or business owner and gather feedback. Customer feedback is critical to project teams because it can be used to make adjustments in a project before beginning work on the next phase. This helps reduce the amount of potentially wasted effort.

Working iteratively reduces the time to market, or the time it takes to develop one iteration of software and get it into the hands of the stakeholder(s).