First developed by Toyota to improve production efficiency, Kanban is a flexible project management approach gaining on Scrum and getting adopted by IT vendors worldwide. As a prime example of the Agile approach, Kanban comes with a host of benefits. But before you take up your software outsourcing company on the offer to use Kanban, let’s go over the basics.
Three Pillars of Kanban Software Development
It would be impossible to describe every last detail of Kanban in this short post, so let’s focus on the three core principles that set this project management methodology apart and make it equally effective for software development and other industries. Regardless of your project’s scope and budget, the Kanban process must include:
- Workflow visualization (project boards). They started out as notice boards but have since migrated into digital solutions like Trello that provide a clear overview of the project at a glance, highlighting chokepoints and necessary course corrections.
- WIP limits. Every section should have a maximum task limit to keep the development team focused on critical tasks without spreading their attention too thin.
- Workflow enhancement. The goal of Kanban is accelerating task completion pace, so the team remains focused on moving the cards through sections, setting a steady development, testing, and deployment pace.
What Makes Kanban Methodology so Popular?
Kanban is free from daily scrums, a staple of the namesake project management methodology, cutting down the meeting time from 20% to under 5% and increasing the time spent on actual development. As long as the project’s Kanban board is regularly updated to reflect the current state of affairs, all you need is a single glance to get all the info you need.
Where Scrum sprint goals are nearly immutable, Kanban boards are adaptable to an extreme. All it takes is adding and shuffling task cards and changing their priority status to alter the pace and direction of the development process. As long as there are cards in the Backlog section, developers will never be idle, and the WIPs limit urges the team to get things done and released before taking on new assignments.
All this translates into more efficient use of every team member’s time. And if you go with a time and material engagement model, you want to make the most of every hour you pay for. However, Kanban benefits truly shine through with an accomplished project manager guiding the process and keeping the board and team members on track.
Is Kanban the Best Choice for Your Project?
You don’t have to switch to Kanban because industry experts call it the next best thing after Scrum. Still, it’s worth checking out if one or more of the points below fit your project:
- You don’t want to waste the project’s time and budget on daily scrums, meetings, and discussions.
- Your idea is complex or flexible enough to necessitate regular changes in scope, features, or priorities, so the development team must remain adaptable.
- Your co-founders and investors are calling for continuous delivery and want to get their hands on new features the moment they are out of testing.
- You want to maximize every person-hour of a small development team without running into chokepoints.
- You realize that a flexible development process leads to deadline uncertainty and can afford to put off the launch by a few days or weeks.
If you want to put the benefits of Kanban to good use in your project, take your time learning more about this project management methodology and embrace its differences. Once you give Kanban a try, you may never wish to go back to Scrum or Waterfall.
