Did you know that fifteen percent of all projects fail, and one out of three organizations don’t complete their projects on time, and on budget? As an entrepreneur, it’s difficult to be on your game 24/7.
In order to stimulate workflow and productivity, there are hundreds of mobile apps and market-ready technologies designed to aid you. But here, we are focused on methodology rather than just your average mobile app.
One such methodology is ‘kanban.’ Kanban is the Japanese word for “visual signal” or “card.” The Kanban technique emerged in the late 1940’s as Toyota’s re-imagined approach to manufacturing and engineering.
Line-workers displayed colored Kanbans – actual cards – to notify their downstream counterparts that demand existed for parts and assembly work. The system’s highly visual nature allowed teams to communicate more easily on what work needed to be done and when. It also standardized cues and refined processes, which helped to reduce waste and maximize value.
Over time, it has become an effective tool to support running a production system. Today, it is used by software development teams and organizations in different sectors to manage work and stimulate collaboration, increase productivity, and boost efficiency.
Kanban isn’t just useful to project managers. Employees and individuals can also use it for planning. If you have endless to-do lists that are giving you headaches, using the Kanban approach can benefit you tremendously.
One way to implement this is by using a Kanban Board, designed to help illustrate your workflow.
This visual layout shows every activity that takes place within the project lifecycle, thus enabling all team members to track work, prioritize important tasks, detect bottlenecks, fix problems, and stay on course.
If you’ve come across a whiteboard full of sticky-notes, it’s most probably a physical Kanban board. Instead of relying on a physical board, you should consider switching to a digital Kanban board.
So here are five reasons you should consider purchasing one of these boards:
#1-Ultimate Accessibility
When you have a project that involves people who are based in different locations, communication and collaboration can be a challenge. Some tasks may be unknowingly duplicated, and it may be tough to track progress.
With a Kanban board online, the entire team can view the work-stream, communicate, comment, tell what has been done, and know what needs to be done.
Using a digital Kanban, you can also allocate tasks to remote teams or individuals and control the flow of work. People involved in the project just need to log in and get instant updates on the status of work. This helps minimize the need for meetings.
While physical boards are limited by office hours and location, Kanban boards that live in the cloud are accessible from anywhere at any time provided you have an internet connection.
#2-Control and Constant Improvement
Every business or organization strives to improve continuously. Online Kanban has an automated process of gathering workflow metrics. The data is in a simplified format of charts and diagrams, allowing you to analyze the data easily. This information provides meaningful insights that can help you scrutinize your work process, rectify any shortcomings, and improve your overall performance.
#3-Work Automation
If you have other existing tools that you are using to refine your work process, you can still use digital Kanban.
Online Kanban can easily be combined with other platforms to help you complete your project effectively. You can integrate it with email, calendar, and other software tools.
#4-Central Storage of Information
Apart from your current project, you may need to access useful information from past projects. This is impossible if you are using a physical Kanban board.
A digital board stores each detail of all the projects you’ve worked on, allowing you to retrieve past data, refer to earlier work, and track results long into the future.
#5-Security
If you are developing a project that has sensitive data, using a physical board can present a security challenge as everyone can view what you are working on. An online Kanban platform provides adequate levels of security as it has various security settings that you can tweak, as noted by Digital Marketplace. You can provide different levels of access depending on the role of each user, and grant specific rights and restrictions as you deem fit.
Get to Purchasing!
To track and visualize your progress on projects as you move tasks from to-do to done, a Kanban board is instrumental. It is great for enhancing productivity in a team environment and for personal work management. A digital Kanban board is easy-to-use and learn, therefore, you should consider integrating it into your work.
