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Introduction
the keywords “Kanban system” are often used in project management and service development. What is “Kanban system” in this article? How do you do it? That’s the question.
Born in Toyota
The kanban system was originally developed to realize Toyota’s just-in-time system. This method is intended to improve the efficiency of inventory management. Roughly speaking, there is a merit that we can reduce the waste of stock as much as possible by making only necessary things and delivering them.
Kanban = purchase order slip
Kanban is called a production instruction sheet and it is treated like a delivery slip. The operation of making a car is a division of labor system and there are many processes.
In the Kanban System, you receive “Kanban” from the person in charge of the previous process and process and produce the product.
Deliverables that have been completed are delivered to the downstream along with the kanban. The kanban here acts like a statement of delivery as described above. When you have completed sending your own operation kanbans to the downstream operation, return the kanbans you received from the previous operation to the assignee of the previous operation. This repetition is the basis of the Kanban System.
In this sequence, we can minimize inventory.
This series of methods was later studied and systematized by a professor at MIT, and became widely known as “lean production system”.
Project Management Kanban System
For example, I will explain the Kanban System used in projects such as software development.
Imagine putting a paper balloon on the whiteboard.
Time flows from left to right. The 3 most minimums are [ToDo], [Doing] and [Done].
Write the above three steps on the whiteboard.
Then you write down the tasks you need to complete the project in Sticky Notes.
At first, put all the notes you wrote on [ToDo].
This time, the priority is determined among the sticky notes collected in [ToDo]. Move the high priority message to [Doing] to complete the task. Move to [Done] when you are done.
As you can see, the sequence of tasks completed from left to right is managed as a kanban for a project. The above is the simplest pattern, but it can be customized depending on the project, such as [Approve] flow or [Confirm] flow.
Advantages of the kanban system
The benefit of the Kanban System is “Visualization of the project”. You can see at a glance which tasks are in what state, and if you look at them as a whole, whether they are progressing or stagnating.
Representative tools to make project kanban more efficient
Here are the tools to make the Kanban System of your project more efficient.
Jira
Jira is a project management tool that can be customized to your preferred management style, such as Kanban or Scrum. In Utility, you’ll find articles on Jira (Zira), from basic usage to integration with external services.
Backlog
Backlog, like Jira, is a tool for managing projects. Compared to Jira, it has more various functions. For example, you can use functions such as wiki management and code management in one stop. Backlog is also covered in the following article.
Trello
Trello is a task management tool aimed primarily at individuals and small teams. It doesn’t have the complexity of Jira or Backlog. Trello is also covered in a variety of ways. Below is a summary of related articles.
miro
miro is an online whiteboard tool. This isn’t a project management tool, but it does let you organize your projects by putting sticky notes on your whiteboard. The following entries are provided for your reference:.
At The End
Even if you don’t have a deep understanding of project management “Kanban system”, you can use the Kanban System naturally with the help of various tools, but once you know what it is, you may be able to promote the project with more satisfaction. Ends the entry.