Agile Project Management With Kanban Revealed: The Secret To Get Out Of Stress And Overwhelming Work To Finally Become Productive

By Andrew Sammons

Are you looking for a way to improve your project management skills? 

 

Have you been searching for the perfect project management strategy but to no avail?

 

Are you interested in learning how industry leaders have used the Kanban method to revolutionize their latest projects?

 

If you answered yes to any of the above, then this book may be just what you've been looking for.

 

Kanban (or signboard in Japanese) is a scheduling system used in lean and just-in-time (JIT) manufacturing. 

 

The Kanban system focuses on eliminating waste, improving efficiency and maximizing resources while reducing costs all at the same time. 

 

Recognizing the benefits of this system, project managers around the world have started looking at Kanban as an effective project management tool. 

 

With Kanban, you'll be able to equip yourself with the skills to become a master of project management.

 

Apply the concepts of Kanban to master the art of agile project management and prepare yourself and your team for any contingency whilst eliminating unpredictability. 

 

Learn why in 2007, the Robert C. Byrd Institute of Manufacturing had chosen to attribute Toyota's meteoric rise to the successful implementation of Kanban. 

 

In this comprehensive guide, you'll learn how to use Kanban to become a master at agile project management while keeping costs low and work flows smooth.

 

Here's what Agile Project Management With Kanban can teach you:

 

• The SECRET reasons behind why multinational corporations like Pixar, Spotify and Zara have all adopted Kanban (and why you should to).
• The 4 ESSENTIAL principles of Kanban (and how it can benefit you).
• How departments across your business can benefit from Kanban (and 3 techniques to help you drive a positive change).
• Why Kanban is the strategy of CHOICE for project managers worldwide.
• The 4 things you NEED to know in order to successfully implement Kanban.
• Industry SECRETS that teach you how to utilize Kanban to its fullest potential.
• How to complete your repertoire of skills with 3 digital Kanban tools. 
• How Kanban helped Toyota and other companies achieve international SUCCESS (and 5 tips on how you can apply it to your projects).

 

… and so much more!

 

Do you want to unlock the secrets of Kanban and equip yourself with potent project management tools? 

 

Are you still looking to reach the pinnacle of success in agile project management?

 

Become a master of project management and upskill yourself with the secrets of Kanban when you purchase this comprehensive guide to Kanban.

 

If you're ready to take your project management skills to the next level, click "Add to Cart" and open the door to the future.

 

• Language: English
• Publisher: M & M Limitless Online Inc.
• Release date: Jul 28, 2020
• ISBN: 9781393105459

Book preview

What Is Kanban Project Management?

Kanban is a method of managing work that is focused on continuous delivery while at the same time, avoiding overburdening your team. It was first developed and implemented initially by Toyota at their manufacturing plants [4], but it is now being used by people across all industries to plan and manage tasks. Some teams have used Kanban to organize tasks in an exciting way that helps them define new workflows, features, and categories in the ideation process of new products or services.

Kanban relies on the use of a Kanban board to help teams visualize and improve their current and future workflow. Whether physical or digital, its most basic form is defined by three columns; To-Do, In Progress, and Completed. Team members should add their tasks to the board and move them through from left to right as a way to keep track of their performance.

The word Kanban is a Japanese word that translates to Signboard. A board used to state the amount of work available. This points out how the Kanban method profoundly relies on the visual organization of a board to generate a sense of order and promote a team’s understanding of tasks, bottlenecks, and opportunities for improvement.

There are many reasons why companies such as Spotify, Zara, and Pixar use Kanban to help them with their operations.

Maximizing Time And Resources

Kanban helps project managers see both the overall scope of workflows and processes at the same time as the work being performed. It aims to identify bottlenecks to become cost-effective at an optimal speed. Identifying problem areas quickly provides the opportunity to fix them and plan accordingly reducing the waste of resources in time.

Kanban allows companies to offer their products or services sooner while swiftly modifying them to satisfy unforeseen market conditions which provide the potential to grow faster [5]. It encourages collaboration with clients thanks to the necessity of getting their feedback to complete a task. This enables closer bonds with clients, which will ultimately result in referrals and repeat business.

Kanban Is Good For Team Building

Each team member becomes aware of not only his role in the workflow, but also that of others by continually reviewing the Kanban board and understanding others’ tasks are dependent on his own. Kanban promotes constant communication and feedback among team members to be able to achieve the goals that have been set while making sure nobody is overwhelmed with work.

Team Benefits Of Using Kanban

Some of the most significant benefits Kanban adds to project management is how it stresses the importance of having a solid human perspective beyond the process. It entices organizations to reap the full benefits of Kanban by promoting teams, project managers, and team members to internalize certain behaviors. Avoiding multitasking, limiting work in progress, and inviting workers to solve issues as teams, are the types of actions that allow organizations to culminate their projects successfully.

The pull don’t push system helps control the flow of work by allocating only the necessary resources to the available demands; this means you get to avoid wasting or overusing them. One of this framework’s main goals is resource efficiency since it is pulled along the pipeline only as it is required. Kanban cards work as a signaling system that enables you to control the flow of resources visually.

Kanban Essential Principles

At first glance, Kanban might seem complicated. However, its main principles are clear and easy to understand. Let’s take a look at those core concepts that Kanban was built upon.

Principle 1: Visualize Your Workflow

Since its inception in the manufacturing industry and subsequent introduction into the software development landscape, Kanban was meant to be visually appealing so you could use it to map out your process and workflow. Proper visualization allows us to identify opportunities for improvement while also remaining a practical resource to communicate the state of projects, operations, and inventory.

Principle 2: Limit Work In Progress (WIP)

Kanban’s general goal is also to let you manage every bit of work from beginning to end by moving it through stages with as little friction and waste as possible. This means you will be required to limit the amount of work in your pipeline to something reasonable to achieve in a specific time frame. Kanban's approach helps balance the input and output of work so teams do not commit to too much work as it is never pushed forward but pulled, avoiding bottlenecks.

Principle 3: Focus On Flow

If the principles are appropriately set in place, workflows seem to run smoothly and freely; therefore, any interruption to that flow becomes a top priority. A stop of that work will give you an excellent opportunity to revise your workflow and find new ways to improve your processes. Additionally, if a task has been completed successfully, you then need to pull the next most important thing right into play.

Principle 4: Continuous Improvement

Kanban promotes a never-ending cycle of learning, improvement, and collaboration while at the same time encouraging constant monitoring and analysis that aims at finding opportunities to improve. As circumstances, conditions, and requirements change over time; you too should be assessing your workflow to alleviate friction or remove blockers.

Kanban In Your Daily Life

Kanban is more than a project management methodology; it is a way of thinking about organization and planning for business and regular life chores. A personal Kanban board can help you manage everyday projects with the same benefits it offers to corporate projects.

For some strange reason, multitasking is praised in our current day, even though there is enough evidence to suggest that it takes a toll on your brain [6]. We all have that tendency to overestimate our capacity and how much we can achieve during short periods. By limiting yourself with work in progress limits (WIP), you have a better chance of achieving your goals.

Different solutions have been proposed to help you complete larger than life To-Do lists, but Kanban is by far the most effective. One of the reasons is that it helps us overcome that feeling of having too many things to do.

Just like a regular Kanban board for