Kanban software is a concept strangely developed at Toyota’s Japanese manufacturing facilities. The platform is a system that has turned the project management world upside down. Kanban can be defined as a system commonly used by agile teams to track software development work. In addition, Kanban ensures that everyone on the team stays on the same page. So, what are the benefits your business will get from using the software! Let’s discuss more!
What is Kanban Project Management Software?
Kanban project management software turns out to be the best way to help in balancing the work a team needs to do. Additionally, your team members will be able to work with the available capacity of each team member. The framework of Kanban software is based on the philosophy of continuous improvement. With Kanban, the work items are “pulled” from the product backlog into a stable workflow.
The framework then will be applied through the Kanban board. What is the Kanban board anyway? This board is a form of visual project management. With the board, your team members will be able to better visualize workloads and workflows.
In addition, on the Kanban board, you will see how the work is displayed on a project board organized by columns. Usually, each column represents a work phase. The simplest Kanban board has columns such as:
- To Do
- In Progress
- Done
Meanwhile, the individual tasks will be represented as visual cards on the board and move columns until the task is complete.
The Main Benefits of Using Kanban Software
When you decide to use the best Kanban software, you will surely get benefits. Below are some of the main benefits many businesses and teams have been getting from the software.
Helps to Ensure Everyone Is On the Same Page
When you use the Kanban software and the card is tilted to the left, you will be able to see the current status of your project. This is basically an early stage in your project and you are not working as hard as you are. It may indicate that it is not as effective as it should be. Or else, it is distorted to the right (it will be nearing the end of the project, or you need to add more work to your pipeline).
The process will eventually allow developers and administrators to always see what is exactly happening. Most importantly, you will be able to ask questions if the board doesn’t look perfectly correct.
Supports to Keep the Workload Even
In a team environment, we know that everyone needs to share their efforts equally. Kanban software helps to assign the works evenly. This way, it will be easy to see if the workload is relatively even.
With the best Kanban software, the advanced developers may be assigned more tasks (or larger or more complex tasks). On the other hand, the junior developers will still have fewer tasks on average because they can’t complete the tasks quickly.
Allows You to See the Stage Where the Residue is Formed
The Kanban project management software makes it easy to see if cards are stacked in a row. In fact, you will be able to do this without having to move the cards to the next row. Then, you will be able to take a closer look at why this is happening.
- Is the task too big and taking too long (you may need to divide the task into smaller parts)?
- Do some team members not lose their weight or have other problems that prevent them from achieving what they need to achieve (maybe chat time)?
- Don’t people remember assigning tasks to someone else (with built-in soft reminders or automation)?
Allows Task Assignment Quickly
The intuitive board from Kanban software makes it easy to assign each card to a specific person and reassign it as needed. You will also be able to add items such as:
- Due dates
- Links
- Attachments
- Information
- Tags
Kanban boards can be very simple or complex as needed. Yet, for teamwork, you will see the ability to quickly assign tasks (cards) to real people is excellent.
Helps to Strengthen Accountability for Team Members
The Kanban board comes with a high degree of visibility for all team members. This way, all the team members can be more responsible. How? Because they will know that everyone else can see their progress and tasks at a glance.
This can eventually encourage team members to complete their chores on time. We know that poorly performing team members can stress them. Therefore, it is very compulsory to deal with the situation with diplomacy and sensitivity.
Empowers Team Members to Quickly Generate Ideas at Any Time
With Kanban project management software, you and your team members can come up with all the ideas. Then, you can simply put them in the idea column. That way, other team members will be able to review it or come back later before releasing it for development purposes.
Gives the Sense of reward When Moving the Card All Over
Moving a map along the board is just similar to checking a task on a to-do list. This action will give the person completing the task a sense of small rewards. In other words, it will be like a small burst of energy or sparks.
Well, even though this may not be the biggest attraction of Kanban, this will be a great addition to the system. There are many tools to help teams implement the best Kanban software.
For example, it may be a bulletin board with a post-it. Or else, it can be a bulletin board drawn on the whiteboard of the team room. If you need more complex Kanban boards for software development, you can even create a Kanban board in Jira or by using a dedicated Kanban app such as Trello.
How Much Does Kanban Software Cost?
Last but not least. Before deciding to implement the software, surely you wish to know about Kanban cost. The Kanban pricing plans are quite simple.
- The Free Plan – Offers 2 boards, 2 users are free with no attachments
- The Team Plan – $5 per user monthly
- The Enterprise Plan – Get it by paying $9 per user monthly
Wrapping Up
Indeed, Kanban software can be the best way to help in balancing the work a team needs to do. Interested to try the platform? You can try out its free plan!
