Finding a tool for any group of people can be tough. There are different needs, preferences and requirements we all have and making sure everyone on the team is happy or at least willing to use the chosen solution may be a tall order. So what happens if you are tasked with finding the next tool to rule them all? Well, to put it shortly, you should choose Eylean. It is simple, visual and packed…
Running projects can be a bit of a headache. That’s why having not only the knowledge and experience, but also the right project management tools has become very important.This is the case for many management methods and Kanban is no exception. While there are many Kanban solutions on the market, this blog represents a specific one – Eylean Board. And in case you haven’t tried it yet, I want to take some time and tell…
Written by: Sreeram Sreenivasan IT operations are constantly interrupted by unexpected issues that need immediate attention. This can keep your team from meeting deadlines for their planned project work. It can lead to mounting technical debt which only adds more pressure. Eventually, it creates an environment that is not conducive to retain talented employees. In fact, organizations lose 20 to 30 percent in revenue every year due to inefficiencies. To strike a balance between planned…
Finding out about and covering various Kanban approaches is always very interesting – we want to stay on top of innovation that you are creating in the market. So when a creator of the Arrow Kanban board, Tomas Rybing, reached out to us with his new invention, we were both eager and excited to check it out. This time, he presented the Volcano – another interesting take on the traditional Kanban board.
According to Tomas, the Volcano was born out of the bugging need to combine multiple teams and multiple projects into one space. Unfortunately, the traditional Kanban board layout was not ideal for such a situation as everything ended up being mixed up and hard to separate. To achieve a clearer and more comfortable Kanban setting, he decided to separate the board into specific sections – one dedicated for the multiple product backlog and one section for each team involved in the project. This separation allowed to plan and prioritize the work globally, while at the same keeping the process of each team away from each other.
A few weeks ago we gathered up the top 5 most interesting scrum boards, unveiling the creativity and innovation in scrum. This time we decided to take another popular agile method – Kanban and see how the teams behind this approach have modified and improved their boards to make them more productive or even more fun.
The Space Saver
The issue of available space in the office is well known for most agile teams. While some dedicate their whole office or utilize the office halls, Olivier Lafontan offers a much simpler solution – turning the board into a square. Instead of moving tasks the traditional way from the left to the right column, he suggests moving them clockwise. A simply rearranged Kanban board is much more compact and will save a lot of headaches when starting to use the method.
We all know about the basic kanban board, the three columns and the WIPs, however, when you have been using kanban for a while, this is usually not enough anymore. At this point most of the teams chose to innovate themselves or start looking for the innovation elsewhere. However, with such little information available, they are truly grabbing on straws. That is why, we were extremely interested in and are excited to introduce to you the arrow approach for the kanban board by Tomas Rybing.
The arrow approach is aimed at transforming one of the key elements of the practice – the kanban board. It strives to optimize and improve the board, by introducing new elements and expanding its capacities. The main differences here are the priority pyramid and limits for the number of rows as well as stories per row. Even though it may sound complicated at first, it is actually quite straightforward and not only innovates the board, but brings it a whole new shape of an arrow as seen in the picture below.
This week, we continue with the Eylean how-to series by taking a closer look into how your Kanban projects should be created or moved into Eylean. Starting with a new software or a new way of managing your daily tasks can be overwhelming sometimes, therefore we will give you some pointers to make the transition as smooth as possible. However as we always point out, these are only guidelines for when you first start and you should feel encouraged to experiment and to use Eylean in a way that best suits your process and your needs.
First up, you will need to create your board. We in Eylean like to give you choices therefore you are able to copy your existing Kanban board or to use a prepared template to start anew. If you want to have a replica of your existing board, simply enter all the specifics in the settings tab – you will create an exact match. However, if you are new to Kanban or wish to start fresh, you can use the provided template Kanban board that has the basic columns all set. One important thing to remember is that you can adjust and modify your boards at any time, especially if you feel that they do not fit your requirements anymore.
In the previous blog posts we discussed the team members, roles, work routines, planning, estimation, scope, and other aspects of Scrum, Kanban, and Scrumban. There are a few other differences between the methodologies, which do not necessarily fall into one of the categories above. In this blog post we review the boards used in each case, prioritization, rules – and, most importantly – who should use which methodology. Boards The Scrum task board is defined…
