5.1. Kanban Board
Last updated
Last updated
The Kanban board is an essential tool to make the work transparent and is used frequently in Agile processes while being versatile enough to be used in non-Agile processes as well. It is organised in columns which reflect the status of the respective Element. Each Element is represented by a single card that resides in one of the columns. The cards may have a specific order within that column, depending on the requirements of the team (e.g. priority).
In its most basic version, a Kanban board has three columns: “To Do”, “In Progress” and “Done”. Each card would start in the “To Do” column and move to the right across the board. A Kanban board can equally be implemented in analogue form (a whiteboard or flip chart) or digitally in a software tool.
A Kanban board can contain all Elements, from Epics to Tasks, which can get massive, especially when dealing with multiple projects. When using a digital Kanban board, you can have one board (or view) for each type of Element, or filter by Sprint or team member it is assigned to, to make this easier to work with on a daily basis.
In practice, you will start adding more columns to reflect your actual processes more accurately, even if you have a board just for yourself. The board is supposed to show you what is happening and where there are flaws in your process that you can address. Most commonly there will also be a fourth column “Wait” to indicate that an Element is worked on, but the team currently waits for input from somewhere else (e.g. the client, court).
Presenting work and its status visually on the Kanban board can help to identify bottlenecks and process flaws. Issues often become visible when many cards start piling up in a column because they remain there for too long. For example, an indication of a process flaw could be that Elements keep accumulating in the “Wait” Column. Either you have chosen a bad time to work on these Elements or the process is designed in a way that creates bottlenecks that keep blocking your work. In such cases, looking at similarities of the Elements in “Wait” stage can give you hints on where to look for potential improvements. You could also add columns for signifi cant steps, for example, designated statuses that you see very often (e.g. waiting for counterparty, waiting for court). On the other side, if the “To Do” column becomes empty in the middle of the Sprint, it might point to a situation in which you should have prepared more Items earlier so they meet the Definition of Ready and can thus be picked up by the team to be worked on.
As noted earlier, our team at Lawyering & Co. had already decided to visualise their work organisation, currently in the form of grouped Elements in their assistant’s office. Detailing all Elements upfront is one possible option for project management, but in our case, this is not yet possible, which was a core factor in choosing to use Agile methods. To start, our team intentionally describe the known and more generic Epics for the later stages, as they know the proceedings could evolve dynamically and need frequent adjustments. For the later stages, they would specify the details before the start of the respective phase of the process. They are instinctively taking an Agile approach here.
Their visualisation is somewhat static, though; the team is missing the status of their Elements and looking for a better tool. Luckily, Gabriel’s methodology-savvy friend Sara pointed them to one: Kanban, with its extensive use of visual boards. Sara notes that there are many elec- tronic tools to do so, but Alice rejects that option for the moment. She stresses her role as a partner for the fi rm and her responsibility as well as the regulatory requirements: she does not want to introduce electronic tools at this stage. They would first need approval by their firm’s IT team and regulatory clearance before doing so anyway, so it would take too long for their case. They will investigate these later but give Igor a heads up that they will bring up this matter as a small project. Besides avoiding regulatory and technical challenges, this allows them to first get a better understanding of their needs.
Our team will initially just use the whiteboard in the office. All three of them have a look at the material they have and, as to their understanding, they should primarily write down the Items they intend to work on. So that’s what they’ll start with. They feel that this was a missing piece and are happy to know how to address this.
