Everything you need to know about Kanban

Kanban was introduced as a system to help Toyota manage their supply chain and inventory in the 1940s. The idea was essentially based on how supermarkets function. Supermarkets stock their shelves based on what, how much and when their customers want an item. Taking this customers’ needs-based approach to factories helped improve manufacturing efficiency at Toyota.

Technology enthusiasts and project managers saw how this simple system can empower teams to deal with changes in priorities and requirements. And now, Kanban is a framework of choice in many agile software development projects. It emphasizes on team collaboration and self-management.

My sketch-note below explains the what, why, when and how-to of Kanban, in brief. Although there are abundant articles online, my aim here is to condense the information into a single page that delivers the essense of what Kanban is all about.

One thing to remember is that Kanban is just one of the tools that helps teams implement agile methodogy. To maximize your team’s efficiency, customize and configure Kanban to suit your workflow and process. The focus here is on limiting the work in progress and finishing things quicker, before taking up the next piece of work.

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