When you’re handling complex, multi-step projects, organization and prioritization can become a problem. As a project manager, it’s often easy to lose visibility of who’s working on what, and what’s being accomplished. On the flip side, as an employee, it can be difficult to prioritize and take ownership of your tasks. These issues lead to miscommunication, loss of productivity, and ultimately—project chaos.
We’ve found that office workers are 20% more productive when their work is visually displayed. 1
The Japanese card system—Kanban—visually represents workflow as it moves along a chart. This method brings clarity and visibility to projects to help team members reach their full potential and stay on track.
Kanban boards help teams:
- Clarify the plan and connect it to everyday tasks
- Self-organize, promoting ownership of tasks
- Increase transparency of work in progress
- Manage team workload
Kanban boards in Projectplace
There’s an unlimited number of ways to utilize Kanban boards. You can customize a board to fit your needs and make it your own. As a bonus, Kanban boards sync with the Gantt chart, connecting tasks to milestones and plans.
Use Cases
Kanban boards are versatile. Here are a few examples of ways Kanban boards can be utilized in different departments. I’ve included sample boards for Public Relations, Human Resources, and Marketing departments to give you an idea of the wide usability of the feature. This might inspire some ideas of how the ProjectPlace Kanban boards can help you and your team get work done.
Public Relations – Media Pitching
Here’s an example of a media pitching board for a PR department.
This team has created five columns representing the stages of the campaign (requests, in progress/drafting, in review, active/final, and complete/tracking). The team has added cards representing the tasks that need to be completed to reach their goals. These cards can then be dragged and dropped to move them along the stages of the campaign. The individual task cards have been assigned to team members to ensure ownership of tasks and accountability.
Human Resources – Recruiting
Here’s an example of a recruiting board for an HR department.
The HR department has many initiatives to execute. Luckily, this Kanban board has helped the team make sense of the chaos. The HR department has created several columns representing the stages of the recruiting process. They have created cards for each prospect, color coded for the department prospects are applying to (marketing, development, sales, etc.) The team can now easily move prospects along the process and have a clear and organized overview of all recruiting activities.
Marketing – Product Release
Here’s an example of product release planning board for a Marketing department.
This team created three columns representing the stages of workflow for their product release (planned, working on, and done). They also created activities (videos, content development, communications, and websites) and added cards representing the tasks that need to be completed. These cards can then be dragged and dropped to move along the stages of the project. The individual task cards have been assigned to team members to ensure ownership of tasks and accountability. The result is one common plan and space for communication between team members. The launch manager can transparently see who is working on what, and the overall status of the project. This will ensure the launch manager is able to meet the launch target and stay on track.
These are just a few examples of how ProjectPlace Kanban boards can help teams across the organization to get work done.
For a more in-depth-look into how to create boards, visit our success center for a how-to guide: https://success.planview.com/Projectplace/Execution_and_follow-up/Work_with_boards
Get creative and make your own board!
Interested in taking part in our Get Sh*t Done contest and winning a free t-shirt? Sign up for a free trial here: https://info.planview.com/free-trial-pp-rr-gsd-blog-2017-08-_special-offer_cwm_en_reg.html
I’d like to hear from you. How are you currently managing the workflow and visibility of team projects? Share by leaving a comment below.
1 “How to Become Agile Using Kanban.” N.p., n.d. Web. 2016.
Content Contributor: Maura Melis
