About the Kanban method

What is the Kanban method?

The Kanban method was created in the 1950s by Toyota Automotive employee, Taiichi Ohno, as a simple planning system to optimize production stages in an effort to keep up with American manufacturing (the gold standard at the time). However, it wasn’t until 2004 that David J. Anderson used the concept and applied it to IT and software. Now Kanban is a popular method of lean workflow management valued for its real time visualization of work capacity, and full transparency of the work being done.

When to use the Kanban method

The Kanban method follows a set of lean principles and practices for managing and improving workflow. Follow them and you will successfully be able to use Kanban to optimize processes, improve flow, and increase value to the end user. Teams use Kanban not only to closely monitor the progress of all work, but it’s a powerful way to display work to yourself and cross-functional partners so that the behind-the-scenes nature of software becomes visible.

Benefits of using the Kanban method

Based on the principles of just-in-time manufacturing, Kanban helps your team reduce waste and other issues, and collaborate on fixing them together. The beauty (and power) of the Kanban method is that it’s a visual way to gradually improve an organization's processes and therefore can be used by anyone across any function.

Create your own Kanban board

Making your own Kanban board is easy with Miro’s ready-to-use template, the perfect canvas to create and share. Get started by selecting the Kanban template, then take the following steps to customize it according to the needs of your organization.

1. Open this Kanban Template to make one of your own.

2. Customize your Kanban. You can label rows and columns according to your needs. David Anderson’s original method established that Kanban boards can be broken down into: visual signals, columns, work-in-progress limits, a commitment point, and a delivery point. But many also label using: backlog, in progress, and done.

3. Add task cards. Cards open up to allow you to add details, tags, or assign an owner. Ask your team to write all backlog projects or in-progress projects as singular notes in the appropriate column. Make sure you add columns as needed, to customize your workflow.

4. Get to work! As steps are completed make sure you move each piece through your workflow so you can see your work pipeline from beginning to end.perse things like sticky notes, images, or emojis.