Imagine what your day would be like if you could offer all your internal customers – HR, sales, software development, support – a single tool to meet their needs in project management. No more need for a multitude of tools for each department and no more surprises when it comes to asking your CEO for your budget. Kanban is a powerful visual dashboard tool that can be used by all departments in your organization to manage their work. In this article, we share practical use cases that will help understand how the Kanban tool can help solve many issues.

4 Kanban core principles

We would like to start this article with important reminders about the Kanban approach.
The Kanban board is an agile project management tool that helps teams plan, track and improve their activities and workflow, while better managing their time. Kanban is based on fundamental principles that aim to track the progress of tasks to facilitate project management.

Kanban tasks

1. Visualize the flow

kaban work progress

2. Limit the Work in Progress (WIP)

kanban tasks time tracking

3. Focus and Flow

kanban teams

4. Continuous Improvement

Kanban tasksThe basic principle of Kanban is to visualize the work in progress using the Kanban board tool. The work is divided into small activities for the team, and the tasks to be accomplished are represented by cards that are placed in columns. These columns represent the status of the task: to do, in progress, completed etc.. Depending on its status, the task is then moved into the different columns in a pull approach, i.e. from left to right. This allows teams to see the progress of the work at a glance and to follow the progress of the project in real time.

kaban work progressAnother important principle of Kanban is to limit work in progress. The team should not have too many tasks in progress, which reduces waiting time between tasks and improves work efficiency. In addition, seeing the tasks progress on the boards is a rewarding system for your teams.

kanban tasks time trackingTime being one of the other key elements of this agile tool, the Kanban board gives the possibility to note for each task, an estimation of the time it will take to complete. This feature allows team members to better plan their work and anticipate possible delays.

kanban teamsBy promoting continuous improvement into the DNA of Kanban, an emphasis is placed on the team striving to get incrementally better driving toward a goal of near perfection. The best ideas often come from the teammates closest to the day to day work. Having the team constantly on the lookout for ways to improve processes and create a quality product, including regular touchpoints (sprint, review meetings) allows the team to make small, incremental improvements.


7 challenges solved with Kanban

  1. Lack of organization: with the Kanban tool, keep all your work in one place, in the tables.
  2. Lack of global vision: Kanban is a powerful management tool that allows you to visualize all the work and therefore the global progress of a project.
  3. Bottlenecks: Kanban divides work into smaller tasks. This streamlines the work flow.
  4. Multitasking: Kanban imposes a limit to the work in progress. The goal is to finish tasks before starting new ones.
  5. Missed deadlines: with Kanban, you can lassify and prioritize work based on due dates.
  6. Productivity: monitor the pace of the flow with help boards. You can better evaluate and make adjustments.
  7. Adaptable method: the Kanban approach can be adapted to what you consider to be your ideal workflow.

Kanban tool examples

Now let’s dive into pratical examples. As you understood, the Kanban board is an effective tool for teams looking to improve quickly their process. Tuleap provides a powerful and easy-to-use Kanban tool. Tuleap Kanban helps split work into small stages and focus on what is most urgent. Teams get to the finish line faster, whatever their project. We encourage people to deploy the Kanban approach as it is simple and easy to start with.

Kanban is an effective tool for managing any type of activities, and offers many benefits to an organization. It is a visual approach to project management that uses Kanban boards to help teams track the progress of their work. Tuleap Kanban boards are customizable to fit the needs of any of your project. They allow teams to manage their workflow, identify bottlenecks and prioritize tasks according to project priorities.

Below, some practical use cases of Kanban board. They are just examples, feel free to totally adapt them to your context and real needs.


Kanban tool for Software Development : track work progress

Kanban tool example for Software Development

Kanban is a widely used tool for software development teams. The Kanban approach differs from other project management methodologies in that it doesn’t use time-bound iterations.
Kanban for software development helps team members stay on track and ensure that everyone is on the same page regarding the project’s progress. In addition, Kanban provides the ability to effectively track the time spent on different tasks. This feature is very useful for software development management, as it allows teams to identify areas where they are spending too much time and make adjustments to improve their productivity.
The column names indicate the different states of the software development workflow. Visualization of this activity flow helps to understand how the tasks and the progress of the work are proceeding. The work in progress limit – the maximum number of work in progress (WIP) – is very useful. It highlights areas where you need to help team members avoid bottlenecks, in order to complete the project and deliver the software.


Kanban for HelpDesk : build an efficient customer service

Kanban board example for helpdesk

Kanban boards are widely used in support and helpdesk activities. They allow you to help your customers more efficiently, stay organized and provide them with the necessary assistance. Guarantee, response time tracking and quality of support are key success factors for any service team. Tuleap’s Kanban tool can help you stay organized by managing incoming customer feedback. You can share virtual Kanban boards with other problem solvers. With Tuleap’s options, you can specify which fields to display on the boards to provide responsive support.


Kanban for Human Ressources: keep track of job candidates

Kanban tool example for HR

Tuleap’s Kanban boards can also be successfully implemented in a human resources department. Here are some examples of how Kanban boards can be used in Human Resources:

  • Visualize recruitment flow: a Kanban board can be used to track recruitment processes and steps, making it easier to manage applications.
  • Training planning: HR can use these Kanban tools to manage and track employees in their training process.
  • Leave and absence management: before reporting this information in the company’s software, the Kaban tool can be used to track leave requests, absences etc.

Kanban tool for Business: monitor sales pipeline

Businesses can use Tuleap Kanban to streamline their sales cycle. A Kanban Board can be set up as a contact management system to track and record every step of the sales process for each potential customer, from first contact to final contract. This will help business developers visualize their sales pipeline, from lead generation to closing deals. By organizing leads into different stages, sales teams can prioritize them based on factors such as deal size, likelihood of closing, or the customer’s needs. This ensures that the most promising leads receive the necessary attention.

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In few words…

One of the best features of Kanban is its ability to improve collaboration and communication within the team. Indeed, Kanban boards allow team members to quickly know who is working on which task and what is its progress.
Overall, Kanban is a tool that can benefit all departments in the company by helping them manage their projects. Its customizable Kanban boards, collaborative features and time tracking capabilities make it an ideal choice for any team looking to improve their workflow and progress.

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