Kanban Boards to Boost Work Visibility

Video Guide: How to Create a Kanban Board at Hygger

The video below explains how to set up a Kanban board in Hygger and how to use project management tools properly.

Main Components of a Kanban Board

In order to understand how a Kanban board works, it is critical to learn what components are used in it so that teams can effectively visualize and manage their workflows.

A typical Kanban board (physical or virtual) should be built on four elements: 

1. Cards with visual signals. A Kanban card should be written efficiently to quickly convey the meaning of the task or item it describes. Its goal is to give a team an at-a-glance understanding of what’s going on.
2. Columns. The board should be structured as a series of vertical columns. Each column should represent a different stage in the workflow. Usually, columns include stages such as “to do”,, ‘in progress’ and “completed.”
3. WIP (work-in-progress) limits. The maximum number of cards teams can add to the Kanban board for a project typically represent work-in-progress limits. It helps keep the board from becoming so cluttered that it loses its benefits.
4. Swimlanes. Horizontal columns that offer a great way to manage a number of similar projects, bringing an overview all in one place are titled Swimlanes. They give a chance to concentrate on just one issue. With their help, you can visualize the work status that supports different service-level classes.

For a more detailed display of the process, you can create as many subsections as you need to visualize your workflow with maximum accuracy.

For example, a development team might have a Kanban task board that has multiple columns and Swimlanes.

Visualize your process on Kanban Board

An online Kanban board is the core visualization tool for implementing Kanban in your business. This is a visual way to plot out projects and workflows using columns and cards. The typical Kanban columns are “To Do”, “In Progress”, and “Done”. Often used within Agile management, these boards help teams to see progress and spot blockers.

Recently Kanban boards have gone beyond the software development and now they are applied to other areas such as IT, marketing, sales, recruitment, etc. Create beautiful online Kanban boards with Hygger!

Categorize Tasks Using Swimlanes and Labels

Swimlanes split a Kanban board horizontally into two or more parts. They are extremely handy large teams that have to visualize not only their work stages but also the different types of tasks that flow through the work process.

Thanks to this feature, your Hygger Kanban board will stay nicely organized, uncluttered with work and will bring more clarity to the workflow. Organize tasks on your boards using Swimlanes or Labels and detect blockers and bottlenecks.

Track Time and view reports

Hygger allows accurately tracking time for quick invoicing and payroll. Track the time of completed tasks and generate summary reports about all team members, project activities and goals to see the teamwork effectiveness and velocity.

Get friendly reports about team performance, costs and budgets, and movement to project goals, as well as API access for full integration with your processes.

Get the balance between Important and Urgent

Use the Eisenhower matrix to correctly prioritize your tasks and filter the important from the urgent. This matrix is also known as an Urgent/Important Matrix.

With its help, you will detect the first-to-do tasks in accordance with its Urgency and Importance. Matrix has 4 quadrants (Do Now, Schedule, Delegate and Eliminate) that are obtained by the crossing axes the “Important – Not important” and ”Urgent-Not Urgent”. The Eisenhower matrix will help you to drive significant results in a shorter time.