Kanban Schedule

Quick reference

• 00:01 Hi, I'm Ray Sheen.
• 00:05 Let's talk about a schedule planning tool called a Kanban Schedule.
• 00:11 This tool is a flow perspective for the project, by that I mean a group of items
• 00:16 that all have to go through the same set of tasks or activities on the project.
• 00:21 It's a visual description of how a project deliverable flows through the various
• 00:26 steps of the project, just like the milestone chart has two ways of showing
• 00:30 milestones, I've seen Kanban principle applied in two different formats.
• 00:35 One is a flow board that shows the status of the deliverables and tasks,
• 00:40 supporting those deliverables, based upon the columns in which they're located.
• 00:44 The second is a matrix, normally set up so that all the items or
• 00:48 tasks are listed out one side of the matrix on the rows, and
• 00:52 the types of project activities are listed across the top, creating columns.
• 00:56 Then, the planned date for each item to complete each activity
• 00:59 is inserted in the appropriate cell in the matrix.
• 01:01 The color of the cell in the matrix shows the status.
• 01:05 These schedules create a focus on the item or activities that may be causing delays.
• 01:10 Any delayed or bottlenecked activity will become immediately apparent, and
• 01:14 the project manager and
• 01:15 core team can take the necessary actions to complete that task.
• 01:20 The tool can simplify the overall project planning and tracking.
• 01:24 For adaptive or iterative projects, just list the deliverables or
• 01:28 items in the Kanban manager.
• 01:30 And particularly, if you have a batch of items that must go through the same steps,
• 01:35 show that batch as a summary task and let the Kanban track the details.
• 01:40 Let's take a look at the flow board view of a Kanban schedule.
• 01:44 First, decompose the deliverables into the subtasks that must be completed.
• 01:49 Each of those subtasks is then individually listed so
• 01:51 it can be individually tracked.
• 01:53 Place all the subtasks in the first column, that is the project plan.
• 01:57 Or on an adaptive project like Agile Scrum it could be called
• 02:00 the sprint backlog column.
• 02:02 Once one of the team members actually starts to work on that item,
• 02:06 then move it to the work in progress column.
• 02:09 When that item is finished, move it to the finished column.
• 02:13 As a project leader, watch the work in progress column closely.
• 02:16 If something seems to be stuck there, dig in and find out what's happening.
• 02:20 If there's a problem, move it to the risk column and
• 02:23 put extra tension and resources on it to get it done.
• 02:27 Now let's talk about the Matrix view of a Kanban Schedule.
• 02:31 Start by creating the overall project schedule based on the project requirements
• 02:34 and constraints.
• 02:36 I normally use a Milestone Chart, or a high level Gantt Chart or
• 02:39 Network Diagram for this.
• 02:41 Identify what items follow the same set of activities and can be treated as a batch,
• 02:45 depending upon the nature of your project work,
• 02:47 you may not have anything that fits this criterion.
• 02:49 If that's the case, don't use this view.
• 02:53 List the item in the first column of the matrix and
• 02:55 the activities are the column headings for the remaining columns.
• 02:59 Then place the plannend end date for when an item will finish each of those
• 03:03 activities in the appropriate cell of the matrix.
• 03:06 I don't change the background color for activities that are finished and
• 03:10 I use a different color for those that are late.
• 03:13 In this example, the obvious problem is Module 4 and
• 03:16 it looks like coding is becoming a bottleneck.
• 03:19 I then show the batch as a single summary task on my Network Diagram or
• 03:22 my Gantt Chart.
• 03:24 I keep the details on the matrix to simplify the other scheduling techniques.
• 03:29 There are some hints and tips for using the Kanban scheduling tools.
• 03:33 This approach will save a lot of planning time over other techniques.
• 03:36 I had a product that had approximately 80 parts being purchased for a new product.
• 03:40 For each of those parts we had to create drawings,
• 03:43 find a supplier, qualify the supplier, setup the purchase orders,
• 03:46 conduct a first piece inspection, receive the initial shipment and
• 03:49 then initialize the inventory tracking system as part of this project.
• 03:54 That's 7 steps with over 80 parts and
• 03:57 that was more than 500 tasks but all I had to put into the project management
• 04:02 software program that I was using was 1 summary task.
• 04:05 That was several months long.
• 04:07 And I managed all the details with the Kanban schedule in a simple Excel
• 04:11 spreadsheet.
• 04:12 This technique will highlight when you have an item that has fallen
• 04:15 behind schedule.
• 04:16 The visual cues make it easy to find and focus the team's attention on that item.
• 04:22 This technique also highlights activities that are causing problems.
• 04:27 When you see that, you know that you need to focus on that bottleneck and
• 04:30 manage it closely.
• 04:31 It's easy to calculate a percent complete for the summary task.
• 04:35 In the example I had mentioned earlier, you count the number of items and
• 04:39 activities that are completed and
• 04:40 divide that total by the number of cells in the matrix, 560.
• 04:45 That's the percent complete.
• 04:47 In the flow board, I count the percent of items that are in the done column.
• 04:51 Finally, this tool will keep the project team focused on getting things done.
• 04:55 Asking at each meeting, what has moved to the done column or
• 04:58 which cells can be shaded as complete, emphasizes,
• 05:02 that people need to keep things moving in this project.
• 05:06 The right project management tools are a tremendous help in the project.
• 05:11 If Kanban fits your project then use it.

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