Best Kanban Tools to Use

Elena Humeniuk

PPM Consultant

Using Kanban software can increase transparency in the workplace and encourage cooperation and collaboration among employees and team members. Additional features like tracking, limiting the work in progress, and reporting, among others, promote continuous process improvement. As a result, introducing a Kanban tool to your team enables your business to gain several advantages.

What is Kanban?

Kanban is a visual approach that makes it simple to manage work, especially if it is process-based. More specifically, it offers visualization of a specific workflow.

Kanban, a lean software development methodology, aids in the management of product development by concentrating on the timely delivery of functionality and monitoring work-in-progress.

In this regard, using Kanban project management software solutions is the best approach to visualize, arrange, and manage work. You can quickly:

• Eliminate wasteful operations
• Automate your business processes,
• Develop projections based on past data
• Concentrate on tasks that genuinely benefit your clients

What is Kanban Board?

Using actual boards is a great way to get started with Kanban and gain hands-on experience with the method. However, digital solutions provide a much more practical and efficient approach in the long term due to their numerous functional in-built capabilities. Create a digital Kanban Board to represent your processes. This board can be easily presentable and helps improve your capacity to control the various stages of a project.

Considerations while choosing the right Kanban tool

Consider the following criteria when selecting the best Kanban software solution to suit your organization’s unique needs.

• Capability to visualize your workflow in a clear way
• Flexibility and customization
• Visualization of different work types, deadlines, and dependencies
• Customizable layouts and display reports with critical flow and performance metrics
• Analytics capabilities

Knowing what Kanban is and how such tools may improve your workflow and boost your team’s productivity is a huge step forward.

We’ve compiled a list of the best Kanban tools to consider when looking for the best one.

Trello

Trello is well-known for its ease of use. New users can get up and running in minutes and grasp its capabilities relatively quickly. The solution can be organized and modified to meet team needs and workflow. One of its most appealing features is its compatibility with more than 100 other digital services. Individuals or small teams will find Trello’s Kanban features quite useful. A few of its critical capabilities include:

• Kanban boards
• Activity logs
• Built-in automation
• Dashboard, Timeline view
• Workspace, Calendar view
• Single board guests
• Google Apps sign-on

Office 365 Planner

A more flexible Microsoft Kanban tool for personal use or small teams is Office 365 Planner. It simply provides the Kanban board, which gives teams more freedom to organize and monitor their activities. To increase usability, task cards come with files, comments, and subtasks. They can also be estimated to see how long they should take. Teams can use the dashboard to monitor progress, and the calendar view comes in handy for planning.

Microsoft Planner is a good choice for people who already have Office 365 business plans and need simple visualization. It allows a small group of coworkers to track modest, straightforward projects. Other choices on this list might be better if you search for a full-fledged Kanban solution.

Monday.com

Monday.com is a Kanban tool for work automation. You can add additional rows to categorize tasks by priority, status, and other criteria. It provides a straightforward Kanban task board that can be customized with multiple sections for anyone who wants to see the task list. You can visualize by status, priority, or assignment.

The platform is a work automation service that offers Monday.com Kanban board view as an add-on function. You can only see tasks organized on a board. Therefore, this solution is ideal when you are getting yourself familiar with Kanban.

Critical features of Monday.com include:

• Task, resource, and document management
• Gantt charts available
• Workflow automation options
• Timesheet tracking
• Team collaboration ability
• Support of agile methodology

Asana

Asana is a flexible project management software for managing workflow and tasks. On an Asana Kanban board, you can adjust your workflow based on your team’s unique requirements and keep track of the most critical tasks. Additionally, you can define task dependencies, and your team can observe real-time modifications. Asana also connects with several useful online apps. Its key features include:

• Activity feed
• Automatic updates to email/inbox
• Create custom calendars and views
• Project Sections and Search Views
• My Tasks list and Focus Mode
• Track tasks and add followers
• Ability to see team members’ tasks and priorities

Conclusion

Kanban software solutions could help you apply the Kanban method in a whole new way and develop it further. Digital Kanban tools can bring the following benefits to your organization:

• Accessible from everywhere
• Immediate project and task status updates
• Suitable for remote teams
• Connect planning to execution
• Track work across multiple teams
• Collect and measure workflow data
• Share attachments

Performing tasks without proper planning is an unnecessary productivity gamble. We recommend using a Kanban-based project management tool to manage and organize projects. Whether you select a standalone Kanban tool or one with broader project management capabilities, you can be confident that applying this system to your strategy will empower your team and simplify your lives.