Flow.io Project Management

Flow.io - A Different Way To Manage Projects

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Kanban is a system originally developed by Toyota to reduce waste.In case you are not, it is a method that was developed by Toyota in order to maximize efficacy and avoid wasting time in unnecessary details. Generalizing, Kanban can be defined as a “work smarter” approach, as opposed to the “work harder” frame of mind that is prevalent in many enterprises. It is exemplified by favoring minimal upfront planning and just-in-time production.

Now, what would happen if we took that approach and we applied it to a web-based project management tool? What would the resulting application look like? Well, you have the result before your very eyes now. We are talking about an application in which tasks stop being limited just to a “Done” or “Not Done” status and become subjected to many detailed “Work in Progress” statuses. This reduces cycle times and gives everything further focus - tasks now have multiple statuses (each reflecting a phase) that give any process added clarity. And the time that is spent on any phase within the whole process is easily measurable.

There are two free version of Kanban, and two that are available for a monthly fee. The free versions are the ones named “Personal” and “Open-source”, whereas the two paid versions are “Non-profit” and “Commercial”. The names are all self-explanatory, and the main difference between the free and paid plans stem from the number of projects that you can have.

Key Benefits:

• Minimal upfront planning
  Big plans can quickly become obsolete in a constantly changing environment.

• Less need for estimates
  kanban tracks your progress, which is a reliable indicator of your future performance.

• Just-in-time production
  Don't work harder, work smarter. Get advantage of emergent opportunities by limiting work in progress.
  

Comparison:

kanban
Multiple phases
Continuous flow
Work In Progress (WIP) limits bring focus, reduce cycle times
Changes can be made any time
Current cycle time is a reliable indicator of future performance

A to-do list is a simple way to manage a project. On a to-do list, a task is either done or not. In reality, things are rarely that simple. What happens in between is completely missing from the picture.

To-do lists do not have kanban's Work In Progress (WIP) limits. When there is no limit on the number of tasks that can be worked on simultaneously, your team loses focus, and everything gets longer to complete. WIP limits allow you to discover the optimal throughput for your team. With the right WIP limits, you can avoid tasks piling up, and balance demand against your team's capacity.

There is no reliable way to measure the time spent on each task in the absence of kanban's multiple phases and WIP limits. Due-date estimates are also problematic because of the tendency to add "safety buffers". Eventually these buffers add up, and everything gets longer and longer to complete.
Scrum addresses some of the shortcomings of to-do lists. It supports multiple phases, and instills a sense of urgency with its sprint concept, but it falls short in a number of areas.
In Scrum, a number of tasks are chosen for each sprint, and the team makes estimates for each task beforehand. Once a sprint is in progress, no changes are allowed. In reality, that does not work quite well. Since estimates are after all just educated guesses, you have to work extra when you are behind, and you waste time when you are ahead.
There are no WIP limits in Scrum. There is nothing to prevent a team to work on everything simultaneously, leading to many tasks in different states of completion.

kanban solves the problems inherent in to-do lists and Scrum by introducing WIP limits, and eliminating estimates and rigid timeboxes. The result is a smoothly flowing system that is both flexible and robust.

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