In keeping with our previous blog posts “Waterfall Methodology: Your Bespoke Development Project” and “Scrum: Your Bespoke Development Project”, today, we’re helping you understand the timeline and key milestones during your Kanban project.
Using the Kanban framework for your bespoke development project offers a flexible and visual approach to managing work. The aim is to limit work in progress and improve throughout and flow.
Kanban is particularly useful for teams that need to manage a continuous flow of work and want to improve their efficiency and responsiveness. This framework is also well-suited for projects where priorities can change frequently, and it allows for rapid response to new requirements.
To find out more about the Kanban framework, head to our blog “Using Kanban for Agile Development Success”.
Here’s how the timeline might look:
1. Initial Consultation and Requirement Gathering
As with the Waterfall methodology and Scrum framework, we start with an initial consultation to understand your vision, goals, and requirements. This phase sets the foundation for the project.
2. Setting Up the Kanban Board
We set up a Kanban board, which is a visual tool to help manage the workflow. The board typically has columns such as “To Do”, “Refined”, “Doing”, “Ready for Testing”, “Testing”, “Done”, “Deployed”.. Each task or feature is represented by a card that moves across the board as work progresses.
3. Continuous Workflow
- Prioritisation: The Product Owner prioritises tasks in the “To Do” column based on your business needs.
- Development Work: Team members pick-up tasks from the “To Do” column and move them to “Doing” when they are ready to start work. This ensures that work is only started when the team has capacity.
- Work in Progress (WIP) Limits: We set limits on the number of tasks that can be in each column to prevent bottlenecks and ensure a smooth flow of work.
- Daily Stand-ups: We hold short daily meetings with the development team to discuss progress, challenges, and plans for the day.
- Testing and Quality Assurance: Testing is integrated into the workflow. As tasks move to the “Ready for Testing” column, the team tests the features and functionality to maintain throughput and a continuous flow of work.
5. Deployment and Release (Ongoing)
With Kanban, deployments can happen continuously or at regular intervals, depending on your requirements. Once tasks are in the “Done” column and meet the release criteria, they can be deployed to the live environment. Ideally, we’ll carry out frequent, small releases so you see the product evolving and quickly benefit from the new features and functionality.
6. Post-Launch Support and Maintenance (Ongoing)
Once the project is complete, you may need ongoing support, including regular updates, bug fixes, and performance monitoring.
Conclusion
Kanban offers a flexible and visual approach to managing your bespoke development project. By focusing on continuous delivery and visualising the workflow, Kanban ensures that work progresses smoothly and efficiently.
Our goal is to deliver a high-quality, tailored solution that meets your unique needs and helps your business thrive. If you have any specific questions about how Kanban might work for your project, feel free to ask!
