Kanban

5 minutes 5 Questions

Kanban is a visual system used in Agile project management as a way to manage work by balancing the volume of work with the team's capacity. Work items are visualized using cards on a kanban board, allowing team members to see the status of every piece of work at any time. The key principle behind …

Guide: Understanding and Examining Kanban

Kanban is a framework used in Agile project management, originated from Toyota's manufacturing system.

Why is it important?
Kanban visualizes work, limit work-in-progress and helps teams manage flow of tasks effectively. By clearly visualizing bottlenecks, teams can address and mitigate them leading to improved efficiency.

What is it?
It's a visual workflow management tool that shows what and how much work is to be done and in what order based on the resources availability. It uses a board and cards to represent work items and workflows.

How does it work?
Work items are represented as cards. The board is divided into different columns representing different stages of the processes. Cards are moved from left to right indicating progress, through stages such as: To Do, In Progress and Done.

Exam Tips: Answering Questions on Kanban
1. Understand the principles and practices of Kanban deeply.
2. Illustrate your answers with real-world examples.
3. Be clear about different components such as board, card, columns and their significance in the workflow.
4. Be able to differentiate Kanban from other Agile methodologies like Scrum.
5. Focus on its advantages like task visualization, workflow management, limiting work in progress, improving team collaboration etc.
6. Explain how it helps in continuous delivery and improving overall productivity.
7. Finally, be precise and clear in your explanations.

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CAPM - Kanban Example Questions

Test your knowledge of Kanban

Question 1

Upon joining a new project, you notice that the team often jumps between tasks, impacting productivity. How should you remedy this situation using Kanban?

Increase the number of tasks assigned Limit Work In Progress (WIP) Encourage multi-tasking Dissolve the team and create a new one

Correct Answer: Limit Work In Progress (WIP)

The best practice in a Kanban system to tackle the issue of the team often jumping between tasks is to 'Limit Work In Progress (WIP)'. This method is about limiting the number of tasks that are being worked on at any one time. This can increase focus, reduce task-switching overhead, and make blockers and dependencies more immediately obvious. Therefore, this will enhance productivity.

As for the other choices, 'Increase the number of tasks assigned' will further worsen the situation, making it even harder to focus and complete tasks. 'Encourage multi-tasking' is also a poor solution as multi-tasking has been proven to be less productive due to task-switching overhead. 'Dissolve the team and create a new one' should only be considered in severe situations and even then, it doesn't directly address the root cause of the issue which is jumping between tasks.

Question 2

You notice that your team’s Kanban board is getting cluttered with sticky notes and small, hard-to-read handwritten information. You're concerned that important details might be overlooked or misunderstood. As a Professional Scrum Master I, what would you do?

Organize a workshop to collectively review and improve the layout and information density of the Kanban board, ensuring it meets the team's needs. Create a sub-committee within the team that is responsible for the upkeep and clarity of the Kanban board, requiring weekly updates. Mandate the use of specific colored sticky notes for different types of tasks to subtly force categorization without discussing board clutter. Introduce a policy requiring all tasks to be logged and tracked through an email chain instead of the Kanban board to ensure clarity.

Correct Answer: Organize a workshop to collectively review and improve the layout and information density of the Kanban board, ensuring it meets the team's needs.

The correct answer focuses on collaboratively improving the Kanban board's usefulness and readability, which is in line with Scrum and Agile principles of self-organizing teams and continuous improvement. The wrong answers, although related to managing tasks or improving communication, either devolve responsibility away from the team (email chains), create unnecessary bureaucracy (sub-committee), or address the symptom rather than the cause without team engagement (color-coding).

Question 3

As a project manager, you notice one of your teams is not pulling tasks as they should but pushing tasks regardless of the group's capacity. What Kanban principle could correct this issue?

Increase the team's workload Implement a pull system Ignore the issue as it will resolve by itself Implement a push system

Correct Answer: Implement a pull system

The best response to the scenario provided is 'Implement a pull system'. The issue identified in the question is a characteristic of a push system wherein tasks are being forced onto the team without considering their capacity. The Kanban methodology emphasizes on a pull system which is about the team picking tasks based on its capacity, hence preventing overburdening. This will likely solve the issue. The option 'Increase the team's workload' is incorrect because increasing workload will only exacerbate the problem as the team is already unable to manage their tasks effectively. 'Implement a push system' is also wrong as the problem in the scenario is actually caused by a push system 'Ignore the issue as it will resolve by itself' is not a feasible solution in project management. Issues rarely resolve themselves without intervention or change in processes.

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