For Agile software teams, effective collaboration and communication are essential to delivering working software iteratively. Tracking the status of user stories and development tasks can become challenging as complexity increases across sprints. Kanban boards for Agile Development have become a popular visual system for managing work item workflows and providing transparency into team progress.
In this quick post, I will explain what Kanban boards are, why they are an effective tool for Agile teams, and how to maximize their use during sprints.
Kanban Boards for Agile Development
Using Kanban boards for Agile Development provide a visual way to track the progress of work items during a sprint. The board is divided into columns that represent the workflow states – commonly “To Do”, “In Progress”, “In Testing”, and “Done”.
Each user story or task is written on a separate card or sticky note. The stories start out in the “To Do” column at the beginning of the sprint. When a team member starts work on a story, they move its card to the “In Progress” column. This makes it easy to see what is being actively worked on.
Once development is complete, the story card goes to the “In Testing” column. This signals to the testers that it is ready for validation. If issues are found, it can be moved back to “In Progress”. Finally, once the testing and development work on a user story is completed, its story card or sticky note is then moved to the “Done” column. This signifies that the feature has been implemented and is ready for release. By repeating this process for each user story, the “Done” column gradually fills up, reflecting the completion of user stories.
Illustration of a Sprint Story Tracking Board (or Kanban Board).
The Kanban board is updated throughout the sprint, providing full visibility into the team’s progress. Blockers and bottlenecks become visually apparent when cards pile up in certain columns. This allows the team to collaborate and take action to keep things moving smoothly.
Using this visual approach, teams can easily track the progress of user stories throughout the development cycle/sprint. It provides a clear overview of the project’s status, allowing team members to visualize and prioritize tasks effectively. The flexibility of sticky notes allows for easy rearrangement and updates as the project evolves. Ultimately, tracking user stories using sticky notes in columns improves communication, collaboration, and transparency within the development team.
Note, that in addition to this physical approach, there are also many digital options that allow for creating and managing Kanban boards online, enabling efficient collaboration between remote and distributed team members. See the Tools and Resources section for examples.
Conclusion
Using Kanban boards for Agile Development provides Agile teams with a straightforward visual system to track the progress of work items throughout the sprint cycle. The columns on the board represent key workflow states – To Do, In Progress, In Testing, and Done. User stories and tasks are written on cards or sticky notes that move across these columns, making the status transparent to all team members.
This visibility enables early identification of roadblocks, allowing for proactive problem-solving. The ability to visualize workflows and update the board promotes collaboration, communication, and process improvements. Team members can see how their work directly impacts the collective progress.
While physical boards using sticky notes can be effective for co-located teams, virtual Kanban boards enable remote teams to gain the same benefits. Whether physical or digital, Kanban story boards give project teams an at-a-glance view of the sprint backlog. This clarity allows them to focus efforts on the right work items to keep up momentum and deliver working software faster.
Adopting Kanban boards can help development teams enhance agility. The psychology of moving story cards into “Done” motivates teams to continually progress work items towards completion. With the ability to visualize workflows and focus efforts on priority tasks, Kanban boards prove to be a simple but powerful catalyst for productivity.
