Kanban and Kanban tools

What is Kanban?

Kanban is a workflow visualization tool that enables you to optimize the flow of your work. Physical Kanban boards use sticky notes on a whiteboard to show status, progress, and issues. Kanban as an agile tool is more about the drag-and-drop a task upon the electronic whiteboard in a software setting.

What is Kanban originated?

Kanban was first created in the early 1940s. The first Kanban system was created by Taiichi Ohno, an Industrial Engineer and Businessman for Toyota automotive in Japan. It was created as a simple planning system to control and manage work and inventory at each stage of production to the utmost.

A key reason for the development of Kanban was that the productivity and efficiency in Toyota is inadequate compared to its American automotive counterparts. With Kanban, Toyota achieved a production control system that is  flexible and efficient real-time and it increases productivity while reducing the cost of raw materials, semi-finished materials, and finished products.

If you want to know about Toyota management and software management, read Ameba, TPS, Scrum, and XP .

Core principles of Kanban

• Visualize your workflow: all the items in the production context can be very informative
• Limit the amount of work in progress (WIP): balance the approach so teams wouldn't start or commit too much to work at once
• Enhance flow: when something is finished, the next top task in the backlog will start immediately
  

Kanban Tools

Kanban Tool is a visual process management solution that helps teams to work more efficiently, visualize their workflow, analyze and improve business processes in line with the Kanban method.

Currently, there are numerous tool on the market that claim that they have Kanban boards, such as

image source: Capterra

However, you should definitely try ZenTao , if you are looking for a Kanban tool that is for Agile teams.

How much does ZenTao cost?

ZenTao is a Scrum tool developed by an Agile team and for Agile teams. It is an Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) and is famous for bug management and QA management . You can manage your projects through Gantt charts, Kanban, Calendar, Reports, and MS Word and Excel file import/export, etc.

ZenTao pricing allows you to scale as your business grows. Plans range from free to enterprise level so everyone will find a good fit. ZenTao permanent license for small teams (up to 10 users) is only 9.9 US Dollars which is affordable, so small teams will have a chance to know ZenTao and make good use of it. For ZenTao pricings, refer to HERE .

ZenTao has free trial for up to 3 users and 6 months. If you have questions, feel free to contact us at Renee@cnezsoft.com.