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Essential KanBo Boards – How a Single Software Can Solve Your Multiple Management Challenges

When it comes to managing different aspects of a business, there is a wide variety of tools available that are purpose-specific but one dimensional.

That’s why organizations often have to rely on different types of tools to handle various business aspects including project management. Apart from that, poor integration between these tools means teams cannot work in a collaborative manner (more information about how kanBo can improve collaboration is here).

KanBo solves that problem by offering a highly versatile, intuitive, and flexible way to overcome multiple management challenges of an organization including project management, vacancy management, team meetings, progress tracking, and more. KanBo relies on easy-to-understand and simple-to-use features like lists and cards which are used across different management boards but offer the same functionality. This means the learning curve isn’t steep and employees can learn how to use the software in a day.

Let’s find out how managers and team leaders can rely on KanBo to manage different aspects of the business.

Project Management with KanBo

KanBo enables project managers and team leaders to monitor and manage everything through a single central hub. It brings all the relevant information in one place for both the teams and their managers so they can stay on top of every aspect of ongoing projects and tasks. The user interface of KanBo is highly intuitive which means you need minimal training of employees to use it (the full article about Project Management in KanBo is here).

The most essential feature for effective project management in KanBo is a dedicated board that acts as a focal point of information. The board has several components with each component delivering an important bit of information.

KanBo also provides you with a chat option that can be used to discuss issues and challenges in real-time (Chat functionality description is here).

Another key feature is of blocks which are basically bottlenecks that occur due to circumstances. For example, if a designer has left the organization right in the middle of the project and the replacement hasn’t been recruited yet, that’ll create a block. These blocks can be defined on a different basis as well as on the enterprise level (more about Blockers you can read here).

KanBo project management is built on three pillars, which are collaborationcoordination, and planning. All the features that are included in the software, from Board and Lists to Views and Filters, have been especially designed to facilitate effective communication, cross-departmental transparency, informed planning, and robust collaboration.

With KanBo project management software, teams have everything they need to know right in front of them so they can come together to accomplish their tasks in a timely manner.

Team Meetings with KanBo

KanBo empowers businesses to hold meetings by permitting directors and heads of divisions to bring chosen team members together to acquire the shared goal. It’s anything but an open gathering for conversation with tangible results that can be circled back to (full article about Team Meetings in KanBo is here).

A useful meeting includes clear activity focuses, a plan, a rundown of outstanding thoughts shared during the conversation, educated choices, and a common understanding of cooperating to accomplish the objectives. Here is the way KanBo helps you out.

When you open the KanBo Team Meetings Board, you will see a wide assortment of segments that you can interact with. On top of the board, there is a list of individuals who are probably going to be associated with your meetings as participants. You can see their profile pictures in thumbnails so you can distinguish them easily (The article about how to manage users in Board is here).

The Team Meetings Board has a by default calendar view which gives a fast and simple way to see meetings date-wise. The other components include lists, views, filters, and basic settings and preferences.

  • The first list is about meeting instructions and general information. Here you will find key pointers and share the most important information.
  • The second list is related to weekly and monthly meetings. Monthly meetings are generally conducted once every month to discuss the most significant and pressing matters while weekly meetings are conducted on a regular basis for sharing progress.
  • The monthly meeting card contains all the information related to that meeting including the chair of the meeting, agenda, points discussed, and more. There’s also a weekly meeting card that has the same information but doesn’t include topics, just updates.
  • Cards can be used by the team leader or the department manager to document and communicate all the relevant information about the meetings (Card functions description is here). You can add a meeting lead, set an agenda as a to-do list, assign a protocol scribe as a coworker, set a date, send out MS Teams invitations, and add team members to the meeting.
  • There are sub-cards as well which provide you to create a dedicated hub of information for important agenda topics. These usually include topic descriptions, questions and answers, decisions, and related documents.

Meetings are especially important when employees are working from home and they need to ensure every team member remains updated so the productivity doesn’t suffer (You can read more about KanBo and Remote Work here). KanBo software provides a comprehensive yet simple solution to address all the major challenges of modern team meetings.

Whether you want to set up a clear agenda or ensure every decision is executed as planned, KanBo provides a way to achieve effective and actionable meetings.

Tracking Progress in Real-Time with KanBo

Guaranteeing timely achievement of each assignment and project is essential for proficient efficiency. However, businesses regularly need to confront issues as sources of data are scattered and it’s not practical for managers and team leaders to keep monitoring everything.

This usually means that numerous issues, challenges, bottlenecks, and conditions fall through the crack and later on transform into a significant barricade that impacts efficient productivity. To overcome this issue, a focal center point of information is required where teams can see constant updates without managing any problems (full article about Tracking Progress in Real-Time is here).

One of the most functional, easy to use, and result-focused tools you can get is KanBo. It gives every one of the employees the information they need when they need it. Rather than conducting meetings after meetings, you can basically utilize the board which helps you monitor everything.

For real-time updates, you will need to go to the Company Overview Board which contains a range of lists. The purpose of these lists is to enable you to view every piece of information in a highly categorized and organized manner. This allows you to monitor progress from different perspectives so you can keep an eye on the overall situation.

  • The first list you see is the Teams list which features a dedicated card for every department. They can be useful when you want to get updates or want to know a certain task’s progress.
  • The second list is of Priorities and includes all the tasks that have been marked as ‘high priority’ by project managers or team leaders. Having a high priority list allows managers to monitor the progress of the most important tasks and resolve issues quickly for timely completion.
  • The next list contains cards related to projects that are currently in progress. Each card also has information about the status of the project which can be viewed through labels such as on-time, on warning, failing etc.
  • There are dedicated lists for accomplished tasks and for those members who have made significant contributions.
  • Using views, you can also see the progress and tasks from different perspectives. The company calendar view allows you to see all the significant tasks or projects that are supposed to be completed. Another perspective that you can use is project focus which allows you to see all the projects that the business has undertaken.

If you are looking for a tool that gives you a bird’s eye view of all the projects, KanBo software should be on your list. It provides an easy-to-use platform for tracking companywide progress across multiple teams. With KanBo, you can enhance your project management, forecasting, budgeting, and resource allocation to introduce operational and financial efficiencies.

Team Management with KanBo

Efficient team management is a crucial part of maintaining sustainable growth and productivity. If there’s no effort to manage teams, team members along with their managers lose focus and their time and effort are spent on figuring on what they actually need to do to achieve shared goals. That’s why it is important for teams to be managed adequately as they enable organizations to achieve the shared objectives (full article about Team Management with KanBo is here).

When it comes to managing your teams, you can find a diverse variety of tools. However, most of the tools often turn into a poorly designed set of features that isn’t user-friendly. KanBo is exactly the opposite as it brings the perfect combination of reliability, performance, features, and user-friendliness. You can use different types of lists and views in KanBo to manage teams effectively.

  • The first list is about information and FAQs as it contains all the basic information that’s required to work efficiently. This list is available all the time so team members can get back to it whenever they are confused or want clarification.
  • The second list is for administrative purposes as it enables organizations to overcome the challenges of a modern workplace ensuring effective collaboration across the team.
  • The third list includes current things and highlights all the tasks and projects that are currently underway or need to be worked on. This enables both managers and team members to keep an eye on the progress and ensure that everything is delivered on time.
  • Then there are lists for one time projects and work from other departments. The former contains information about projects that are not recurring while the latter ensures that managers as well team members stay aware of all the tasks whose scope extend beyond their own team.
  • Another feature in KanBo is Views which enables you to see the progress from different perspectives. “Where We Stand” View, for instance, shows you all the tasks and projects according to their status which you can see in the form of three lists – Not Started, In Progress, and Completed.
  • The other two Views are Calendar and Users. The first one can be used to see the cards in the form of a timeline along with the starting and completion date. The User view sorts and categorizes the cards by users so you can see the latest updates from every team member.

Since team management requires you to observe the progress from different perspectives, KanBo enables you to do exactly that. With KanBo software, you can manage your teams effectively ensuring all the deliverables are completed within the given deadline.

Issue Tracking with KanBo

There are many challenges that stand in the way of efficiency and productivity including bottlenecks, technical issues, and dependencies. By the time an organization identifies an issue, the time has already passed and it results in a delay.

This is why it is crucial for teams to stay ahead of the curve so they can report issues and dependencies immediately giving everyone sufficient time to resolve or fix the problem. This way the project is more likely to stay on track.

When you want to identify and track issues in a timely manner, you need a tool that can accommodate your requirements. KanBo is once more a solution that you can trust as it allows all stakeholders – from managers and team leaders to employees – to track issues and ensure they are resolved (full article about Issue Tracking with KanBo is here).

KanBo features an intuitive user interface which means employees don’t have to go through a lot of training to learn how to use KanBo and its features. A vast majority of the features are quite self-explanatory and most of the team members can figure out how to use them.

  • When you open the Issue Tracking board, you will see a number of lists with each list representing a certain status in which an issue currently is. These states include unassigned, doing, on hold, internal test, quality gate, invoicing, done, and archive. You have the option to add other lists as well depending on the process used by your organization.
  • You can also get visual reporting of the issues through analytics. You can also see other data points including days left, cards left, progress, and shutdown activity index.
  • Just like other boards, the issue tracking board also has different views that allow you to see the state of issues from different perspectives. These include current work, calendar, and Gantt.

Identifying issues and designing a well-organized resolution process is important for the success of an organization. With the KanBo issue tracking board, you have all the information in front of you so you can manage accordingly.

KanBo issue tracking board enables you to see the unaddressed issues and determine the speed at which issues are being resolved. You can see the weaknesses and bottlenecks of the process and attempt to fix them to make the entire process more efficient.

Vacancy Management with KanBo

Recruitment comes with a multitude of challenges including identifying the right people for the job to hiring them through a streamlined process. The HR department also needs to keep the concerned teams updated so they can work accordingly.

When there’s no organized vacancy management process in place, the organization’s overall productivity declines which can have an impact on profitability. This is why it is of utmost importance for businesses to develop a streamlined hiring process (full article about Vacancy Management with KanBo is here).

With KanBo, organizations have access to the vacancy management board along with lists and cards which provide a versatile solution that can align with the goals and requirements of any organization. Whether you are just starting a business with a brief hiring process or an established enterprise with a drawn-out recruitment procedure, KanBo enables your business to manage vacancies in an effective manner.

  • Like other boards, lists are the most important component of the vacancy management board. Each list represents a certain phase of the interview including open positions, new CVs, phone interview, interview, interview with HR, final decision, hire, and for later. You can add or delete lists according to the hiring process in your company.
  • Each card contains all the information about the candidate in one location. You can see who is responsible for dealing with the candidate, the department of the vacancy, status of the hiring process, notes, documents, and more. You can add a new card by clicking on the “+” button and feeding the required information.
  • KanBo also integrates with MS Teams as both use the same Active Directory groups behind the users. You have the option to connect specific boards with Microsoft Teams and you can access all the information.

Human resource managers often have too much to handle and it’s not possible for them to keep up with the processes which result in a subpar and sometimes unproductive recruitment process. That’s where KanBo can help an organization with a versatile and feature-rich tool that can be used to manage all the vacancies across the organization.

As there are dedicated lists for every phase of the hiring process, team managers can view the status of the hiring process of the candidates for their teams. It also makes it easier for HR managers to keep track of the entire vacancy management process through lists and cards.

Conclusion

Every organization wants to have a versatile and flexible tool that can take care of their different requirements. KanBo facilitates project management, vacancy management, issue tracking, meetings, and more relying on a similar set of tools such as cards and lists. It is intuitive and easy to learn for your employees and you don’t need to provide extensive training.

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