Kanban's Challenges in Software Project Scheduling

#kanban #agile #developers #productivity

Kanban's Failing

You'd think that a simple yet advanced system like Kanban would not have any drawbacks, especially when it comes to delivering quality in a short time. Bad news, gents, here we have a recent study that has found Kanban's shortcomings when applied in software project management (SPM). Alaidoros 2018 paper on Kanban, has found that it falls short on project's progress tracking. While Kanban shines because of its WIP limitations, a bad estimation for initial WIP limits can be painful and will impact the project's progress.

Hence, even though Agile Kanban method is good in monitoring project progress by using limit WIP principle, it is still a challenge and difficult to determine the optimum WIP limits for each workflow stage in Kanban board. Therefore, there is a need to generate the optimum numbers of WIP limits.

Visualizing the workflow is also another core principle of Kanban method, which is defined as the process of highlighting the mechanisms, interactions, queues, waiting, and delays that are involved in the implementing of a part of valuable software. A Kanban board is used to visualize the workflow and monitor the project progress by showing the activities of the development process. Besides that, data such as lead time, cycle time, number of bugs, throughput, and so on, are usually shown in diagrams, affixed to the walls of the workplace, or in any case, continuously updated and made public.

Solutions??

While some have proposed that combining Scrum and Kanban will fix it (that mutant is called Scrumban), there are other ways how to tackle this situation. The lack of planning beforehand, or even worse, planning in the wrong direction will bite you in the future. That's why you should employ at least one of the ways it's possible to schedule a project.

1. Critical Path Method (CPM)
CPM helps you identify the longest sequence of dependent tasks that must be completed on time to ensure the project stays on schedule. Used in construction projects like building homes. It helps map out tasks and their dependencies to determine the crucial path. But this method lacks in projects where a lot flexibility is shown, for example in creative industries. That's why we need more solutions.

2. The Program Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT)
PERT allows you to analyze the time needed to complete each project activity, considering various uncertainties and risks. t helps you manage uncertainties and risks, so you can allocate resources wisely. If, say, foundation work hits a snag, PERT lets you tweak schedules and assign extra help to keep things moving.

3. Task Schedule Software
Perhaps using task scheduling software is what you need because they have a lot of functions and high capability to ensure that your process goes smoothly. The visuality that these tools provide can be extra helpful when looking for future obstacles.

Wrap Up

Despite its shortcomings, Kanban is still one of the leading methods for software developers to work with. It is possible to work around it and achieve high results!