Kanban Project Management Tools

Do you feel anxiety when looking at your Product backlog with those 1014 tickets? What if I told you there is another way? Here are 8 ways to keep your backlog clean and actionable: 1) Differentiate between a backlog item and an idea - It's ok to have a notebook, Figma, mural, whatever, where you collect all ideas and requests. However, the backlog should only contain items you aim to work on FOR REAL within the next 1-3 quarters. 2) Set a hard limit of tickets - In my experience, only the top 20-30 tickets will actually have any chance to ever be closed as completed. There are too many new directions, opportunities, and urgent tasks coming in overriding the priority of tasks further in the backlog. Just close the items that will never happen or at least move them to your ideas space. 3) Don't make it a BUGlog - bugs are tasks like all others. They need value and effort estimation and have to be prioritized against any other product opportunity. If they don't make the cut, they don't make the cut, sorry. No point collecting bugs - they are not Pokemon! 4) Keep the tickets high quality - However, if there is something in your backlog, let it shine! Make sure to include the user story, impact hypothesis, requirements, and links to design and tracking specifications. The tickets should be able to speak for you when you are not around. 5) Try to have 3 months' worth of refined items ready to go - It might be hard (try daily refinements!) to achieve and it's worth it! With items ready for the next 3 months for the team can pick up, you will have so much time to do proper long time planning and assessment. It's worth the initial effort! 6) Introduce visual cues - It's much easier to look at the backlog if you can easily tell apart a new feature task, improvement initiatives, bugs, and research. If you add other color cues to represent item status, you will be able to tell everything at a glance. 7) Add key stakeholders to their tickets of interest - A personal update email may work. Automated status updates work too and keep relevant people in the loop with no time investment on your end! 8) Create a task document associated with a backlog item - This is basically an extended version of the ticket, where you can collect all the pre-development research and post-development results and observations. Collecting this info in one place saves you hours when it comes to writing progress updates and presentations. At the same time, your tickets remain clean and hold only the relevant information. There you go! Here are my 8 ways to keep the backlog neat and functional. Will those work for your backlog and if not, why? Or perhaps you can contribute more pieces of advice? Sound off in the comments! #productmanagment #productmanagers #backlog P.S. Having a clean backlog is one thing. Having great tasks to put there is another challenge every Product Manager faces. To be well equipped to face that challenge, check out my courses at drtbartpm. com :)

Every so often I’m asked “How do I manage our huge backlog?” First of all, a huge backlog is a red flag. Often, it would take years to go through everything on it, and by then, most of those items wouldn’t be worth doing. There are always new items, and those new items are always more important than what’s on there, so existing items get pushed down, and are never built. So, the first thing you need to do is limit the backlog size to the things you will do—a month’s work maximum, and even that is way too big for me. (I often work with no backlot at all.) As for the huge part, just throw everything out. Yes. Everything. The important stuff will come back very quickly. To keep things under control from that point forward, you need to put a hard limit on backlog size. (Think of the backlog as a Lean ready queue; this is a simple WIP limit.) Literally nothing goes on unless something comes off, thereby freeing a slot. Engineering will open slots as it pulls work, but Product can add things to a full backlog by removing something from it. That means that the Product people need to think about value. Which thing on the backlog is lesser value than your thing? What will the person who put that allegedly low-value story onto the backlog say when they discover that you’ve replaced their item? Discussion will ensue, and that’s a good thing.

Your software development organization is slow?  Business and customers are complaining? There is an easy fix: WIP limits. Most organizations face a common problem: they are slow. Usually because they are trying to do everything at once. Development teams juggle multiple projects, thinking this maximizes productivity. Traditional fixes? - Throw more resources at it. - Add developers. - Buy new tools. - Reorganize teams. All expensive, all time-consuming, all missing the real issue. The solution is surprisingly simple: Stop starting and start finishing. WIP (Work in Progress) limits force teams to complete current tasks before taking on new ones. It's like traffic flow - cars move faster on an uncrowded highway than in bumper-to-bumper congestion. Here's a real example: Three 6-week projects. With multitasking, Project A finishes in week 16, B in week 17, C in week 18. With WIP limits? A done in week 6, B in week 12, C still in week 18. Same total time, but value delivered 10 weeks earlier. Want to implement WIP limits? 1. Start with one pilot team 2. Set initial WIP limits at 70-80% of current workload 3. Reduce by 10-20% every few weeks 4. Watch delivery times drop while throughput stays steady 5. Visualize the effects! Stop starting new work. Start finishing what's in progress and become as twice as fast. What's your experience with WIP limits? Share your thoughts in the comments.

🧠 Product Ownership Isn't Just a Role—It's a Discipline. A takeaway that really landed with me during Sumeet’ class. If you're not actively managing your Product Backlog, you're not leading your product. 📌 Product Backlog Management is not about maintaining a feature list—it's about making strategic product decisions constantly. It's one of the most underrated yet powerful skills a Product Owner must master. 🎯 A well-managed backlog helps the Scrum Team: ✅ Deliver the correct value at the right time ✅ Reduce ambiguity and rework ✅ Align around a shared Product Goal ✅ Increase transparency for stakeholders ✅ Focus effort on outcomes, not outputs But when backlog management is neglected… ❌ Teams get buried under bloated wish lists ❌ Stakeholders lose trust ❌ Developers waste time refining items no one wants ❌ The product loses direction 🔍 Here's what excellent Product Backlog Management looks like: 🧭 It starts with the Product Goal → Clear, outcome-driven, measurable goals that guide the team toward the vision. 🚫 It includes knowing what not to build → A lean backlog requires ruthless prioritization and the courage to say no—with empathy. 📈 It's ordered by value → Not all bugs deserve fixing. Not all features deserve building. Prioritize by impact. 🧩 It's continuously refined → Break down large items. Add clarity as you learn. Refine collaboratively with the team. 📐 It enables sizing → Empower Developers to estimate using what works best—story points, t-shirt sizing, or right-sizing for one Sprint. 🧠 It's a team sport → Collaborate with stakeholders and Developers. Transparency and feedback shape the best backlog. 📌 Product Owner doesn't just collect requests. They shape strategy through the backlog—one decision at a time. The backlog isn't a to-do list. It's a map of how you'll deliver value—iteratively, transparently, and intentionally. #Scrum #ReTHINKscrum #ProductOwnership #BacklogManagement Agilemania Agilemania Malaysia

One of the most fundamental Kanban change management principles is “Start with what you do now.” To be able to achieve your business goals, you should first and foremost address the challenges that you face in your own context, then use your performance data to make informed decisions about how to make gradual long-term improvements that are here to stay. Every single initiative you want to take, no matter how large or small, should have a measurable goal and a metric tied to it. If you find that the metric isn’t meeting its goal, then you need to stop, rethink, adjust and retest it. Keep repeating this process until you hit your target. This means evaluating your performance trends every day and not only tracking the metrics but also revealing the context underpinning them. Let’s explore how data-driven decision making ultimately improves your business outcomes. #NavigateYourFlow #Kanban #AgileLeadership #AgileManagement #AgileProjectManagement

I've spent a decade learning about Scrum, Kanban, SAFe, Nexus, Lean etc etc. And honestly, 80 percent of the value of these tools comes from 5 main principles that you can achieve without a framework. 1. Work in small batches Every change and value add should be as small as you can make it. Yes, even when that seems like it's MORE work. This doesn't mean breaking every outcome into infinitely small tasks, it means breaking down the OUTCOME into the smallest parcels of recognizable value that is possible. 2. Focus on Value Things that seem obvious but are missed 90 percent of the time. Goals are more important than work items or elaborate plans. What 'value' means in your context is the first thing you need to pin down, but once you do, focus on it relentlessly, and make sure everything you do is in service to a valuable goal. 3. Pull, Don't Push Teams working on complex products need time to think, analyse and learn. The fastest way to make them unable to deliver value is to constantly push work onto them to fill their capacity. When Principle 2 is respected, principle 3 is easy. Let teams pull work as needed to deliver that value we care about it. 4. Eliminate waste Waste takes many forms, and a lot of them look like productivity. You should always assume that most of what you're doing is wasteful. Identify the most valuable things you're doing, and eject almost everything else. Keep it simple, from the product you're building to the way you build it. 5. Align on goals, not plans Working at scale is tough, and it can be easy to try to solve problems by aligning teams to fixed plans with clear dates so they can have certainty of what is needed, when. Instead, align on goals. Make sure that every team that might have a reason to care what you're doing knows exactly what you're trying to achieve right now. Keep the communication lines open, and make sure that if a goal is at risk, it's made transparent quickly. Detailed plans rarely make a difference so long as you understand *why* we're making the decisions we're making.

Teams: Don’t Do Everything in the Backlog A backlog isn’t a to-do list, and it’s definitely not a job queue. Sure, backlogs and queues both involve lists of work items, but their purposes are different. What Is a Backlog? A backlog is a dynamic, prioritized list of potential work. It represents what might be done, helping teams focus on the most impactful items. The keyword is "might." A backlog isn’t a commitment to do everything. It’s a decision-making tool designed to maximize value. Think of it as a list of future conversation about potential investments. This aligns with Agile Principle #1: “Our highest priority is to satisfy the customer through early and continuous delivery of valuable software.” A backlog isn’t about doing it all; it’s about delivering what matters most. A Backlog Isn't a Queue Unlike a backlog, a queue is a fixed sequence of tasks, processed in a predefined order (often FIFO). Queues assume all items are equal, and the focus is on throughput (getting tasks done quickly). Backlogs, in contrast, prioritize value. They’re actively managed by a PO (or similar role) to align with strategic goals. This reflects Agile Principle #10: “Simplicity - the art of maximizing the amount of work not done - is essential.” Don't Treat a Backlog Like a Queue Treating a backlog as a queue misses its purpose entirely. Not everything is valuable: Some items lose relevance or become less important compared to new opportunities. Last month's great idea might have no value today. Some backlog items have just always been bad ideas. Time spent on low-value work is time not spent on what could deliver greater impact. A queue mindset dilutes focus, pushing teams to clear older items instead of tackling what matters (which may be new, old, or somewhere in-between). Focusing on value aligns with Agile Principle #8: “Agile processes promote sustainable development.” Clearing a backlog like a to-do list creates unnecessary waste and pressure. Backlogs Thrive on Adaptability Backlogs embrace change. Items are added, refined, reprioritized, or removed as priorities evolve. Queues are rigid. They assume fixed order and equal importance. This flexibility supports Agile Principle #2: “Welcome changing requirements, even late in development.” A backlog helps teams respond to change so they deliver the highest value. Manage Your Backlog Effectively Regularly evaluate and (re)prioritize items based on their impact and business value. Regularly remove low-priority or outdated items that no longer align with goals. The degree of refinement should reflect each item's relative priority. Communicate clearly. Help stakeholders understand a backlog isn’t a promise or a guarantee. It’s a planning tool. It’s Not About Doing More If something’s not in the backlog, it won’t get done. But just because it’s in the backlog doesn’t mean it should - or will - be worked on. That’s the point. Don’t aim to clear the backlog. Aim to maximize value.

Yet another reason estimates are ridiculous. One of the silliest things about time estimates is that the vast majority of time it takes for a team to finish something is spent waiting. For the average development team to create something of value, only 10-20% of the total start-to-finish completion time is spent actively working on the item. The majority of the time is spent waiting. 🔵 Waiting for Reviews 🔵 Waiting for team member hand-offs 🔵 Waiting on other teams or departments So much time is spent waiting… instead of asking, “How much time will it take WORKING to complete this?” You’d be better off asking, “How much time will it take WAITING to complete this?” This, of course, is impossible to answer since most teams have zero control (or even awareness) of waiting time. You’re far, far better off ditching time estimates entirely and focusing on reducing wait states instead. But how? 1] Use Flow Efficiency ↳ Few teams are even aware of the most critical flow metric: Flow Efficiency. ↳ Flow Efficiency tells you how much time is spent actively working on increments of value (features, assets, stories, etc.). ↳ Flow Efficiency (%) = Active Time / Total Time X 100 ↳ Any good workflow tool will calculate your Total Time (Cycle Time). 2] Determine Active Time ↳ To figure out Active Time, you need to track your wait states by adding a “Done” state to every existing stage in your workflow. ↳ For Example: Development -> Development Done -> Testing -> Testing Done -> Review -> Review Done -> Released ↳ The “Done” columns are your wait states.  ↳ Now, you can effectively determine Active Time for each item in your flow vs. Wait Time. 3] Improve Flow Efficiency ↳ Once you can visualize and track wait times, you can focus on fixing the worst offenders. ↳ Add team members, reduce work in progress, remove dependencies… there are many ways to minimize wait states. ↳ Any reduction made to any of your wait states will improve Flow Efficiency An average team will have a Flow Efficiency of 20%. Your team should achieve a Flow Efficiency of 40% or greater to be considered high-performing. Will this take some effort? Of course! But far less effort and total team time (and annoyance) than asking for estimates. Plus, the increase in productivity will far outweigh any loss in imagined predictability.

Process Kanban: The Visual Backbone of Lean Production Continuing posts about "Establish Pull" and Heijunka, let's explore another key pillar of Lean manufacturing: #Kanban. Kanban, which means "signboard" in Japanese, is a system to manage and improve workflow. It limits the amount of work in progress (#WIP), helping teams complete tasks efficiently. The main idea is to control the number of tasks being worked on simultaneously, ensuring a balanced and manageable workflow. This prevents system overload and allows employees to focus on each task effectively. It's like juggling fewer balls at once so you can concentrate better on each one. WIP principle is being implemented using Kanban cards and boards. Each card represents a task and includes details like a description and who is assigned. These cards are placed on a Kanban board, which is divided into columns that show different stages of the process. By setting a limit on the number of cards allowed in each column, we avoid overloading the system. When the limit is reached, the team focuses on finishing current tasks before starting new ones. This approach helps prevent bottlenecks and keeps the workflow smooth. Kanban Boards could be implemented in various areas. Here are several common examples (board divided into columns): 1. Software Development board: (1) Idea -> (2) Design -> (3) Development -> (4) Testing -> (5) Deployment 2. Manufacturing board: Raw Material order -> (2) Work in Progress -> (3) Quality Control -> (4) Finished Good Formulation -> (5) Shipping 3. Social media campaign board: (1) Planning -> (2) Creation -> (3) Promotion -> (4) Analysis 4. Customer Support inquiry board: (1) Received -> (2) Assigned -> (3) In Progress -> (4) Resolved 5. HR recruitment board: (1) Sourcing -> (2) Interviewing -> (3) Offer -> (4) Onboarding Kanban system is also efficiently applied for inventory managing. I will write a follow-up post on that. Process Kanban and #Heijunka tools are interconnected pillars of #Lean production. Heijunka helps to react to actual demand and spread out the tasks evenly through the particular timeframe. Kanban, in turn, helps you to visualize and manage implementation of these tasks. By limiting the number of task that are made at the same time (WIP) Kanban helps to finish them better and faster. Both tools combined allow to ensure stable production flow. #leanproducton #ci #establishpull #wastereduction #operationalexcellence

Have you ever heard about "Flow efficiency"? Businesses typically chase "Resource efficiency". It's all about keeping everyone busy, maxing out utilization. But in that obsession, they tank something called "Flow efficiency", the real key to speed and value. Flow efficiency tracks how much of a process’s total time is spent actually working on a task versus waiting around. Think of a support ticket. It's opened on Monday morning and closed on Friday evening, a total of five days. But the team only spent 4 hours actively talking, troubleshooting, resolving, testing etc.. That’s 4 hours of work in 40 hours of elapsed time, a flow efficiency of just 10%. The rest? Waiting on escalations, approvals, or someone to free up. Here’s the catch: Measuring that split (active work vs idle time) is super tricky. It requires being able to track active work time, pinning down delays. Most companies don’t even try. Yet when they do, the numbers shock. Flow efficiency often limps along at 5-15%. That means 85-95% of the time, work is just sitting there, stalled by: - Stakeholder approvals - Handoffs and dependencies - Resource bottlenecks Why do some businesses struggle with this? - Too Many Handoffs → Each pass between teams or departments piles on wait time, especially in sprawling organizations. - WIP Overload → Juggling too many tasks at once drags everything to a crawl. Nothing finishes fast. - Approval Chokepoints → Decision makers, swamped themselves, become the jam in the pipeline. - Misaligned Goals → Success is tied to “busyness” metrics, not how fast value hits the table. - Priority Fog → When everything’s urgent, focus scatters, and momentum dies. How to break through? First → Measure! You can't improve something you don't measure. Next → Cut work in progress. Slash unnecessary handoffs. Speed up approvals. Automate where you can, empower teams to decide where you can’t. Above all, ditch the “busy is best” mindset. Focus on delivering value, not filling hours. Measuring flow efficiency isn’t easy. But mastering it? That’s less friction, faster wins.