Using a Kanban Board for Synchronization
A Kanban board helps developers synchronize their work.
- Sue glanced up at the Kanban board to see if there were any new items waiting for her to code.
- Mark noticed that the review stage on the Kanban board had hit the work in progress limit, so he decided his next task should be to review something.
- Karen just heard that the deadline had changed, so she pushed one ticket right to the top of the Kanban board. The developers noticed and started a conversation about what to do next.
Of course, the fewer items the team has to deal with, the less significant synchronization becomes. I can imagine a situation where the effort required to update the board is not offset by the value gained. However, that is pretty rare.
It is also worth noting that management being able to track work on the Kanban board is very important to developers, as it stops them from being constantly bothered for updates.