Kanban, Trello
Agile Concepts
- Pull systems
- Kanban Board
Peak Learning Practices
- Adaptability
- Collaboration
- Transparency
Learning & Teaching
One of the more influential mind shifts for me, since developing an interest in agility, was thinking in terms of pulling work instead of pushing work. This is easily demonstrated with a kanban board, where you only pull a new task into the TO DO column when you have cleared out the previous task in the TO DO column.
“My friend and mentor Bill Tihen liked to tell a story of his boss rushing into the office with a new project that was ‘top priority.’ Bill walked him to the Kanban board and said, ‘OK. Which of these other tasks in the TO DO or DOING column should I take off the board?’ ‘No, no,’ the boss exclaimed, ‘those are all top priority, too.’ ‘But that doesn’t work,” Bill answered, pointing at the board. ‘There’s a limit to what we can work on at one time. You’ll have to choose the top top-priority’” (Magnuson, 2020).
Bill got me going with Kanban, and Scrum Boards (or “flaps,” in eduScrum terminology). We experimented with different columns, different lanes, using color-coded stickies, trying matrices to support prioritization. Before long another colleague in IT introduced us to the online version using Trello, which more or less proved itself over time, popping up in the admissions and student life offices, in residence halls, classes, and for organization of large-scale projects like reworking the school’s assessment policy and re-accreditation.
While the features of Trello are excellent, the simple, tactile use of a physical space with sticky notes is highly effective, both for personal and group use. More than one of our visiting scholars (e.g. most recently Adrian Fritschi) has commented on how surprising it is to see so much pen and paper work displayed in a wealthy boarding school that provides laptops and phones to every student. That, in addition to its adoption in several different areas of the school, speaks to the usefulness of a Kanban board.
We hope, of course, that the quick visualization also supports transparency, good management of work in progress, a brake on the temptation to multitask, and a more agile mindset.
Source
From LAS, Leysin, Switzerland, starting in 2014 and earlier in the IT office Questions: Paul Magnuson, [email protected], Twitter: @zebmagnuson
Further Resources
Magnuson, P. (2020). (Why Kanban?)[https://blog.tieonline.com/why-kanban/] In Teach Your Way Around the World, a blog of The International Educator.