People receive more than 80% of information through the sense of sight. We write and draw to visualize our thoughts, emotions and things to remember. Why not to use visual perception to make work easier and more efficient? Visualization is something we can implement in project management.
The concept behind visual management is to implement a system simple enough to allow teams to spot their most significant work fast, as well as for it to be able to highlight problems as and when they occur. Because project management is a data-dense environment, making the points of action and arising issues immediately visible is what makes all the difference, affording action clarity, speeding up decision-making, and improving process efficiency.
The most popular timeline graph - a Gantt chart - combines a bar table with a calendar. It illustrates the schedule of all project elements, letting you see when specific items need to be done, and how they relate to other tasks' projected completion. For that reason, they are invaluable in project work that relies on a large volume of inter-connected tasks.
Mind-mapping is a creative way to draw out the relationship between various ideas and goals to understand their connections. It is most useful for brainstorming and creative problem solving.
A flowchart is a simple diagram showing the algorithm guiding a process in a helpful step-by-step manner. Thanks to various connectors/shapes used within the chart, it's easy to illustrate the path a process takes from start to finish, inlcuding approaching any unknowns and decision points along the way.
Typically used in software development, a Scrum process organizes work into time-boxed iterations called sprints. A visual board illustrates the process steps that work within each sprint follows, and to-do items written on cards are placed in their respective columns. The Scrum board aids the daily stand-up meeiting, guiding the conversation on what's done, what's causing problems and what the team should tackle next. Every sprint must conclude with a working version of the developed product.
With origins on the 20th century's manufacturing scene, Kanban boards are now closely associated with agile project management. Agile companies move away from traditional top-down administration towards more of a collaborative effort - one that is transparent and responsive to fast-paced changes. Much like a Scrum board, a Kanban visual board too splits the process into columns representing stages and uses cards to show individual tasks. Because Kanban focuses on flow improvement, it adds a small but mighty element - the work in progress limits. The capacity of the stages where active processing happens is limited in task count. That helps to ensure the open tasks are complete before new items are started, adding up to a higher flow rate. When a bottleneck forms in a given column, everyone can see it immediately and can pause to address the issue.
Non-visual tools like spreadsheets and reports have their set place in project management, and it may still be a while before we can replace them. But for day-to-day pathfinding at work and identifying the best actions to take at a given moment, visual project management is the most user-friendly approach, granting quick answers and real-time progress presentations. Choose a flavor of visual management that works for your process to enjoy the following results:
Managing projects is complex and demanding, asking that you keep all of its aspects in check: its goals, bugdet, quality, the team's and stakeholders' input. And while using a visual system will not change that, it will give you better understanding of what is happening at any time.
Visual project management facilitates effortless, seamless team collaboration and make project progress crystal clear at a single glance. Harnessing the power of visualization can revolutionize how you plan, monitor, report, and troubleshoot projects!
Visual project management is about presenting projects in a visual form to improve work visibility. Thanks to the visual approach project managers can:
Step into the world of visual project management today. Sign up to Kanban Tool and explore our visual approach to projects to witness the difference for yourself. Don't let complexity hold you back; visualize your work, spot issues in real time, and make better, fact-based decisions.
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