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Overview (TL;DR)
Overview (TL;DR)
Regardless of the Agile framework you use, visualisation of the workflow is really important. You can use a variety of tools from your office walls to software to do this, but getting it somewhere visible is how you work out what stops you from being more efficient.
Introduction
Introduction
One of the first things you need when working in an Agile way is a way to see the work you’re doing. Even without a framework, most of us have “To Do” lists or a spreadsheet of tasks to get done. This is what will form your backlog of work, regardless of the way you choose to structure it. As to how you display that, there are many options which we’ll explore below.
Physical Board
Physical Board
If you’re a team who are all in the same building and workspace then physical boards with post-its or pieces of paper you can move around are incredibly powerful. It’s a quick and easy way to see where things are and the act of moving things across the board feels good. Most teams will have their daily Stand Ups at a board so they can move tickets across whilst discussing them. The default columns are
- To do
- In progress
- Done
...but you can add whatever you want/need to customise it to your own workflow.
Digital Boards
Digital Boards
If your team are remote or have flexible working where you may not all be in the same place at the same time then a digital board is what will make the most sense. You have a few options here: from the most basic to fully integrated software tools that make tracking and planning a breeze.
Spreadsheet
Spreadsheet
If you’re just starting out and want to see if this will work, you can simply use a spreadsheet with the columns and move your work across. It’s quite a manual way of doing it, but it can be a useful first step to track your backlog anyway.
Jira
Jira
One of the most common task management tools is Jira by Atlassian. It’s a fantastic system that allows you to have:
- multiple projects and board styles (e.g. Scrum or Kanban),
- other additions like estimation fields,
- the ability to group tickets by project (or Epic as it’s commonly known),
- The ability to assign work to people
- integration with other common work tools such as Slack.
The only downside to Jira is that the prices can be high depending on the size of your team so if you’re new to Agile it may be harder to sell in to leadership.
Jira is what we use at Holiday Extras and whilst it’s slightly tricky to get set up, once it’s done the tools and features it has are fantastic and make planning and executing an Agile framework a breeze, especially due to its tracking and analysis features.
Trello
Trello
Trello is a free tool that’s definitely worth a look at if you want something better than a simple spreadsheet but not as costly as Jira - in fact the simple version is free! It doesn’t have as many features or integrations as the Atlassian tool, but is great for teams wanting to try out a workflow visualisation. One of our Agile Coaches uses it to manage tasks that she needs to do at home such as decorating a room, buying school uniform or submitting gas meter readings so that she and her husband can see what they need to do each week.
The tools mentioned above are the standard ones but there are also many others (like Monday.com) so look around and see what works for you.
That being said, if your company is using a specific tool, using that one as well will help ensure there is complete transparency, rather than needing multiple logins to see what everyone is working on.
Summary
Summary
However you decide to track your workflow, visualising it is the key. Seeing what you’ve got to get done all in one place helps you prioritise, have a focus to complete it and makes sure anyone who wants to know what’s going on, can see it at a glance without needing to pester anyone.
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