Here’s a nice little Kanban tip to visualise movement on a card wall
A quick glance of a card wall is often cause for confusion. For example, take a look at the snapshot of the same card wall on two consecutive days:
It’s obvious that something has moved but it is often difficult to see without close inspection what exactly has moved. Use the following extremely simple, but effective, visualisation technique to clearly show at a glance what’s moving and what’s not:
Cut out some arrow shapes from index cards – laminating them is even more affective. They work as follows:
- If a card moves from one column to another stick a green arrow on it.
- Some teams stick multiple arrows to represent the number of times the card has moved, or write it on the laminated surface of the arrow with a dry wipe marker.
- Continue to do this throughout the day.
- At the next daily stand-up you can quickly see what moved and what didn’t.
- Once you’ve completed your stand-up the arrows are removed to reset the board. Goto step 1.
I can’t remember who came up with this idea (please remind me if it was you as I’d like to credit you!) but it is very useful and highly effective!
