A brief overview of how to capture, track, and assess ideas, tasks and other actions.

1. Managing Tasks & Ideas
Using Kanban

2. Agenda:
• Capturing Ideas & Requirements
• Hierarchy of Requirements
• Writing Requirements
• Evaluating Requirements
• What is Kanban?
• Using Kanban for Tasks and Ideas
• Kanban Tools

3. Capturing Ideas &
Requirements
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4. Hierarchy of Requirements
How the solution will
operate
What People or
Process problem are
you trying to solve?
Original Idea or
Concept
Idea
Business
Requirements
Functional
Requirements
Non-
Functional
Requirements
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5. Hierarchy of Requirements: Case Study
“Can we enable email encryption please? I hear other companies
are using it…”
 Business Requirement:
“All communications between consultants, clients and their practitioners shall be done in
accordance with the requirements of the privacy act”
Or do they mean?
“All communications stored on disk shall be encrypted”
 Functional Requirement:
“As a consultant, I would like to ensure all my communications with clients, practitioners, and
other consultants across the internet are encrypted so that my clients private information can
be guaranteed”
“As a consultant, client or practitioner, I would like to be informed when communication may
not be encrypted to allow for an informed choice about what private data may be included”
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6. “The solution shall allow nominated
users located on the local network to
share and edit documents between
other users”
Typical Requirement:
“As an employee, I would like to allow
certain staff on the local network to
review and edit my documents from
their own PC’s to allow us to
collaborate”
:User Story
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7. Evaluating Requirements
Business
Value
Business
Risk
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8. Evaluating Requirements: Points System
Business
Value
Business
Risk
Notes
Employee Value 2 3 Frustration with added
complexity possible
Brand Image 3 2 Overall Trust should outweigh
added complexity
Process Impacts 4 2 Required for regulatory purposes
Business Value 5 3 Potential revenue loss due to
privacy breach is significant
Employee weighting 4 1 Overall majority want this.
Total: 23 11
Net: +12
“As a consultant, I would like to ensure all my communications with clients, practitioners, and other
consultants across the internet are encrypted so that my clients private information can be
guaranteed”
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permission of its author.

9. What is Kanban?
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permission of its author.

10. What is Kanban?
Defn: (literally sign or
signboard or billboard in
Japanese) a Japanese
manufacturing system in
which the supply of
components is regulated
through the use of an
instruction card sent along
the production line.
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permission of its author.

11. What is Kanban? Workflow
Start Step 1 Step 2 Completed
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permission of its author.

12. A Visual Trigger
Kanban can be used to trigger any
activity:
• Ordering more coffee, business
cards, stationary
• Completing a Task
• Filling a Shelf at the supermarket
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permission of its author.
Source: http://www.leanblog.org/2010/04/how-a-simple-office-kanban-system-works/

13. In Short: Kanban is a visual
method that allows us to track
tasks, actions, and materials
through a workflow
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permission of its author.

14. Using Kanban for Tasks
& Ideas
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permission of its author.

15. Kanban Board
Start Step 1 Step 2 Completed
Task
Task
Task
Task
Task
Task
TaskTask
Priority
Flow
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16. Kanban Board: Limits
Start Step 1 Step 2 Completed
Task
Task
Task
Task
Task
Task
TaskTask
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permission of its author.
1/5 3/8

17. Kanban Board: Swim lanes
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permission of its author.
Task
Task
Task
Task
Task
Task
Task
Task
John
Mary
Sue
Unassigned

18. Kanban Board: Colours
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permission of its author.
Start Step 1 Step 2 Completed
Task
Idea
Action
Idea
Task
Action
Task
Action
John
Mary
Sue
Unassigned

19. Different Workflows
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permission of its author.
To Do In Progress Done
Proposed Evaluated
Approved
Rejected
Lead Qualified Offer Closed
Tasks
Sales
Funnel
Ideas
Decision

20. Kanban Tools
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permission of its author.

21. The Trusty White
Board
• Cheap
• Effective
• Great for clear viewing
in the office
• Not so helpful with
remote teams
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permission of its author.

22. Trello
• Cheap (Freemium
service)
• Extremely flexible and
easy to use
• Poor reporting
• Poor “Enterprise”
features
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permission of its author.

23. Jira
• Requires “Jira Agile”
licence. Can be
expensive for large
teams
• Flexible workflows, with
configuration
• Enterprise Features
• Reasonable reporting
• Can be complex to set
up
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permission of its author.

24. Office365: Planner
• Requires Office365
account
• Similar to Trello
• Some Reporting
• Simple Configuration
• Some Enterprise
features
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permission of its author.

25. Summary
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26. Summary
Kanban is a visual tool for managing tasks and actions in any
process
End Game: to create “Flow” in your process or organisation
Even the simplest implementations can bring benefit:
 Ordering coffee, stationary, printer ink
 Restaurant Kitchen Dockets
 Post-it notes on your Monitor
Start Simple. Experiment with limits, swim lanes, colours, and
other options. Build a tool that works for you.
This document is copyright and commercial in confidence K C Armour & Co Pty Ltd (ACN: 169 592 901) and as such, shall not be distributed beyond its intended recipients without prior written
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27. Let’s Keep in Touch
craig@kcarmour.com.au | +61 409 260 797
http://kcarmour.com.au
@kcarmourco
This document is copyright and commercial in confidence K C Armour & Co Pty Ltd (ACN: 169 592 901) and as such, shall not be distributed beyond its intended recipients without prior written
permission of its author.