If you’ve slapped up a board that says “to do,” “doing,” and “done” and called it Kanban, that’s about the weakest implementation of Kanban that is possible.

If you’re interested in really harnessing the Kanban framework, you have to go beyond three columns and:

1. Model your team’s actual workflow
2. Apply discipline to your policies, work-in-progress (WIP) limits
3. Measure
4. Get nerdy with the data

If you want to learn more about using data with Kanban, go get a copy of Daniel Vacanti’s book on agile metrics from leanpub, or on Amazon.  Read it.

Then, get a trial to Actionable Agile. This tool visualizes data, and integrates with multiple platforms. Watch the videos on the ActionableAgile YouTube channel that gives an introduction to the tool’s capabilities.

Now, use the data and a never settle for “this is as good as it gets.” Dig in and improve your process!