What information should be stored on Kanban Cards?

Question

I am curious to the information and level of detail that people are storing on Kanban cards?

Or beter yet some templates of how they are put together.

For reference here is a description of a Kanban Card http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kanban_cards

Answer 1

Just look at what others do:

http://www.google.be/images?q=kanban%20cards&oe=UTF-8&hl=en&client=safari&um=1&ie=UTF-8&source=og&sa=N&tab=wi

Perdonnaly, i like to put the short description, category, different colors for components, and some details about key people. The rest of the area is used to write things like progress and others notes.

Answer 2

Why not apply Kaizen to your Kanban cards?

Start with the smallest thing that gives you value - probably a title, so you can identify what the card represents. Get feedback from the team about the next most important thing that's missing. Add that.

Repeat. Stop when adding information would no longer be an improvement. The team should feel comfortable with suggesting the removal of information when it's no longer needed, too.

You may also want to include the input of other stakeholders, if they use your board for status, etc.

Answer 3

The short answer is: any information that is valuable and important enough to waste some place on the card. On every board it will be different.

You may consider:

• Name/very short description, as you have to identify what the card is all about
• Project name/id, if you work on more than one; you can also use different card colors to show which project the card is related to
• Workflow-related dates, especially start and finish date so you can measure cycle time; you may consider more dates, like completing every stage on the board but it would make the card cluttered
• Id, especially if you keep in some system related data (like bugs or detailed work items) so you can easily relate to the card
• Due date, for tasks which you have hard deadline for, like bugs submitted under SLA
• Priority, if it is crucial once the card makes its way from ready-ready column; useful for maintenance work when client sets formal priorities

There is also information you want to put on the card temporarily:

• People working on a task, often marked by color pins, color magnets or color tiny sticky notes put on the card
• Blocker, marked by big red thing (like small sticky note) attached to the card