The speed of modern technologies development is staggering. The more complicated tasks developers can perform, the more demanding requirements customers set. One of the most popular modern programming languages according to the Stack Overflow rating is JavaScript. It is not a surprise, as people are working online today, and they need convenient web applications to fulfill all their everyday requests. The maturity of the JavaScript language leads to many open-source solutions that can easily be found on the Internet and used straight away in any project. In addition to open-source tools, developers can benefit greatly from the use of JS libraries. JavaScript library is a collection of ready-made components that can be used as complete applications or as parts of your unique project design.

In this article, we will focus on such a tool for project management, offered by some of the popular JS libraries, as the Kanban board. We will briefly describe its functionality and suggest a solution from a JS library worthy of attention. Let’s get started.

What is Kanban?

Kanban is known as a method of development and as a tool for development. The Kanban method initially was inspired by the Toyota Production System. The system was called just-in-time and the idea was an immediate meeting customers’ demands and identifying possible material shortages within the production line. Later David J. Anderson, an engineer from Microsoft, suggested this system could be used in any other company where proper process organization is required.

A simple Kanban board is a table with three columns:

• To-do – for the tasks on the waiting list
• Doing – for those in progress
• Done – for the completed tasks

Apart from the above-mentioned columns, the Kanban solutions offered online usually also include cards with tasks, that users can add, drag and drop, comment on, connect in a hierarchy, and allocate resources for. Besides, there should be an analytical system behind an effective Kanban solution to provide the users with the functionality of creating, saving, and sharing reports. Then, the board should be easily integrated with other project management solutions, and it should include the possibility to set automatic processing. Thus, we have summarized the requirements for an effective Kanban tool.

Why Kanban?

The advantages of the Kanban tool are obvious, and they speak volumes for its popularity.

• Visibility of the process. It is always easier to estimate the scope of work when you literally see what is required.
• The convenience of observing tasks taken and on the waiting list. The team lead can delegate the tasks that are more urgently needed.
• Satisfaction with the tasks performed. That feeling when you cross out something you have completed from the to-do list.

Need a try?

Popular JS libraries and frameworks provide their users with a variety of Kanban solutions. For instance, we can mention JQuery Kanban or a Kanban board from Syncfusion.  But we will focus on the JavaScript Kanban board from the Webix UI library. It is a mature tool, created by a team of experts. Although it has been less well-known among the developers so far, the solution, as well as the library itself, has great potential.

Kanban from Webix is a complex UI widget. It means that this widget is ready to be used as a complete SPA application. At the same time, the widget can be customized according to the needs of your solution. The Kanban JS UI widget from Webix has the following features:

• adding cards with a single click
• editing cards
• commenting tasks
• viewing the tasks of a selected user
• expanding/collapsing columns
• drag-n-drop
• compact view mode
• swimlanes
• filters

The Webix library has an active blog, with case studies of Kanban usage and customers’ reviews. Those are handy for gaining experience and understanding the potential hardships.

Conclusion

Kanban board is a helpful tool in project management. It can be used in different business domains, such as IT development, marketing, logistics, financing, and others. The board will become a value-for-money investment, in case you carefully choose the product that will meet all your requirements.

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