How Kanban works, a board you can build in Excel or Google Sheets, and the apps that give you one ready-made.
For anyone asking: How do I set up a kanban board for my team?
Each one's way of doing it, and the point where it stops.
The board is the core object: items sit in groups on a board, and you can start from one of 200+ templates instead of building columns by hand. Where it stops: Free: up to 3 boards; Basic unlocks unlimited items
Board view on the free Personal plan, with the same tasks in list and calendar views and one assignee per card, which matches Kanban's single owner. Where it stops: Personal (free): 2 users
Kanban Boards on Free Forever with unlimited tasks and unlimited free members, so the whole team works one board; sprint management and calendar view run on the same tasks. Where it stops: Free Forever: 60MB storage, 5 Spaces
The Kanban view on Free Forever shows a project's tasks as cards in columns, and the same tasks open in list, table and Gantt views with time tracking on them. Where it stops: Free Forever: max 5 users, 5 projects, 100 MB
Wrike Free includes project and task management with a board view, so a team can run a basic kanban board before adding dates or reports.
The kanban board is a view of a database, so the same cards can also render as a timeline; custom properties like started and finished dates live on each card.
A kanban view sits on top of records that also show as list, calendar or timeline, and Interfaces give stakeholders their own dashboard of the board.
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