How to use the Cycle Board

The Cycle Board is BrainStore's form of applying the Kanban technique to team work.

The goals

• Increase transparency
• Reduce work in process
• Reduce time spent in meetings, discussing things
• The rules (very simple)

Anyone can place items in the pipeline at any given time

• Only the facilitator can move items from the pipeline to the open
• Anyone can pull items from the "open" and start doing them
• When a item is done you place it in the done

The facilitator

The origin of the term facilitator is French and means easy (facile). Ideally the team selects a facilitator. The facilitator should only pull items if the cycle board is running smoothly.

The facilitator makes things easier by

• Talking to the team
• Deciding with the team what to place in the open and thus supporting the team to set priorities
• Supporting team members to place items in the pipeline and to pull from the open
• Making sure that there is not too much in the doing
• The facilitator can step down at any time - ideally after places all items in the open back in the pipeline before stepping down. The team then selects a new facilitator. So be nice to the facilitator :-)

Comments

Items can also be pulled by more than one person. Simply edit the item in the doing and add additional names.