Integrating a Kanban board into your WordPress site keeps projects smooth and teams aligned. Kanban visualizes work-in-progress so you can ship faster. WordPress powers over 43% of all websites, so let‘s discuss how to combine them for easier project management.
The Growth of Kanban Boards
Kanban boards organize tasks into columns marking progress from To Do → In Progress → Completed. They stem from lean manufacturing techniques designed to limit work-in-progress (WIP).
Limiting WIP is key. Researchers found team members juggle an average of 11 tasks simultaneously. No wonder it‘s hard to focus!
However, Kanban boards offer powerful productivity benefits:
With 94% of agile software teams now using Kanban boards, it‘s no fad. Top benefits include better focus, improved meetings, and increased transparency.
Integrating Kanban into WordPress keeps your full website workflow centralized instead of toggling between separate tools.
Why Add Kanban Directly in Your WordPress Site
WordPress dominates as the go-to platform for websites, blogs, ecommerce stores, and more with over 455 million sites built and counting.
As your digital headquarters, WordPress offers the perfect platform for adding a Kanban board:
WordPress Kanban vs Third-Party Tools:
| System | Native WordPress | Trello | Asana | Jira |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Learning Curve | Low | Moderate | High | Steep |
| Price | Free | Freemium ($) | Freemium ($) | $$$ |
| Privacy | Full control | Limited control | Limited control | Limited control |
| Customization | √ | Limited | Limited | Templated |
| Access Control | √ | Limited users | √ | √ |
| Integrations | Extensive plugins | Some integrations | Some integrations | Integrates well |
With WordPress already powering your website, by keeping Kanban native:
- No added subscriptions or payments
- Avoid security risks from separate logins
- Customize to match branding without restrictions
- Permission boards access to only who you want
- Scale from personal to enterprise use cases
Plus with 36,000+ WordPress plugins, you can connect other tools directly to your board tasks like email, calendars, analytics and more.
Step-by-Step Guide to Installing Kanban for WordPress
The open source Kanban plugin makes setting up a Trello-style board in WordPress simple across unlimited projects.
To install:
- In wp-admin, go to Plugins → Add New
- Search "Kanban" and install the plugin by WordPress.org.
- Activate the plugin
- Navigate to Kanban in left admin menu
- Select your board type and click "Set Up"
Now let‘s walk through key settings for customizing your kanban boards:
Choose Board Users
Under board Settings → Users tab, select who can access your Kanban board…
I recommend adding only active team members involved in the projects shown on the board.
Configure Board Columns
Columns represent the workflow steps that tasks move through from start to finish.
Some common defaults are:
- Backlog
- To Do
- In Progress
- Review
- Done
But you can fully customize column names, colors, and limit work-in-progress (WIP) per status:
Limit WIP to focus attention on priority tasks and prevent team members from getting overwhelmed. Start small with a limit of 3-5 tasks per column depending on team size.
Set Estimated Durations
When adding tasks, Kanban shows duration estimates that assignees select from for how long something will take.
Set options that match the sprint length for your projects. For software teams, 1-2 weeks works well. For content and creative, choose shorter intervals like hours and days.
This helps scope tasks while tracking actual time spent per card.
Best Practices for WordPress Kanban by Team Size
Your Kanban methodology may work differently for personal versus enterprise use cases. Here are some best practices:
Personal Kanban Boards
Great for solopreneurs juggling client projects and side hustles. Limit to one board with basic workflow of Backlog → To Do → Doing → Done.
Small Team Project Management
Maintain multiple boards per client project. Keep columns simple using To Do, In Progress, and Done. Set WIP limits of 3-5 per column.
Large Teams and Product Development
Create boards per product feature and limit to key statuses: Backlog, Ready, Development, Review, Done. Add Swimlanes to map assignees. Higher WIP limits around 5-8 tasks.
Remember, start small and continuously improve! The WordPress Kanban plugin makes it easy to customize boards over time.
Extending Kanban with WordPress Plugins
With 36,000+ plugins, WordPress offers nearly endless ways to integrate added reporting, automation, and functionality into your Kanban boards.
Analytics
For data-driven teams, pull statistics on cycle times, lead times, and throughput. The Kanban Analytics plugin is purpose built for WordPress boards.
Notifications
Automatically notify assignees when they receive new tasks or something gets moved to "Review" status awaiting feedback. The Kanban Emails plugin handles this.
Burndown Charts
For development teams, basic burndown charts show work remaining over sprint cycles. The Kanban Burndown Charts plugin adds this key reporting metric.
With the power of WordPress, you can build a fully customized Kanban project management system on your own website.
Adding a Kanban Board Directly Within WordPress
If you want to reign in work-in-progress, boost productivity, improve reporting, and increase transparency across projects…then integrating Kanban boards natively into your WordPress site is a must!
The open source Kanban plugin lets you hit the ground running in minutes with zero learning curve. And it‘s available completely for free.
By keeping your workflow entirely centralized instead of toggling between other tools, your teams stay aligned. Customize boards to match branding and only allow access to users you want.
Then leverage thousands of WordPress integrations to connect other productivity apps, notifications, calendars, and analytics directly into your kanban tasks.
The "website" landscape continues trending towards WordPress dominance. It offers the ideal platform for baked-in project management.
Give Kanban in WordPress a try today and let us know what you think! Have you discovered any other useful plugins or customizations? Ask us in the comments below.
