Can you visualize a project timeline in Kanban Tool?

The nature of the Kanban method is visualizing the project by the completion stages, which usually become the board’s columns.

While it is the recommended way to utilize Kanban Tool, it may appear to leave less room for keeping visual track of the timeline. Nevertheless, you can use a due date on each task, observe the time left countdown on every card, and — most notably — preview the timeline in the interactive Calendar:

In my view, this setup gives you the best of both worlds: a Kanban view with task positions determined by completion stages and a calendar view displaying by when each item needs finishing.

The other approach is treating the workflow stages as your complete-by indicators, e.g.:

This way, the board bases on the notion of keeping task completion by set days, weeks, or other time values.

Lastly, should you wish, you can add swimlanes (rows) to the board to display your project information as a Kanban & timeline hybrid.

Because of its complexity, this is the last approach I’d recommend, but I know that some Kanban Tool users find it quite helpful. A flow like this can provide a way to visualize tasks planned for much later but hidden away from the daily work view.

Still unsure how to best manage your work? Feel free to experiment and tinker with the board setup until you find a way that fits. You can edit your board’s layout anytime without losing your live task data!

The post was originally published on the Kanban Tool Blog.