Top 10 Kanban Templates for Engineering Managers

Kanban is important for engineering managers because it offers a clear visualization of work progress and helps in balancing the workload across teams. A Kanban Notion template can streamline this process by providing a pre-structured way to organize tasks, track their progress from initiation to completion, and identify bottlenecks in real-time. Before you start crafting your own Kanban system in Notion, you might find it helpful to explore templates like "Sales Tracker," "Task Manager," "Issue Tracker Template," and "Projects & Tasks" to ease the process.

What Should Kanban Templates Include?

Choosing the right Kanban template can streamline project management and enhance productivity. Here are key components to look for when selecting a Kanban template for your engineering team:

  1. Customizable Columns: Ensure the template allows you to modify and add columns to reflect your project's specific stages and workflows.

  2. WIP Limits: Work-in-progress (WIP) limits help manage the flow of tasks and prevent bottlenecks. Check that the template supports setting these limits.

  3. Integration Capabilities: A good template should easily integrate with other tools your team uses, such as version control systems and continuous integration tools.

  4. Visual Enhancements: Look for templates that offer color coding, tags, or other visual aids that make the board easier to read and manage at a glance.

Selecting a Kanban template with these features will help ensure it fits well with your team's needs and boosts their efficiency.

What Should Kanban Templates Avoid?

Choosing the right Kanban template is crucial for streamlining workflows without adding unnecessary complexity. Here are three key components to steer clear of when selecting a Kanban template:

  1. Overly Complex Customization Options: Templates that offer too many customization options can be overwhelming and counterproductive, leading to confusion rather than clarity.

  2. Fixed Number of Columns: Avoid templates that do not allow you to add or remove columns. Flexibility in modifying the board structure is essential as your project evolves.

  3. Non-Collaborative Features: Choose templates that enhance teamwork. Templates that lack features for team collaboration can hinder the dynamic flow of tasks and updates.

Selecting a Kanban template should ultimately simplify your process management, not complicate it. Ensure the template you choose promotes efficiency and adaptability.

1Projects & Tasks

Track projects of any shape or size, and for any type of team. View projects as a timeline, kanban board, or calendar — whatever works best for you. Then write planning docs, embed designs, and organize meeting notes in the same place.

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2Kanban board (w/ Notion AI)

Kanban boards are ideal for organizing large projects with many components. This template gives a complete picture of the progress of all projects, tasks, and team members, allowing you to easily keep track of all your work and keep everyone in the loop.

En forhåndsvisning av mal for Kanban board (w/ Notion AI)

3Task Manager

Assisting you in your journey when it comes to your tasks and projects, where you can monitor and track your progress easily and effortlessly, providing a centralized hub for productivity. Stay on top of deadlines, set priorities with ease, and achieve optimal project management efficiency.

Elevating yet simplifying your workflow, helping you to embrace organization, and stay in control!

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4Issue Tracker

Track engineering projects of any shape or size with this template. For teams that use the Agile method, you can break down each project into tasks, prioritize your backlog, then organize tasks into sprints. Filter by status, priority, and team to view your work any way you like. Plus, connect your other essential tools like Github, Figma, Slack, and more to truly keep all your work in one place.

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5Agile Project Management

Agile project management was born in 2000, and has been powering and guiding engineering, product, and more teams ever since. Agile management focuses on splitting project into incremental iterations or sections. This template allows you to view projects, that are divided into smaller tasks, and that correspond to sprints that you can visualize beautifully in a sprint timeline. Embrace agile to increase productivity, start with this template.

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6Notion’s tasks

Use this tasks database to capture your engineering and product teams’ day-to-day work. At Notion, we organize all our work by projects and tasks, then link each task to its relevant project and team. That way, you can filter tasks by a specific project.

This template is part of a larger — read more about how we use it in .

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7Software Product Development in-a-Box

Combines the core elements of our Product, Design & Engineering Team in-a-box sets to cover the needs of a modern product development team.

It features templates for your product, design, engineering, product analytics and user research teams. Amongst others; a product roadmap, OKR tracker, Sprint board, Kanban board, experiments tracker, user research tracker, tech specs, bug tickets and more.

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8Anthropic's project planner

Anthropic’s Project Planner template combines project overviews and detailed tasks in a succinct, dual-database format. Streamline your workflow, ensuring every goal aligns with actionable steps. Ideal for efficient project tracking and management, this template is a must-have for organized, goal-oriented teams and individuals.

En forhåndsvisning av mal for Anthropic's project planner

9Linear Product Management

Product teams who need an all-in-one system for complete Product Management within Notion. Inspired by the Linear app.
All the goodies of the linear app plus the flexibility of Notion to tailor the system as per your team's working framework.

Top features include Dashboard, Issue Tracking, Projects, Teams, Roadmaps, Cycles, Documents etc.

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10MYP Design Cycle Project Tracking (Kanban Style)

Use with your students to track their progress on their MYP Design Projects. They can customize the cards for their needs. You can edit it as projects call for it.

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Closing Thoughts

Implementing these templates can streamline project management and enhance team collaboration. They provide a clear overview of tasks, ensuring nothing slips through the cracks.

Start using these templates today to see immediate improvements in your workflow. They are designed to be intuitive, making adoption easy and effective for your entire team.

What is Work In Progress (WIP) Limit?

WIP Limit refers to the maximum number of tasks that can be in progress at one time in a specific stage of the Kanban process, ensuring workflow balance and efficiency.

What is Swimlane?

Swimlane is a horizontal categorization in Kanban boards that allows teams to separate tasks by type, priority, team, or project, enhancing visual management of complex projects.

What is Kanban Cadence?

Kanban Cadence is the rhythm or rate at which Kanban meetings and reviews occur, helping teams synchronize activities, manage flow, and promote continuous improvement.

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