Blog

Merlin Project: Kanban with Priorities

You plan your projects with Merlin Project? Then you already know that you can add your project activities and work with them in various views. Typically, you'll use a work breakdown structure with Gantt chart, when you are interested in the scheduling of your project. Many of our users choose a Kanban board, for a more visual approach and focus on the tasks and their current status.

In a long project with many activities, producing a long backlog list on the Kanban board might be overwhelming and even contra productive. Ideally you'll want to offer and show to your team, only those jobs important for the next step towards completion of your project.

In the following, we will show you, how you can filter activities and view your Kanban board by priority, to ensure you are not overwhelming your team and taking care of significant activities first.

Project Management at Your Fingertips

Merlin Project Is Now Available on the iPad

For 15 years, Merlin Project has been at the heart of all project managers on the Mac. Now with the new version we also make your iPad a powerful project tool.

Apple's magic tablet attracts everyone. Whether you're holding it up like a piece of paper in a meeting, appreciating its light weight when travelling, or using it as an intuitive tool and letting your fingers fly over its glass: Everyone loves their iPad. So it was obvious for us to prepare our favorite tool for the next decade. Now you have your projects within reach: Move Gantt bars and Kanban cards with just one finger and effortlessly wipe through large project plans. Experience all the powerful Merlin Project features on your iPad.

Our patented MagicSync synchronizes all project data with all devices. If your tablet is already in the meeting room, but you want to make a last, quick change, this is no problem. Modify it on the Mac – by the time you're in the meeting, everything's synchronized.

But Merlin Project doesn't just run on your iPad. On iPhone, it displays all project content in portrait format as compact lists and shows a dynamic Gantt chart in landscape format.

Try Merlin Project for iPad free for 30 days. The price for the monthly subscription is USD/EUR 6.99, the annual subscription is USD/EUR 69.99.

The new Merlin Project for iPad replaces the previous Merlin Project Go. If you have already subscribed, you will automatically receive the new version at the old price.

Start of the Public Beta for Merlin Project on the iPad

Update: The beta test has now been completed and the iPad app Merlin Project has been released for productive use.

Kanban in Organizations Part I

The Values and Foundational Principles of Kanban

This article describes the basic idea of Kanban based on its values and foundational principles. The Kanban method is regarded as the human start with what you are doing now approach to change. It should be seen more as a management method constructed around a value system than as a pure productivity tool. This method helps organizations to work better for their employees, customers and stakeholders. The basis of this article is the book "Essential Kanban Condensed" by David J. Anderson and Andy Carmichael.

Kanban in Personal Project Management

Agile Kanban Combined with Traditional Project Management

While agile methods such as Kanban are now widely used in project management, employing a purely agile approach without the advantages of traditional project management methods often does not work, especially when a large project team is involved.

This article explains the advantages of agile Kanban and the traditional waterfall model, and how you can employ this to your advantage in the form of hybrid project management.