2025 Review and The Kanban App Reaches a Milestone

Last week I signed off with the hope that the Kanban app might be Minimum Viable Product (MVP) ready by the time I wrote the next post. I’m thrilled to say that it is.

MVP Candidate

A couple of days ago the Kanban app reached MVP status - all of the core features work, and there were no significant bugs that I encountered. So I turned off the testing data, and started to use it for real.

As expected, switching from test listings to an empty database that I manually populated with Boards and Tasks had a couple of hiccups. But all of the initial crashes were fixed in an hour or two.

Focusing on data integrity has paid off - so far there have been no issues of losing information or items displaying where they shouldn’t.

Screenshots

Here is a peek at the current Overview:

And the Board for work on the app itself:

Next Steps

While there are some aesthetic issues I’m impatient to fix, there are a few workflow things to work on first.

The main thing I want to add next is the final piece of Board-level pull logic: an automatic pull option. If a Board has a strict WIP limit, it should be able to pull the top To-Do Task until it hits that limit without you needing to do anything.

Next would be adding the ability to edit additional fields, like time estimates.

And of course, fixing the bugs I will inevitably run into.

The other significant task will be packaging the application. I think that using Python’s wheel system shouldn’t be too difficult, but it would limit the audience to people who already work with Python. I’d like to build executables so that non-technical users could try it as well, though my reading so far suggests that might be challenging. More to come soon.

Looking Back at Last Year

When I started posting late last year, I didn’t have a specific list of topics to cover planned out ahead of time. I just knew what is interesting to me, and that I could cover the hobby program I worked on earlier in the year.

Before this I hadn’t written in a blog format, so things were a little rough around the edges to start and posting took longer than I wanted. It’s been gratifying to see the writing and posting process get smoother every week, with fewer drafts and less editing needed overall.

The biggest surprise was how what was supposed to be a simple “Explain It Like I’m 5” post on Kanban Boards turned into such a significant project. It has taught me a lot about how to move an application from the early conceptual phase into a MVP-grade, focused productivity app.

If for no other reason, the Kanban project and the experience of writing regularly have made the blog well worth it.

As I look forward to the new year I plan to finish the Kanban project, and cover that process here. I also want to write about other topics I’m passionate about but haven’t explored yet, like sustainability.

I’m excited to see what the future brings, and what interesting projects and ideas spring from unexpected places.

Takeaway

This is a bit of a throwback to an earlier takeaway, but in reflecting on the blog and how it sparked the Kanban app I couldn’t help but think that the blog itself has been a low-key Agile activity. I came in with a direction in mind, even if it wasn’t fully detailed, but circumstances led me to doing the unexpected and writing a productivity app.

So: try to stay open to possibilities, even if they’re not in line with what you were expecting - especially if they’re exciting to you. You never know when a new opportunity will arise, or where it could lead you.

Next Time

I will continue testing the program on real-life work - mainly the work on the program itself. And I will look more into packaging, at least for Python users. I expect I will have some ideas on whether the program is meeting my goal of increasing task completion across multiple projects while reducing in-app screen time. But it will probably be too early to say much with certainty.