Translating a Simple CAF to a Kanban Board Format
Chapters in this Article
A Standard Use Case
Let’s consider an example where a CAF consists of a form that has two main sections:
- Section A - Supplier / Contract / Budget details
- Section B - Approval details
Example:
Step 1) The person requesting the contract completes section A and emails it to the approver.
Step 2) The approver reviews it and approves or rejects the request (recording their decision on the form).
Step 3) If approved, the form is sent on to the relevant team(s) to setup the Supplier & Contract.
All of this data & process is typically hidden within emails, folders, or direct messages leading to questions like “where are we with that new Hardware supplier request?"
In Gatekeeper, our Kanban Workflows Engine can fully digitise and automate this form-based process.
When looking at a workflow, you would instantly see where the request is in the CAF Process and all the data & documents compiled in kanban tickets would be centrally stored and accessible.
Scenario: Pipeline request (not submitted yet)
Scenario: Request submitted & is being reviewed
Scenario: Request has been approved and is being set up
The end-result of this 3-phase kanban board is that you will have an audit trail (on the workflow) of
(i) who has requested a new contract
(ii) who has reviewed/approved that request
(iii) who has set up the documents/data in the CMS
All while be able to maintain very simple oversight of the process as a whole.
Outside of the kanban board itself, your result will be Supplier & Contract metadata records which have been checked over by (up to) 3 parties and can justifiably be assigned a status of Live & Approved in your database!
Additionally, any metadata records created via a workflow like this in Gatekeeper can always be traced back to their form of origin!
Pictured above: A User, opening a record in the Contracts repository, can navigate to the Forms tab to find a link to the kanban form which was completed during that contract's approval
Adding Complexity
Now consider where the CAF from the above chapter needs a new section: "Executing/Signing a contract"
Following the same logic, this would be added as an extra phase to the kanban board:
New Scenario: Request has been set up in the CMS and the contract is being signed (internally and/or externally)
This is the underlying logic of how we build workflows at Gatekeeper.
Kanban boards are iteratively assembled, adding reviews & actions to realise a collaborative process where all aspects of a key business task (such as a Contract Approval/Contract Renewal Review/Supplier Onboarding) are connected in a structured and easy-to-manage workflow!
Next Steps
As a next step, you can visit the below article & begin building your own diagram for a Gatekeeper-style workflow: