Wekan – Organizing Tasks and Projects with Kanban

by Catharina Berg — Image: © Catharina Berg / University of Bremen

Wekan is an open-source Kanban tool that allows you to visualize and organize tasks and work processes clearly. In particular, it helps teams to plan tasks collaboratively, coordinate responsibilities, and make work progress transparent and easy to track. Wekan is also well-suited for personal work organization.

Tasks are displayed as cards on a digital board and moved between different columns depending on their status, for example, from “To Do” to “In Progress” to “Done.” At a glance, every board member can see at any time which tasks are still pending, which ones are currently being worked on, and which ones have already been completed.

The Kanban method originated in the 1950s as part of the Toyota Production System. The goal was to make workflows more transparent and to make materials or tasks available exactly when they were needed (Sugimori 2003). Today, the principle is used far beyond the industrial sector, including in everyday teaching and learning at universities.

How can Wekan be used in teaching?

Wekan is suitable for numerous applications in everyday teaching and learning. Here are a few examples:

For Teachers

• Planning and coordinating tasks within teaching teams: Collaboratively organizing the semester schedule, project seminars, exam administration, and the development of teaching materials
• Structuring teaching and learning processes: Clearly outlining tasks, milestones, and feedback phases in seminars or project-based courses
• Supervising student group work: Making the groups’ progress visible, tracking milestones, and providing support as needed
• Supervising theses: Tracking the progress of bachelor’s, master’s, or research projects and coordinating supervision steps

For Students

• Organizing personal tasks and deadlines: Managing to-do lists, setting priorities, and keeping track of deadlines
• Coordinating group projects: Assigning tasks, defining responsibilities, and tracking the group’s progress
• Planning term papers and theses (individually or in a team): Structuring work steps, setting milestones, and documenting progress
• Structuring study and exam preparation: Planning study tasks, organizing materials, and tracking your own progress

How is a Kanban Board set up in Wekan?

The board consists of the following basic elements:

• Swimlanes divide a board into different sections.
• Columns indicate the status of a task, such as “open,” “in progress,” or “completed”.
• Cards represent individual tasks.

How does Wekan work?

Wekan supports team collaboration by allowing all participants to work on a shared board and track the status of tasks at any time. To invite people to a board, they must have logged in to Wekan at least once beforehand. Team members can move cards between columns using drag-and-drop. This provides a continuous overview on which tasks are pending, which are currently being worked on, and which have already been completed. Columns can be named according to your needs, mirroring the structure of your work flow or any other logic.

Tasks (cards) can be assigned to specific individuals; descriptions, checklists, attachments, or due dates can be added. A comment feature enables direct discussion about a task without having to resort to other communication channels.

For better organization, tasks can also be categorized using labels, and creating a template helps with recurring tasks. Roles and permissions ensure that boards can be shared while still being properly managed.

Last but not least, Wekan complies with the provisions of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the data protection requirements of the University of Bremen.

References

Sugimori, Y. (2003). Toyota-Produktionssystem und Kanban-System: Materialisierung von Just-in-Time-System und Respekt für den Menschen. In M. Lewis (Hrsg.), Betriebsmanagement: Vol. 2 (S. 91–104). Routledge.