Kanban
Kanban is a flow-based method for managing work — visualise the workflow on a board, limit work in progress, and optimise how quickly items move from request to done.
Kanban is a method for managing and improving work using a visual board that represents the workflow as columns (e.g. To Do → In Progress → Review → Done). Work items move across the board as they progress. Its defining practice is limiting work in progress (WIP): each column has a cap, so the team finishes work before starting more. Kanban is evolutionary — it starts from your current process and improves it continuously — and unlike Scrum it prescribes no fixed iterations, roles or estimates.
Kanban at a glance
- Category
- Methodologies & Frameworks
- Type
- Methodology / framework
- Appears in
- 1 section
- Related
- Scrum, Lean, Agile
Why it matters
Kanban’s power is in exposing and fixing flow problems. Visualising work reveals bottlenecks; WIP limits stop the team from spreading itself thin and force finishing over starting; flow metrics (lead time, cycle time, throughput) make delivery speed measurable and improvable. It is low-ceremony and easy to adopt because it overlays your existing process rather than replacing it.
When to use it
Kanban excels for continuous, varied or interrupt-driven work — support, operations, maintenance, marketing requests — and anywhere a steady flow matters more than fixed iterations. It also suits teams that want Agile benefits without Scrum’s ceremonies. It is less prescriptive, so teams needing more structure sometimes prefer Scrum or Scrumban.
How to use it
- Map your current workflow into columns on a board — visualise every stage.
- Put existing work onto the board as cards so the real state is visible.
- Set WIP limits per column to cap how much is in flight at once.
- Manage flow: watch for cards piling up (bottlenecks) and address them.
- Measure lead and cycle time, and improve the process incrementally.
Example
An IT support team runs a board with columns To Do, In Progress (WIP limit 3), Waiting, Done. When "In Progress" hits its limit of three, no one pulls a new ticket until one is finished — so instead of ten half-done tickets, tickets close steadily and average resolution time drops.
Template
A Kanban setup needs only a board with columns and WIP limits; a task-board template and clear "done" criteria are enough to start.
Tools
Formula
FAQs
What does limiting WIP actually achieve?
Does Kanban use sprints?
What is the difference between lead time and cycle time?
Alternatives
- Scrum — fixed sprints and defined roles
- Scrumban — Kanban flow with Scrum-style cadence
- Simple to-do lists — for very low-volume work