Kanban
Definition
Kanban is a flow-based work management method that helps teams visualize work, limit work in progress, and improve how tasks move through a system. Instead of organizing delivery primarily through fixed timeboxes, Kanban focuses on managing flow and finishing work efficiently.
Core Ideas
Basic Principles
The source notes highlight four foundational principles:
- start with the current process rather than redesigning everything immediately
- pursue incremental change
- respect current roles and responsibilities
- encourage leadership and improvement at all levels
General Practices
- visualize workflow on a board
- limit work in progress (WIP)
- manage flow rather than just assigning more tasks
- make policies explicit
- implement feedback loops
- improve collaboratively and experimentally
Board Structure
A Kanban board typically has simple states like:
- todo
- doing
- done
But teams can extend this with more columns, swimlanes, or explicit workflow stages depending on their process.
Key Metrics
The main metrics emphasized in the source notes are:
- lead time — total time from request to completion
- cycle time — time spent actively moving through the workflow
Operating Philosophy
Kanban strongly favors finishing over starting. The notes summarize this with a core rule:
Stop starting, start finishing
Benefits
- improves visibility of bottlenecks
- reduces context switching through WIP limits
- works well for continuous-flow teams
- can be adopted incrementally without a full structural reset
Trade-Offs
- can devolve into “waterfall with a board” if teams only visualize work without improving flow
- requires explicit policies and mature team habits
- may provide less built-in structure than Scrum for newer teams
Relationships
- Agile — Kanban is a common agile-compatible way of organizing delivery
- Scrum — Scrum uses timeboxed iterations, while Kanban focuses on continuous flow
- Scrumban — Scrumban is a hybrid that combines Kanban flow with selected Scrum structures
- Work Culture & Management — Kanban supports visibility, shared policies, and continuous improvement in team culture
- Agile and Team Processes — broader comparison of process models and trade-offs