Kanban explained: Agile boards, cards & WIP limits

Imagine: Your team is embarking on a new project. You need an easy way to visualize your work so you're up to date on who's working on what, what stage each task is in, and when everything is due. You could scroll through your project documents, spreadsheets, emails, and messages to cobble together that insight, or you could view it all in one place with a Kanban board.

If you've dabbled in project management or started exploring ways to visualize your work, you may have heard of Kanban. Kanban helps teams balance the work they need to do with each team member's available capacity. This article covers everything you need to know about what Kanban is, how Kanban boards work, and how you can best use them to manage your team's work.

What is Kanban?

Kanban is an Agile project management method that uses visual boards to help teams track work through stages of completion. Built on a philosophy of continuous improvement, Kanban "pulls" work items from a product backlog into a steady, manageable flow. Kanban is especially popular with product, engineering, and software development teams. But any team that wants to create a more flexible workflow can use them.

How does Kanban work?

You don’t need to rebuild your workflow to use Kanban. Instead of rebuilding your process from scratch, you map your current workflow onto a board, define each stage of work, and move tasks forward as work progresses.

When a team member has capacity, they pull the next priority task from the backlog. WIP limits, or work-in-progress limits, help the team avoid taking on too much at once. Over time, teams review the board to spot bottlenecks and adjust their process based on work patterns and trends.

Kanban’s history and origins

Taiichi Ohno, a Toyota engineer from Japan, created Kanban in the late 1940s. Ohno realized he could improve the Toyota Production System by incorporating elements of lean manufacturing, also known as the "Just-in-Time" (JIT) system.

The key innovation was shifting from a "push" to a "pull" process:

• Push process: Products are built based on anticipated demand and pushed into the market

• Pull process: Products are created and resupplied based on actual consumer demand

This shift allowed Toyota to maintain lower inventory levels while remaining competitive in the market.

"Kanban" is a combination of two Japanese words: 看 (Kàn), meaning "sign," and 板 (Bǎn), meaning "board."

Though Kanban still lives on in many manufacturing settings, it was adapted for software development in the early 2000s. Kanban for software development uses the same "pull system" process as Ohno's lean manufacturing. Software development teams have found Kanban highly complementary to their DevOps practices. The synergy between Kanban and DevOps gets results faster and promotes a culture of continuous improvement and operational efficiency.

Core components of Kanban

Kanban systems use a few essential components to help teams organize work and understand how tasks move from request to completion. As you build your board, use these parts to reflect the way your team reviews, starts, completes, and improves work.

1. Kanban board

A Kanban board is the surface your team uses to track work. It can be a physical whiteboard with sticky notes or a digital board in a work management tool. The board gives your team a shared view of active tasks, upcoming work, blocked items, and completed work.

2. Kanban cards

Kanban cards represent individual tasks or work items. Each card should include the details a teammate needs to take action, such as the task title, owner, due date, priority, description, and supporting files.

3. Columns

Columns represent the stages work moves through. A simple board might include columns for “To do,” “In progress,” and “Done,” while more detailed workflows may add stages for review, approval, testing, or launch.

4. Swimlanes

Swimlanes are horizontal sections that separate work on the same board. Teams can use swimlanes to group tasks by priority, work type, team, project, or customer request.

5. WIP limits

WIP limits the number of tasks that can be in a single stage at a time. Limiting work helps teams avoid taking on too much at once, reduce multitasking, and focus on finishing active tasks before starting new ones.

4 core principles of Kanban

There are four core Kanban principles to help guide your team as you think about using this popular workflow management method:

1. Start with what you do now

You can apply Kanban to any current workflow or process. Unlike more defined Agile management processes like Scrum, Kanban is flexible enough to work within your team's core practices.

2. Agree to pursue incremental, evolutionary change

Big changes can be disruptive to your team, and if you try to change everything at once, your new system may not work. Kanban knows this, which is why the Kanban framework focuses on continuous improvement and incremental change. Instead of changing everything at once, start with incremental changes to evolve your team's processes over time.

3. Respect the current process, roles, and responsibilities

Unlike other lean methodologies, Kanban doesn't have any built-in team roles, so it works within your current team structure and process. Additionally, your current process may have strong elements that would be lost if you attempted to revamp your workflow in a single day.

4. Encourage acts of leadership at all levels

In the spirit of continuous improvement, the Kanban method recognizes that change can come from anywhere, not necessarily just "top-down." With Kanban, team members are encouraged to chime in, brainstorm ways to evolve processes, and take the lead on new work initiatives.

Who uses Kanban?

When using Kanban for project management, common use cases include work that arrives continuously, changes priority, or moves through repeatable review steps, such as:

How to create a Kanban board in 5 easy steps

In accordance with the first Kanban core principle (start with what you do now), you can apply Kanban to any workflow. The best way to visualize a Kanban board is with a work management tool like Asana. In Asana, every project can be viewed in four ways, including a Kanban-style Boards View.

No matter how you're creating your Kanban board, follow these easy steps to apply Kanban to any of your existing processes:

1. Start with a blank board

Though your Kanban board will eventually hold all of your backlog tasks and completed work, it's OK to start with a blank board for now. If you're using a work management tool like Asana, make sure you're on Boards View.

2. Create columns to represent work

Traditionally, Kanban board columns represent the various stages of work. The columns you create will depend on your team, but a few common columns include:

• Backlog, Inbox, or New: This column is where new work will go before you assign it to a team member.

• Ready or Prioritized: Move work into this column when it's ready for kickoff.

• In progress: Work your team is currently on. You may break the "In progress" column into other columns; for example, a content team might create columns for "Drafting," "Reviewing," and "Editing," while an engineering team might create columns for "Development," "Testing," and "Deployment."

• On hold: Move work into this column if you have to block it for some reason.

• Completed or Done: Move tasks into this column once they're done!

3. Add tasks to represent work

In a Kanban board, each task is represented by a card. Make sure your task titles are actionable. We recommend starting them with verbs, so your team knows exactly what they should be working on. If you're using a virtual work management solution, you can also add additional information, context, and files to Kanban task cards. Then, use tags to track metadata, such as how long the task should take or its priority.

4. Move work through stages

A core element of workflow management with Kanban boards is moving work through stages. You can do this manually by dragging and dropping tasks, or look for a virtual work management solution that automates the process for you. For example, with Asana, you can set rules to automatically route work into different columns based on relevant task information, like moving a task into the "In progress" column once you've assigned it to a team member.

5. Create new Kanban boards if necessary

You could theoretically use the same virtual Kanban board indefinitely. Because Kanban boards track work through a continuous process, there's no required reason for you to ditch your current board. But in some systems, like Scrum, you'll frequently create Kanban boards for each new sprint. Simply create a new board, erase your whiteboard, transfer your task backlog, and get started on your work again.

How to choose Kanban software

While the traditional Kanban board is still an effective project management tool, using a digital Kanban tool such as Asana can significantly improve your team's approach to continuous improvement. Kanban software is a web-based or app-based platform that replicates physical boards in a flexible, interactive environment. If you’re comparing options, start with our guide to the best Kanban software. Here's what to look for in a Kanban tool:

• Flow: Digital Kanban tools offer the best visibility into how tasks move through the workflow. Thanks to this transparency, teams can identify and address bottlenecks more easily, ensuring a smoother flow of work from inception to completion.

• Throughput: Teams can gauge their throughput by tracking the number of tasks completed within a specific period. Digital Kanban solutions, which offer insights into productivity trends and enable data-driven decisions to optimize team output, make it easy to visualize this metric.

• Lead times: It is crucial to understand the duration of a task from start to finish to predict project timelines and set realistic deadlines. Teams can accurately track lead times with digital project management tools, which provide valuable data to improve planning and execution.

• Automation: Kanban software often includes automation features that handle repetitive tasks, such as moving cards between columns based on triggers, sending notifications, and updating task statuses. Teams can focus on more value-added activities by reducing manual effort.

• Integration: Combining with other tools and platforms ensures that Kanban boards do not operate in isolation. Integrations link document storage, communication tools, and development environments to streamline workflows and keep all relevant information in one accessible place.

• Analytics and reporting: Digital Kanban tools often include built-in analytics and reporting capabilities. Teams gain deep insights into their working patterns through these features, enabling them to identify trends, forecast future performance, and make informed adjustments to their processes.

Essential Kanban best practices

The Kanban core principles guide your team's mindset as you approach the Kanban workflow. To implement a Kanban process, follow these six practices to help your team continuously improve and achieve incremental growth.

1. Visualize work

One of the biggest advantages of Kanban is the ability to see work "move" through stages. Not only does this practice give you a broad sense of how work moves through stages, but you can also get real-time, at-a-glance insight into the stage of work.

2. Limit work in progress

Work In Progress Limits, or WIP limits, are the maximum number of cards that can be displayed in a single column at any given moment. As an Agile methodology, Kanban is built on the principle of early delivery, meaning tasks should move quickly between columns rather than languish with an ambiguous "in progress" status.

There's no set requirement for how many tasks should be "in progress" at any given time, but in general, WIP limits can encourage your team to reduce multitasking and focus on producing individual work.

3. Manage flow

To effectively limit work in progress, optimize the flow of tasks on your Kanban board. Lead time is the time between starting a task and marking it "Done."

Managing flow helps you:

• Decrease lead time on tasks

• Reduce bottlenecks in your workflow

• Deliver work while it's still relevant

4. Make process policies explicit

Because tasks move so quickly in Kanban, make sure your team has established and clearly communicated conventions. Your process policies should guide your team's implementation of the Kanban methodology. Additionally, everyone on your team should be encouraged to participate and innovate on your Kanban policy, in accordance with the fourth Kanban core principle: Encourage acts of leadership at all levels.

5. Implement feedback loops

In Kanban, you want to gather feedback from two distinct groups: your customers and your team.

• Customers: Gather customer feedback and user stories on the quality and effectiveness of the solution your team produced. Was it the right thing to produce? Were there any problems? If there are problems (such as bugs in the code or product defects), revisit your Kanban flow and allocate more time for review, vetting, and evaluation.

• Team: Check in frequently with your team on the Kanban process itself. How do they feel about their output? Here you have another opportunity to encourage leadership at all levels and improve your team's processes and policies.

Feedback is an integral part of continuous improvement and, therefore, the Kanban framework.

6. Use key metrics to improve continuously

Tracking key performance metrics such as lead time, cycle time, and throughput is essential to effectively implementing a Kanban system. The metrics provide valuable insights into the team's progress and efficiency, highlighting areas for improvement. Teams can use this data analysis to make informed decisions and continuously refine their Kanban process. Enhancing project visibility drives the team towards achieving operational excellence in an Agile environment.

7. Improve collaboratively and evolve experimentally

Kanban, at its core, is about continuous improvement. But this also means other process improvement methodologies might work well in conjunction with Kanban. Whether it's Scrum or something else, always be willing to collaborate, experiment, and evolve your processes if necessary.

Scrum vs Kanban

Scrum and Kanban are both Agile frameworks, but they organize work differently. Scrum uses fixed sprints, defined roles, and review meetings to help teams deliver work in set cycles. Kanban uses a continuous delivery model, where teams pull new work from the backlog as capacity opens up.

Scrum is used by teams that plan work in batches, commit to sprint goals, and review progress on a regular cadence. Kanban works better for teams that handle ongoing requests, changing priorities, or work that does not fit neatly into sprint cycles. Some teams also combine parts of both methods into Scrumban, using Scrum ceremonies with Kanban boards, WIP limits, and flow metrics.

Kanban boards: Pros and cons

Should your team use Kanban? Here's a quick comparison to help you decide:

Kanban is a flexible tool that can help teams balance work with capacity. If you're introducing Kanban to a non-engineering team, consider moving one workstream at a time to ease adoption.

Visualize your team's work

With Kanban boards, your team has a clear line of sight into the tasks everyone is working on and where those tasks are in the process. You can view any Asana project in four ways, including Boards View, a Kanban-style board that helps your team more easily visualize and navigate workflow.

If you're ready to try a Kanban board for your team, get started with Asana.

Frequently asked questions about Kanban