Agile Delivery · tool 1 of 6
Kanban Board
Kanban Board: makes all work visible and keeps it flowing, without overloading the team.
Best for: Continuous or support work · Time: 1 hour to set up
Domain: Schedule · Focus area: Executing
How it works
A board with columns for each step of your workflow (To do → Doing → Review → Done). Each work item is a card that moves right. Work-in-progress (WIP) limits cap how many cards a column can hold, so people finish before starting new work.
- Pull system: new work is pulled only when capacity frees up.
- WIP limits expose bottlenecks — where cards pile up.
- Lead time (start to done) is the key measure.
How to apply it
- Map your real workflow into columns — the way work actually happens.
- Put every work item on a card with one owner.
- Set WIP limits: start with roughly the team size for “Doing”.
- In the daily meeting, walk the board right to left: “What can we finish today?”
- Each month, look at where cards wait the longest and fix that step.
Tools: Trello, Jira, Planner, Asana — or a whiteboard and sticky notes.
“Stop starting, start finishing.” If a column hits its limit, help unblock it instead of picking up something new.
Use it
- Playbook: The team is burning out
Quick check
The Review column has reached its WIP limit. What should you do?
Sources
- D. Anderson, Kanban (2010)
- PMBOK® Guide, 8th edition, and The Standard for Project Management (PMI, 2025)
Last reviewed 2026-11-02 against the PMBOK® Guide, 8th edition · Practitioner review pending · How this guide is made