Where does Kanban come from?
The method grew out of the visual signalling system developed on Toyota’s production lines in the 1940s. The Japanese word “kanban” means signboard: a physical card was used to show that production should slow down when a station reached capacity. Knowledge-work teams carried the same logic into software development in the 2000s, with digital task cards on boards taking the place of physical ones.
The three core rules of Kanban
- Make the work visible. Every piece of work should exist as a card on the board; unrecorded work is unmanaged work.
- Limit work in progress. Put an upper bound on how many cards can sit in a column at once.
- Measure and improve flow. How long does it take a piece of work to enter and leave the board? Track that regularly.
The goal in Kanban is not to keep everyone constantly busy, but to keep the work constantly moving. Those two are not the same thing.
How do you build your first board?
The common mistake is building the board around an ideal process. The right approach is the opposite: write down the stages work actually passes through today and build the board around that. Only start improving the process once you have made the current flow visible.
A column structure that is enough to start
- To do — work queued up but not yet started
- In progress — work actively being done
- Waiting — work blocked on an external reply or approval
- Done — finished and archived work
The WIP limit: the heart of the method
WIP (work in progress) is the number of pieces of work underway at once. Kanban’s most skipped and most impactful rule is putting an upper bound on that number. Without a limit, everyone starts five things at once, nothing finishes, and although the board looks full the number of delivered items drops.
A practical starting rule: set the limit for the “In progress” column at 1.5× the number of people working in it. For a team of four that is six cards. When the limit is reached, no new work is started; one of the existing cards is moved forward first. Uncomfortable in the first weeks, this is the single change that most increases delivery speed.
The difference between Kanban and Scrum
| Kanban | Scrum | |
|---|---|---|
| Time structure | Continuous flow, no fixed period | Fixed-length sprints |
| Intake | Work is pulled onto the board as it arrives | Work is pulled in at sprint planning |
| Roles | No mandatory roles | Product Owner, Scrum Master defined |
| Best suited to | Teams taking a steady stream of requests | Teams with predictable delivery |
| Response to change | Immediate, priorities update any time | Waits for the end of the sprint |
In structures where work arrives unpredictably — agencies, support units, sales teams and operations departments — Kanban usually creates less friction. Product teams with fixed delivery periods may get more out of Scrum.
Related pageKanban work tracking software — drag-and-drop work tracking on Slizer boardsThe two metrics you should measure
Kanban’s power comes from being measurable, but tracking ten different metrics is unnecessary. Two are enough for the large majority of teams.
- Cycle time — the time between a card entering “In progress” and moving to “Done”. A falling number shows flow is improving.
- Throughput — the number of cards completed per week. Far more reliable than estimation for capacity planning.
Once you have recorded these two numbers for four weeks, you can answer “how long will this take?” with data instead of a guess.
Common Kanban mistakes
- Building the board around an ideal process. A board that does not reflect the real flow is abandoned within weeks.
- Not setting a WIP limit. Kanban without limits is just a colourful to-do list.
- Opening too many columns. More than eight columns makes the board unreadable at a glance.
- Not updating cards. A board’s value comes from being current; a stale board loses trust.
- Never archiving completed cards. Accumulated cards make the board unreadable.
Summary
Kanban is not a complex methodology; it is three rules — make work visible, limit how much is done at once, and measure flow. Build the board around the process you actually have today, put a limit on the “In progress” column, and record cycle time and throughput for four weeks. Those three steps visibly increase delivery speed in most teams.