Kanban
An Agile framework centered on visualizing work, limiting work-in-progress, and maximizing flow. From Japanese kan (“sign”) + ban (“board”).
Core ideas
- Visualization. All work is visible on a board — typically columns for stages (To Do, In Progress, Review, Done) and cards for work items.
- Work-in-progress (WIP) limits. Constraints on how many items the team actively works on at a time. Prevents overload and exposes bottlenecks.
- Flow. The core principle — maximize efficiency by keeping work moving through the value stream.
Benefits
- Transparent visual feedback — anyone can see what’s in progress and what’s blocked
- Sustainable pace — the WIP limits ensure the team only accepts what it can actually handle
Kanban vs Scrum
| Scrum | Kanban | |
|---|---|---|
| Cadence | Fixed-length sprints | Continuous flow |
| Roles | Scrum Master, PO, Dev Team | No prescribed roles |
| Planning | Sprint planning event | Ongoing |
| Artifacts | Backlog, sprint backlog, increment | Board, WIP limits |
| Good for | Feature development with discoveries | Support, ops, steady-state work |
Many teams use both: Scrum cadence with a Kanban board (“Scrumban”) for visualizing sprint work.
Application
Kanban excels when work is continuous and unpredictable (e.g., support, ops, incident response) or when the team needs to reveal bottlenecks in an existing process. Also used inside Scrum teams as their board view.
Connections
- scrum-framework — often combined as Scrumban
- agile-manifesto
- course-5-agile-project-management