Method guideEngineering

Kanban

A practical method guide: clarify prerequisites and materials, understand the complete process, and look up outputs, pitfalls, and stop criteria.

ComplexityMedium

TimeOngoing

Participants2-12

FormatWorkshop + async

MaturityCanonical

Plan Kanban practice

Prerequisite

What needs to be finished first

Complete firstAn observable workflow

The group can bound a service, its work items and relevant work stages.

A board without clear scope mixes different work systems.

Complete firstPolicies the group can influence

Participants can expose started work and agree on intake, limits and completion.

Hidden work and unilateral assignment prevent reliable flow management.

Preparation

What needs to be ready before start

Materials

Shared board, representative work items, visible policies and start and finish dates. A simple physical board can support the initial work.

People / roles

People in the workflow · ownership of policies and improvement · stakeholders as needed

Pre-read

Gather real items, actual waiting and handover steps, known blockers and available time data.

Time needed

Setup and initial trials across several appointments; ongoing practice afterward.

Setup

Define work item types, start and finish points, relevant states, WIP control and transition policies. Establish a Service Level Expectation (SLE) with elapsed time and probability, initially a clearly labeled estimate and later based on historical Cycle Times. Limits fit your workflow and are reviewed; no fixed team-size formula is prescribed.

Core question

The one question this method answers

What helps us finish started work promptly and more predictably within our agreed workflow?

Flow

Phases with goal, actions, output and pitfall

Kanban makes the actual workflow visible, connects it to explicit policies, and actively manages started work. Observations and flow data provide the basis for targeted improvements.

Manage the workflow together

Fictional board · 3 started items

Fictional booking app board. Boundaries and limits are example policies; adapt them to your actual workflow.

Ready

Improve search hint

Not started

In progress

WIP limit: 2

Simplify booking

Started 3 days ago

Clarify error message

Started 1 day ago

Review

WIP limit: 1

Check reminders

Blocked

Access missing; started 5 days ago

Done

Update help text

Completed; outside WIP

WIP boundary: WIP starts in “In progress” and ends at “Done”. Currently 3 items; blocked work still counts.
Pull and completion: A full column takes no more work. Available capacity first supports completion and unblocking.
Blocker: Record reason, next action and ownership on the card; keep the item in the workflow.
SLE and learning: State elapsed time and probability transparently, then review against completed Cycle Times. An SLE is not a guarantee.

The Kanban Guide · original educational rendering

1
Setup
Define the workflow
Goal
The group understands what flows through the system.
Inputs for this step
- Examples of started and completed work
Actions
- Define service, item types, start and finish.
- Derive relevant states and transitions from actual work and visualize them on a board.
Output
Definition of Workflow
Scope · items · start · finish · states
Quality check
Do columns represent actual states? Are start and finish unambiguous?
Pitfall
A standard board hides important waiting and review steps. Follow a real item and adapt the board to the observed workflow.
Timing: Setup appointment, then review against real work.
2
Policies
Agree on WIP and policies
Goal
Started work has clear limits and policies.
Inputs for this step
- Defined workflow
- Current started work
Actions
- Agree on WIP control, pull policies and conditions for transitions.
- Record blocker handling, exceptions and an initial SLE with time and probability.
Output
Visible working policies
WIP · pull · blockers · SLE
Quality check
Do policies prevent uncontrolled starts? Is the SLE labeled as a forecast?
Pitfall
Limits are exceeded without response and blocked cards hidden. Count blocked work and agree on how to finish existing items.
Timing: Separate setup step with a later review.
3
Active work
Manage started work
Goal
The team responds to stalled flow.
Inputs for this step
- Current board
- Age and blockers of open items
Actions
- Review started items for age, blockers and the next completion opportunity.
- Pull work within available capacity and agreed policies; help unblock and finish work.
Output
Actively managed work
Next action · ownership · blocker
Quality check
Does blocked work still count as WIP? Does aging work have a next action?
Pitfall
New items start while older ones wait unnoticed. Review aging or blocked work together and enable the next completion.
Timing: Recurring, with short shared checks as needed.
4
Observe
Understand flow data
Goal
The group detects changes using consistent measurement.
Inputs for this step
- Stable start and finish definitions
- Dated work items
Actions
- Capture WIP, Throughput, Work Item Age and Cycle Time: inventory, completions per period, age of open items and duration of completed items.
- Review distributions and comparable item types; use historical Cycle Times to update the SLE.
Output
Flow observations
WIP · Throughput · Work Item Age · Cycle Time
Quality check
Are measurement boundaries stable? Are open and completed items distinguished?
Pitfall
An average hides very old items and wide variation. Review old open items and the distribution of completed times separately.
Timing: Ongoing capture and regular shared review.
5
Improve
Try one improvement
Goal
A small change improves flow in a traceable way.
Inputs for this step
- Flow observations
- Participant feedback
Actions
- Choose a bottleneck or policy and propose one change with its expected effect.
- Agree on ownership and a review; assess effects and update the Definition of Workflow as needed.
Output
Improvement experiment
Change · expected effect · review
Quality check
Is the expected effect observable? Will the change be reviewed?
Pitfall
Several policies change together without evaluation. Try one manageable change with comparable observations.
Timing: Recurring reviews, observing effects over a suitable period.

Artifact

What comes out at the end

Sketch: what the artifact looks like

Kanban · Flow BoardMake work visible, limit WIP, detect blockers, and regularly review flow metrics

Form

Living Definition of Workflow with board, WIP policies, SLE, start and finish dates, visible blockers and documented improvement experiments.

Versioning / ownership

Record scope, date, evidence version and owner. Document changes with their reason and next review date.

Tool alternatives

Physical board with sticky notes
Digital board with configurable states and limits
Simple table with status and start and finish dates

Example output

Concrete filled scenario, fictional example

Fictional example for orientation. Counts and timings describe this case and are not universal requirements.

kanban-beispiel.md

Concrete filled scenario, fictional example

Fictional example: work on a booking app

Workflow: Ready → In progress → Review → Done. Start is entry into “In progress”; finish is entry into “Done”.

Current state: Two items in progress and one in review mean 3 WIP. The blocked review item still counts. Ready and done items sit outside this WIP boundary.

Next action: Review has reached its limit of 1. The team resolves missing access and supports completion before pulling more work into the full column.

Learning: Capture start and finish dates, inspect open item age and treat an initial SLE transparently as an estimate. An SLE is a probabilistic forecast, not a delivery guarantee.

Pitfalls

Recognize symptoms and steer against them

Quick overview, the full text is in the matching phase in the flow

Define the workflowA standard board hides important waiting and review steps.View in phase
Agree on WIP and policiesLimits are exceeded without response and blocked cards hidden.View in phase
Manage started workNew items start while older ones wait unnoticed.View in phase
Understand flow dataAn average hides very old items and wide variation.View in phase
Try one improvementSeveral policies change together without evaluation.View in phase

Stop criteria

When to pause, resolve prerequisites, or choose another approach

The workflow is unclear: follow real items together first.

Started work is hidden or limits routinely bypassed: clarify policies and decision authority.

A blocked item ages without response: prioritize ownership and the next unblocking action.

Time data is missing or boundaries change: stabilize definitions before comparing metrics.

The board changes without evaluating effects: agree on a concrete review and a small experiment.

Where to go next?

Delivery

Value Stream Mapping

Investigates a visible bottleneck as part of the larger value stream.

Operations

Visual Management

Extends the board with visible standards and deviation signals.

View in playbookSystematically Improve Engineering QualityMove from a vague quality goal through visible flow and tested hypotheses to a durably anchored standard path.

Finished the method guide?

Go to the profile for purpose, similar methods, and sources or continue to the next method in the catalog.

Go to profile More methods