Kanban

What is Kanban?

Q: What is Kanban?

Kanban is a method for managing knowledge-work flow that makes work visible, limits how much is in progress at once (WIP) and helps the team continuously improve how it delivers. It does not replace the existing process: Kanban starts where the team is and evolves in small steps. It is the method taught in Kanban University's KMP and AKT credentials, offered by K21.

Kanban is a method for managing knowledge-work flow that makes work visible, limits how much is in progress at once (WIP) and helps the team continuously improve how it delivers. It does not replace the existing process: Kanban starts where the team is and evolves in small steps. It is the method taught in Kanban University's KMP and AKT credentials, offered by K21.

In practice

A Kanban team starts by drawing a board that reflects the real flow — columns like "To do", "In development", "In review", "Done". Each card is a work item that moves left to right. The team sets WIP limits per column to avoid the classic trap of "starting many things and finishing none". Short cadences (Daily Kanban, replenishment, operations review) keep the flow healthy. Metrics like lead time, throughput and the cumulative flow diagram show where to improve. Kanban works for development, operations, marketing, HR — any knowledge-work flow.

What happens when it is missing

Without Kanban (or another explicit way to manage flow), work becomes invisible: nobody knows where the bottleneck is, how long each item takes, or how much is in parallel. Teams start far more than they can finish, priorities shift constantly, and the feeling is one of permanent firefighting. Without WIP limits, multitasking becomes the default and slow delivery becomes normal.