Kanban boards: concepts
1. Managing the workflow
Basic structure
The position of each card on the board reflects the status of the work it represents. The usual minimum states on a kanban board are:
- To do: committed work that has not yet started.
- In progress: work that has started but is not done.
- Done: work that has been completed and verified.
In some cases it is useful to include additional states depending on the type of work: in review, in testing, validated, in deployment, etc. The order of the items in the "to do" area reflects the planned sequence according to priorities. The units being tracked can be tasks, user stories, or epics, depending on how the board is used.
Kanban brings problems to the surface
Prioritization conflicts, impediments, overloaded people or phases, and development issues become immediately visible when the status of work items is updated on the board. This visibility is one of the most important values of kanban: problems are not hidden; they are exposed so that the team can act on them.
Kanban avoids Parkinson's Law
Kanban generates a continuous progression of work whose pace is not predetermined by a time-based plan: neither by a Gantt chart nor by a sprint. The absence of time milestones avoids the common tendency to stretch working time until the estimated time has been used up, known as Parkinson's Law:
However, the absence of time milestones without techniques for monitoring and managing progress would lead to delays caused by procrastination and perfectionism. The kanban answer is the WIP limit and continuous review of the flow.
Kanban enables continuous increment
Tasks are completed at a sustained pace and on a continuous basis, and with them, user stories are progressively added to the product, providing a continuous increment of value according to the priorities set by the Product Owner. This fulfills the agile principle of frequent delivery of value.
2. Information radiator
Encourages direct communication
It facilitates direct communication within the team when information is updated in meetings held in front of the board. It shares visibility of the project's progress with everyone involved, whether or not they are members of the development team.
Enables early detection of problems
Kanban continuously monitors the project's progress. Just-in-time updating of information helps to identify potential impediments, problems, and risks at the earliest stage, which would otherwise go unnoticed until they begin to cause delays that are already hard to recover from.
Fosters a culture of collaboration and problem-solving
It is an open and transparent means of communication for the team and all participants. By making everyone's work visible, it facilitates spontaneous collaboration and reduces reliance on formal follow-up meetings.
Digital kanban boards and AI tools
The use of digital kanban management tools (Jira, Linear, Trello, Azure DevOps) is very widespread, especially in remote or hybrid teams. Some of these tools already include AI features that can:
- Suggest WIP limits based on the history of the team's flow.
- Detect bottleneck patterns before they become visible to the team.
- Propose reorderings of the "to do" column based on priority and dependencies.
These features are useful as support for analysis, but decisions about the flow and priorities remain the team's responsibility. A board that is well maintained by a team that actively discusses what it sees is more valuable than an automated board that nobody reviews.
Common mistake
Updating the board only during meetings. If the board only reflects the status of work during follow-up meetings, it loses its function as a continuous information radiator and stops detecting problems in real time. Updating must be continuous: every time a task changes status, the board should reflect it immediately.
Resources
🔧 Kanban Flow SimulatorTool · Scrum Manager
See also
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