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Lesson 01 – Agile Kanban

Kanban is a flexible, flow-based method for managing work that aligns naturally with Agile principles. This lesson introduces Kanban's core ideas and shows how limiting work-in-progress (WIP) drives focus, reveals bottlenecks, and improves delivery flow.

1. Agile Foundations: Why Kanban Fits

The Agile Manifesto outlines a mindset for adaptive, value-driven work. It emphasizes:

  1. Individuals and interactions over processes and tools
  2. Working software over comprehensive documentation
  3. Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
  4. Responding to change over following a plan

These values are backed by 12 principles focused on frequent delivery, self-organizing teams, and sustainable pace.

Kanban doesn’t replace Agile—it embodies it. Instead of rigid roles or events, Kanban helps teams visualize work and improve flow incrementally, making it a natural choice for teams seeking agility without ceremony.

2. How Kanban Works

Kanban uses a visual board to represent the team’s workflow from start to finish. Each column reflects a step in the process. Each card is a task or work item.

Core practices:

  • Visualize workflow – Map out all stages of work, typically left to right.
  • Limit WIP – Set maximum items allowed in each column.
  • Optimize flow – Monitor how work moves and continuously refine the process.

A basic board might look like this:

flowchart LR
    A[Backlog] --> B[Selected]
    B --> C[In Progress]
    C --> D[Review]
    D --> E[Done]

This visual makes work status instantly clear. Items progress from Backlog to Done, one column at a time.

Sample Board Flow

Below is a simplified Kanban workflow commonly used on many teams:

flowchart LR
    A[To Do] --> B[In Progress]
    B --> C[In Review]
    C --> D[Done]

The diagram source is stored in media/kanban_flow_example.mmd.

Kanban boards also track quality issues. When testers log bugs as cards, those items flow through the same WIP-limited stages, ensuring defects are captured, triaged, and reported with clear status visibility.

3. The Power of WIP Limits

WIP limits cap the number of tasks allowed in a column. This small constraint delivers outsized benefits:

  • Surfaces delays early – If a column is full, new work can’t enter. This reveals slow or blocked stages.
  • Promotes focus – Team members finish what's started before starting more.
  • Enables smoother delivery – Less context switching, faster feedback, and more predictable output.

A good starting point is 2–3 tasks per person per column, but teams adjust over time.

Here’s a simple sprint with WIP limits in action:

gantt
    title Sprint Example with WIP Limits
    section Development
    Task1 :active, 2023-01-01, 3d
    Task2 :active, 2023-01-01, 3d
    section Review
    Review1 : 2023-01-04, 2d

Notice how only a limited number of tasks are active at once. This keeps the system flowing without overload.

4. A Complete Kanban Board

Let’s combine the ideas into a real-world example:

flowchart LR
    subgraph Board
        direction LR
        A[Backlog] -->|Max 5| B[Selected]
        B -->|Max 2| C[In Progress]
        C -->|Max 2| D[Review]
        D --> E[Done]
    end

Here, each stage enforces a maximum. When a column hits its limit, upstream work must pause. The team collaborates to clear the bottleneck—a behavior shift that builds accountability and flow awareness.

5. Why Kanban Scales

Kanban’s simplicity is its strength:

  • It works for individuals, small teams, and cross-functional organizations.
  • It layers over existing workflows—no overhaul required.
  • It fosters continuous improvement through visibility and measurement.

Most importantly, Kanban helps teams deliver value consistently while staying responsive to change—the heart of Agile.

Next up: Lesson 02 – Writing Clear Bug Reports