Kanban Part 3 — WIP Limits, Blocked Items and Lanes of Service

This post focused on a few special Kanban topics: Limiting Work in Process (Kanban WIP) Blocked Work Items and Establishing Lanes of Service.

In our previous posts, we looked at What is Kanban and Why is it Used and Getting Started with Kanban.

In Part 3, we are going to drill in on a few special topics: Limiting Work in Progress, Blocked Work Items, and Establishing Lanes of Service.

1. Limiting Work in Progress in Kanban

Limiting Work in Progress (WIP) is a powerful and essential part of Kanban. If you don’t take steps to limit the work in progress in Kanban, you could argue that it isn’t really Kanban anymore.

As a quick aside, most popular agile frameworks take steps to limit WIP. For example in Scrum, the timebox of the sprint is a way to limit WIP.

Why do we want to limit WIP? There are a few great reasons to limit WIP:

1. We are able to deliver value faster
2. Limiting WIP prevents overloading and keeps work flowing smoothly
3. By focusing on fewer items and reducing context switching, people are more productive