Kanban Board

What makes kanban work

Kanban has three rules, and almost everything that feels useful comes from following them:

1. Visualize the work. Every task is a card. Nothing hidden in a spreadsheet tab.
2. Limit work in progress. If “Doing” is full, you cannot start another card, finish one first.
3. Manage flow. Review cards that stop moving and finish or unblock them before you start more work.

Recommended column configurations

WIP limits that actually help

Keeping the board useful

• Archive Done weekly. A long “Done” column is clutter. Archive on Friday or auto-archive after 7 days.
• Size cards similarly. Avoid one card that is “build authentication system” next to “fix typo in footer”. Break big cards down.
• Use tags sparingly. 3-5 tags. Past that, tags become noise.
• Review weekly. Look at cards that have been “In Progress” more than a week, they usually indicate a blocker nobody flagged.

Common mistakes

• Adding columns until you have twelve. More columns rarely help; they create context-switching overhead.
• Ignoring WIP limits. If you always blow past the limit, either raise the limit formally (signalling a real change) or actually finish things before starting new ones.
• Moving cards right without actually moving the work. A card in “Done” that is not really done is a lie the team tells itself.
• Using kanban as a personal diary. Delete stale cards. A backlog of 400 items you will never touch is a demoralizing wall of shame.