Team Collaboration & Change

Kanban Board

Visualise work in columns, cap work in progress and see when a column is overloaded.

Time: Ongoing
With: Individuals and teams
You get: A visible workflow where overload shows up immediately

How to use this worksheet

Add cards to Backlog. One card is one piece of work that can be finished.
Pull cards to the right when you start them. Set a limit for To do and In progress: the limit is the point of Kanban.
When a column goes over its limit it turns red. Finish or unblock something before you start new work.
Review the board regularly and ask what is stuck, and why.

Board

Add cards and move them between columns with the Move menu or by dragging.

Backlog

Ideas and requests

To do

Ready to start

In progress

Being worked on

Done

Finished

Prompts

Ask yourself

What is the oldest card in progress and what blocks it?
Which card could be split so it finishes faster?

Flow check

Before you finish

Limits are set for the columns where work piles up.
No card sits in progress for weeks without a reason.
The team looks at the board together regularly.

About Kanban

Kanban comes from Toyota's production system and was adapted to knowledge work by David J. Anderson. Its core practices are to visualise the work, limit work in progress and manage flow.

Limits feel restrictive, but they are what makes problems visible: when a column is full, you have to deal with the bottleneck instead of starting more.