Software teams can use the Kanban Method to improve the way work moves through their existing process—without adopting a prescribed development lifecycle. Start by making the real workflow visible, then manage work in progress (WIP), agree on explicit policies, observe flow, and improve through small experiments. A board is one part of the system, not the method itself.
What the Kanban Method means for a software team
The Kanban Method is an evolutionary approach to improving how work flows through a service. A team starts with its current process, roles, responsibilities, and titles, then makes incremental changes instead of replacing everything with a mandated process. Kanban University states that there is no single “Kanban Software Development Process” or “Kanban Project Management Method” in The Official Guide to The Kanban Method. Microsoft Learn provides a software-team-oriented explanation in What is Kanban? – Azure DevOps.
That makes Kanban applicable to teams already using Scrum or another approach: they can use it to improve their existing workflow rather than first switching to a different lifecycle. It does not prescribe a universal board, meeting schedule, or set of development phases.
The four principles for managing change
Kanban University describes four principles for introducing change:
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- Start with what you do now.
- Agree to pursue incremental, evolutionary change.
- Respect current process, roles, responsibilities, and titles.
- Encourage leadership at all levels.
The six general practices
The method’s general practices guide how a team works with its system:
- Visualize.
- Limit WIP.
- Manage flow.
- Make policies explicit.
- Establish feedback loops.
- Improve collaboratively and experimentally.
These principles and practices are set out in Kanban University’s Principles and General Practices of the Kanban Method. Together, they make Kanban more than a way to display tasks: the team makes its work and operating rules visible, then uses feedback to improve the system.
How to design a Kanban system for your team
If every board and Kanban system is unique, how can you design your own? Begin with the work your team actually delivers and the path it takes, rather than copying a generic board template. Kanban University calls its iterative, service-oriented design approach STATIK, or Systems Thinking Approach To Introducing Kanban. Its steps can lead a team to revisit earlier design decisions as it learns more about the service.
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- Identify the service and its work. Define the service the team provides and the work items that flow through it. Make the work, workflow, and relevant risks visible.
- Map the real workflow. Identify the states a work item actually passes through and the meaningful handoffs. A board should reflect this path; its columns are not fixed by Kanban.
- Agree on explicit policies. Define what qualifies work to enter or leave each state, how the team pulls work when capacity is available, and how exceptions are handled.
- Choose WIP limits. Set limits where they will help manage active work, such as by workflow state, person, lane, work type, or across the system.
- Set feedback and review cadences. Decide when the team will inspect flow, discuss obstacles, and review experiments. Use measures and visualizations to guide those conversations.
- Improve through experiments. Collaboratively select a change, observe what happens, and adjust the system based on what the team learns.
STATIK is iterative, not a one-way setup checklist: new understanding about the service or its work may prompt a team to revisit its workflow or policies. The Official Guide describes the approach in The Official Guide to The Kanban Method; Kanban University’s Kanban System Design page outlines related system-design education.
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A board makes work and workflow visible, typically by showing work items as cards moving through workflow states. The number and names of the columns depend on the team’s service and context. An example board with roughly five columns in the Official Guide is an illustration, not a required layout.
The board is only one part of a Kanban system. Kanban University’s Kanban Method Glossary describes a system that includes a board, cards representing work items, policies, metrics, and cadences. A digital tool can display that system, but a column-based task list alone does not establish the team’s policies, feedback loops, or approach to managing flow.
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How WIP limits and pull work
WIP means work in progress: the number of work items in progress at a given time. A team can apply limits to workflow states, people, lanes, work types, or the system as a whole. The exact limit should fit the work and the team’s context; the cited sources do not establish a universal number.
When a limit is reached, the team treats capacity as unavailable for starting more work. Members can focus on completing items already in progress or helping work move through a blocked state. Pull means a new item enters when capacity is available, rather than being started simply because it has been assigned or is waiting in a queue.
This approach is intended to balance demand and capability over time, reduce delay and context switching, and support smoother flow. It does not guarantee a particular delivery-time or quality improvement. Kanban University describes the goal this way: “The goal of managing the flow of work is to complete work as smoothly and predictably as possible, while maintaining a sustainable pace.”
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Which Kanban metrics should a software team track?
Kanban University’s Official Guide names three basic measures. Define the workflow boundaries and measurement rules before interpreting them: a metric is only meaningful when the team knows what counts as an item, when its clock starts and stops, and which portion of the system it covers.
| Measure | What it tells the team | How to use it |
|---|---|---|
| Lead time | Elapsed time for one work item from the commitment point to completion. | Use run charts or distributions to inspect trends and variation in how long items take. |
| Delivery rate | Completed work items per unit of time. | Observe how much work the service completes over a defined interval. |
| WIP | Work items in the system, or a defined portion of it, at a point in time. | Inspect how much work is active and whether it is accumulating in particular parts of the workflow. |
These measures help a team observe system behavior and identify opportunities for improvement; they are not targets that apply universally. Microsoft Learn also discusses measures of effectiveness and throughput as part of continuous improvement in What is Kanban? – Azure DevOps.
Using Kanban with Scrum or another existing approach
Kanban is not automatically a replacement for Scrum or another way of working. A team can begin with its current approach and ask how Kanban’s practices could help improve its service. Kanban University’s Frequently Asked Questions addresses starting from an existing process.
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To decide whether and how to apply Kanban, compare the approaches against the team’s delivery context rather than assuming one is universally better:
- How does the team select work, and how easily can it respond when priorities change?
- What planning and feedback cadence fits the service?
- How clearly can the workflow and handoffs be seen?
- Where would WIP controls help the team manage capacity?
- Which approach best fits the work, service expectations, and delivery environment?
Those are decision questions, not a ranking. The sources cited here do not establish that Kanban or another approach is universally superior.
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