Kanban basics for small teams
A practical Kanban guide for small teams: recommended columns, WIP limits, and a simple weekly cadence.
Kanban basics for small teams
Kanban works best when it stays simple. This guide gives you a lightweight setup you can run weekly—without turning your work into a process project.
The essentials
What Kanban is (in plain English)
Kanban is a way to make work visible and keep it flowing. You use a board with columns to show where work is: planned, in progress, review, done. The goal is not more process—it’s less chaos.
The one rule that matters: limit WIP
WIP = work in progress. If everything is “in progress”, nothing is. Start with a small WIP limit for the In Progress column (e.g. 2–5 items for a team). This forces prioritization and exposes bottlenecks.
Keep planning and execution separate
A board is for execution. Your timeline is for milestones and sequencing. Mixing micro-tasks into a long-term roadmap makes both views worse.
A simple weekly cadence
Weekly: groom backlog, pick 3–7 planned items, confirm owners and acceptance criteria. Daily: move cards, unblock quickly, and avoid starting new work before finishing current work.
Kanban setup checklist
- Columns: Backlog, Planned, In Progress, Review/QA, Done
- WIP limit: small, especially for In Progress
- Clear ownership: each card has an assignee
- Clear finish line: acceptance criteria in the description
- Blocked work: always state why and who can unblock it