A Kanban is a streamlined planning concept designed by Toyota Motor Corporation in Japan. In Kanban, visual cues instruct you what to generate, how to generate and when to generate it in a Kanban system. Commonly, a Kanban system begins with a board and visual cards that represent elements in your product backlog. The cards are placed with in categories on the board that correlate to their current stage in the workflow, ranging from "Product Backlog" to "Complete." A Kanban board is a flexible project management way to display work, constraining work-in-progress, and increasing productivity. Kanban boards assist technology and service teams commit to the proper amount of work and complete it using cards, columns and continual improvement. In Kanban, you're in charge of the processes in between, so it’s better if you keep it simple and functional. The board's visual form makes it simple to see what has already been accomplished, what is actively being worked on, and what will be started next.

Kanban boards can be broken down into four components or anywhere in between desirably. As long as your workforce completes tasks, those cards will proceed to move to the right. Most importantly, you continue to provide benefits to your customers. Kanban establishes restrictions on the amount of items that can live in any one workflow step at any given time to ensure items are completed at a relatively constant level. Work In Progress (WIP) limits are what they're labeled as in Kanban. These should be built up in such a way that the work must be as smooth and constant as possible. They should be structured up in a way that the work flows as effortlessly and consistently as possible. If your team encounters an issue, these constraints will instantly bring it to light by establishing a visible roadblock. This enables the entire team to converge on the issue. Limiting the quantity of work in progress means that you are obliged to complete some of the tasks on your plate before proceeding on to future initiatives. Work in Progress (WIP) restrictions also enable you to be consistent with the proposed flowing, saving time by reducing task switching and accomplishing them.

The project is finished in Kanban when the backlog is empty and all of the cards are in the completed column. Kanban is amazing on its own for many projects. However, when integrated with a good agile framework and a great scrum tool, Kanban shines even brighter.