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Kanban: Optimising Flow for Sustainable Value Delivery

Optimise workflow, visualise system dynamics, manage flow, and drive evolutionary improvements for predictable, sustainable value delivery.

A strategy for making work observable, managing flow, and continuously improving value delivery. Specifically Kanban as outlined in the Kanban Guide.

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https://nkdagility.com/resources/kanban/

Overview

Kanban is a strategy for change, not a tool or board. As defined in the Kanban Guide, it enables organisations to “start with what they do now,” understand their current system, and improve flow and value delivery through evolutionary change. It is rooted in Lean principles and systems thinking, focusing on how work flows rather than what work gets done.

Unlike frameworks that prescribe roles or timeboxes, Kanban introduces observability: visualising work, limiting WIP, managing flow, and making policies explicit. This exposes bottlenecks and enables evidence-based improvement without disrupting existing structures.

Kanban complements other approaches like Scrum and DevOps by improving transparency and decision-making. It does not require a reset or reorganisation. Instead, it guides teams to adapt their way of working over time, based on feedback and performance metrics such as lead time, throughput, and service-level expectations.

Crucially, Kanban is often misunderstood as just visual task tracking. But its true power lies in creating a shared understanding of system behaviour and enabling strategic decisions about where and how to improve. It empowers teams to deliver value predictably, sustainably, and with greater resilience—making it an essential strategy for navigating complex, evolving environments.

Learn More about Kanban

Signals

Why Tracking Individual Cycle Time Distorts Team Behaviour

Tracking individual cycle time can harm team performance by encouraging task cherry-picking, reduced collaboration, and lower quality, without improving overall delivery speed.
Guides

Kanban Guide

Discover more about Kanban Guide and how it can help you in your Agile journey!
Blog

Why Measuring Individual Cycle Time is Killing Your Flow (And What to Do Instead)

Measuring individual cycle time in Kanban misleads teams, hides real bottlenecks, and harms flow. Focus on system-wide metrics like PCE, WIP, and throughput instead.
Videos

The Key to a Kanban Strategy: Understanding WIP Limits

Explains how setting and adjusting Work-In-Progress (WIP) limits in Kanban helps teams manage workflow, prevent bottlenecks, and improve productivity and collaboration.
Videos

Mastering Kanban: The Essential Guide to Defining and Visualising Your Workflow for Maximum Efficiency

Learn how to define and visualise workflows in Kanban to boost team clarity, alignment, and efficiency, with practical steps for stable processes and effective task management.
Videos

3 core practices of Kanban. Actively managing work items in a workflow.

Explains how to actively manage Kanban workflows by monitoring work in progress, resolving bottlenecks, and optimising flow for greater efficiency and value delivery.
Signals

At the end of the day, Kanban is about improving flow

Kanban focuses on improving workflow by removing bottlenecks and constraints, reducing work in progress, and increasing process efficiency—not by overworking people.
Signals

Not all delays are the same

Explains the difference between waiting and blocked tasks, why clear distinction matters in workflows, and how to track and address sources of delay for better optimisation.
Videos

Maximizing Transparency and Improvement in Software Engineering with Kanban

Learn how Kanban boosts transparency in software engineering, helping teams visualise workflows, identify bottlenecks, and drive continuous improvement and delivery.
Videos

Mastering Your Kanban Board: A Practical Guide to Visualising and Optimising Your Workflow

Learn how to design, review, and adapt Kanban boards to accurately visualise workflows, identify bottlenecks, and support continuous improvement in team processes.
Videos

Why Limiting Work in Progress is Key to Success in Kanban

Limiting work in progress in Kanban helps teams focus, spot bottlenecks, maintain quality, and deliver value efficiently by ensuring a sustainable, manageable workflow.
Videos

Mastering Kanban: A Simple Guide to Its Core Principles

Learn the three core Kanban principles—visualising workflow, actively managing tasks, and continuous improvement—to boost team efficiency, transparency, and collaboration.
Videos

The Importance of Visualizing Your Work in a Kanban Strategy

Explains how visualising work in Kanban boosts team clarity, transparency, and alignment, and offers steps to define workflows, avoid misalignment, and improve collaboration.
Videos

Mastering Kanban: Creating a Pull-Based System for Workflow Efficiency

Learn how Kanban’s pull-based system boosts workflow efficiency by visualising tasks, setting WIP limits, managing bottlenecks, and enabling continuous process improvement.
Videos

3 core practices of Kanban. Improving a workflow.

Learn how to improve Kanban workflows by identifying blockages, reducing waiting times, and making continuous changes to boost efficiency and value delivery in your process.
Blog

Blocked Columns on Kanban Boards Obfuscate Workflow and Undermine Effectiveness

Using Blocked columns on Kanban boards hides workflow issues, causes task stagnation, and reduces transparency. Use tags to indicate blockages and maintain clarity.
Signals

Why Measuring Individual Cycle Time Fails to Help Teams

Measuring individual cycle time overlooks team performance and system bottlenecks. Focus on lead time, throughput, and process efficiency to improve workflow.
Videos

Mastering Your Kanban Board: A Practical Guide to Visualising Workflows for Maximum Efficiency

Learn how to design and customise Kanban boards to visualise workflows, identify bottlenecks, and boost team efficiency through clear, practical process mapping.
Signals

Understanding Blocked Columns and Stalled Work in Project Boards

Explains why using blocked columns for stalled tasks on project boards harms workflow, and suggests better ways to highlight and address blocked work without losing progress.
Signals

Why Using a Blocked Column in Azure DevOps Is a Mistake

Explains why a “Blocked” column in Azure DevOps hinders workflow, and suggests using tags and tracking to manage blocked work more effectively and visibly.
Videos

Understanding Kanban: A Tool for Transparency and Continuous Improvement

Explains how Kanban visualises workflows, tracks metrics, and supports continuous improvement, helping teams identify bottlenecks and enhance transparency and efficiency.
Videos

How long does it take to transition from project management to Kanban?

Learn how to move from traditional project management to Kanban, including steps, benefits, and tips for a smooth, gradual transition to Agile workflows and continuous improvement.
Videos

Why is Kanban such a popular approach for people in creative industries?

Explains how Kanban helps creative teams organise workflows, reduce chaos, prioritise tasks, and improve efficiency without stifling creativity, using real-world examples.
Course

Applying Scaled Portfolio Kanban

Discover the transformative ‘Applying Scaled Portfolio Kanban’ course, equipping you with the tools to positively influence your organization. From setting up transparent systems to managing portfolios effectively, gain actionable skills for real-world impact.
Course

Applying Professional Kanban (APK) Course with Certification

Revolutionize Your Team’s Performance with Kanban: Join our Immersion Training Course for a deep, practical dive into Kanban principles, designed to seamlessly integrate into your work life and foster continuous improvement and real-world application. Transform the way you deliver value today!
Course

Practicing Kanban Using Azure Boards

All software development teams aim to enhance flow and throughput. This one-day course combines Kanban principles with Azure Boards, showing agile teams how to configure and effectively use the platform for Kanban practices. Participants will collaborate in teams on a shared project and case study to maximize learning.
Videos

Unlocking the Power of Kanban: Transform Your Workflow with Data-Driven Insights

Learn how Kanban uses data-driven insights and probabilistic forecasting to optimise workflows, improve delivery, and enhance transparency across any team or process.
Videos

3 best ways to wreck Kanban. Use vanity metrics.

Learn how to avoid common Kanban mistakes by focusing on actionable metrics like WIP, cycle time, and throughput instead of vanity metrics for better workflow efficiency.
Videos

In WIP, less is more.  Why?

Limiting work in progress boosts productivity by reducing multitasking, context switching, and bottlenecks, helping teams focus, finish tasks, and deliver faster results.
Videos

Does Kanban integrate into a Scrum environment?

Explains how Kanban can be integrated with Scrum to improve workflow visibility, provide key metrics, and enable continuous improvement in agile teams.
Videos

Getting started with Kanban.

Learn how to launch a Kanban pilot, define workflows, use metrics like cycle time and throughput, and foster continuous improvement for better team productivity.
Videos

Why is Kanban becoming increasingly popular in creative industries?

Explains how Kanban helps creative industries optimise workflows with flexibility, personalisation, and continuous improvement, contrasting it with Scrum’s limitations.
Blog

Professional Kanban Trainer for Applying Professional Kanban

Learn about becoming a Professional Kanban Trainer, the Applying Professional Kanban course, certification process, and key Kanban principles for effective workflow management.

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