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When it comes to Kanban, many teams get excited about visualizing their work. But there’s a crucial element often overlooked: limiting work in progress (WIP). Without this, you’re not truly practicing Kanban. Limiting WIP is fundamental to controlling your workflow, understanding the system’s bottlenecks, and delivering high-quality products at a sustainable pace.
In this post, I’ll delve into why limiting WIP is essential in Kanban, how it helps teams stay focused, and share personal insights on its impact on real-world projects.
Before we dive into the importance of limiting WIP, let’s clarify what we mean by “work in progress.” In simple terms, WIP refers to the tasks or projects that are currently being worked on but are not yet completed. It could be:
Features being developed
Bugs being fixed
Stories in progress
The key takeaway here is that these items are in progress, but they are not yet done.
When teams take on too much work at once, the flow of work slows down. Why? Because multitasking and spreading focus thin across too many tasks lead to delays, confusion, and missed deadlines. Here’s what happens when WIP is not limited:
Task switching: Moving between tasks reduces efficiency and increases the time it takes to complete each one.
Bottlenecks: Without limits, bottlenecks in your workflow become invisible, causing delays that impact the entire system.
Quality suffers: The more tasks a team juggles, the more likely quality issues will arise, as attention is divided across too many tasks.
I remember working with a team that had no limit on their work in progress. We were constantly starting new features, fixing bugs, and dealing with customer requests. However, the lack of focus meant that everything was moving slowly. The team felt overwhelmed, and customer satisfaction was declining.
By introducing WIP limits, we quickly saw improvements. Tasks started moving through the system faster, quality improved, and we could actually see where the bottlenecks were. Limiting WIP was a game-changer for us.
If you’re not limiting your work in progress, guess what? You’re not doing Kanban.
Limiting WIP allows teams to focus on what truly matters: delivering value. By narrowing down the number of tasks in progress, team members can concentrate on completing the highest priority items, leading to faster delivery of usable products.
Teams can focus on fewer tasks, which increases concentration.
You can spot and fix bottlenecks faster.
Higher priority items get the attention they deserve.
When too much work is in progress, bottlenecks are harder to spot. WIP limits help reveal constraints in the system. For example, if tasks keep piling up in the “In Progress” column without moving forward, that signals a bottleneck. By setting WIP limits, it becomes easier to identify and address these issues before they snowball.
WIP limits help visualize where work is getting stuck.
Teams can proactively address bottlenecks to maintain a smooth workflow.
Reduced stress as work flows more predictably.
Overloading your team with tasks isn’t just inefficient; it’s also unsustainable. A team that constantly juggles too many tasks will quickly burn out. Limiting WIP encourages a sustainable work pace, ensuring the team stays productive and motivated over the long haul.
“The secret to a high-performing team is balancing the workload so that they can work at a sustainable pace.”
This approach doesn’t just help with short-term productivity; it keeps the team healthy and engaged over time.
The goal of Kanban is to maintain a steady flow of work, moving items from start to finish as efficiently as possible. Limiting WIP ensures that the work flowing through the system moves at a sustainable, manageable pace. This, in turn, ensures the timely delivery of high-quality, usable products.
Smooth flow of work from one stage to the next.
Faster identification and resolution of roadblocks.
Higher predictability and less chaos in the process.
Now that we’ve established why limiting WIP is essential, let’s discuss how to do it.
Every team has a different capacity, so start by evaluating how much work your team can handle at any given time. For example:
How many people are on the team?
How complex are the tasks?
What are the team’s current responsibilities?
Set a WIP limit for each stage of the workflow. This might be:
3 tasks in the “To Do” column
2 tasks in the “In Progress” column
1 task in the “Testing” column
The key here is to start with a manageable number and adjust as you go.
Kanban is all about continuous improvement, so don’t be afraid to tweak your WIP limits as the team evolves. If you notice work is getting stuck, try lowering the limit. If things are moving too quickly, you might be able to increase it slightly.
Limiting WIP can feel restrictive at first, but it’s important to get the whole team on board. Communicate the benefits of limiting WIP clearly, and involve them in setting the limits. This increases buy-in and makes the transition smoother.
In one of my Scrum teams, we initially faced resistance to setting WIP limits. Team members felt it would slow them down. However, after a few sprints of experimentation and involving them in the process, they started to see the value. Productivity went up, and frustration went down.
In Kanban, limiting work in progress isn’t optional—it’s essential. It enables teams to:
Deliver value consistently
Identify and resolve bottlenecks
Maintain a sustainable work pace
Improve the overall quality of their work
By setting appropriate WIP limits, you ensure that your team stays focused, productive, and capable of delivering high-quality products to your customers. So, if you’re practicing Kanban, remember this golden rule: Limit your WIP and watch your workflow transform. 😊
If you've made it this far, it's worth connecting with our principal consultant and coach, Martin Hinshelwood, for a 30-minute 'ask me anything' call.
We partner with businesses across diverse industries, including finance, insurance, healthcare, pharmaceuticals, technology, engineering, transportation, hospitality, entertainment, legal, government, and military sectors.