Kanban
Continuous pull-based flow with explicit WIP limits and service expectations.
Kanban manages a continuous flow of work by making policies explicit, limiting work in progress, and pulling new items only when capacity opens up. There are no sprints or fixed commitments — work moves through the board based on demand and team capacity, and health is measured through flow metrics rather than iteration velocity.
What it's for
Kanban works well for continuous delivery, operations, and teams managing variable or unpredictable incoming demand — for example, a support team, a platform team, or a product team that ships frequently to a live service rather than in batches.
Work item types
| Type | Description |
|---|---|
| Request | A customer or service request |
| Feature | New product capability |
| Bug | A defect to correct |
| Task | Operational or delivery work |
| Expedite | Urgent work with a defined policy |
Requests sit at the root. Features, bugs, tasks, and expedite items can roll up into requests or features.
Workflow
The board uses five columns:
| Column | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Backlog | Work waiting to be pulled |
| To Do | Work committed for the current period |
| In Progress | Active work (WIP limit: 5) |
| In Review | Work awaiting feedback or check (WIP limit: 3) |
| Done | Completed work |
Work is pulled into the next column only when capacity is available. Exceeding a WIP limit is a signal to finish before starting.
Cadences
Skopo calls these Rituals in the sidebar for Kanban projects.
| Cadence | When | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
| Replenishment | As needed | Select work when capacity is available |
| Daily Kanban | Daily | Coordinate around blocked, aging, and urgent flow work |
| Flow review | Daily | Inspect aging and blocked work |
| Delivery Planning | Weekly | Decide what completed work is ready to release or hand off |
| Service delivery review | Biweekly | Review service performance and expectations |
| Operations Review | Monthly | Inspect system capability, demand, dependencies, and service health |
| Risk Review | Monthly | Review delivery risks, blockers, and systemic sources of delay |
| Strategy Review | Quarterly | Align service capability with product and business direction |
Artifacts
- Definition of Workflow — an explicit description of what each board column means, its entry and exit criteria, and its WIP limit.
- Service-level expectation — the target elapsed time from commitment to delivery for each work type, configured in Project Settings.
Metrics
| Metric | What it measures |
|---|---|
| Work in progress | Started but unfinished items at any point in time |
| Throughput | Items completed per period |
| Work-item age | Elapsed time for currently active work |
| Cycle time | Elapsed time from when work starts to when it finishes |