Kanboard-Prod/doc/what-is-kanban.markdown

What is Kanban?

Kanban is a methodology originally developed by Toyota to be more efficient.

There are only two constraints imposed by Kanban:

• Visualize your workflow
• Limit your work in progress

Visualize your workflow

• Your work is displayed on a board so that you have a clear overview of your project
• Each column represents a step in your workflow

Limit your work in progress

• Encourages focus by avoiding multitasking
• Each phase can have work-in-progress limits
• Limits help identify bottlenecks
• Limits avoid working on too many tasks at the same time

Performance Measurement

Kanban uses lead and cycle times to measure performance:

• Lead time: Time between task creation and completion
• Cycle time: Time between task start and completion

For example, you may have a lead time of 100 days but only have to work 1 hour to complete the task.