Kanban & Flow Management

Visualising work, limiting work in progress and managing flow with Kanban — boards, pull systems, WIP limits, flow metrics, bottlenecks, classes of service and improvement cadences. For anyone whose work arrives faster than it leaves.

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54m

Total time

Competency levels

Lessons

What you'll learn

Explain why visualising work on a board with columns as workflow states makes problems visible
Describe how work-in-progress limits improve flow, using Little's law qualitatively
Distinguish pull systems from push systems and recognise each in practice
Interpret the core flow metrics: lead time, cycle time and throughput
Identify bottlenecks from board and metric signals and choose sound responses
Apply classes of service and improvement cadences to run and evolve a Kanban system

Curriculum

Progress through each competency level in order.

Awareness

Making work visible: the Kanban board
Knowledge
3m
Pull, not push
Knowledge
2m
Awareness check: boards and pull
Assessment
7m

Knowledge

WIP limits and Little's law
Knowledge
3m
Flow metrics: lead time, cycle time, throughput
Knowledge
3m
Knowledge check: WIP, Little's law and flow metrics
Assessment
8m

Skill

Bottlenecks and classes of service
Knowledge
3m
Build and run a Kanban system on real work
Assignment
3m
Skill check: managing flow under pressure
Assessment
8m

Mastery

Improvement cadences: evolving the system with data
Knowledge
3m
Lead a data-driven improvement of a flow system
Assignment
3m
Mastery assessment: stewarding flow
Assessment
8m

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