Kanban Work In-Progress Limits
Work in Progress (WIP) limits restrict the number of kanban cards in each kanban board column. By limiting work in progress, teams often get more jobs done (and faster) than without WIP limits. This video teaches you what a WIP limit is, how to set your WIP limit on Jira Software, and some goals you can work towards now that your team is limiting work in progress.
WIP limits work by setting a maximum number of kanban cards that can be concurrently in any one stage of the kanban board. A WIP limit of six would mean that only six cards can be in that column simultaneously.
The main benefit of WIP limits is completing the selected work items more timely. This can be counterintuitive as your team is doing less work at once. By doing this, couples often increase their efficiency and go on to complete more work over time.
Setting WIP limits is something your team will have to experiment with. A good rule of thumb is to take the number of team members and multiply that by 1.5 or 2. It’s easy to add this new WIP limit to your board on Jira Software and Trello. We also teach you how to do it with physical Kanban boards.