A kanban board is a visual tool that shows work items as cards moving across columns that represent the stages of a workflow, for example To Do, In Progress and Done. It makes the flow of work visible so a team can see status at a glance, spot bottlenecks and manage work in progress.
A core practice is limiting work in progress (WIP): capping how many items may sit in a column at once. This pulls the team toward finishing work rather than starting it, improving flow and throughput. Kanban boards are used both in dedicated Kanban and inside other approaches such as Scrum.
Related: flow, throughput, cumulative flow diagram.
Last updated: 4 July 2026 · By Tom, PMP-certified since 2004