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PMP lesson · Agile Metrics & Events · Agile metrics · lesson 2 of 5 · about 6 minutes

Kanban and WIP limits

Agile, especially support and maintenanceFree preview
Goal: After this lesson you can explain Kanban's principles, set and use WIP limits, and choose Kanban for the right kind of work.

1The situation

Everyone busy, nothing finished

After handover, the robot cell team handles warranty requests: some urgent (line down), most small, all unpredictable. They tried two-week sprints, but urgent issues waited days for the next sprint.

When they switched to a board, every developer started a new request whenever they were free. Soon twelve items were “in progress”, testing was overloaded, and customers waited longer than ever.

Kanban fixed the first problem. WIP limits fixed the second.

2Kanban basics

Kanban visualises work on a board and manages flow: items move continuously from left to right, without fixed sprints.

Visualise
The board
Every item and its stage are visible.
Limit WIP
Work in progress
A maximum number of items per column.
Pull
Not push
Start new work only when there is capacity.
Stop starting, start finishing. When a column is full, help finish work downstream instead of starting more.

3A Kanban board with WIP limits

To doDevelop (WIP 3)Test (WIP 2)Done Test is full (2/2):developers help testinstead of starting more
When Test is full, developers stop starting new items and help test.

4How it looks on the exam

Exam-style question 1. After handover, the team handles warranty requests that vary in urgency and size and arrive unpredictably; some must be handled within hours. Two-week sprints are causing long delays for urgent issues. What approach is MOST suitable?
A. Keep sprints but reserve the last day
B. A flow-based approach such as Kanban with WIP limits and classes of service, e.g. an expedite lane
C. First-in, first-out
D. Monthly batches
Show the answer and the decode
Answer: B.
In simple English
Unpredictable, varied, sometimes urgent work.
What is the question really asking?
The best approach.
Key words / trigger
“arrive unpredictably … within hours”
PMP logic
Flow with classes of service handles urgent work quickly.
Why the wrong answer looks attractive
Keeping sprints seems consistent, but timeboxes don't suit random urgent work.

5Remember this

Your memory card

  • Kanban: visualise, limit WIP, pull, manage flow
  • Stop starting, start finishing; swarm on bottlenecks
  • Classes of service (expedite) for urgent work
  • Fits support and maintenance; no fixed sprints required
The full lesson in the PMCLEAR app also has:
  • the rest of the lesson (Classes of service)
  • a worked example
  • the common traps (wrong vs right)
  • 2 exam-style questions with the decode
  • a 3-question quick check
Open the full lesson → Create a free account
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