What does a Kanban board demonstrate?

A primary function of a Kanban board is to make the flow of work visible. A key practice within the Kanban method is to limit Work-in-Process (WIP). Kanban boards implement this by setting explicit limits on the number of items that can be in any given workflow state (column). When a column's WIP limit is reached or exceeded, it provides an immediate and clear visual signal that the team is overloaded in that part of the process. This helps the team identify bottlenecks and manage their workload to improve flow and predictability.

A. The board visualizes work items, but it does not inherently calculate or display the Cost of Delay for each item.
C. The board tracks the flow of work towards completion, not the cumulative business value of the work that has been delivered.
D. A burndown chart is a separate agile metric tool used to track work remaining against time, which is different from a Kanban board's purpose of visualizing flow. ---

1. Scaled Agile, Inc. (2023). "SAFe Team Kanban." Scaled Agile Framework. Retrieved from https://www.scaledagileframework.com/safe-team-kanban/. In the section "Establish Work in Process (WIP) Limits," the article states, "WIP limits... create a pull system... When a column reaches its WIP limit, the team swarms to help the work items in that column move to the next state." This directly supports that the board demonstrates where WIP is too high.

2. Scaled Agile, Inc. (2023). "Principle #6 – Make value flow without interruptions." Scaled Agile Framework. Retrieved from https://www.scaledagileframework.com/make-value-flow-without-interruptions/. This principle's section on "Limiting work in process (WIP)" explains, "When there is too much WIP, there is inherent friction, task switching, and overhead." The Kanban board is the primary tool for visualizing and managing these WIP limits.