When organizations think about Agile, Scrum is often the first framework that comes to mind. It offers structure, ceremonies, and a clear approach to iterative delivery. However, Scrum’s time-boxed approach often creates bottlenecks, overburdens teams, and leads to uneven workflows—especially in fast-paced, high-demand environments.
This is where Kanban shines. Unlike Scrum, which focuses on iterations and sprint commitments, Kanban introduces Work In Progress (WIP) limits, a powerful mechanism that enables teams to maintain a steady, continuous flow of work without overloading themselves.
If you’ve ever struggled with work piling up, bottlenecks forming, or teams feeling overwhelmed by too many tasks at once, Kanban’s WIP limits might be the solution you need. Let’s explore why.
Understanding WIP Limits in Kanban
Kanban is built around visualizing work and limiting the amount of work in progress to optimize flow.
WIP limits (Work In Progress limits) are constraints on the number of tasks that can be actively worked on at any given time. Instead of pushing more work onto a team, Kanban encourages pulling work only when there is capacity.
🔹 Example of a Kanban WIP Limit:
Imagine your Kanban board has columns like To Do, In Progress, Code Review, Testing, and Done. If the "In Progress" column has a WIP limit of 3, then only three tasks can be worked on at once. The team cannot start a new task until one of the current tasks is completed and moved forward.
This approach creates a smooth workflow by preventing teams from juggling too many tasks at once, ensuring that each task gets completed before taking on new work.
How WIP Limits Make Kanban More Efficient Than Scrum
1. Preventing Overcommitment and Reducing Multitasking
One of the biggest pitfalls in Scrum is overcommitting during sprint planning. Teams often take on more work than they can realistically handle, leading to unfinished tasks at the end of the sprint.
Kanban’s WIP limits force teams to work within their actual capacity, preventing overload.
✅ Teams work on fewer tasks at once, which means they can focus better.
✅ Reduces context-switching, which studies show can lower productivity by 40%.
✅ Ensures that work moves through the system smoothly instead of accumulating in a backlog.
🔹 Scrum Problem: Teams commit to 10 stories in a sprint but complete only 7, leading to rollover tasks and increased pressure in the next sprint.
🔹 Kanban Solution: With WIP limits, teams pull in new work only when they have completed their previous tasks, ensuring a steady flow without overcommitment.
2. Continuous Delivery vs. Sprint-Based Delivery
Scrum relies on fixed-length sprints, meaning teams deliver value only at the end of a sprint (usually every 2 weeks). However, in many industries (like DevOps, customer support, and service requests), waiting 2 weeks to deploy work isn’t practical.
Kanban, with its WIP limits and continuous flow, allows for immediate delivery as soon as a task is completed.
✅ No need to wait for a sprint to end—teams can ship features, fixes, and improvements continuously.
✅ Reduces lead time, making work faster and more predictable.
✅ Ideal for dynamic environments where priorities change frequently.
🔹 Scrum Problem: A high-priority task arrives mid-sprint, but teams can’t start it because they are committed to sprint goals.
🔹 Kanban Solution: With WIP limits, teams can complete their ongoing work and pull in high-priority items as soon as there’s capacity.
3. Identifying and Resolving Bottlenecks Quickly
In Scrum, bottlenecks are often discovered too late, typically during sprint retrospectives. This means teams keep running into the same problems every sprint before they can react.
Kanban’s WIP limits make bottlenecks visible in real-time.
✅ If tasks start piling up in a column (e.g., "Testing" has 10 tasks waiting), it's a clear sign that testing is a bottleneck.
✅ Teams can pause new work and focus on clearing the bottleneck before pulling in more tasks.
✅ This self-regulating system ensures smoother delivery and prevents last-minute crunch time.
🔹 Scrum Problem: A team realizes in the sprint review that half of the committed stories weren’t completed due to a testing delay.
🔹 Kanban Solution: With WIP limits, the testing bottleneck is identified early, allowing the team to focus on resolving it before work stacks up.
4. Better Predictability with Flow Metrics
Scrum measures progress based on sprint velocity, but velocity fluctuates and often leads to unrealistic planning expectations.
Kanban, on the other hand, uses flow metrics that provide real-time, data-driven insights into team performance.
Key Kanban flow metrics include:
📊 Cycle Time: How long it takes to complete a task from start to finish.
📊 Throughput: The number of tasks completed within a time period.
📊 Lead Time: The total time from when a task is requested to when it's delivered.
✅ These metrics help teams forecast work more accurately, unlike Scrum’s inconsistent sprint velocity.
✅ Stakeholders get real-time updates instead of waiting for a sprint review.
✅ Teams can adjust WIP limits based on historical data to optimize efficiency.
🔹 Scrum Problem: Teams commit to 30 story points per sprint, but due to unforeseen issues, they only deliver 20. This creates unreliable planning.
🔹 Kanban Solution: Using Cycle Time and Throughput data, teams can predict work completion times more accurately.
5. More Flexibility and Adaptability
In Scrum, changes mid-sprint are discouraged, forcing teams to stick to sprint goals even if priorities shift. But in today’s fast-changing business world, rigid sprints can be limiting.
Kanban’s WIP limits create a dynamic, pull-based system where teams:
✅ Can easily adapt to new priorities without disrupting workflows.
✅ Avoid the sprint planning overhead, making it ideal for continuous product development.
✅ Work at a sustainable pace, improving both productivity and team morale.
🔹 Scrum Problem: A customer requests an urgent bug fix, but the team must wait until the next sprint to address it.
🔹 Kanban Solution: As soon as a task is completed and WIP capacity is available, the bug fix gets immediately prioritized.
When Should You Choose Kanban Over Scrum?
Kanban is more efficient than Scrum in environments where:
✅ Work items arrive continuously rather than in planned batches.
✅ Priorities shift frequently, making fixed sprints impractical.
✅ Teams need real-time visibility into bottlenecks and capacity.
✅ Continuous delivery is required instead of batch releases.
✅ Workflows involve multiple approval or testing stages.
Industries like IT support, DevOps, software maintenance, marketing, and manufacturing benefit more from Kanban than Scrum because it allows for real-time work management and faster turnaround times.
Final Thoughts: Why WIP Limits Make Kanban More Efficient
While Scrum works well for structured teams that can commit to sprint goals, Kanban’s WIP limits create a continuous, self-optimizing workflow that reduces waste, increases efficiency, and adapts to change without unnecessary constraints.
Kanban’s key advantages over Scrum:
✔ Eliminates overcommitment by enforcing WIP limits.
✔ Allows continuous delivery, reducing lead times.
✔ Identifies bottlenecks early, improving workflow efficiency.
✔ Uses real-time flow metrics, ensuring better predictability.
✔ Adapts to changing priorities without disrupting the team.
If your team struggles with bottlenecks, missed sprint goals, or unpredictable workloads, it may be time to adopt Kanban—because when it comes to efficiency, WIP limits are a game-changer. 🚀
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