Kanban Columns & WIP Limits | Optimize Flow 40% Faster
Design Kanban board columns and WIP limits with GitScrum. Configure work-in-progress limits, detect bottlenecks, optimize team flow. Improve cycle time by 40%.
7 min read
Well-designed Kanban columns and WIP limits transform your board from a simple task list into a flow optimization system. GitScrum's flexible board configuration helps teams visualize their workflow, limit work-in-progress, and continuously improve their process.
Board Column Design
Standard Development Board
BASIC DEVELOPMENT KANBAN BOARD:
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ BACKLOG │ READY │ IN PROGRESS │ REVIEW │ DONE │
│ (no limit)│ (5) │ (4) │ (3) │ │
├───────────┼─────────┼─────────────┼─────────┼──────────────┤
│ │ │ │ │ │
│ □ Story 8 │ □ #125 │ ■ #122 │ ■ #118 │ ✓ #115 │
│ □ Story 9 │ □ #126 │ ■ #123 │ ■ #119 │ ✓ #116 │
│ □ Story 10│ □ #127 │ ■ #124 │ │ ✓ #117 │
│ □ Bug #46 │ │ │ │ │
│ □ Bug #47 │ │ WIP: 3/4 ✅ │ WIP:2/3 │ │
│ │ │ │ ✅ │ │
└───────────┴─────────┴─────────────┴─────────┴──────────────┘
COLUMN PURPOSES:
• Backlog: All work not yet ready to start
• Ready: Refined, prioritized, can start immediately
• In Progress: Actively being worked on
• Review: Code review and testing
• Done: Completed and deployed
Advanced Board with Sub-Columns
ADVANCED BOARD WITH SUB-COLUMNS:
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ BACKLOG │ READY │ IN PROGRESS │ REVIEW │ DONE │
│ │ │ DOING │ DONE │ DOING │ DONE │ │
├─────────┼───────┼───────┼────────┼───────┼───────┼─────────┤
│ │ │ │ │ │ │ │
│ □ #130 │ □ #128│ ■ #122│ ◆ #120 │ ■ #118│ ◆ #115│ ✓ #110 │
│ □ #131 │ □ #129│ ■ #123│ │ ■ #119│ │ ✓ #111 │
│ □ #132 │ │ │ │ │ │ ✓ #112 │
│ │ │ │ │ │ │ │
└─────────┴───────┴───────┴────────┴───────┴───────┴─────────┘
LEGEND:
□ Not started ■ In progress ◆ Done (waiting for pull) ✓ Complete
WHY SUB-COLUMNS:
"Done" sub-columns show work waiting for next stage.
Reveals handoff delays between workflow stages.
QA-Integrated Board
DEVELOPMENT + QA BOARD:
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│BACKLOG│READY│DEV │CODE │QA │STAGING │DONE │
│ │ │ │REVIEW │TESTING │ │ │
├───────┼─────┼───────┼───────┼────────┼────────┼────────────┤
│ │ │ │ │ │ │ │
│ □ #140│□#138│ ■ #135│ ■ #132│ ■ #128 │ ■ #125 │ ✓ #120 │
│ □ #141│□#139│ ■ #136│ ■ #133│ ■ #129 │ │ ✓ #121 │
│ □ #142│ │ │ │ ■ #130 │ │ ✓ #122 │
│ │ │ │ │ │ │ │
│ │(4) │ (3) │ (3) │ (4) │ (2) │ │
└───────┴─────┴───────┴───────┴────────┴────────┴────────────┘
WIP LIMITS BY COLUMN:
• Ready: 4 (keeps work flowing without pile-up)
• Dev: 3 (focus on completing, not starting)
• Code Review: 3 (prevents review bottleneck)
• QA Testing: 4 (allows testing batches)
• Staging: 2 (limit unreleased work)
WIP Limit Strategy
Setting WIP Limits
WIP LIMIT GUIDELINES:
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ │
│ STARTING FORMULA: │
│ WIP Limit = (Team members for that stage) × 1.5 │
│ │
│ EXAMPLE: │
│ Team: 4 developers, 1 QA │
│ • In Progress WIP: 4 × 1.5 = 6 (round to 6) │
│ • Code Review WIP: 4 × 0.5 = 2 (everyone reviews) │
│ • QA Testing WIP: 1 × 2 = 2 (buffer for QA) │
│ │
│ ADJUSTMENT SIGNALS: │
│ │
│ WIP TOO HIGH: │
│ • Work sits idle between stages │
│ • Context switching increases │
│ • Lead time growing │
│ → Lower the limit │
│ │
│ WIP TOO LOW: │
│ • Team members frequently idle │
│ • Work blocked on single items │
│ • No flow at all │
│ → Raise the limit slightly │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
WIP Limit Enforcement
WIP LIMIT BEHAVIORS:
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ │
│ VISUAL INDICATORS: │
│ │
│ Under limit: [3/5] ██████████░░░░░░░░░░ Green │
│ At limit: [5/5] ████████████████████ Yellow │
│ Over limit: [7/5] ████████████████████ Red + Alert │
│ │
│ WHEN LIMIT IS REACHED: │
│ │
│ ✓ DO: │
│ • Help finish existing work │
│ • Swarm on blocked items │
│ • Address bottlenecks upstream │
│ • Pair on complex items │
│ │
│ ✗ DON'T: │
│ • Start new work anyway │
│ • Move items backward │
│ • Raise limit without discussion │
│ │
│ EXCEPTION POLICY: │
│ Emergency/critical bugs may exceed limit │
│ Team must acknowledge and track exceptions │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
Flow Optimization
Bottleneck Detection
IDENTIFYING BOTTLENECKS:
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ │
│ COLUMN WAIT TIME ANALYSIS: │
│ │
│ Ready ██░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░ 0.5 days avg │
│ In Progress ████████░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░ 2.0 days avg │
│ Code Review ████████████████████░░░░░░ 4.0 days avg ⚠️ │
│ QA Testing ██████░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░ 1.5 days avg │
│ Staging ██░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░ 0.5 days avg │
│ │
│ BOTTLENECK: Code Review │
│ │
│ IMPROVEMENT OPTIONS: │
│ • Dedicated review time blocks │
│ • Review before new work │
│ • Pair programming (reduce review need) │
│ • Automated checks before human review │
│ • Cross-train more reviewers │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
Column Metrics
KANBAN FLOW METRICS:
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ │
│ LEAD TIME: Total time from Ready to Done │
│ Current: 8.5 days (target: 7 days) │
│ │
│ CYCLE TIME: Time actively worked (In Progress + Review) │
│ Current: 3.5 days │
│ │
│ WAIT TIME: Lead Time - Cycle Time │
│ Current: 5.0 days (indicates queue time) │
│ │
│ THROUGHPUT: Items completed per week │
│ Current: 12 items/week │
│ │
│ FLOW EFFICIENCY: │
│ (Cycle Time / Lead Time) × 100 │
│ Current: (3.5 / 8.5) × 100 = 41% │
│ Target: >50% │
│ │
│ INSIGHT: High wait time suggests queue problems │
│ Focus on reducing time in "Ready" and between stages │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
Board Customization
Column Types
COLUMN CONFIGURATION OPTIONS:
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ │
│ QUEUE COLUMNS (pull from): │
│ • No WIP limit or high limit │
│ • Items wait here for capacity │
│ • Examples: Backlog, Ready │
│ │
│ WORK COLUMNS (active work): │
│ • Strict WIP limits │
│ • Items actively worked on │
│ • Examples: In Progress, Code Review │
│ │
│ BUFFER COLUMNS (handoff): │
│ • Small WIP limit │
│ • Work waiting for next stage │
│ • Examples: "Dev Done", "Ready for QA" │
│ │
│ DONE COLUMNS (completed): │
│ • No WIP limit │
│ • Archive completed work │
│ • May have "deployed" sub-status │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘