The document outlines five key steps for creating a modern Kanban board for software teams: establishing a workflow, defining stage policies, visualizing work, setting WIP limits, and continuously improving. It emphasizes minimizing workflow stages for easier bottleneck identification, maintaining card relevance, and using metrics to drive improvements. Each step includes practical tips to enhance process efficiency and focus.

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How to build the best Software Products
A modern Kanban Board
for Software Teams
Part 1

2. 5 Key Steps to a modern Kanban Board

3. 5 Key Steps to a modern Kanban Board
Continuously Improve
1 Establish a Workflow
Define Stage Policies
Visualize Work
Define WIP Limits
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4. Customize your workflow by creating stages.
Establish a Workflow
Pro Tip
Aim to minimize the number of stages, so you can effectively
identify bottlenecks in your workflow.
For example:
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To Do In Progress Done

5. Describe what each stage is in a stage policy. This
clarifies what it means for a card to be in a stage.
!
Considerations or requirements that should be met at a
certain stage of the process can be defined as well in a
stage’s policy.
!
Define Stage Policies
Pro Tip
Stage policies set quality standards and minimum requirements for cards to
be in a specific column.
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6. Knowing how the project is going should only take a
quick glance.
!
Keep your board relevant by dragging cards into their
appropriate stages.
Visualize Work
Pro Tip
Mark cards as ‘Ready’ and ‘Blocked, so your team can quickly see what’s
important.
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7. Ever feel like you’re doing too many things at once?
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We do.
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Set WIP Limits to win back your focus, by limiting the
amount of work you do in each column.
Define WIP Limits
Pro Tip
If you bring in too many tasks into a column with WIP limits, we give you a
gentle reminder that you’re likely trading focus for doing that extra task.
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8. How can I improve? Look at the trends.
!
Regularly view key metrics, like high cycle time and your
most recently shipped work, to determine where you can
improve.
Continuously Improve
Pro Tip
Look for metrics that are out of the ordinary and discuss why these anomalies
have occurred. Improvements (and suggestions) nearly always follow.
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9. Thank you for reading!
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10. Learn more
Advantages & Benefits of Agile