Agile Project Management Kanban Method and Practices 2 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: What is the primary purpose of a Work In Progress (WIP) limit in Kanban?
- To reduce multitasking and expose bottlenecks (Correct answer)
- To set a deadline for each task
- To assign more work to idle team members
- To increase the number of columns on the board
Correct answer: To reduce multitasking and expose bottlenecks
WIP limits cap how much work is active at once, reducing context switching and making bottlenecks visible.
Question 2: In Kanban, what does 'pull' mean in a pull-based system?
- Work is pulled into the next stage only when there is capacity (Correct answer)
- The manager pushes tasks to the team
- Tasks are pulled from the backlog at random
- Customers pull reports daily
Correct answer: Work is pulled into the next stage only when there is capacity
A pull system means a downstream stage takes new work only when it has free capacity, preventing overload.
Question 3: Which metric measures the total time from when a work item is requested to when it is delivered?
- Lead time (Correct answer)
- Cycle time
- Velocity
- Story points
Correct answer: Lead time
Lead time spans the customer request to delivery, while cycle time measures only active work.
Question 4: What is a Cumulative Flow Diagram (CFD) primarily used to visualize?
- Work distribution across stages and flow stability over time (Correct answer)
- Individual developer performance rankings
- The project budget burn rate
- Customer satisfaction scores
Correct answer: Work distribution across stages and flow stability over time
A CFD shows how many items are in each stage over time, revealing bottlenecks and growing WIP.
Question 5: Kanban is best described as a method that promotes which kind of change?
- Evolutionary, incremental improvement starting from the current process (Correct answer)
- Immediate, radical reorganization of roles
- A fixed-length sprint cadence
- Mandatory adoption of new job titles
Correct answer: Evolutionary, incremental improvement starting from the current process
Kanban starts with what you do now and encourages gradual, evolutionary change with minimal resistance.
Question 6: What does it mean to 'make policies explicit' in Kanban?
- Clearly define and display the rules for how work flows and is prioritized (Correct answer)
- Keep process rules in the manager's head
- Write a detailed annual business plan
- Limit who can view the board
Correct answer: Clearly define and display the rules for how work flows and is prioritized
Explicit policies, like definition of done per column, make process rules visible so everyone follows them consistently.
Question 7: Why are Kanban boards typically organized into columns?
- To represent the stages of the workflow that items pass through (Correct answer)
- To separate work by team member name
- To rank tasks by difficulty
- To group tasks by their due dates only
Correct answer: To represent the stages of the workflow that items pass through
Columns map the value stream stages so the flow of each work item is visible from start to finish.
Agile Project Management Kanban Method and Practices 2
What is the primary purpose of a Work In Progress (WIP) limit in Kanban?