Kanban Method and Practices Flashcards
7 cards from real Agile Project Management practice questions. Tap to flip, then mark Knew It or Still Learning — missed cards come back until you master them.
Read the first 7 Kanban Method and Practices flashcards as text
What is the primary purpose of a Work In Progress (WIP) limit in Kanban?
Answer: To reduce multitasking and expose bottlenecks
WIP limits cap how much work is active at once, reducing context switching and making bottlenecks visible.
In Kanban, what does 'pull' mean in a pull-based system?
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.
Which metric measures the total time from when a work item is requested to when it is delivered?
Answer: Lead time
Lead time spans the customer request to delivery, while cycle time measures only active work.
What is a Cumulative Flow Diagram (CFD) primarily used to visualize?
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.
Kanban is best described as a method that promotes which kind of change?
Answer: Evolutionary, incremental improvement starting from the current process
Kanban starts with what you do now and encourages gradual, evolutionary change with minimal resistance.
What does it mean to 'make policies explicit' in Kanban?
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.
Why are Kanban boards typically organized into columns?
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.