{"id":12188,"date":"2014-03-03T14:15:41","date_gmt":"2014-03-03T20:15:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.planview.com\/?p=12188"},"modified":"2020-02-20T14:34:37","modified_gmt":"2020-02-20T20:34:37","slug":"why-limiting-your-work-in-progress-matters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.planview.com\/why-limiting-your-work-in-progress-matters\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Limiting Your Work-in-Progress Matters"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re a fan of Jim Benson and Tonianne DeMaria Barry\u2019s\u00a0Personal Kanban<\/a><\/em>\u00a0writings, you\u2019ll know that they have two basic rules:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Visualize your work<\/strong><\/li>\n
  2. Limit your Work-in-Progress<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Being relatively new to\u00a0Kanban<\/a>, the first rule instantly made a lot of sense to me \u2014 particularly in the context of using Planview AgilePlace. Being able to see the steps our team follows to get work done on a board and then visually track our progress has performed wonders for transparency, focus and collaboration.<\/p>\n

    As for limiting WIP, the light bulb moment was a lot later in coming. In terms of the Kanban maturity model, our team is probably somewhere between two and three.<\/p>\n

    \"\"<\/p>\n

    We\u2019ve mapped out our workflow on a Kanban board \u2014 and continuously revise it to improve our process. We also have explicit policies around how we get that work done.<\/p>\n

    When it comes to setting WIP limits, we made a half-hearted attempt to limit ourselves to three cards each, but agreed we\u2019d come back to that later as it\u2019s\u00a0really\u00a0<\/i>for more advanced Kanban teams. Right?<\/p>\n

    The importance \u2014 and urgency \u2014 of setting WIP limits all changed for me after a recent conversation with Jim and Tonianne. Jim pointed out, \u201cIf you\u2019re not limiting your WIP, then there is no flow. Your Kanban board is no more than a to-do list.\u201d That was the \u201caha\u201d moment I\u2019ve been needing. If we don\u2019t limit our work, how can we see where the bottlenecks are? And if we don\u2019t identify the bottlenecks in our process, how can we fix them?<\/p>\n

    If we\u2019re really committed to improving our workflow, then it\u2019s time to step up. Setting WIP limits shouldn\u2019t be an after-thought that sounds good in theory; on the contrary, it\u2019s a necessity to avoid the penalties of wasted time, effort and resources.<\/p>\n

    Need more convincing? Read Jim and Tonianne\u2019s \u201cWhy Limit WIP\u201d blog series. \u00a0At some level we\u2019re all guilty of taking on more work than we can handle, starting new tasks before we finish existing ones, and then forgetting to complete some of them or compromising the quality of our work as we get overwhelmed by it all.<\/p>\n

    Jim and Tonianne\u2019s parting words were that setting WIP limits is difficult; and in the beginning, it can feel counter-intuitive. But as soon as you discover that prioritizing some tasks over others ultimately results in completing\u00a0all<\/em>\u00a0of the tasks sooner than if you\u2019d started them all at the same time, you\u2019ll wonder why it took you so long to try it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    If you\u2019re a fan of Jim Benson and Tonianne DeMaria Barry\u2019s\u00a0Personal Kanban\u00a0writings, you\u2019ll know that they have two basic rules: Visualize your work Limit your Work-in-Progress Being relatively new to\u00a0Kanban, the first rule instantly made a lot of sense to me \u2014 particularly in the context of using Planview AgilePlace. Being able to see the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":47,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_editorskit_title_hidden":false,"_editorskit_reading_time":0,"_editorskit_is_block_options_detached":false,"_editorskit_block_options_position":"{}","footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[511],"class_list":["post-12188","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-work-collaboration","tag-leankit"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nWhy Limiting Your Work-in-Progress Matters - Blog | Planview<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"As for limiting WIP, the light bulb moment was a lot later in coming. 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