How to limit WIP when you cannot block arriving work requests?

A concern that comes up frequently when you start talking about applying a WIP limit is: “So, what I understand from you is that at some point you will block incoming work requests if the WIP limit is reached, yes? Well, we cannot do that. We cannot tell people we will not work on their …

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Using card types and filters as “Virtual Horizontal Swimming Lanes” on a Kanban Board

After a serious break from Kanban Mechanics posts, here is one for you Kanban System Designers/Practitioners out there… I’ve recently become a fan of the “Virtual Horizontal Swimming Lanes” style of Electronic Kanban Boards. These Boards don’t use physical horizontal lanes but instead use dynamic and easy filtering to show virtual lanes. Specifically I helped …

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Why Agile Testing

Background I recently had a couple of weeks with a few activities related to “Agile Testing”. “Agile Testing” for those not familiar with it is the name we give to the set of thinking guidelines, principles and practices that help run the testing aspects of product development/maintenance in a more effective way under an Agile …

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Do we need stack ranking in a kanban system?

I want to talk about a kanban system design issue today. Do we need a way to portray full stack ranking of cards throughout a kanban system or is it enough to see stack ranking per lane ? To elaborate – sometimes it feels necessary to convey the priority of cards and have a way …

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