Kanban for operations teams: workflow, WIP limits and flow metrics
For operations, facilities, IT service and office teams who juggle a stream of requests and want to finish work more predictably. No prerequisite. You'll define your team's workflow and policies on a Kanban board, set WIP limits and pull new work only when there's capacity, calculate the four flow metrics (WIP, throughput, work item age and cycle time), read a cumulative flow diagram and spot aging work, and set a service level expectation you can use with customers. It follows The Kanban Guide (2025) and Kanban University's guide to the Kanban Method; tool examples use Jira, but any board tool or a whiteboard works.
- Level
- Beginner
- Length
- About 95 minutes
- Contents
- 5 lessons · final exam
- Status
- Published · updated 10 Oct 2026
Skills you'll practise
- Define a team's workflow on a Kanban board: work items, start and finish points, states and explicit policies
- Set WIP limits and use pull signals to decide when to start new work
- Calculate the Kanban flow metrics (WIP, throughput, work item age and cycle time) from board data
- Read a cumulative flow diagram and aging work to find bottlenecks and stuck items
- Set a service level expectation from cycle time history and use it to manage aging work and customer expectations
Course outline
- 1.Define a team's workflow on a Kanban boardLesson · 20 min
- 2.Set WIP limits and use pull signals to decide when to start new workLesson · 18 min
- 3.Calculate the Kanban flow metrics from board dataLesson · 18 min
- 4.Read a cumulative flow diagram and aging work to find bottlenecksLesson · 15 min
- 5.Set a service level expectation and use it to manage aging workLesson · 14 min
- 6.Kanban for operations teams: workflow, WIP limits and flow metrics: knowledge checkKnowledge check · 14 questions
- 7.Kanban for operations teams: workflow, WIP limits and flow metrics: practical exerciseKnowledge check · 1 question
- 8.Final exam10 questions · passing it completes the course, so people who already know the material can test out
Sources it draws on
The lessons and questions are written from these references, so learners can go back to the original.
See it with your own jobs and topics
Tell us about your team and we'll walk you through setup, from choosing jobs to your first skills check.