Flow and the manager board

The board shows every story. When kanman works on many of them at once, you want to see the work the way a team lead manages it: by outcome, by how urgent it is, by how long it has been in flight and by where it waits. The board with its outcome cards and Flow on the Performance tab show exactly that.

Outcomes on the board

There is one board. Each outcome with more than one story is one card on it, like an epic, at the top of the column its work is in. Its stories live inside the card instead of filling the columns, so the board stays readable even when kanman runs many stories at once. A story without an outcome, or the only story of an outcome, is a card of its own.

An outcome card shows:

• the outcome’s name;
• its progress as a bar, with how many of its stories are delivered (1/4);
• one dot per story, by state;
• 1 needs you and an amber edge when one of its stories waits for a person.

Story cards that wait for a person wear the same amber edge.

Where the card sits follows how far its stories have come:

• Every story delivered: Done.
• At least one story started (in progress, in review or already delivered): In progress, or Review when every story that is still open is in review.
• Nothing started yet: the column of its most advanced story, Ready before Refining before Backlog.

For example, Keep nightly pipelines green with stories in progress sits in In progress, not in Ready, even while more of its stories wait in Ready. The card moves on its own as its stories move, and its bar, count and dots update in place.

The number next to a column’s name counts the cards the column shows: story cards and outcome cards. Work in progress limits count stories, see below.

An outcome’s own board

Select an outcome card to open the outcome’s board: the same columns with only that outcome’s stories, and the stories that wait for a person marked. Above them:

• the outcome’s name, its goal and its progress;
• Rename and the ⋯ menu (merge into another outcome, archive);
• Debrief once kanman wrote the outcome’s debrief, and Later with the follow-up stories nobody started yet.

Move stories between columns as on the team board. Move to outcome on a card moves the story to another outcome, out of every outcome or into a new one. Back to the mind takes you back to the team’s board.

Started stories show how long they have been in flight next to their key (“5 h”, “3 d”) and a thin bar along the bottom edge. The bar fills up as the story approaches the time your team usually needs. When a story takes longer than 85 % of your stories did, its age turns amber with a timer: that is the first story to look at.

You set a story’s class of service on its page (Expedite, Fixed date, Standard or Exploration). kanman marks its maintenance work itself.

Work in progress limits

A limit is about stories, not cards. It shows separately from the column’s count, and only on columns that have one: a small chip with a gauge icon, for example 4/3 (four stories in the column, limit three). Stories inside outcome cards count too. When a column holds more stories than its limit, the chip turns amber, so you see where work piles up.

• Select the chip to change or remove the limit. On a column without a limit, select its count to set one.
• In progress without its own limit follows how many stories kanman runs at once (Stories at the same time in Team > Limits and budgets).
• Done has no limit.

Flow on the Performance tab

Open the team’s Performance tab. Flow comes first and covers the last four weeks:

• Service level: “85 % of stories finish within 2 days”. kanman states it once five stories have been delivered.
• Cycle time (from start to delivery) and lead time (from request to delivery), each with its median and its 85 % value.
• Throughput: stories delivered per week, with the trend of the last weeks.
• Forecast: when the next five stories are likely done, with the chance for each date (50 %, 85 %, 95 %). kanman simulates many possible futures from your team’s own pace of the last two to four weeks and never promises more than the numbers support.
• Waiting for people vs working: how the time from start to delivery split into kanman working, waiting for people (decisions, reviews) and queued.
• Stories by state: how many stories were not started, ready, in progress, in review and done on each of the last 28 days. A band that widens shows work piling up in that state.
• Throughput by class of service: one small chart per class on the same scale.
• Aging work in progress: every started story by its age, with your team’s median and 85 % lines.

Every chart has Show table for the exact numbers. Each weekly report keeps the flow as it was when the week was written, so you can compare weeks.

Ask kanman

In the team chat, ask “How is our flow?”, “What’s our cycle time?” or “When will the next 8 stories be done?”. kanman answers with the numbers and a card that opens the Performance tab.

Morning brief, delivery review, replenishment and retrospective

kanman prepares these rituals for you:

• Morning brief: once per working day, at your time, one message in General with what was delivered since yesterday, what is in progress, what comes next and what needs you, for the teams you follow. Turn it on in Your settings > Notifications > Morning brief. There is no brief on your teams’ days off. If you chose quiet story updates, you get a brief only on mornings with news.
• Delivery review: after the weekly report, one message in the team chat with the week’s flow and an invitation to go through it. Ask about a story, the forecast or what waited.
• Replenishment: with the delivery review, a second message on what comes next: how many stories wait to start and how many days of work that is at your current pace, the next stories in line, and which outcomes have nothing queued. Tell kanman in the chat what should come next, or move stories into Ready.
• Retrospective: on Friday afternoon (or the weekday your team chooses), kanman writes what went well and what to look at, and asks what you would change. Start your answer with retro note:, for example “retro note: reviews waited too long”, and kanman keeps it with the week: the weekly report of that week lists the team’s retro notes, without names. You can add a note any time during the week. The prompt goes to people who chose normal or detailed story updates.

Team owners and admins switch the delivery review and replenishment on or off and set the retrospective day in Team > Hours and rhythm, under the team’s rituals. All of them respect the team’s working hours.