Kanban board
A Kanban board is a visual workflow tool that organizes tasks into columns representing stages of work, used to manage flow, limit work-in-progress, and surface bottlenecks.
In depth
Kanban (literally 'visual signal' in Japanese) was developed at Toyota and adapted for software by David Anderson. The core practice is to make work visible, limit work-in-progress (WIP), and pull new work only when capacity exists. Cards move left-to-right through columns like Backlog → To Do → In Progress → Review → Done.
Modern Kanban tools layer on swimlanes (per team, per priority), WIP limits, cycle time analytics, and SLA-based escalation. For most teams, a clear three-column board (To Do / Doing / Done) with WIP limits is enough.
OpenCharts ships a Kanban template family on the whiteboard that you can extend with custom columns, swimlanes, and AI-suggested next actions.
Also known as
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Build a Kanban boardRelated terms
Swimlane diagram
A swimlane diagram is a flowchart that organizes activities into horizontal or vertical lanes, with each lane representing a different actor, role, or department responsible for those activities.
Process map
A process map is a visual representation of a workflow that documents the sequence of steps, decision points, and handoffs needed to complete a business outcome.
Gantt chart
A Gantt chart is a horizontal bar chart that visualizes a project schedule, with tasks on the Y-axis and time on the X-axis, including dependencies and milestones.