Written by the AgileFever editorial team. Facts checked on November 12, 2026 against the official pages of the organizations named in this post. AgileFever sells training for some of the topics covered here, and we say so wherever it applies.
What STATIK is
STATIK is a method for starting Kanban on a real service. A team uses it once, at the start, to decide what the service is for, what hurts, what work arrives, how long it takes, and what board, limits and policies fit. The Kanban Guide itself, version 2025.5, does not mention STATIK. STATIK comes from the wider Kanban community, and Kanban University teaches it as a one-day workshop.
The method does not tell you what your board should look like. It tells you what to find out first. Teams that skip the discovery tend to copy a template, and a copied board hides the problems the team actually has.
The eight STATIK steps and what each one produces
| Step | What the team works out | What it can write down |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Understand what makes the service fit for purpose | Who the customers are and what they need: speed, predictability, quality, cost | A short service definition and 3 to 5 fitness criteria |
| 2. Understand sources of dissatisfaction | What hurts customers and the people doing the work, and how often | A ranked list of dissatisfactions with one real example each |
| 3. Analyse demand | Which types of work arrive, how many per week, how urgent, from whom | A demand table by work item type |
| 4. Analyse capability | How long work takes today and how reliably it is delivered | Cycle times from past items and a first service level expectation |
| 5. Model the workflow | The states work passes through, where it waits, who touches it | A workflow map from request to delivery |
| 6. Discover classes of service | Which kinds of work get different handling, and why | A list of classes, each with an entry rule and a policy |
| 7. Design the Kanban system | Columns, card content, WIP control, pull rules, explicit policies, cadences | A board sketch, WIP limits and a one-page policy sheet |
| 8. Socialize the design and facilitate implementation | Who must agree, how long the trial runs, when to review | A launch plan with a start date, a review date and named owners |
Step names follow the eight-step list published by David J. Anderson’s school (djaa.com), read on November 12, 2026. The artefact column is our suggestion for what to capture, not part of the published method.
Illustrative example: share of a one-day session by step. Real sessions vary with the team and the service.
How the steps fit together
Steps 1 to 4 are discovery. They give the team facts: what customers need, what hurts, what arrives and how long it takes. Steps 5 to 7 are design. The workflow map, the classes of service and the board come from those facts. Step 8 is agreement: the people who will live with the board decide to try it for a set period and review it.
A short example
Illustrative example, not a real team. A four-person support team lists its last 30 closed tickets. Step 3 shows two work types: password and access requests (about 18 a week) and integration problems (about 4 a week). Step 4 shows access requests close in 1 to 2 days and integration problems in 6 to 12 days. Step 6 treats access requests as a standard class and integration problems as a class that needs a named owner. The board in step 7 gets separate limits for the two types. The numbers are invented to show the order of the work.
Who should use STATIK
- A team starting Kanban on a service that already exists and has work history.
- A manager who wants a board design the team has agreed to, not one handed down.
- A team whose board stopped working and who wants to restart from demand and capability.
A team with no past work items can still run steps 1, 2 and 5, and fill in demand and capability after a few weeks of real data.
Learn and apply it
AgileFever runs a one-day STATIK Workshop. For a team session, read STATIK workshop for teams. To turn the design into a board, use the Kanban board template, set limits with how to set WIP limits, and read the Kanban principles and practices for the thinking behind them. Companies planning training for several teams can start with corporate Kanban training.
Questions people ask
What does STATIK stand for?
STATIK stands for Systems Thinking Approach to Introducing Kanban. It is a set of steps for designing a Kanban system from a service’s demand, capability and customer needs.
How many steps does STATIK have?
David J. Anderson’s school lists eight steps. Kanban University’s description counts six basic steps. Both describe the same discovery-then-design idea, so check which list your course follows.
Is STATIK part of the Kanban Guide?
No. The Kanban Guide, version 2025.5, does not mention STATIK. It defines Kanban’s practices and flow measures. STATIK is a separate method for starting a Kanban system.
Who should run a STATIK session?
A team lead, service owner or Kanban coach with the team that does the work. The team brings real work history, because steps 3 and 4 depend on it.
How long does STATIK take?
Kanban University teaches STATIK as a one-day workshop. The time for a real service depends on how much work history the team can bring and how many work types it has.
