Written by the AgileFever editorial team. Facts checked on November 5, 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. The template, limits and sample numbers are our own design, built for you to edit. They are not survey data or client results.
Most pages that offer a kanban board template give you three columns and a picture. They do not say how many cards a column may hold, when a card may move, or what to measure. This one gives you a board, a plain-text version, a spreadsheet version with exact formulas, a one-page list of working agreements and a two-week tuning plan. For seven team-specific boards, read our kanban board examples. For a zero-cost setup, see free kanban boards for startups.
What the Kanban Guide requires of a kanban board
The Kanban Guide from Kanban University (version 2025.5, updated May 1, 2025) defines Kanban as a strategy for optimizing the flow of value, carried out through three practices: defining and visualizing the workflow, actively managing items in it, and improving it. Your board is the visual part. The Guide asks for a Definition of Workflow with, at a minimum, the work item definition, start and finish points, workflow states, a WIP control method, explicit policies and a service level expectation.
The Guide prescribes no column names or WIP numbers. It defines WIP as the number of work items started but not finished, and names four flow metrics: WIP, throughput, work item age and cycle time. The template maps each of those to a field or a formula.
The base kanban board template
Assume five people deliver software or similar knowledge work. A card counts as started when someone pulls it into In progress and finished when it reaches Done. Ready is a queue before the start point, so it has a limit but does not count as WIP in the Guide’s sense.
Illustrative. Expedite is the only case where a column goes over its limit, shown in red.
4, no limit
5 of 5
6 of 5
2 of 3
1 of 3
3, no limit
Columns, WIP limits and definitions of done
| Column | WIP limit and the rule for choosing it | Definition of done (exit policy) |
|---|---|---|
| Options | None. Keep the list short enough to read in one minute. | Written as one sentence with a named requester. |
| Ready | About one week of throughput. If you finish 5 cards a week, set 5. A longer queue goes stale. | Acceptance check written. Fits in about five working days. |
| In progress | One card per person doing the work: 5 people, limit 5. | Acceptance check passes. Handed to review with a link. |
| Review | Half the team, rounded up: 3. Reviewers should read without dropping their own cards. | One approval. Every comment resolved. |
| Release-ready | The size of one release or hand-off: 3. | Released or delivered to the requester. |
| Done | None. | Stays visible until the next review, then archive. |
Start with limits low enough to expose a problem, and change one column at a time. Microsoft’s Azure Boards guidance suggests no more than two or three items per person in a stage, a useful ceiling for the In progress column.
Card fields
Keep a card to eight fields: ID, title starting with a verb, owner, class of service, start date, finish date, a blocked flag with the reason, and a link to the detail. The two dates feed every metric you will need. Our post on what kanban cards hold covers each field in more detail.
Pull policy
- Work right to left. Check Release-ready first, then Review, then In progress, before touching Ready.
- Pull only when the column is below its limit. A full column is a signal to help, not to start something new.
- Take the top card from Ready unless an expedite or fixed-date card is waiting.
The Guide describes the same idea: when WIP falls below the limit, that signals new work can be selected. For the full mechanics, see our Kanban pull system guide.
Blocked and expedite rules
- Flag a blocked card in place, write the reason and name who can unblock it. It stays in its column and still counts as WIP.
- If a card is blocked for more than two working days, raise it at the next daily meeting and swarm on it before pulling new work. The Guide lists unblocking blocked work as part of actively managing items.
- Allow one expedite card on the whole board. It may exceed the In progress limit by one. Finish it before anything else.
Classes of service
| Class | Policy | How to pull it |
|---|---|---|
| Expedite | Real cost of delay measured in hours. One at a time. | Straight into In progress, over the limit by one. |
| Fixed date | A date the world sets: a filing, a launch, a contract. | Start no later than the due date minus your SLE in days. With a 10-day SLE and a June 30 due date, start by June 20. |
| Standard | Everything else. | Top to bottom order in Ready. |
Classes of service come from the wider Kanban practice, not from the Guide itself. Our post on class of service and work item type goes further.
Plain-text kanban board template to paste into any tool
Paste this into a wiki page, a board description or a team channel. Replace the angle-bracket values.
BOARD: <team name> Review date: <two weeks from today> START POINT: a card is pulled into In progress. FINISH POINT: a card reaches Done. SERVICE LEVEL EXPECTATION: 85% of cards finish in <10> days or less (best guess until you have data). COLUMNS (left to right) 1. Options | WIP limit: none | Exit: idea written as one sentence with a named requester 2. Ready | WIP limit: <one week of throughput, e.g. 5> | Exit: acceptance check written, fits in about 5 working days 3. In progress | WIP limit: <people doing the work, e.g. 5> | Exit: acceptance check passes, change handed to review 4. Review | WIP limit: <half the team, rounded up, e.g. 3> | Exit: one approval, all comments resolved 5. Release-ready | WIP limit: <size of one release, e.g. 3> | Exit: released or delivered to the requester 6. Done | WIP limit: none | Cards stay here until the next review, then archive CARD FIELDS: ID | title (verb first) | owner | class of service | start date | finish date | blocked flag and reason | link PULL POLICY - Pull right to left. Look at Release-ready first, In progress last. - Pull only when the column is below its limit. Never push a card. - Take the top card from Ready unless an expedite or fixed-date card is waiting. BLOCKED: flag it, name who can unblock it, keep it in its column (it still counts as WIP). Blocked more than 2 working days: raise it at the daily meeting. Swarm it before pulling new work. CLASSES OF SERVICE - Expedite: max 1 on the board. May exceed the In progress limit by 1. Finish it first. - Fixed date: start no later than (due date minus the SLE days). Mark the date on the card. - Standard: top to bottom order in Ready. REPLENISH Ready: <day and time each week>. REVIEW the board: <every 2 weeks>.
Spreadsheet version with cycle time and age formulas
A spreadsheet works as a kanban board template when you want the numbers. Make one row per card. Columns A to J hold inputs and formulas, and the summary sits in M. The formulas work in Excel and Google Sheets.
| Column | Header | Content |
|---|---|---|
| A | ID | Card ID |
| B | Title | Verb-first title |
| C | Class | Expedite, Fixed date or Standard |
| D | Owner | Person |
| E | Started | Date the card entered In progress |
| F | Finished | Date it reached Done; blank while open |
| G | Blocked | Yes or blank |
| H | Cycle time (days) | =IF(F2="","",F2-E2+1) |
| I | Age (days) | =IF(AND(E2<>"",F2=""),TODAY()-E2+1,"") |
| J | Over SLE | =IF(I2="","",IF(I2>$M$1,"Yes","")) |
The +1 counts the start day, so a card started and finished on the same day shows 1. Pick this convention once and keep it. To count working days instead, use =IF(F2="","",NETWORKDAYS(E2,F2)) for cycle time and =IF(AND(E2<>"",F2=""),NETWORKDAYS(E2,TODAY()),"") for age. NETWORKDAYS also counts both end dates.
| Cell | Label | Formula |
|---|---|---|
| M1 | SLE in days (input) | Type 10, or your own best guess |
| M2 | WIP | =COUNTIFS(E2:E500,"<>",F2:F500,"") |
| M3 | Throughput, last 7 days | =COUNTIFS(F2:F500,">="&TODAY()-6,F2:F500,"<="&TODAY()) |
| M4 | Average cycle time | =AVERAGE(H2:H500) |
| M5 | 85th percentile cycle time | =PERCENTILE(H2:H500,0.85) |
| M6 | Oldest open card (age) | =MAX(I2:I500) |
| M7 | Open cards over the SLE | =COUNTIF(I2:I500,">"&M1) |
Here is a worked check. Today is November 5, 2026 and the sample has six cards. All dates are made up for the example.
| ID | Started | Finished | Cycle time (H) | Age (I) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| T-101 | Oct 19 | Oct 23 | 5 | |
| T-102 | Oct 20 | Oct 28 | 9 | |
| T-103 | Oct 22 | Nov 2 | 12 | |
| T-104 | Oct 26 | Nov 4 | 10 | |
| T-105 | Oct 29 | 8 | ||
| T-106 | Nov 2 | 4 |
The summary then reads: WIP 2, throughput over the last seven days 2, average cycle time 9.0 days, 85th percentile 11.1 days, oldest open card 8 days, and 0 open cards over a 10-day SLE. With four finished cards the percentile is a rough guess. Wait for 15 to 20 finished cards before you set a real SLE. The Guide describes the SLE as a period of elapsed time plus a probability, and its own example reads 85% of items in eight days or less. Our Kanban metrics post and cycle time guide explain what to do with the numbers.
What Little’s Law says about your WIP limits
Little’s Law says average WIP equals average throughput times average cycle time. Rearranged, cycle time equals WIP divided by throughput. J. D. C. Little proved it in 1961 for a stable system, and it describes averages, not single cards. Our Little’s Law post covers the conditions.
Apply it to the template. The three started columns have limits of 5, 3 and 3, so WIP can reach 11. At 5 finished cards a week, 11 divided by 5 is 2.2 weeks, or 11 working days. At full limits that is the average ceiling, and real WIP often sits below it. At 5 a week the team finishes 1 card per working day, so cycle time in days equals total WIP.
Throughput held at 5 cards a week. Numbers are an arithmetic example, not data.
Real throughput moves when WIP changes, so tighten limits in steps.
Working agreements: the one-page list
Print this, agree it in the first meeting and pin it next to the board. Each line is a policy the Guide’s Definition of Workflow expects to be explicit.
- A card is started when it enters In progress and finished when it reaches Done.
- We never exceed a WIP limit, except one expedite card in In progress. We finish before we start.
- Every column has an exit policy on the board, and a card moves only when it meets it.
- A blocked card is flagged with a reason and an owner for unblocking, and it still counts as WIP.
- Blocked for two working days means the team raises it at the daily meeting.
- Our SLE is 85% of cards in 10 days or less until we have data. We review it every two weeks.
- We change policies in the review, not in the middle of a crisis.
How to review and tune the board after two weeks
WIP, throughput for the last 14 days, average cycle time, and the age of the oldest open card. Write them down before discussing.
A column at its limit all fortnight is your bottleneck candidate. A column always empty may have a limit that is too low or a missing upstream supply.
Compare each open card’s age with the SLE. Ask what blocks each one that is past it.
One limit or one policy. Write down what you expect to happen.
Put the date on the board, with the one change and the number you will compare.
| What you see | Likely cause | Change to try |
|---|---|---|
| Review is full every day | Too few reviewers | Ask people to review before pulling new work |
| In progress is always below its limit | Limit too high, Ready is empty or the team is waiting on others | Check Ready first. If Ready has cards, nothing is limiting you, so lower In progress by 1 |
| Cards older than the SLE pile up | Blocked work is not being unblocked, or cards are too big | Cut card size to about five working days and apply the 2-day blocked rule strictly |
| Throughput falls after you cut WIP | Limits starve a bottleneck | Raise the limit on the bottleneck column by 1, then watch for two weeks |
More ideas for the meeting are in our post on Kanban retro tips.
Adjusting the kanban board template for team size
The base kanban board template suits five to eight people. The rest of this table is our suggestion for other team sizes, not a rule from the Guide.
| Item | Under 5 people | 5 to 12 people | Over 12 people |
|---|---|---|---|
| Columns | Four: Ready, In progress, Review, Done | The six in the base template | Split into one board per team of 5 to 9 and link their boards with one shared upstream list |
| In progress limit | Number of people, or 1 less so pairs form | Number of people | Per board, not for the whole group |
| Review limit | 1 or 2, often merged with In progress | Half the team, rounded up | Half the team on that board |
| Review cadence | Every 2 weeks, 20 minutes | Every 2 weeks, 30 minutes | Every 2 weeks per board, then a combined review monthly |
| Main risk | One person off sick breaks the flow | Review turns into a queue | One board hides who is waiting for whom |
Take it further
Teams that want trained facilitation can look at the Team Kanban Practitioner course. It is a one-day Kanban University certification, listed on our site at $550 (regular price $600) or Rs 14,000 (regular Rs 14,999), and Indian buyers pay 18% GST on top at checkout. The next one-day batches listed on November 5, 2026 fall on November 20, December 4 and December 18, 2026. See the Team Kanban Practitioner course page for the current price and dates.
Additional discounts are available. Contact us to know more.
Questions people ask
What columns should a kanban board template have?
Start with the states a card really passes through. A workable set is Options, Ready, In progress, Review, Release-ready and Done. Each column needs an exit policy. If a column never holds a card for more than a day, remove it. Four to seven columns is a sensible range.
How do I set WIP limits on a kanban board template?
Use one card per person for the In progress column, half the team for review and about a week of throughput for Ready. Treat the values as an experiment. Change one column at a time, and review the effect after two weeks. The Kanban Guide asks you to control WIP but gives no number.
Is there a free kanban board template?
Yes. The plain-text version and the spreadsheet formulas in this post cost nothing and work in any tool. For software options with free plans, see our guide to free kanban boards for startups. The template is tool-independent, so you can move it between tools.
How often should we review a kanban board?
Review the numbers and policies every two weeks, at first. Check the board itself daily, looking at blocked cards and cards older than your service level expectation. Once limits stop changing, move the policy review to monthly.
Does the Kanban Guide require specific columns or WIP numbers?
No. The Guide requires a Definition of Workflow with workflow states, a WIP control method, explicit policies and a service level expectation. It leaves column names, WIP values and tools to the team.
