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Practicing Kanban Using Azure Boards

Learn Kanban principles and hands-on Azure Boards setup to visualize workflow, set WIP limits, track flow metrics, and improve team throughput and predictability.

AdvancedAccentientTraditional (Full Day) · Traditional (Half Day)

What changes for your team

  • Turn delivery guesswork into flow you can trust
  • Stop starting, start finishing
  • Manage with evidence, not status theater

Course Code: PKAB

Overview

A hands-on course, delivered over 1 day, introducing Kanban principles and demonstrating how to configure and use Azure Boards to improve team flow, throughput, and predictability.

Target Audience

  • Software developers
  • Lean Agile practitioners
  • Product managers
  • Teams involved in backlog creation, planning, and execution
  • Managers, Scrum Masters, coaches, and stakeholders interested in improving team flow
  • Scrum teams seeking to complement their practices with Kanban

Learning Outcomes

By the end of this course, participants will be able to:

  1. Explain Kanban core practices and how they apply to software development.
  2. Configure Azure Boards to support Kanban workflows.
  3. Visualize and manage workflow using Kanban boards, policies, and classes of service.
  4. Apply Work in Progress (WIP) limits and create pull systems to optimize flow.
  5. Use flow-based metrics and analytics (e.g., cycle time, lead time, cumulative flow diagrams) to improve predictability and throughput.
  6. Identify and address bottlenecks in the development process.

Course Topics

  • Introduction to Kanban and its core practices
  • Configuring Azure DevOps projects and managing product backlogs
  • Visualizing workflow with Kanban boards in Azure Boards
  • Defining workflow, policies, and classes of service
  • Limiting Work in Progress (WIP) and creating pull systems
  • Identifying and managing bottlenecks
  • Flow-based metrics and analytics (cycle time, lead time, Little’s Law)
  • Using cumulative flow diagrams, scatterplots, and Monte Carlo simulation
  • Achieving flow and predictability

Prerequisites

Certification

  • Not specified

Frequently Asked Questions

Practicing Kanban with Azure Boards is designed for all software development team members—developers, product managers, Scrum Masters, coaches, and even managers or stakeholders wanting to improve team flow. If you have no involvement in backlog creation, planning, execution, or process improvement, this course may not be relevant to your work.

You’ll tackle challenges like visualizing workflow, limiting work in progress, identifying and managing bottlenecks, and using flow-based metrics to improve throughput and predictability—practical issues teams face in real agile environments.

Practicing Kanban with Azure Boards does not include a certification or assessment component.

Even teams using Scrum benefit—Kanban offers a complementary way to visualize and manage flow, and Practicing Kanban with Azure Boards focuses on practical improvements to throughput and predictability using flow metrics and Azure Boards features.

This is a highly hands-on course: you’ll work in teams on a common case study and use Azure Boards directly to apply Kanban principles, with labs woven through each module.

Syllabus

Here is exactly what your team will cover, and how we deliver it. Every format teaches the same modules; what changes is how the time is spread and what happens between sessions:

Traditional (Full Day)Traditional (Half Day)
Sessions 1 day 2 half-days
Each session 8h incl. breaks and lunch 4h incl. breaks
Total time with an expert 8h 8h
New concept and practice
incl. breaks		 8h 8h
Facilitated reflection
what happened when you tried it		 — —
~Expert time per topic
breaks removed		 ~1h30 ~1h40
Time to apply between sessions Overnight Half a working day (≈4h)

Each immersive session follows a learning cycle: reflect on what happened when you applied the last concept, learn the next one and practise it, then take it back to work as an outcome-based assignment. It is designed for triple-loop learning, so participants do not just change what they do; they question why they do it and how they see their organisation.

Need more support? The immersive experience can be combined with additional coaching, consulting or mentoring to create a Mentor Program for your team.

Choose a format above to see how the modules group into sessions.

Session 1 · Modules 1–4 · 8h incl. breaks · 10m break each hour, 60m lunch

Introduction to Kanban

Module 1

Learn a new concept

This module provides an overview of Kanban, its core practices, and how to use Azure Boards to support them. You will learn how to configure an Azure DevOps project and manage a product backlog.
  • Kanban overview
  • Kanban core practices
  • Kanban support in Azure Boards
  • Configuring an Azure DevOps project
  • Managing a product backlog - Hands-on

Visualizing the Workflow

Module 2

Learn a new concept

This module covers the Kanban board overview, defining the workflow, making policies explicit, defining classes of service, and filtering the board. You will also learn about keyboard shortcuts.
  • Kanboard board overview
  • Kanban board vs. a backlog
  • Kanban board vs. a taskboard
  • Defining the workflow
  • Making policies explicit
  • Definition of “Done”
  • Defining classes of service (swimlanes)
  • Defining task checklists and inline tests
  • Filtering the board
  • Keyboard shortcuts - Hands-on

Limiting WIP

Module 3

Learn a new concept

This module covers the overview of Work in Progress (WIP), visualizing WIP limits, creating a pull system, and challenges with limiting WIP. You will also learn about bottlenecks.
  • Work in Progress (WIP) overview
  • Visualizing WIP limits
  • Creating a pull system
  • Splitting columns into “doing” and “done”
  • Challenges with limiting WIP
  • Bottlenecks - Hands-on

Managing for Flow

Module 4

Learn a new concept

This module covers flow-based metrics, flow-based analytics, and achieving flow and predictability. You will also learn about cycle time vs. lead time and Little’s Law.
  • Flow-based metrics
  • Cycle time vs. lead time
  • Little’s Law
  • Flow-based analytics
  • Cumulative Flow Diagrams
  • Scatterplots
  • ActionableAgile Analytics
  • Monte Carlo simulation
  • Achieving flow and predictability - Hands-on

Catchup & After · Immersive only

Catchup & After

Two weeks after completion, participants are invited to join a follow-up catch-up session designed to address any remaining questions, ideas, or challenges that have emerged since the training. This session provides an opportunity to reflect on your experiences applying the concepts learned in the course, share insights, and receive additional support.

* Assignments are part of our Immersive Training Programs, encouraging participants to apply their learning practically between sessions for a more hands-on experience.

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