What is Kanban? — UK Software Development Guide
Direct Answer
Kanban is an agile methodology that manages work by visualising the workflow on a board divided into columns (e.g., To Do, In Progress, Review, Done) and limiting the amount of work in progress (WIP) at any given time. Kanban is flow-based — work moves through the stages continuously, without time-boxed sprints.
Kanban in the UK
Kanban is the preferred methodology for UK software maintenance and support teams. ClickMasters uses Kanban for monthly maintenance retainer clients: bugs and feature requests arrive continuously (no sprint boundaries), WIP limits prevent engineers from taking on too much simultaneously, and a rolling queue ensures the highest-priority items are always worked on next. GDS also recommends Kanban (or Scrum/Kanban hybrid called Scrumban) for service teams that have moved past active development into ongoing support.
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