For most people I see it as the language has shifted to be a fancy todo list variant, designed more for team communication, by middle management. "A goal of th

For most people I see it as the language has shifted to be a fancy todo list variant, designed more for team communication, by middle management. "A goal of the kanban system is to limit the buildup of excess inventory at any point in production" [1] I would also add that its goal is to switch all work from push to pull, which is a concept both odd to understand and hard to totally achieve. Take the concept of a Kanban card(meaning signal card) [1]. It is great in the physical world of production but not as easy to understand in the digital world of mental work. This physical card can be used to control a simple task such as ordering inventory, as well as a large task of producing a complicated piece of machinery. Take the simple inventory idea and think of your pantry. You have two bags (two bin system) of coffee beans and you place a kanban card behind the first bag. Once you finish using the first bag you will see the card and set it in the pile of other cards (pulled) because this pile becomes your grocery list. Then when you go to the store you don't have to go through your pantry looking for what all you need to get(pushing), you know because its on the cards, past you did the work, and you still have enough from the second bag will which will last until you go to the store. You end up reducing your unused inventory with everything set to a low par(1 extra bag), and by not purchasing an extra bag because you forgot to look and cannot remember if you need it or not so you get it just in case. Now your pantry is too small and you plan your pantry expansion project because you NEED more storage space. So when this idea got converted from physical to digital the goal of the board is really to reduce work in process and switch from push (developers writing useless features, writers writing the wrong docs, artists working on art for a canceled project, etc) to pull (planned releases, features based on customer requests, bug fixing over new features, etc). > 1. Does software have logistics? Absolutely, there is a limited supply of mental capacity in people. Their productive capacity is consumed via meetings, working on the wrong tasks, spreading their work over too many tasks, email, breaking flow via people asking useless questions such as what is the status of X, etc. > 2. Is there any need to have a back pressure system for a single user? How else do you know exactly what to do? What item do you get from the grocery store? If you have no way of the customer telling you what to work on? What to fix? What to build? At the end of the day we are building for the customer and need to build what they want most. But back to the board itself I think it boils down to most people having to much WIP causing this board to be a fancy todo list that is organized but ultimately overwhelming and just as useless. But again at least it is organized. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kanban#Kanban_(cards) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kanban#Kanban_(cards)