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I have a question regarding workflow in Kanban. Can I have two activities in my name in the "in progress" column? For example, I started the activity 'A' but not concluded and will continue at another time, then I get the activity 'B.' Makes sense to have activities A and B in the "in progress," but I'm doing only one.

Karl Hill
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Bruno
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  • What are the reasons you can't finish the first task? – Aurélien Thieriot Feb 03 '14 at 12:25
  • Example: I started an activity and I saw that the definition is incomplete and so I will pick another activity, it makes sense to have two activities 'in progress'? If you have to be a impediment it should go in the column in progress? – Bruno Feb 03 '14 at 12:39
  • Another example: I have an activity of analysis and began. However I need to study a little more to give as closed and generate documentation. In the meantime start another activity. It makes sense to have the two activities in progress? – Bruno Feb 03 '14 at 12:45
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    Do you have WIP limits and if so, are you violating them when you have two tasks in progress? If your question is should they both be in-progress, then I would suggest yes, if any work has been done on them, they are in-progress and blocked by a lack of information allowing you to continue. – Dave White Feb 04 '14 at 03:33

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I am a certified Kanban Coaching Professional, and this would be my advice:

Sure you can. Kanban itself won't say whether you can or not, it depends on how you use Kanban. The WIP limits might prevent you from starting another task, in which case you should do some or any of the following:

Discuss the issue with the team, perhaps it is ok to raise the WIP limit (or even temporarily breach it)? Perhaps you can solve the impediments together and continue working on the original task.

Perhaps you can "swarm" or help someone else with something else on the board. I usually like to start from the right-hand-side of the board and see if I can help some other item move closer to done.

You can also treat this as "slack" time, and work on improving the process, learning a new skill, or checking emails, or some of the other tasks that everyone has to do that are not directly related to the value stream. "Preparing for working on the item" is what a lot of people consider doing, but is usually just cheating against the WIP limits.

Kurt
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