· Skillz · Project management
Kanban Rush: free Kanban game to learn WIP limits
Tasks pile up. Drag them through To do, Doing and Done without going over the work-in-progress limit.
What is Kanban Rush?
It's a busy week at a made-up studio. Tasks land in To do: move them to Doing, where the team works on them, then ship them to Done, without going over the work-in-progress (WIP) limit on Doing. Four days, each busier: urgent cards with a deadline on Tuesday, blocked cards from Wednesday, and a short retro after each day.
Kanban Rush is a free Kanban game about project management. Tasks land in To do on a made-up studio's board: move them to Doing, where the team works on them, and ship them to Done once they're finished. The catch is the work-in-progress (WIP) limit: Doing holds only 2 or 3 cards at once.
The team's time is shared between the cards in Doing, and every extra card costs time to switching, so starting everything at once makes everything late. Four days ramp up: urgent cards with a deadline on Tuesday, blocked cards that stop moving from Wednesday. After each day, a short retro shows how many cards you shipped and how long each took from Doing to Done.
At a glance
- Category
- Skillz
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Play time
- 2–4 min
- Price
- Free, in your browser, sign-up optional
How to play
- Move the cards
- Drag a card to a column, or tap it then tap Place here. Keyboard: Enter on a card, then 1 To do, 2 Doing, 3 Done.
- Respect the WIP limit
- Doing holds 2 cards (3 from Wednesday). The team's time is shared between them, and juggling costs 10% per extra card.
- Ship, rush, unblock
- A card is ready (✓) when its work is done: move it to Done. Urgent cards (⏱) have a deadline; blocked cards wait about 6 seconds.
- Score
- 10 points per card shipped + 5 per size dot, +25 for an urgent card on time. A missed urgent card costs one of 3 lives.
Scoring
Each card you ship to Done scores 10 points plus 5 per size dot (2 to 5). An urgent card shipped before its deadline adds 25.
A missed urgent deadline costs one of 3 lives. The week lasts 4 days, each busier: urgent cards from Tuesday, blocked cards from Wednesday.
What it trains
- Project management
- Moving work through To do, Doing and Done on a Kanban board.
- Limiting work in progress
- Finishing before starting, and why fewer tasks at once ship faster (Little's law).
- Prioritising
- Making room for urgent work and setting blocked tasks aside.
Strategy and tips
- Stop starting, start finishing
- Ship a ready card before you pull a new one. A finished card still takes a slot in Doing until it reaches Done.
- Fewer cards, faster cards
- With one card in Doing, it gets the whole team. Two cards each get less than half, because juggling costs time.
- Leave room for urgent work
- If Doing is already full, an urgent card waits in line. A free slot lets it start right away.
- Move blocked cards aside
- A blocked card still takes a WIP slot. Move it back to To do (its progress is kept) and pull something you can finish.
- Watch the clock on urgent cards
- The ⏱ badge counts down. Small urgent cards first: they ship in a few seconds.
Why play Kanban Rush?
Kanban is how many teams run their work: a board with columns and a limit on work in progress. The limit feels slow at first, but Little's law explains why it works: average time per task = tasks in progress ÷ tasks finished per day. Kanban Rush lets you feel that rule in a few minutes, with a model simple enough to understand: shared team time and a cost for switching between tasks.
Frequently asked questions
Is Kanban Rush free?
Yes. It is free and runs in your browser, with no download. Signing up is optional.
What does WIP mean?
Work in progress: the tasks that have been started but aren't finished yet. A WIP limit caps how many can sit in Doing at once.
Do I need to drag?
No. Tap a card, then tap Place here on a column. With a keyboard, press Enter on a card, then 1, 2 or 3.
Is the studio real?
No. The studio, the people and the tasks are made up for the game.