Open Guide to Kanban - In the Context of Knowledge Work

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Version 2025.7

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History

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Guide Overview

Key characteristics of this guide

Purpose

Community-expanded handbook

Ethos

Inclusive, evolving, collaborative

Audience

Teams blending Kanban with other approaches

Use Case

How do we apply Kanban in *our* context?

Content

Rich with examples and extensions

Update Model

Community-driven, iterative

When to Use This Guide

Choose the right approach for your context

Quick Decision Guide

Choose the Open Guide to Kanban if you’re working across approaches or want more context and flexibility. It’s well-suited to those with Lean, Agile, Scrum, or Product Management experience who want to adapt Kanban to their environment.

Getting Started

The Open Guide to Kanban explains how to use Kanban and improve it over time. It gives more examples, tools, and ideas than the basic guide, and works well with other approaches like Scrum. It’s made by a wider community and helps people apply Kanban in different situations, especially where teams or organisations want more than just the basics.

For Practitioners

The Open Guide to Kanban is a community-curated reference that expands on the core Kanban Guide. It preserves the essentials but adds greater depth — optional practices, richer metrics, and practical integration with other approaches like Scrum and Lean. Designed for practitioners applying Kanban in real-world, cross-method scenarios, it offers adaptable guidance to improve flow, outcomes, and collaboration. It’s particularly useful for coaches, consultants, and teams working in complex, evolving systems.

Current Information

Version details and community contributors

Current Version

2025.7

Updated July 2, 2025

This is the current active version of the guide.

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Contributors

Community members who shape this guide

John Coleman

Magdalena Firlit

Nigel Thurlow

Jose Casal

Martin Hinshelwood Emily Coleman

Jim Benson

Michael Forni

Christian Neverdal

Nader Talai Steve Tendon

Thank you to all contributors who help make this guide better.

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Version History

Previous versions and their evolution

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What is this Guide?

The Open Guide to Kanban is a practical, community-curated reference for using Kanban in knowledge work. It defines the essential practices, measures, and language for designing, running, and improving Kanban systems. Built on the foundations of the Kanban Guide (2025) , this guide expands its applicability across industries and team contexts, while remaining open and adaptable. It is intended to support organisations seeking clarity, consistency, and effectiveness in how they manage the flow of value.

Open Source & Community Driven

The Open Guide to Kanban is an open source project that thrives on community collaboration. Whether you want to suggest improvements, report issues, or contribute content, we welcome your participation. The Kanban Guide is not open to contributions here, but is included here for reference. Together, we can make these resources even more valuable for the Kanban community worldwide and anyone wishing to improve the flow of value (potential and actual realized value).

License

This work, Open Guide to Kanban, is an adaptation of the [Kanban Guide (May 2025 version)](https://kanbanguides.org/history/kanban-guide-2025/), which is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC BY-SA 4.0). The original guide is © 2019-2025 Orderly Disruption Limited, Daniel S. Vacanti, Inc. Changes were made to the original. Licensed under [CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). _Portions highlighted in italic are © 2025_ Orderly Disruption Limited, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. All other content is from © 2019-2025 Orderly Disruption Limited, Daniel S. Vacanti, Inc., also licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.

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